Boyd - 2 years, 3 months

\ \Forgot to post this last month! I'll have his next update soon. \\

First of all, the weather around here has been out of this world AMAZING! Super sunny, bluebird skies and temperatures in the 60's and even low 70's. People, it's MAY and we're already getting this type of weather! I just hope we haven't used up our allowance of beautiful days.

• The arrival of summer means the end of classes: montessori school, gymnastics, and music. Boyd has come so far since that first day I dropped him off at school! 95% of the time he was excited to attend school. Since my mom's car has been in the shop for the last month (long story), my sister would pick him up on Fridays while my mom would get him on Wednesday-Thursday. We signed him up for school again in the fall, and we'll also do another class or two after summer ends. 
• We've got a picky eater on our hands. A couple of tricks we've come up to combat the pickiness is letting him dip things into ketchup or dressing, having him eat the toddler pouches made with organic vegetables and waiting until he's super hungry to eat dinner. Otherwise it's touch and go on whether he'll eat.
• Attended a huge garage sale in a neighborhood not far from our house. It's the one day a year that this subdivision is allowed to host a sale so almost all of the homeowners participate. We've gotten some awesome deals here and this year was no exception. I found a great wooden dollhouse plus furniture for Boyd, only $20. And a $115 iBert toddler bike seat for $30. My mom snagged a cool chair plus a lawnmower for free! I can't remember what Risha and Gabe made out with but they had some great finds too. D was hunting (he got a grizzly bear - it's so cool!) but Boyd came with us and was a very good boy that day. 
• Boyd loves Daniel Tiger, Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder on tv. 
• He's been singing funny little nonsense songs to himself and surprisingly can carry a tune! 
• Knows the alphabet and his numbers up to 10 by sight - will mostly get them correct if you ask him. Says "a b c b" and "1 2 3...8!"
• Was on a "happy day!" kick where he said that phrase over and over. 
• Definitely putting on his own shoes when he wants to go. 
• We're spending more time outside, which he loves. 
• Oh, he did the funnies little Elvis dance the other day! Just swinging his hips and swaying back and forth. 

I told him to put on socks. Should have specified where, I suppose? 

PWS - Memorial Weekend 2014 (Day 2)

Night 1 was pretty difficult. Between out kid's inability to fall asleep (the boat! the ocean! the excitement!) - then our having to pull anchor and move in the middle of the night (twice) because of rough water - and THEN Boyd's early morning freakout - it made for very little sleep for everyone.

Saturday was bear bait day. After a very late start (thank you, screaming toddler), D trolled and fished for a couple hours. Then we stopped at bear bait station 1 to prep it for hunting.

Row, row, row your boat. 

Somebody swamped his boots and had to change out the whole bottom portion of his outfit. 

On our way to bear bait station 2!

Banana leaf, banana leaf!

Picked 2 gallon bags full of fiddle ferns for my mom, plus we brought her some fresh seaweed and some PWS shrimp. A fair trade for watching our cat for the weekend!

We had a lesson on tide pools - can you see the little fish in the center? 

Nature, the best playground for kids! He could have spent hours here. 

A huge rock slab that for lounging. 

He was great about entertaining himself on the boat. 

We pulled the shrimp pots on Saturday evening and then reset them in another area due to a disappointing catch. I was actually relieved that we moved them into Cochrane Bay - much calmer there with less boat traffic. After we initially set our pots on Friday night near Culross, at least 2 boats came and set next to us. It was ridiculous! We were certain that our lines would get tangled with others but we got lucky.

PWS - Memorial Weekend 2014 (Day 1)

One of my personal goals for this summer is to make it out on our boat more often. So we packed up and left town a little early last Friday to enjoy our extended Memorial Day weekend in Prince William Sound. The drive down was beautiful and not crowded at all. The boat launch in Whittier was another story but I think we have our system down pretty well. After D gets the boat off the trailer, I stay at the dock and move it down the line while he and Boyd park the truck waaay down in the paid lot.

Driving past Portage Glacier icebergs, on the way to the Whittier Tunnel. 

The first trip of the season is always a learning experience - we forgot quite a few things at home. There's just so much to pack and plan for. But after a few outings we get our groove back!

Dropping the shrimp pots is usually the first order of business, since it opens up our available deck space for other activities. Afterwards we stopped at the beach (seen above) for a shore break.

"Drive? Drive?" We heard Boyd ask this all weekend. He adores helping Daddy pilot the boat. 

Saw these two tree fungi just sitting on the ground. I convinced D to let me bring one home. 

Tide going out. 

The pollen was out of control in PWS. It littered the beach and the water in some places was crazy thick with it. 

Tree root wrapped around the trunk. 

Skunk cabbage. Boyd called these "bananas" all weekend!

Seal in the water, watching us play on the beach. 

Dinnertime! Jalapeno cheese dogs, carrots, and cookies for dessert. 

This was close to 8 p.m.

Reading a bedtime story with Daddy. Boyd was SO excited when we setup for bed. And then it took us 2 hours to get him to settle down and go to sleep. He woke up around 4 a.m. and cried pretty hard for an hour or so. 

This may have been around 10 p.m. - I was so tired by that point!