First Steps

Stoko officially took a very short walk today. Somewhere in the range of one and half to two steps.

Free Willy

Orca versus sea lion.





Reminds me of my 6th grade Texas Sea World days.
Us and half the town saw these special visitors at lunch time. It was our first viewing, so we were pretty pumped! We've narrowly missed them a few times now, so we were glad to catch them. We can thank Facebook for alerting us.

Stokes and Boodah were just as impressed by the dogs who were viewing the orcas. Boodah: "Hey dog. Look. Look dog. Orcas. Hey. What's your whole name?" Stoko was into the birds. He had a hard time figuring out why his parents were staring at the water and occasionally yapping with glee every few minutes. "Yeah, I see the water, but check out those flying things."





Most of the pictures didn't turn out, but we managed to get a couple good ones. Good thing our camera is waterproof!

The Latest

We have a new daily favorite walk, now that enough daylight is back to allow post-work wandering outside for a few minutes - over the bridge and to Near Island's finest gravel lot. The views along the way are great, but the kiddos favorite part is stomping ice on the frozen puddles at the lot. The simple things!

The newest olympic sport. Ice smashing. Doodah could do this for hours. In fact, he did. We managed to lure him away from his newfound love by offering to let him carry Stoko in the backpack. It worked pretty well, and we made it to the point (Spruce Cape) before the weather got too blustery.

In an effort to win the coveted safety-first parent of the year award, we not only have been teaching our kids to stomp on thin ice, but we've also tried to step it up a level by finding challenging places to do it. On the precipice of an ice waterfall, for example.

Rock climbing. Beach walking.

In case you noticed, Stokes was not Stoked. But it was only because he was being carried.

Indoors, we let the creativity flow. We just wish more of the creativity wound up on the paper! Not that we don't dig the blue lipstick look. Maybe they're destined to be tattoo artists, like Reese Bobby.

Those markers aren't nearly as tasty as you'd think just by looking at their faces.

Mmmm.... tasty home grown eggs. Pure health and fitness! Thanks for sharing!

Looking back at Mill Bay from Spruce Cape. Another great Kodiak walk!

And finally, hockey indoctrination. The Rocket.

And we'll end with some kid cooperation. Boodah sharing some grape juice with Stokes.

Winter's Momentary Return

Winter came back! We jumped on it quick. We are learning how to take advantage of it Kodiak style. We headed out for some snowboarding, snow-shoveling, sledding with buddies, and empty coffee mug throwing.

And of course, ice skating has been big. Boodah is really doing it! And mama, too, especially with all those one-on-one lessons with Joel. Even though he has nicknamed her Genny-2000. If somebody says you skate like a robot, that's a compliment, right? I'm pretty sure the Olympics announcers said that all the time during Michelle Kwan's routines.

And, thanks to Grammy-cita a new Jump-o-lene arrived in the mail! We got it on Friday and immediately started inflating it. By Monday, our lungs had burst and it was finally full of air.

It also doubles as a fort. Possibly by Mainline Toys.

Letter from our buddies in Dutch Harbor, who are moving back to Japan in March. Good luck, Team Masaki!

This is all actually stuff from last weekend, but we felt like it would be insensitive to blog about our fun adventures in light of the suffering in Haiti. It's inspiring to see so many people pulling together and raising funds for the people of Haiti. Selfless kindness always brings a tear to my eye.

Of course, it's back to rain here now. It got up to 41 today.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day & Adventures

We honored Martin Luther King by listening to a few of his speeches. Here are a few of our favorite lines from his Nobel Prize Acceptance speech, which you can listen to on-line with a bit of googling.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

And we also watched Flight of the Conchords, Season 1, Episode 7 to lighten the mood. There's always room for comedy!


Meanwhile, stick and puck.

Singin' In The Rain

The last two days we've been basking in the blue sky. We took no pictures. But we loved it. Boodah took a long bike ride. We played outside at lots of parks, and lots of buddies were out. Boodah got pumped about rollerblading. And the forecast is for - hopefully we won't jinx it - snow!

Before the sun's glorious return we endured a noteworthy dark and rainy stretch. (5.5 inches of rain in the first 11 days of the year!) Eventually we had to get out and play. One thing we learned - slides are surprisingly fast when combined with rain pants!

Boodah loved transporting water from one mud puddle to the next. I dare say few people have ever enjoyed potholes more! The simple pleasures!

Some other fun activities: Disassembling the ginger bread willage. The buddies loved it.

And so nutritious, too! Ginger is good for you, right? And I'm pretty sure these were the sugar-free ginger-bread houses. We got the spanish language version from Wal-Mart, but I think that's what "casa mega azucara de gingero" translates to.

Checking out the ravens and the magpies attracted by Boodah dude's library craft, a bird feeder.

Here's an idea of the current snow level.

And a special treat arrived in the mail from Great-Aunt Ardie! A big box of tasty hand-picked avocados. Mmmm..... Nachos! Guacamole!

More rainy play time, this time while Mama enjoyed her first ice skating lesson.

Once again, chronology isn't a strong point.

Nami took some great photos of our Anchorage big city skating adventure. Nice work, Nami! Thanks for the cool blog!