Honolulu Here We Come!

Well, I’m afraid this blog is going to turn into a collection of baby pictures. Although I’m sure those of you reading this don’t mind at all.

In the last month we’ve started school back up. Jason and I are both loving our positions this year. I’m the K-8 school counselor for the 2^nd year now (3 years counseling total) and Jason is teaching STEM as well as completing his administration internship.

Our first week back Jason’s Mom was here to spend time with Olivia which was great because Olivia got to get used to us being gone during the day, but stay at home. Then, the next week she started Day Care with Lorrie. Lorrie’s husband is a friend of mine from Grad School and he is a therapist for Children’s Mental Health here on the island. Olivia LOVES Lorrie and has come home with a smile on her face every day so far!

On August 21^st Olivia turned 4 months old. She is still in the 90^th percentile, weighing 16 pounds 5 ounces! It has been so much fun having her back here in Alaska with us and introducing her to our friends and students. She is well loved by everyone, that is for sure.

Jason finally fit in a fishing trip with some guys from work. It only took one trip and our freezer is now full of halibut! Olivia and I stayed home, but we were able to watch Dad come home from the boat, since they pulled up right in front of our apartment. We spent the rest of the evening packaging fish. 

Besides fishing and watching Olivia grow and grow we did have one other exciting thing happen to us this month. . . I won two round trip tickets to Honolulu at work! We had a community wide open house and the school district raffled off the tickets as a door prize. I was shocked to find out that I won! And how perfect because we were planning a trip to Hawaii for spring break this year! So now my free time is spent looking for places to stay and things to do on our trip!

We feel so blessed this year to say the least. The school year is off to a great start and we are looking forward to another wonderful year. Things with Olivia worked out just perfectly and we are so thankful that she has a wonderful person to stay with during the day so that we can both still work. We still miss all of our friends and family in Oregon, but can’t help but to love our life here in Alaska. How could you not love life when you have this beautiful little face to look at???

 Getting ready to head to Lorrie's for the day while Mom & Dad go off to work.

 4 Month Picture.

 She loves her wubba nubba. 

 Sleeping like a baby.

 Happy Baby.

 Loving life. 

 Dad coming in from fishing.

 Bringing in his catch.

 This fish is almost as big as him!

 And the freezer is full.

 All dressed up for Open House. . . She must have been my good luck charm!

 Olivia does great when Mom and Dad have busy days, she comes back to work with us in the evening. . . no complaints - unless we stay past 7:30 because that's bedtime!

 After her 4 month shots she cried, looked at the nurse, and smiled her big beautiful smile!

Happy naked girl.

So Much For New Years Resolutions. . .

Yeah, so that New Years Resolution to keep up the blog has not been going well! In my defense – we have been pretty busy this year! So much so that it all seems like a blur now, but I will do my best to tell you about it.

The end of my pregnancy went well. I LOVED being pregnant and was thankful for no terrible pregnancy symptoms or complications. I headed home to Portland in early April, which was so bittersweet. Met has really become our home and I just love my job and the kids that I work with. Leaving before the school year ended seemed so wrong but at the same time I was anxious to meet our new baby. Olivia Lynn was born on April 21^stand we are so glad that we came home so that our family and friends could share her birth with us. She is definitely our biggest adventure yet and we are loving every moment.

Olivia and I kept pretty low key at my Mom’s house for the first month while Jason had to go back to Metlakatla for two weeks and finish out the school year.  Before we knew it he was back to Portland for the summer and we were learning how to be a family of 3.

Summer was full of visiting family and preparing for our return to Met. As we became more comfortable with parenting we took a trip to the Oregon Coast just the 3 of us, then to California to visit Jason’s family, and a trip to Sun River with my family.

As summer came to a close we started packing and realizing that we needed more than just a car to get everything home. Babies have a lot of stuff! Who knew? Jason’s Mom gave us a trailer she no longer needed and then the fun really began. We got our years worth of Costco supplies and were on our way!

My Dad and Brother came with us this year on our journey back to Met. We drove to Bellingham, Washington and then took the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry System to Ketchikan and on to Metlakatla.

We had a good time showing Dad and Adam around the island and why we love it so much. They were able to participate in the August 7^th Founder’s Day Celebration which was a lot of fun. We also went on a few hikes and enjoyed the peace that this place quickly creates.

Now that they have left Jason and I have been busy getting the house put back together, getting Olivia’s room situated, and preparing for more company! Jason’s Mom will be here next week to stay and help us get Olivia on a schedule while we go back to work.

Having two places where we call “home” has been difficult. It seems impossible to love two places at the same time, but we do. While we miss our friends and family in Oregon, we missed the people and our life here in Met. Life slows down here and makes you realize what’s important. As summer comes to an end we are excited to start our jobs again. It will be very difficult to leave Olivia during the day, but we are thankful to have found a fantastic lady to care for her while we are at work.

I’ll end this blog with a few pictures I hope everyone will enjoy!

Olivia was born 4/21/13 She weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 21 inches long.

Yosemite National Park

Crater Lake

Relaxing with Dad during his morning coffee in Sun River Resort.

Swimming!

Just being cute.

 Headed home to Alaska on the Kennicott. 

Finally home! And welcomed by sunshine!

Family hike to Yellow Hill - my favorite place.

Look how much she's grown!!! She just keeps getting more and more cute!

Before January Ends . . .

Alright. New years resolution = keep up on this blog better than I have in last 3 months!

By now you should all know that Jason and I are expecting a baby in April. We’ve been busy changing  our 2^nd bedroom from a storage room into a nursery. That’s been an interesting process, but we’ve managed to get mighty creative. Hopefully we will be purchasing a nursery set soon and I’ll be able to post pictures.

So I left off sometime in October after our tsunami scare. . . November was a fun month. I celebrated my 30^th birthday with all of our friends here. We took the weekend and went over to Ketchikan. We stayed at the Cape Fox Lodge. My friend Beth set up an appointment for me to get a massage and I got my hair done. Then we had a fantastic dinner at the Lodge with everyone. It was relaxing and just what I needed at that point in my pregnancy!

30th BDay Dinner at Cape Fox Lodge

Our Alaskan Family

Just a few weeks later we were back in Ketchikan for my 20 week doctors appointment and the ultra sound where we found out that we are having a little girl! We are both really excited, especially because our good friends, Rob and Jenn, have a daughter, Amelia, who now has a new best friend on the way!

20 week ultra sound. It's a GIRL!!!

20 weeks prego.

Christmas came and went with the blink of an eye. We went home to Portland of course. We survived 4 Christmases, 2 Baby Showers, eye appointments, a doctors appointment, bought a new car, spent new years at Lincoln City AND managed to fit in visits with our family and friends! It was crazy, but well worth the trip.

Our flight went over Metlakatla and it was clear enough to see it. . . WOW!

Baby Pip's haul after 2 baby showers.

Lincoln City for New Years.

While we enjoyed our trip home, we were reminded again why we love Metlakatla. It only took getting on the freeway from the airport to make both of us feel overwhelmed and miss our home on the island. Doing things like shopping for a car seat, where in Portland you go to 4 different stores and discuss safety vs. comfort vs. cuteness could cause a couple to kill each other! We were quickly reminded that in Met, you go to THE store and buy THE car seat that is available. And that’s good enough. We enjoy the simplicity of our life here that lets us focus on what’s really important – each other. A lesson we will treasure for the rest of our lives.

Our 2012 Christmas Card

January we got back to the grind. Jason is busy taking two evening classes for his administration certification and I have birthing classes on Tuesday nights. Our weekends have been spent cleaning out as many nooks and crannies as we can find in our little apartment to make room for Baby Pip. We have also been getting out as much as possible to enjoy this beautiful place. Winter has come and almost gone – it was much more mild this year which was nice. We only got one week of snow/icy conditions before Christmas break, otherwise it’s been in the 40’s and rainy. It’s hard to believe that we’ve made it past the dark winter again and every week we are gaining another 15 minutes of light. We are looking forward to more time after work to be able to get out and go for walks/enjoy the outdoors.

A beautiful sunrise from my office at work. . . even if it was at 9:30 AM, it was worth the wait!

Our walking buddies, Svetlana is on the left, I can't remember the middle one's name, and Steve - who follows us all the way to our house because he knows we are suckers and we always give him left overs from our fridge. 

In just over 2 months I will be headed home to Portland. Baby Pip is due April 23^rd. While we have a clinic, we do not have the medical facilities here on the island for babies, so you have to leave 2 weeks before your due date to wait for baby to be born. Most people go to Ketchikan – but I decided I would rather be in Portland with family. So I will head home in the beginning of April and stay at my Mom’s. Jason will come home one week before the due date and may come back to work the last part of the school year. Then we will be home in Portland for the whole summer! As excited as we are for the baby and to spend some quality time at home with family and friends, I think both of us will be leaving a piece of our hearts right here next to our window over looking the water from our living room.

A couple of bonus pictures:

Why Jason loves his students = they bring him pickled octopus to eat.

Why I love my students = they are the most adorable kids EVER.