July around the house

As August arrives we are enjoying our 2nd week of near constant rain and stories of flooding rivers, flooding homes, and flooding roads. Even our work parking lot is washing away! Exciting times. Luckily we are living in the hills now and are not faced this year with a flooding outhouse! (Although the sink holes around our yard are getting a bit worrisome) On to brighter topics...

Since returning from vacation Kieran has been making great strides in his quest toward independent mobility. He spends much of his days standing (while clinging to something solid), asking to be helped to standing, or protesting our removing him from a precarious standing position. He's close to crawling and might have figured that out by now if he wasn't so focused on getting directly to his feet!


Bath time has become a highlight of any day. If he could run his own bath I think he'd bathe until the water tank ran dry.

Can't beat toys, bath, and Daddy all together!

Hmmm, now what can I make for dinner? A little cereal, a little gatorade, a few crackers...and now for my secret ingredient...

I said SECRET ingredient! Put the camera away Mommy!

How about a little after dinner music? BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

In mid July we tackled the canning of last year's leftover salmon. There was quite a lot left this year - my pregnant tummy wasn't interested in salmon for much of '07. Thankfully, that's changed and Max will have plenty of help eating the 12 dozen(!) jars of salmon we packed away this year.

It was a long day of preparing the fish, smoking, peeling skin, packing jars, and finally cooking them. It went into the wee hours of the morning.

Kieran had enough of canning way before the job was finished. At about this point in the day I was feeling pretty envious of little K. He gets a pass this year, but next year he's running the canner!

The next week Max made an overnight trip to Chitina to round up this year's fish for the freezer. Here's the Copper River from the road north of the fishing area. The fireweed still has some life left in it down there - maybe we'll still have some summer left after this rain stops falling!

The Tracer made another trip to Chitina too, completely loaded down and totally uncomplaining. This car must be happy in Alaska. I don't know how else to explain its longevity with everything we've put it through over the years. I think it has Max's attitude...you're not living unless you're pushing yourself.

Max caught all the fish we needed in a few hours but spent a bit more time cleaning it before loading everyone into coolers and heading for home. What a big job for one person! I need to remember that when I start thinking about how easy Max has it when he's on work trips and I'm single parenting at home. He does contribute big in other ways!

The smoker finally made the trip from the cabin to the new house and it was there to greet the fish when they arrived. We did a smaller batch than normal this year but it was the best batch we've had in a long time. Maybe the smoker likes it in the hills too?

Mmmm, lovely smoked salmon. It was a new experience squirreling away the annual salmon stores with an active and curious infant in the house. I think he had a good time sitting in the backpack and peering over Max's shoulder as he filleted fish and hanging out in his high chair watching me pack jars. He was more cooperative than we expected, taking naps during critical busy times and waking up cheerful and ready to take in the action for a few more hours. Good that he enjoyed the experience. He'll be experiencing it all again...and again, and again :)

Summer vacation

Oh boy, it's hard to believe that June is already over. It was a busy month for us with Max in southeast AK for field work and Kieran and me holding down the fort. Before we knew it 3/4 of June was over, Max was home, and it was time to board a plane for the east coast! It was Kieran's first plane travel so we were plenty worried that we'd be THAT family with the crying baby keeping everyone awake on the red-eye flight. As it turned out there was another baby on our overnight flight that kept everyone awake...everyone but Kieran that is. He was a super traveler, either sleeping or taking in the views out the window. We were both surprised at how much he loved looking out the window.



And then we were at Westport, the land of leisure and relaxation. It was our first time back since our wedding there two years ago, and what a welcome return! Boy, did we miss this last year! It was Kieran's initiation visit and he did great. He's a natural at relaxing on the back deck, getting passed around from uncle to auntie to cousin, and eating every 30 minutes or so. He loved it! So did we. Here he is hanging out with Uncle Adam and Auntie Helen.


We all came together to celebrate the newest soon-to-arrive Kaufman. We're excited that Adam and Danica's little boy will be only half a year apart from Kieran. They'll be great buddies at Westport, we're sure. I can imagine the fishing adventures already! Happy news...little baby Ben was born last night! Welcome to the world Ben! We'll see you soon :)


Happy baby.


Of course there was fishing for the bigger kids. Max and Sam had a fun and successful fishing trip (begining at 4:30am!) and we all enjoyed the fish tacos that came out of their effort. Great going Sam! Here's the unlucky blue that landed on the dinner table.


Kieran was introduced to Max's lucky fishing rod. He seemed to know exactly what to do with it. If only he were a little bit bigger.




Wonderful friends Jeb, April, and little Marit came to visit while we were there. They're expecting #2 as well but there was just enough room on April's lap for Kieran.


We had a fun expedition with Marit and her Bunbuns. Here we are at the start when we were still unaware of the excitement to come.


Is that a bunny I see? Yes! It is! Here the entire Benson clan sneaks up on a little Westport bunny. Shhhhhhhh!



Ah, if only we could have this all the time! We wish Kieran could grow up with his little cousin Marit. Maybe it'll happen. We 're keeping all our fingers and toes crossed that they'll come build a house next door :)



Then, all of the sudden, the house cleared out as everyone left to meet the rest of their summer obligations. Well, what do real New Englanders do when everyone leaves? Prepare a lobster dinner of course! First course was Max's specialty...Westport Harbor mussels collected by Max himself, assisted by Grandaddy. Yum! Then came the lobsters. What a feast. I feel bad for those who had to leave early.

Kieran thought the lobsters looked like a terrific toy. He decided that this wasn't the time for sleeping and yelled until mommy came to fetch him and bring him down to where the action was. Looking back, it was worth the lost sleep.



Then there was the great cow adventure as Bushka and Kieran and I went to pick up the very important black raspberry ice cream. I think Kieran was rather happy to see his first cow up close.
Yup, happy as ever :)


We were treated to a beautiful double rainbow (single in this shot) before we left. It came after a wonderfully loud east coast thunder storm, and reached right down to the water.


Max got some great shots of the anvil cloud that brought the storm.



What a beautiful place.


And then it was time to say goodbye to Westport. Kieran loved spending some quieter time with Bushka and Grandaddy. So did we.


From Westport we drove west to RI where we met up with the Nielson side of the family. Kieran got to meet his cousins Elizabeth, Kevin, Graham, and Maggie for the first time, as well as his all of his aunts and uncles. It was a quick visit, but what a fun time! The beach was great with lots of big waves and plenty of good sand castle sand. Kieran loved it here too. We had to take shifts at the beach with nap schedules...while Uncle Tom and cousin Maggie stayed at the cottage Auntie Erin and cousin Graham played with us at the beach.



Kieran loved this set of measuring spoons. Thanks Elizabeth! We didn't mean to take them with us but we did, and Kieran has played with them every day since! We'll replace them soon :) Big thanks to Grandma for organizing the cottage and lots of busy people for a super fun time!


Then beach time was over and it was time to head north and inland. We made sure to have a visit with Grandpa and Grandma Lee at the farm before heading back home. Kieran loved all the plants and flowers...


And vegetables! He was very impressed with Grandpa's cucumbers. He was especially fond of this one, which became his favorite teether for the day. He and Grandpa got along just fine as you can see.


We got to catch up with some old farm friends while we were there. Gino, out of the picture, couldn't believe that I was the little girl that used to sit next to him transplanting seedlings...what was that, about 30 years ago?!? Honestly, I think he was thinking of sister Heather, but his joy in remeeting me with Kieran was just too much fun to dampen. Max was so impressed with Gino's Italian enthusiasm during this encounter he took a video of it (video not shown here).


It's hard to live so far away, but we think we might have heard a faint interest in another visit to Alaska in the future for these two. Last time they came I had a small apartment with no space for visitors and no Max to come up with wonderful road trip excursions to keep everyone busy and make the most of a trip to the far north. With a brand new guest room and a personal adventure planner, we expect to see Dad and Lee here within the year :)


On to July! We've been told over and over again how fast time passes when you have a baby. They're right. All of them.