Camping, Catan, and Siblings

More wildlife sightings. This time from the safety of the yurt. You can barely see Leo in the front doing a moose dance.

Nicki just went on a well deserved 4 day sea kayaking trip. Here she is, on the left, lounging by a block of ice with a couple of fellow paddlers (Barb and Jenny).

While she was out camping on her trip, I took the kids out on our first camping trip of the year with our good friends the Taygans. Here is Kaya hanging out by the fire with Will and Lucile.

A sunny May made for a good time on an Eagle River gravel bar.

As Kaya gets more mobile, (she is walking now) she and Leo are finding more and more things to do together. I don't usually know exactly what they are doing but here they are in Kaya's toy box.

Two other "stay at home" dads (Roger and Bill) and I hiked our first mountain of the year, Harp.

We recently made some improvements to the yurt puzzle by making the windows and skylight yellow for an illuminated look and trying out a sunset sky.

And finally, as a diversion from puzzle making, I made this wooden Settlers of Catan board. The border pieces snap together with magnets embedded into the wood.

Hopefully I'll get to use it in the next day or so.

Happy June everyone.

Wildlife at the Yurt

There has been a furry flurry of activity here at the yurt recently.
Example #1:

Example #2:

Oh, and there's a moose back there somewhere. We've seen about a moose a day from the yurt for the past week.
Example #3:





This guy was eating grass on the driveway for about 30 minutes.

Easter and Danger Boy

Happy Easter and May Day (past), Cinco de Mayo (present) and Mother's Day (future).
We had a fun Easter with multiple Easter egg hunts. Here is Nicki with our baby bunnies.

As Leo gets older it becomes more and more difficult to keep him occupied and out of mischief. Now that the weather is warmer getting him outside as much as possible is a necessity. Here are 2 of my most recent projects to burn off some of that kid's energy.

April Stuff

With the return of the sun comes the end of the snow. Except for a few patches, it has entirely left the property. We are still getting out to ski up high, but dog sledding is done for the year. Once the sunset clears the ridge on the other side of the valley, our daily direct sunlight dramatically increases. Right now it is at about 12 hours a day, 9 to 9. Here is a photo of the sunset just barely clearing that ridge.

Kaya has hair long enough to pull into pig tails. It doesn't look that good when I do it.

Leo is practicing being a stay at home dad.

And, is getting pretty good at riding a bike, the required stick still in tow.

Warmer weather means rainy hikes.

Some day I'll convince Leo that the 2 year old duck poncho is too small for him.

Byers Lake 2011

We took our annual "spring" trip to a Byers lake public use cabin this past week. We really lucked out again with sunny warm weather.
Denali from out on the lake.

Kaya reading to Georgie in the cabin.

Leo driving the sled,

riding in the sled,

and taking a well deserved nap out in the rain.

We have made this trip 3 years in a row now, and you can tell by this video that his sense of fun really hasn't changed much, he is just more coordinated.

Compare that to this post 2 years ago (our first trip out there).

Fabulous March

March is always our favorite time of year around here. Lots of snow and lots of light. Here are some so-far march highlights.
Last week we were treated to a rare occurrence - the northern lights. It is the first display I have seen in the two and a half years we've lived here, and, WOW, it was a big one.

Finally made it onto the upper stretch of the frozen Eagle River. I brought my new neighbor and fellow "stay at home" dad with me, and boy was he excited!

Here is our now traditional Nicki high-fiving a musher photo at the Iditarod restart.

Created a new-to-us sport called parentjouring or parents pulling their kids on skis.

Another proud papa moment. Leo is getting pretty savvy on those skis of his.

Don't worry. If Leo ever gets hurt our live in doctor, Dr. Kaya, is here to help.

And, I finally got around to making a yurt puzzle.

Whoosh! Third of the way through this month; lets see what else we can make happen!

Birthdays, Shadows, and Closets

Snow, as you may know, is one of our favorite things in the world. But sometimes life gets in the way and we have a hard time enjoying it. One of my favorite ways to sneak in some snow play is by using our driveway to make some lazy turns. No matter how difficult it can be to get UP our driveway coming DOWN is usually a fun time. Here are some ski tracks that were made after a good snow and before the kids woke up.

I finally got up into the mountains behind our house (faintly seen in previous photo) and it always amazes me we have this terrain just a few miles from the yurt. Here is Ranger enjoying it too, stoically.

Kaya had her first birthday and her first cakethis past week .

The favorite present, for both kids, is a purple puppy cart. Leo is having a bit of a hard time sharing, but they work it out most of the time.

The sun is back on the yurt now and Leo and I went out for some fun with shadows. Nothing makes you appreciate your shadow more than losing it for 2 months.

And, finally, to lay a rumor to rest, Kaya indeed lives in a closet. But, as you can see, she doesn't much mind.

It works great for right now but in 6 months? Anyone have any good bunk bed plans?