Goodness, it's been awhile! Lots of misc. happening, mostly to share with Miss A of course. A couple of weeks after New Orleans, in early May, her and I journeyed north to my old home of Nome. I'd been looking forward to this trip since I found out about it last summer. There would be an annual conference happening there and I coordinated the Youth Track portion of it. That meant Miss A got to meet her Uncle, Aunt and cousins, along with very special friends.
Of course my camera battery died early in the week-long trip and I forgot to pack the charger. Small items like that were forgotten as I focused on the quantity of diapers to get us through the trip (buying them in Nome is not economical). You can see
here that she got to meet her friend, Victoria! I loved seeing V crawling around and talking away.
We settled right into the family home and am so grateful for the hospitality in giving us niece Taylor's room and just having us around for quite awhile.
Uncle Tony took this picture of a splish-splash bath in their kitchen sink!
Cousin Tay helped her play dress up. Lots of accessories for this fun.
A couple of pics. were taken of Miss A and I in KNOM. I hope to get a copy. It was quite something to be in the radio station with my daughter. As I think about moving to Nome and working there for years....to having my daughter in that actual building, with very special people was emotional for me. Here, she's playing around with KNOM's talented News Director in a hub for Western Alaska's information: the Newsroom! I think they're editing some sound files here. I was in the studio working on public service announcements with one of my teen travelers to the Summit.
Here are some of my teens representing nearly every region of the state. The Summit was focused on tobacco prevention and control. Our Youth Track was titled: "Tobacco: the REAL Deadliest Catch." As an icebreaker to get everyone bonding with one another, I initiated the Human Knot. Except that it was framed as a crab boat net of the tobacco industry trying to "hook" teens into a lifetime of addiction. I needed them to break free of this net/knot and in order to do so they had to work together, think outside of the box, stay united and committed to their cause. Captain "Cig" (cigarette) rooted for them to fail. But alas, after nearly an hour working together, and no one quitting, they made it out of the net/knot. What a team. We had a great experience. I miss this group, but thankfully we're working together long-distance via our tobacco-free coalition.
It snowed while in Nome! And the mornings were around zero with windchill. Good thing I packed the winter gear to use one last time this season. I'm so glad for the trip.
Even as Miss A gets bigger and more independent, its still nice to cuddle with Dad.
And it's fun to play with the hallway mirror while Dad's on his lunch break!
My first Mother's Day, with a gift of outdoor flowers. She was actually fussy for most of the day.
Like I said, fussy. She doesn't smile all the time.
And now tummy time happens more often, in different places and with more positive results.
Whew! That's a lot. More to come as Miss A turned 5 months old Thursday. And more from the Cajun Queen. Andy took her out for an overnight while we spent time with his brother in Nome. He caught an eel. Maybe if Andy ever blogs again we'll see it (nudge, nudge). haha!
*Amy
...came down to Sitka. Fantastic. Tony (G2) and Cole (G4) spent nearly a week with us at the end of July. Man, did those guys fish! And they did awesome. Andy has to show off pictures of the catches, including an interesting sea creature hooked from the "mudhole." Cole took to Southeast like butter on bread. I couldn't wait for the end of my work day when they'd come back from the boat. The excitement was explosive as 6-year old Cole told me every critter they spotted and all that was caught. Every day on the boat they wrote down the wildlife list on a paper plate with a Sharpie and Cole would wave it at me as the day's stories spilt. Three Gorns on a boat get things done.
We also enjoyed a couple of days at the Tom Young cabin. The cabin is owned by the City of Sitka, about an hour boat ride away. Andy reserved two nights (just like a public use cabin) last winter and he was stoked. It's just across a little body of water from the Goddard (natural) Hot Springs!
