Muskeg Pixie & Jumping Mouse

Time is Flying

2009-05-31T09:06:00.010-08:00

We have been waiting through a loooong winter to sit right in the middle of May. Now, it's all over. Here is what happened and why we can't believe June is coming in the door.

1. Women's triathlon
2. 60 plus degree weather
3. Kindergarten concert
4. Field trips galore
5. Beth & Kevin visit
6. Julie Hughes triathlon
7. The Birthday's x 3
8. Great Grandpa goes to Thimbleberry
9. Memorial Day
10. The Birthday's take 2
11. Last days of school
12. Anan's finally trailing behind

Kruzof Beach Landing

2009-03-23T14:14:00.002-08:00

First Day on the Job

2009-03-21T17:58:00.006-08:00

The herring have arrived and it's almost time to fish.
Frank and I went on a little flying cruise to get
organized and ready for the first opening.
This years quota is 14,504 tons.

In the video - below
There is a big pod/school/group of sea lions next to these rocks.
Look for the birds flying around. There were about 300 floating
around this area but it looks like the group has split into
3 smaller groups. This one could be 100? -I'm guessing
The streak of discolored water trailing off them is...
POOP

Twinkle Twinkle Duet Debut

2009-03-12T21:44:00.004-08:00

This is Kobi and his violin teacher playing
their first duet. Kobi is playing the harmony,
Barbara is playing the theme.

She is a wonderful woman. We feel pretty
lucky to have her attention once a week.

Walrus, Walrus, What Do You See?

2009-02-03T10:34:00.002-09:00

Anan was spending some time on the potty reading.

Violin Practice

2009-01-31T21:05:00.004-09:00

Kobi is learning a new song in violin.
We made it past Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

I am amazed with Kobi's concentration with
Anan in the background.

2009-01-16T17:24:00.000-09:00

Anan's new favorite book.
From Uncle Kevin and Aunt Bethy.
Christmas 2008

2009-01-10T21:09:00.000-09:00

Kevin and Beth came to visit for a couple of days.
They flew up on Wednesday with a dreaded 9 hour
layover in Juneau. This would have got them here at 11pm.
Pete looked into our local small plane company who informed
him they just happened to have a plane in Juneau. Within an
hour they were on a flight with just the pilot and them to Sitka.
The skies were clear wintery blue and the mountains capped with snow.
They arrived at 3pm and shaved 8 hours off the layover.

We ate some good food, went on walks, read at the library
stared at the kids, chopped wood -and toe-, faced our addiction
to sugar and then said good bye. As always, the time is not long enough.

2008-12-07T21:13:00.000-09:00

Kobi figured out how to hoop. We can almost
join the circus with this talent.

2008-12-07T20:44:00.000-09:00

This was the last day for the Trampoline in
2008. It was a dry day, so the kids jumped
and then we took it apart to store for the
winter.

We got it free this summer from a
friend whose teenage kid outgrew it. I don't
know how we lived without it before.

The summer was very wet and rainy so
sometimes we would jump in our wetsuits
or bathing suits. Anan always preferred to
be naked, even in 40 degree weather at the
end of November.
Yikes kid! However, refreshing...

2008-09-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

Anan is excavating the river bank.
He sat here for 45 minutes digging.
I tried to bribe him to move with hot chocolate and
oreo cookies. He was just out of sight down here. Upriver about 25ft.
there was clearly a bear dining room with old fish carcasses everywhere.
He wouldn't budge, even with the bribes.

2008-09-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

The kids and I participated in the
International Coastal Clean-up day.
Every year on September 20th groups gather to clean up
ocean, river and lake coasts.
This year was the first time Sitka participated.
We and 19 other people spent time on Razor Clam beach on Kruzof.
(For you locals, around the corner from Brent's Beach.)
Kobi is standing on about 1/3 of the pile collected.
Among the debris was two mini refrigerators,
buoys, tons of Styrofoam, a bazillion plastic bottles, tarps, and carpet.
Nasty.

Kobi picked up a lot of garbage. Anan picked up some, but he spent a lot
of time laying on his belly in the black sand. The sun came out off and on,
and not a drop of rain fell from the sky. It was great.

Kobi Scissor Mouth

2008-09-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

WATCH HIS MOUTH.

2008-09-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

Paddle Boarding
Summer 2008

Trampoline Jumping in a Rain Forrest

2008-09-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

Kobi and Pete just got out of the ocean from
paddle boarding. A day of,
if you can't beat the rain, join it.

2008-09-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

This is Kobi's Kindergarten Teacher,
Mrs. Loomis.
She's very inclusive of our participation.
Anan and I parent helped the other day.
Today we brought pluots, kiwis and almonds
for the classroom snack.

This is how Anan spends his time
when Kobi is at school.

We rode our bikes to the HPR Rec for
Esther's birthday party this summer.
Kobi is the happiest on his bike,
peddling on his own, long distances.

An day at the beach.
Sea Lion Cove, Kruzof Island

First day of school with buddy Fiona.

I Wanna Be a Cowboy

2008-08-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

2008-08-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

2008-06-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

These are old pictures from the spring.
We picnicked on Kruzof Island at the end of March.
It snowed, sleeted, rained and finally the sun
came out for a 1/2 hour before heading home.
Both kids fell asleep on the way back.

In May we celebrated Uncle Kevin, Kobi and Anan's Birthdays.
Kevin and Beth came up for a long weekend.

Two Thumbs Up!
Kobi participated in his first triathlon at the age of 4...
six days before turning 5.
He was the youngest ever participate in the kids category.
The kids distance consists of a
2 mile run, 5 mile bike, and 500 yd swim!
Kevin rode a bike next to him for both metal and physical safety.
Way to go little buddy!
I think he takes after his Papa.
But, he wants me to include the message
"but Papa didn't win."

2008-04-19T10:27:00.000-08:00

Anan counting his herring catch. We went fishing for bait with a throw net and caught bagfuls of fish. Anan was pretty interested in studying them. Kobi just played on the rocks and then went to our friend Anne's house to cook with her. Maybe Anan will be the fisherman.
If you listen closely, Anan says "Hi Fish..."

Just some pictures to share.

2008-02-20T22:54:00.001-09:00

Winter Warming session on Joshua Tree National Monument Rocks.

There is nothing better than dry desert beneath our feet in the middle of January.

Well, there is one thing better than desert in January, it is visiting with
Great Grandma Bee and Great Grandpa Quinton.

...and eating ice cream with them.

Spaceman Spiff and his sidekick Sven.
Watching the snowy road get plowed.

Smash Face & Brother

2008-02-20T22:27:00.000-09:00

If you turn your volume up you can hear Annan's belly laugh.

Smash Face

2008-02-20T22:13:00.000-09:00

More Pictures.

2008-02-20T14:44:00.000-09:00

Kobi was actually trying to help me get Annan to sleep.
It didn't work.

Ready for Swimming.
We asked him if he was okay, he said "Yeah."
"Do you want me to take it off," I asked "No."

New Years Day Hike up Verstovia mountain. 2008

2008-01-20T19:40:00.001-09:00

I CAN!

2007-12-21T17:49:00.000-09:00

oops sorry this video never loaded. I'll find it later. Happy Solstice!

2007-12-21T00:28:00.000-09:00

I over heard Esther reading to Kobi during a playdate. It was very sweet and the dialog is hilarious. Turn the volume waaaay up.

Photos

2007-11-27T01:32:00.000-09:00

House Remodel

2007-11-27T01:05:00.001-09:00

Halloween Stardust Ball

2007-11-01T21:43:00.001-08:00

We have been watching a little too much Cirque du Sul

Inspecting a Discovery

2007-06-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

We went on an amazing walk Sunday and came across a small discovery. Kobi is explaining it in the video.
We also had a once in a lifetime wildlife experience. We witnessed the new journey of 11 Common Mergansers chicks leaving their nest for the first time. Merganser mothers do not bring food to her chicks. Therefore the babies have to leave the nest about a day after they hatch to feed themselves. The interesting part about this is, Mergansers often times nest in cliffs and old hawk nests many feet off the ground. In this case it was about 150-200 feet up a cliff in the gorge below Blue Lake damn. The mother flew out of the nest calling her young, and we watched all 11 of them tumble, fall, bounce and crash down the side of the cliff to meet mom in a small pond below. It was incredible. From the height of the cliff, and treacherous rock and other obstacles along the way we thought we were observing carnage. They all made it and scuttled over to mom ready to eat. Of course I didn't bring the camera, so the only documenting of our observation is in our brains & hearts.

Picture Post

2007-06-03T19:40:00.000-08:00

Campers at Brents Beach

Pre-Triathlon Family
no Post Triathlon Family Picture
Available

Last Day of Preschool Beach Picnic

Annan Turns One!

2007-06-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

Annan at the Beach

Birthday Boy

Mini Cupcakes from Big Brother

Picture Post

2007-06-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some recent photos of our family. I
haven't posted for a while, but it seems we are
slacking on our end of the Weiland picture share.
Thanks for all the photos everyone has sent our
way. We love seeing everyone in pictures and
sharing them with Kobi. He always says, "I want
to go to their house. Can we go right now?"

Mother's Day Quilt Show

Annan exploring the yard, almost walking.

Kobi's new Birthday Bike

At Brent's Beach Camping with Aunt Bethy & Uncle Kevin

Last Day of Preschool
...with Uncle

2007-04-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

This is many short videos spliced together from the last
herring opening. We were flying over the coast of Kruzof
Island looking for herring. Frank found a nice spot
(Shoals Beach I later discovered) to beach comb,
so we landed for 1/2 hour and browsed for glass balls.
It was a beautiful day, sunny and slightly warm. We found
washed up trash instead of glass balls and that the opener was
called while we were scouting. Whoops!
Off we flew to find fish and look out for other planes.

2007-04-06T10:11:00.002-08:00

2007-04-06T10:11:00.001-08:00

2007-04-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

Herring Spotting & Plane Watching

2007-04-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

Fishing for Herring at 3,000 ft.

2007-04-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

It's hard to tell, but this is the herring fishery in action.
Boats, Nets, Skiffs & Tenders

Manna Manna

2007-04-02T22:17:00.000-08:00

One more, my favorite.

Bort Bort Bort

2007-04-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

We've recently rediscovered The Muppet Show. Yipee! It's great for movie night because of the adult humor mixed in with kid craziness. It cracks us all up. I highly recommend watching it again as an adult, and with children if possible.

Turn the volume waaaay up to hear it.

Fiona Turns 4

2007-04-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

Kobi, Pete & I made Birthday balloons for Fiona's Birthday. We put small gifts inside for her to discover upon opening. They are made out of tissue paper and watered down glue. After drying, removing the balloon and inserting the gift, we added to pull cords. It was fun for us to make them and fun for Fiona and Jeremiah to open them.

Kobi and I also made dress-up wrist bands. They are perfect decoration for Fairies and Ballerinas. (as you can see on Fiona here) It was a great match with her dance shoes from her Grandma & Grandpa.

One of the first things Kobi does at Fiona's house and Esther's house is dress with them. This was his second outfit during the Birthday party.

If you look closely, Randy is wearing a short, skin tight wet suit for the occasion. He and Uncle Bill came dancing out to the living room half way through present opening. The kids sat there stunned and mouthes open for quite some time. Hilarious!

The Day Annan Learned to Crawl

2007-04-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

This video is a little old, but we're learning how to embed video to this site. It's our test video. He learned to crawl about a month and half ago, I think. Anyway it's pretty cute. Enjoy.

2007-03-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

Esther & Kobi after eating a bowl of blueberries.

2007-03-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

Larus Occidentalis - Western Gull

2007-03-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

We have so much snow, the gulls and other birds are desperately looking for food.
Pete has watched two Eagles attack and then fly away with gulls in their mouths.
Last Sunday morning after smoking some fish, gulls started to appear in our yard. There were a few, then many, and then at one time I counted almost 40 gulls.

Pete and Kobi started feeding them bread and quickly dwindled the supply. Pete remembered we had old herring in our freezer. The gulls are waiting for the herring to spawn this spring which seems to be delayed because of the cold weather. He decided to help them out and put the frozen block of herring on our sidewalk. The gulls pecked at it, pecked at each other, including their eyes, and eventually it thawed enough to eat. Unfortuatelly, they pulled the bits of herring into the road to fight over it and two got ran over by a speeding teenage girl. Kobi, Pete, the neighbor and his girlfriend watched in horror. The neighbor with his girlfriend tracked down a license plate number and description to report it to police and Fish & Wildlife. Ultimately they and we were told, Sea Gulls have no protection and just throw them in the trash. Ugh! So unfair!

In addition to the sad life of a gull.
Kobi and I saw a gull lazily electrocute himself by landing on a transformer
and then fall 25 feet to his death. After calling the Raptor Center, F & W, and the police, we were told to contact the City Electric Dept. to see if the wires were okay.
No one cared about the gull. We were crushed. Poor guy.

After having 40 gulls within inches of our feet we discovered they are really beautiful birds.

2007-02-25T09:22:00.000-09:00

He can wave!

Budding Picasso

2007-02-21T20:52:00.000-09:00

Some friends of ours gave us an easel they had made for their kids years ago. Very sweet. Kobi has been painting off and on. It's fun to watch him create master pieces. Maybe he has a little of his Nana in him.

Moments to Melt From

2007-02-21T12:08:00.000-09:00

This is what Annan looks like when Pete plays the violin for him in the tub. He looooves the tub and apparently loves the music. It was pretty darn cute to watch him watch Pete.

Birds, Squirrels and Seeds, Oh My!

2007-02-20T09:26:00.000-09:00

A few weeks ago we finally hung the bird feeder Ward gave Pete for Christmas 2004 Secret Santa. We also hung pine cones covered in peanut butter and bird seed. The first visitors were many little brown Junkos and a few chickadees. Then 3 Stellar Jays arrived. They were a comedy act to watch as they balanced their big bodies on the edge of the house. As they bent down to eat some seed they would loose their balance and nearly fall before flying away. Eventually they figured it out. The squirrel is a crazy little guy. He spent some time like this, until he figured out how to get inside the house. From then on he sat inside, carefully eating only the sunflower seeds while spitting the shells out the top flap under the dormers.

If you look carefully, you can also see the red bird hanging beside the house. Another secret santa, from Chris I think.

Cities & Knights, Cookies and Gin?

2007-02-17T08:23:00.000-09:00

Randy and I battled it out to see who would be the contender and who would be the Lord of Catan. The jury is still out. He traded with me on the last round to win knowing I would win. Is that fun? No, I didn't think so, even though it was 11:30pm. I gave his card back took back all my played cards and passed to Susan. The next round Pete lost a city to the barbarian therefore I lost my chance at a victory card to win the game. Then it came around to Randy again and he bumbled around with 20 cards to win the game. It must have been the gin.

We're nuts. Nearly obsessed with this game, but not quite.
Look at this guys Settlers game he made out of gingerbread & candy.

Pleeease, Do What Your Mother Says!

2007-02-12T21:20:00.000-09:00

Or there's going to be a beating tonight.
I mean you move when I say move! - Bill Cosby, Himself

If you've never heard Bill Cosby do this piece I highly recommend listening to it. It's hilarous. I could figure out how to post the audio for everyone to hear. (If anyone knows how let me know)

We are wondering when the fun starts? Why can't we all just get along? Is parenting all about waiting for kids to grow up and get out of the house? As much as we love our kids dearly, we have lately had moments of disbelief. These are our kids? I think about pre-kid days when I so rightously mumbled to myself, "my kids won't be like that." I think every parent has to tell themselves this in order to justify procreation.

2007-02-10T17:28:00.000-09:00

The Beginning

2007-02-09T21:54:00.000-09:00

Who has time to maintain a blog?

Where do you even get a blog?

What's a blog?

My friend and I were posing these questions the other night while surfing the web and talking to each other on the phone. (why would we do that?!) Later when Annan woke up at 3am with a fever and didn't go back to sleep until almost 5am, I thought, I want a blog. What would a put on a blog? Who would the blog be for? ohhh...for all the people back east, down south, & bored people in town. Yep that's it.

At 4am we Needed a Blog. So here it is.

This is for the family (and friends) to see what we're up to, what we're thinking and our families general ramblings. Hope you enjoy.