summery stuff

Summer is coming and going before my eyes.  So nuts.  The kids have been out of school for nearly a month now.  We have had a constant stream of fun things happening, which is good because the weather here has been CRAPPY. COLD. Rain. Cold.  Cold. Rain. I haven’t been writing (aside from my overall laziness about getting here in this space) because our computer fizzed out. We are now in transition to a new computer… but it is not without glitches. Luckily, I have my very own IT guy in the house.

I have many, many photos from the past month, and there is more to say than I can write all in one post… so here is just a brief summary so I can be all caught up for my own personal archives.

Mid-May, Jonah, Brian and I boated with some friends down to Petersburg for the Little Norway Festival.  Holy. Cow. We fished and pulled shrimp pots along the way and had an extraordinary time. I learned so much. I saw so much. It made me fall in love with our beautiful state even more. There were places we went on the boat that seemed as though nobody else in the world had ever looked upon. It was untouched, unspoiled. Amazingly spiritual. I have so many stories I could tell, but it’s just one of those experiences that I will have to keep wrapped up in my head, for words can’t do it justice.  I uploaded all of my photos to flickr in a set here, if you are interested. Please ignore my black eye; I got into a scuffle with a Valkyrie who was trying to steal my man (or so the story now goes, for the real event is much less exciting).

the quaintest little fishing town: petersburg, alaska

jonah on the boat, happy as a lark

The weekend school let out, we started a new tradition: a moms and boys camping trip. Six moms and six boys, all dropped off on an island to camp for the weekend. The first night, we got rained on like you would not believe. The wind incessantly snapped a tarp so loudly that we didn’t get much sleep. I was grumpy. BUT… the morning brought rainbows and camp coffee and I was a happy mama for the rest of the sunny time on the island. Jonah had a fantastic time with his friends, kayaking, tidepooling, fishing… being all boyish. It was a perfectly balanced recipe for a very memorable time. (here’s the flickr set)

rainbow over our island camp

I then continued my Jonah-centric summer (I don’t know why it worked out that we’ve done so much together without the two littles… but it seems fitting as he really seems to be changing. He’s growing up SO fast. I think I’m trying to hold on to him as much as possible, and at the same time being incredibly inspired by his transition. Learning from him and cultivating the roots before he grows too much.) with our annual trip to Scout Camp together. The experience was a reaffirmation of the great community we have here and the CRAZY amazing beauty we are surrounded by. One thing that stands out in my mind is a little hike we took through the lupine and buttercups out to an expansive beach with the Chilkat Range backdrop where the boys all caught flounder, small halibut and Dolly Varden… What lucky boys (and lucky parents).

boy scout beach

Mighty went to camp, too, with Brian for the second half of the week.  They had an equally amazing time–and were blessed with stellar weather: sun and temperatures in the 80s. Almost unheard of for this year. The rest of us walked out to camp the last day to see the skits and I have to say that Micah could possibly be a born actor. He has such a fabulous and comedic group of friends. It’s easy to imagine what they’ll be like together as grown men. I hope they all stay this sweet and content.

mighty and his friends, watching the skits at camp

Aside from all the planned events we’ve had going on, it’s been a fairly laid back month. Baseball is over (thank God… it was not the best sports experience we’ve had). We’ve been canoeing. We’ve made jars and jars of rhubarb jam and spruce tip jelly. We’re getting excited watching all the little blueberries getting riper. We’ve been hanging out a lot with Aunt Alli–and getting ready for more family visitors to come at the end of July (yay!). It hasn’t all been peaches and cream… there’s the usual chaos of having everyone stuck inside in the rain and sibling rivalry thing happening. But we’re all good, for the most part. And, despite the cold rain, we are having a damn good summer.