the porcupine

These little guys account for the number 1 emergency that Sam sees at work. There is literally almost a dog a day that comes in to the clinic for a "de-quill". This little guy is just a baby and we saw him up @ Mendenhall Glacier. They are everywhere though and I worry every time we let the dogs out. I know Wilson or even Tasha would just love to cover their faces and mouths in quills.

halibut for dinner

I have found my go to halibut recipe!

• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• halibut

Preheat oven to 450. Lightly grease baking dish. Mix 1/2 the cheddar, mayo, sour cream, lemon juice, flour and cayenne. Arrange halibut and slather with mixture. Top with remaining cheddar. Bake for 10 minutes @ 450. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 15 more minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

We all thoroughly enjoyed this dish, even Miss Avery!

my favorite people

"that soup" and "that peachy dessert thingy"

Just 2 recipes I stole from daytime television. They are really easy and pretty yummy. Avery LOVES the soup and who doesn't like dessert? I am mostly just documenting this so I don't lose the recipe again ;)

"THAT SOUP"

Ingredients:

4 pre-cooked honey-garlic sausages (500 g) (or whatever you can find at the store)
7 to 8 cups (1.8 - 2 L) chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp (15 mL) dried parsley
1 tsp (5 mL) dried thyme
6 Swiss chard leaves, trimmed and chopped (I just use spinach leaves)
3 carrots, thinly sliced (or handful baby carrots, sliced)
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1/2 onion (i omit the onion)
one 19 fl oz can (540 mL) white kidney beans, drained and rinsed (i use great northern beans)
3 handfuls broad egg noodles
I usually throw in about a cup of frozen corn too

Preparation:

1. Slice up sausages
2. Simmer broth and herbs in a large pot, loosely covered, while you chop vegetables.
3. Add veggies to pot. Thinly slice the sausages and add to pot.
4. Roughly mash about 1/3 of the kidney beans and add, along with the whole beans, to the pot.
5. Add noodles to the pot.
6. Simmer 20 minutes, or until noodles and veggies are tender. Makes 6 dinner servings.



"THAT PEACHY THINGY"

Ingredients:

1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup pecan pieces (or walnut pieces)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, soft
1/3 cup granulated sugar
pinch salt
Two 14 fl. oz. (398 mL) can sliced peaches or apricots in juice or syrup*
1 tsp vanilla extract

* Or 1 1/2 cups sliced home-canned or fresh peaches, apricots or plums. But do not use frozen fruit.

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).
2. Melt tablespoon butter in 8 X 8-inch glass baking dish but putting the butter in the baking dish into the warming oven for a few minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Set aside.
2. To make crumble topping, in a large bowl, mix pecan pieces, flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, rolled oats, soft butter, sugar and salt until no dry flour is left. Mixture will be crumbly.
3. Drain canned peaches (juices are not used). If home-canned peaches are in halves, slice into segments. Spread peach slices in baking dish pan over melted butter and brown sugar. Do not stir. Sprinkle vanilla over peaches. Sprinkle crumble mixture evenly over peaches.
4. Bake about 25 minutes, until crumble is lightly browned and fruit juices are bubbly. Makes 1 Peach Pecan Crisp.

east glacier hike

Sunday we were invited to go hiking with Melissa and Jesse. They are two veterinarians that work with Sam @ Southeast. We did East Glacier Trail which was maybe 3 1/2 miles. The first half was pretty much up hill and then the second 1/2 was coming back down. Jesse set the pace and lets just say he doesn't dilly dally. I would have been tired if I wasn't carrying an extra 30lbs on my back. Avery enjoyed her first ride in our new backpack thoroughly! She really liked the extra room and must have liked being able to see over me.

We didn't see any bears, but we did see a baby porcupine, a bunch of salmon and lots of signs that bears were near. There are a LOT of people on this trail so we were not too worried. It was fun and the rain waited until we finished our hike to start.


So which way is north?


Salmon ready to spawn and a baby porcupine eating some leaves.

sunny saturday

Last Saturday was beautiful! We had to stop at the Brotherhood bridge trail head to snap this awesome picture of Mendenhall glacier and the fireweed in full bloom. We get to see the glacier every day as we drive over this bridge, but it is pretty rare that the peaks above the glacier are visable. They are usually hidden in the clouds.

We did get up to the beach for a little bit. Wilson and Tasha did some swimming and Avery had a good time throwing rocks into the ocean and playing with the shells and sand. It was great picture taking light, but Miss Avery refused to look at me.

Fishing

We had not planned on going fishing this year. I figured we would just wait until we were residents and have fun with it next year. People have been awesome and throwing more fish at us than we know what to do with. THANK YOU! Anyway. I had planned on taking Avery up to Eagle Beach @ low tide today to look for some tide pools. It was a really crappy day, but whatever, carpe diem, right? So we loaded up. I decided the dogs would get to come along. Avery was excited and couldn't babbling on and on about the beach all morning. She actually sang about the beach while we were driving up there. It was about 20 minutes north of where we live and she literally sang "LALALA...BEACH...LALALA" the entire way.

So we get there and no one is there except a TON of gulls, ravens, geese and eagles. The dogs were in HEAVEN. I have yet to mention the loads of dead fish! Some were more than likely leftovers from meals and the others were unfortunate enough to get caught when the tide went out. Oh and my dogs LOVE stinky fish. When they were not chasing the birds they were rolling in the fish. Then, Wilson discovered there were fish alive in some of the tide pools. Sorry for all the yelling in the video, but he wouldn't leave them alone. So I end up catching my first fish of the year bare handed to help it get to a deeper spot in the pool. I had to do this 4 different times because he just couldn't help himself.

Avery did not have as much fun. She was all weird about walking on the sticky mud and made me carry her most of the time. She loved watching the birds and thought Wilson's fishing was hilarious. Luckily she fell asleep on the way home which gave me an opportunity to hose off the dogs outside while she slept in the car. Yes, I gave my dogs a bath outside in the rain. I felt a little bad for them because it was cold, but they needed it bad! They could use another bath because they still stink.

It was a stinky and wet adventure for Avery, the dogs and I. I think we will wait for the sun to come out for our next trek up there.

Smith Equine's first surgery!

Avery loves the Disney movie "Tangled", so I made her this Rupunzel inspired shirt for her 2nd birthday! I totally stole this idea, but think it came out alright. It was quite frustrating! She has a tiara that fits perfectly and matches the ribbon on the shirt.

Park Time!

The clouds parted yesterday so we rushed to the park! Avery is always a little hesitant at first, but after 10 minutes of clingy-ness she finally gave in to the awesomeness of this park. The Twin Lakes Project Playground is an awesome park centrally located in Juneau. It is our favorite to date! Avery ran around like a maniac and did one of the tunnel slides about 30 times. She also figured out this balance thing (pictured below) and was VERY proud of herself.



Avery is still fighting off a nasty head and chest cold that she came down with a week ago. She appears to feels fine, but has a bad runny nose and a cough. She has slept great the past few nights so hopefully we are on the up and up.

Hiking it up.

There are TONS of trails around the Juneau area. A lot of them are really out of the question with Avery in tow, but there are quite a few that are short enough for Miss Avery's attention span. We headed over to blueberry hill and conquered the 1.5 mile trail and then came back down without any major toddler meltdowns. She was a little scared at the top, but it was pretty high so I don't blame her. My hair is a disaster in the photo as it is pretty humid here, I was sweating like a pig and I am trying to grow out my bangs because they just are not gonna work in this wet environment. Mendenhall Glacier is pictured behind Sam and that is Auke Bay behind me. This trail is within a mile of our house.

The dogs got totally muddy and loved every minute of it. They very shortly regretted their mud dwelling adventures as soon as the soap and hose were busted out and they were given a good dog washing. I feel a little bad giving them a hose bath outdoors when it is only 60 degrees out, but they made the choice to lie down in a mud pit and we do not have a way to give them a bath indoors. Sorry guys, but you were due for a washing anyway!

stink butt

This kid has been seriously exhausting lately. She has made the decision that she will not sleep in her own bedroom in her crib. We ended having her in our bed for about a week and were exhausted because she is not the most polite person to share a bed with. I finally gave up on attempting to get her to sleep in her own room and moved her crib into our room and converted it to a toddler bed. It is up against my side and she has been doing great. Except for the fact the she refuses to go to bed before Sam and I go to sleep. So she is up at 6 AM and goes to bed between 8:30PM and 9PM. I am lucky to get a nap. There is no way she will lay down by herself. Sometimes, I get Tasha to lie with her until she falls asleep and sometimes she will sleep in the car and sometimes she is go go going all day long! I was lucky enough today to get a nap. She fell asleep on her walk and is sitting in her stroller passed out in the living room!

She has been a busy toddler!

What's New:

• She knows quite a few colors: orange, yellow, black, brown, white, blue, pink and purple (I think she knows red & green, but cannot really say the words yet). At JoAnns yesterday she was running around to all the fabric and yelling the colors. She was beyond pumped.

• She is attempting to count, but it often sounds like this: "two, two, four, three, nine, ect"

• "Dada, HOOOOOME", is a new short sentence that she will say when she sees the truck pull up the driveway.

• She is REALLY into lining up her dolls and taking them in and out of her "doll purse" as she now refers to it.

• She knows a few letters: A, B, D, G, K, M, T, W are the ones that have stuck. She recognizes them all over the place, gets excited and will yell "T, TASHA" or "B, BABY". She also thinks the number 8 is a B and will say "B, Baby" when she sees an 8.
  

Happy Anniversary!

I seriously find it hard to believe it has been 4 years since we were married and 7 1/2 years since we met and began dating. Crazy! So many memories and so many more to make. I am happy to say I think we have found the spot we will settle down and raise our family (knock on wood). Sam is really happy at work and that is a huge stress release for us all! I never thought I would be living in SE Alaska, but I am happy we found our way here! Cheers to a new beginning!
I love you Sam!

On to August

We just had a wonderful visit from Sam's Mom and Rick. Although we are still not completely settled and we do not have the entire layout of Juneau figured out yet, it was still nice to see some people we know. Sam worked the majority of their visit, but they really only cared about seeing Avery. She was so excited to see them. She screamed for about 5 minutes in excitement. We did some shopping, some lounging, some eating and a lot of driving around checking out the area. We also got to go on a whale watch! Avery saw her first humpback whale and rode on her first boat! She was a little scared when the engines got loud and we went fast, but she did really great. She is still talking about the blue boat and the whales.

I was also a very lucky girl and got a new rain jacket (much needed, my old shell was from high school) AND I got a new camera! Sam's parents are awesome and I am VERY grateful. Thank you Rick and Paige! I am so pumped to have a digital SLR! I have not gotten to play with it very much yet and Avery has not been a cooperative subject, but here are a couple of cute ones I have gotten.

So now we are back to getting to know the area. I have found a newly forming group of moms in the area and we have become organized. We have been to a couple parks, on a few walks and to the open gym at the gymnastics academy. It is super new, but really great so far.