We spent the day after Thanksgiving in Anchorage, visiting Braden's office and Christmas shopping. Just a few blocks down from Braden's office is this old retired train, and we couldn't just drive by without taking a look (and you know how much Kohen LOVES trains). It was a little snowy but he had fun climbing all over it.

The Feast

Thanksgiving Day ski

We decided to try a bit of skiing around the neighborhood on Thanksgiving morning.

Pumpkin Carving!

Ahh, Moose!

It is a well known fact that much of our family doesn't believe we have moose running wild through our neighborhood because whenever they visit...they see NO wildlife. So, mom and dad and Evie, these pictures are for you!

Kohen and I were visiting a friend down the road a bit when the moose decided to eat their apple tree. (We were already in the house by then). I had left Evelyn home with Braden and told him I was going to be 'right back'. But after two hours of hanging around I needed to get home to nurse Evelyn and the moose were still WAAAAAYYY to close to my car! I'm glad to report that I was very brave and got in through the passenger side despite the fact that the mother moose was giving me the evil eye (see middle photo) and boy, let me tell you...I've seen THAT look before. Her babies must have been old enough that she didn't feel like we were too much of a threat. I think it was good therapy for me. Kohen was thrilled of course with the whole thing. He loves moose.

These are a few pictures of our end of summer exploits. Kohen's two favorite outdoor activities at the moment are "riding cars" and "finding bugs". He excels at both. His indoor activity is sitting on the potty and I included just one picture (hopefully not too inappropriate) because he is just so cute. Evelyn's summer activities are two fold, eat and sleep. She REALLY excels at the first :)

Look at those Cheeks!

Evelyn is the cutest little roly-poly!
She has really been filling out the last couple weeks, and she even slept a whopping 6 hour stretch (once)...I felt like a new woman the next day. Ahh, what a little bit of sleep can do for me!

Kohen's Birthday Bash!

my poor neglected garden...

My garden has been fending for itself this year...luckily Grandma arrived just in time to harvest the strawberries and radishes. We shall see if the squash and zuchini ever kick in. I suppose I should water them now and then :-)

Fun at home!

Grandma and Kohen have been doing lots of projects with scissors, glue sticks, stickers and crayons. He is in heaven...just look at that face!

A daddy daughter snuggle!
It's been a great first week! Evelyn is the sweetest little baby, we love her!

Evelyn Rae Galloway

She arrived July 4th at 6:36 pm weighing 8lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long...she has healthy lungs too! The delivery went great...a successful VBAC! No c-section for me! We are enjoying having her home and getting to know her. Kohen is loving being a big brother and wants to share all his toys with Evelyn and always needs to know where she is and what she is doing.

Campout at Trail River Campground

We decided to take a quick family photo...

...but as the rule goes, those quickie photos never seem to be very easy. Braden set up the tripod very carefully while I stood against the wall for placement and Kohen tried to unclip the tripod legs. Then after much effort of getting Kohen away from the camera (I'm starting to over heat at this point, and Kohen is no longer in a good mood) we stand there saying 'cheese' only to discover that our remote button doesn't seem to be working. So Braden runs back and forth trying to get the ten second timer to go and I get hotter and hotter holding a squirmy Kohen. The whole picture scenario started because Kohen was looking so darn cute for church. He even had a tie on under his sweater vest and Braden had put jell in his hair to make it lay just so. Of course after all this none of us looks quite fresh and I'm desperate to get to church to claim a padded bench seat rather than the folding chairs in the back. This was the only picture to turn out after all the effort...and I had to sit on the hard metal chairs anyway! Curses! I'll be content from here on out to just leave you all with partial family pictures. There is just no reason to try so hard to get all of us in one frame.

Bear's Girlfriend!

Bear has found another poodle to play with! Gigi is a standard poodle too (of course, Bear has VERY high standards and will NOT associate with lesser breeds) and our neighbor is dog sitting her while her owners have gone to France. So for two weeks, Gigi and Bear can play and frolic in our yard while we laugh from the deck at their antics. As you can see...they are airborne quite a bit and it is really very entertaining.

We are debating the decision to get another poodle as playmate for Bear in his approaching old age. The jury is still out however. I just don't know if I can do it.

Memorial Day Weekend

I know Memorial Day weekend isn't exactly over yet...but Monday I'm cracking the whip and we are going to get the baby room painted, the garage cleaned and the garden put in. Oh, and possibly have a BBQ :-) I'm not THAT mean of a task master!

So! We had big plans to camp Thursday and Friday night at Eklutna lake but when Braden rushed out thursday after work to reserve us a campsite...they were FULL!! (Since when did memorial day weekend start on wednesday people?! Don't you have jobs??) He raced back into Eagle River and begged for one of three remaining spots at the Eagle River campground. It turned out the campsite was actually in their group area on an enormous field. Kohen was quite tickled with it however because it was the place he camped last weekend with Daddy for the father-son campout. He knew where all the good play spots were and it was full of rocks. As you can see from the slide show...rock collecting and rock throwing were the highlights of his weekend. I was less than tickled about the site because it had the same view of highland mt. as our backyard and the water/toilet facilities were too far away for me to attempt to get to. Braden saved the day though. He set up our 'emergency' tent which kept our spot reserved during the day and also became a bathroom facility...yes we are the proud owners of a portable camp toilet. I won't go into too much detail but lets say this is definitely my prefered method now...it is quite sanitary and compared to the typical over-used, under-cleaned, bug infested, hold your breath because of the reek, outhouse...it was a JOY to use. Anyways, enough about the toilet.

All in all, it turned out to be a very good thing we were camping close to home. Braden ended up having to work Friday so we just drove home that morning and drove back when he finished up. It also became apparent that I wasn't going to get more than 6 hours of sleep at a time so I bagged our Friday night overnighter and we slept in the luxury of our beds that night. (nothing against the auto home, my hips just can't take anything except the softest mattress right now). We spent Saturday at Eklutna Lake playing in a field of mud and rocks that Kohen couldn't get enough of and then did a bit of mountain biking. We didn't do much...Braden's doctor had specifically told him his achilles tendon was to do no more than road biking and I was pretty sure I'd have gone into labor if we had hit any more hills or bumps.

It was very fun and the weather has been beautiful! We are really enjoying the summer so far!

My last birthday of the twenties!

It was a fun birthday with my boys! We played outside all day and then had a picnic at the park for dinner when Braden got home. (It was almost 70 degrees today and you just can't be inside on a day like that). I had a cold stone ice cream cake (chocolate peanut butter...delicious!), and then we all jumped in the hot tub for a quick dip (don't worry...I keep the temperature at bathwater level so Kohen and I can soak safely). Thanks Mom for the pretty skirt! Braden and Kohen picked out a cool i pod speaker for me so I can play primary songs for my sunbeam class when they need to unwind a bit. Kohen was very enthralled with the big red gift bag...it had a picture of a cake covered in burning candles and a button that when you pushed it played a fire engine siren. Very cute.

The Father Son Campout

As you can see, Kohen had a wonderful time! It was his first night away from Mommy...a good trial run before July I suppose. He ate hot dogs and marshmallows (which he calls 'marshpillows'). He and Braden slept in the rooftop tent atop of the Camry and weathered out a few good down pours. It was a cold night too (I think it got down to freezing...or close to it). Kohen was very dirty and proud of himself when he got home the next day. He can't wait for his next camping trip.

The bottom picture is of the tent set up on the camry. It created quite a flurry

of interest as you can imagine.

Especially when everyone else was

ringing out their soggy tents and Braden just

cranked his down and drove away.

Is it May already!!?!

Actually that is a very good thing! The snow is gone, the leaves are popping out, and our grass is starting to turn green! I think we have officially become the 'weird' family of the circle, what with our rooftop tents and our robot lawn mower...and a dog that most of the neighborhood kids are convinced is a sheep.
As a side note about the rooftop tents (I became aware recently that most of our family/friends had no idea what we were doing with them), Braden sells them in Alaska. They are a very cool alternative to tent camping or RV camping. The picture shows them popped up but they fold down flat for driving. They are super comfortable and I am even going camping over the memorial day weekend...33 weeks pregnant (I can't remember exactly). Crazy? Probably in the long run. The only questionable part will be whether or not I can navigate the ladder to get up on top of the Sequoia. Should make for some fun pictures. Stay tuned!

Braden's new boot

Somehow I don't have any pictures of Braden actually wearing his new boot. But he loves it and is able to walk around in it much better than the 'darth vader' boot.

Kohen and his new toy sink

A happy boy playing in water and making a mess. He had a great time!

March update

I just realized that I haven't posted in almost a month! Shame on me!
Braden is now off crutches (hurray!) and wearing his new bionic-superman-boot (I will post a picture of that later). He is weight bearing on that foot and walks with a cane. Not just any cane. A fancy dancy REI cane (the old man cane I offered to buy him from the pharmacy just wasn't going to fit his personality). At least this cane is height adjustable and will double as a hiking pole for later. Right now its second use it to turn the lights out at night when no one wants to get out of bed to reach the switch. What would I do without it. I think it might also be useful for beating down intruders in the middle of the night...but we haven't tested that out yet. Braden also started physical therapy this week and is making excellent progress! We are expecting him to be in his boot for another month.
Mt. Redoubt continues to spew ash all over Alaska. We have only seen small dustings here but it is wreaking havoc on the airlines trying to fly into and out of Alaska. Last time this volcano went off it blew periodically for 6 months. Oh joy. Maybe I will have a very fertile garden this year.

Bear's Lucky Day

To preface this, I will just say for those of you who don't know...Bear LOVES cheerios. And Bear doesn't get cheerios all that often.
So, I was busy in the kitchen and didn't know the pantry door was open and Kohen had pilfered the cheerio bag (mostly empty, thank goodness). By the time I arrived on the scene the cheerios were everywhere, Kohen was tossing them into the air and Bear was in a feeding frenzy. They both had a wonderful time and I just went back into the kitchen...wow, five extra minutes where they were both entertained and happy. Lucky me :-)

For those who wonder why there are no pictures of me...

So, I figured I would have to rename our blog to Adventures of the Galloway boys if I didn't start attempting to put in some pictures of me. But as is the typical problem for most of us...we are the ones taking all the pictures. I told Braden I needed some pictures of me. So he obligingly started grabbing the camera at less than ideal moments...so we have some rather unusual shots of me, I think. The above picture was taken this morning during my first 'how to use the snow blower' lesson. I may look happy, but it didn't last. I ended up breaking the handle screw peg off and probably running over it. Don't worry, it just topped off my morning of breaking the printer (trying to print my sunbeam handout), Kohen emptying a bottle of garlic/tomato/basil spice on the floor only to have me discover I had inadvertently clogged the vacuum to the point of uselessness the LAST time i had cleaned up his mess (and from the looks of the vacuum internals...that mess was the time Kohen emptied the paper shredder in my room). If only the picture below was of the nap I needed today. Alas, it was yesterdays nap, and thank you Braden for catching us sleeping with Kohen's finger up my nose...or at least close to it. We were both pretty tuckered out.
So anyways, for those who wondered where I was in my blog. Now you know. I'm hiding from the camera from here on out. Besides when you are putting on a pound a week (and that is being conservative), you don't exactly look for photo ops. Expect great pictures...oh around next September :0)

The Boys and their Boots

Braden now has a wonderful 'darth vader' boot to keep his foot stabilized. It will morph into a walking boot by April but for now...crutches only! Kohen, who previously despised his boots, now requests that he wear them and loves to talk about 'daddy's boot'. Ha! To prove my point, Kohen just walked up to me carrying his boot and requested I put it on. Just one boot. It's cool to be like daddy. :-)

IT'S A GIRL!!!

After showing so much restraint by NOT buying all the cute baby girl clothes I've been seeing...just in case...it is official. The next Galloway baby is a girl! And a wiggly girl too...she wiggled and waggled all over during the ultrasound... and waved at us a bit too. Kohen was at the ultrasound to meet his new little sister. At this point though, the tape dispenser in the room was way more interesting than goofy 2D images of a sibling. We are super excited! :-)

Braden's Recovery Begins

Braden has been in recovery mode for the last week. As you can see...he is taking it easy. As long as he keeps his leg elevated (on a bag of peas) and keeps his bottle of percocet close by, things go pretty smooth.