Sunday, October 18, 2009

Home Sweet Home

Sarah’s Thoughts: We’re back! We had a wonderful trip, visiting family in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Georgia. Owen logged hundreds of relatively peaceful miles in his carseat, thanks to snacks, stories and portable DVD players. We spent almost a week with my sister in Minnesota, visiting with my Godparents, my college roommate and her husband, and some friends who use to live in Juneau. Then we drove to North Dakota to surprise my Grandma for her birthday- lots of singing, games, and food. After returning to Minnesota, we flew to Atlanta, Georgia to visit Luke’s family for a week. We spent time in the hammock, went to the zoo and Luke perfected his cast netting skills, catching shad off his parent’s dock.


After 2 1/2 weeks on the road, we returned home to find that autumn had come while we were away! Our tiny maple tree is dressed in a beautiful coat of yellow and snow is creeping its way down the mountains. On our last day in Georgia, Luke and I were taking a sunny walk in our sandals and shorts and I said, “Honey, we need to remember this moment, because its going to be a long time before we get to do this again.” Despite the cooler weather, Dorothy had it right; There’s no place like home.


Low- Atlanta airport, just moments before we needed to board our flight to Seattle, when I realized I’d lost Owen’s diaper bag...


High- The beautiful airport custodian who found the diaper bag about 30 minutes prior to my realization that I’d lost it, and just happened to ask us if it was ours... Thank you, God!


Luke Update: Its fall, so that means that once again, Luke is Mr. Mom-ing it while dreaming of hunting. After a summer of guiding fishermen and 2 weeks with an egotistical, high-strung would-be moose hunter, I think Luke is ready for some time off of work. He and Owen are settling into a rhythm: walking dolly, going to Costco, and they even checked out “Toddler Time” at a near-by gym. I think the fact that Owen is a little more independent and can verbally express himself makes the father/son time more enjoyable for all involved. Once Saturday rolls around, however, Luke quickly switches into “weekend warrior” mode. This weekend, he met up with his deer-crazed buddy, John for an alpine hunt on Admiralty Island. The report was cold and wet conditions and no deer sightings.


Owen Update: I know I’m a first-time mom and I think everything my kid does is incredible, but while we were traveling, I got some validation that the amount of words coming out of Owen’s mouth are impressive indeed. When we were on our never-ending flight from Atlanta to Seattle, Owen quickly realized that when people had to go to the bathroom, they got to get out of their seats. He kept saying, “Poopy, mommy. Go potty! Change pants right now!” ...and he wasn’t even poopy, sneaky kid! I came home from work one day this week to “Mommy! Mommy wooking. Tome in. Tome inside Owen’s house. Take off tote, mommy. Tome in house.” All I could think about was that Owen seemed so much bigger then when I’d left that morning, and he was so stinking cute. Probably the cutest little person in the world.


O.K. Time to get caught up on all the pictures you've missed out on the past 3 weeks....



Self portrait.
Alaska Penninsula in the background.

Caribou racks

Visiting our friends the Vidmars, formerly of Juneau

Megan and the pumpkins

Man! Pumpkins are heavy!

First ever pony ride.
I think its safe to say he liked it!

mom and dad with little miss birthday

Mr. Nonsense

My handsome husband

Party Animals!
The entire Kolden crew!

Swimming with Uncle Tristian and T-Rex

Birthday princess

Driving the boat with Grandpa

Gotta love shad fishing at twilight

Owen and the Komodo Dragon

the petting zoo

Future pilot.
He threw the biggest fit when I broke the news to him
that he couldn't ride in the jump seat.

Almost home!

1 comment:

Rachel said...

What a great post, Sarah. Glad you guys are home safe a sound.
The t-shirts look fantastic! Wow, that's a lot of work. So glad they turned out well. The colors look so great.
And does it get any better down south in the fall at a pumpkin patch? I really wish we just has one big farm in Juneau that grew pumpkins. Just one farm please! I really miss the pumpkin patch adventure. I don't know if we'll ever go down in the fall though because now we're in a school routine that won't quite for the next two decades!