Day 145: Take Your Kid To Work Day

 I had a moveout clean today. Actually I've had them for several days in a row, because 'Tis the season. 

This week I'm cleaning the Captain's house, which is the biggest house on base, and it's a doozy to clean, let me tell you. Not because of lack of cleanliness, but because of the sheer size of it. 

I mean, it's huge. 

Today was actually sunny (ish, as in half a day's worth before it started raining), so I texted the kids and told them to ride their bikes to base to do Calen's paper route run while I'm cleaning the house, and come and visit me, please. 

I like it when they visit me 

In true Camden form, he stopped to pick some dandelions to deliver them to me. 

I can always count on Camden to bring me flowers. 

That just made my day. 

Day 144: Tied 7-7 In the 7th Inning

 What an exciting baseball game today. 

After being down 7-1, Calen's team bounced back and scored six unanswered runs, tying the game up in the sixth (usually last) inning. Calen, in this inning, hit an RBI single and then ended up scoring the tying run!

A neat moment between Calen and the opposing catcher, who happens to be Camden's hockey teammate

About to smash it

Going into the 7th inning (considered extra innings), we were tied 7-7. 

7-7 in the 7th. 

That scoreboard though. Also it's raining (Calen at 2nd base behind the pitcher)

Defensively the team did great. Calen snagged a hopper that went over the pitcher's head and made a decisive out at first. Then a walk. A stolen base. And a base hit that scored the runner, putting them ahead 8-7. 

Going into the bottom half of the inning, Calen's team was up to bat and it was the heart of the order. The first batter got on base no problem. But the next one struck out. And the next one managed to put it in play, but got out at first, leaving the runner at 3rd with 2 outs. And who is up to bat but our beloved Sox. 

Remember to breathe. 

Sox, never the most powerful of hitters but lately having quite the hot bat, had a chance to tie it up or even win it with a hard enough hit. And the pitcher? A fellow 14 year old lefty with a lot of speed and spin on his fastball. 

Talk about pressure. 

First pitch - Calen whips the bat around and fouls it off. He's hungry. 

Second pitch - swinging strike. 0-2 count now. Pretty sure I stopped breathing. 

Third pitch - foul ball again. He's on it. Talk about a battle!

Fourth pitch - ball. 1-2 count. 

Fifth pitch - Calen absolutely SMOKED the ball to shortstop. But he hit it too hard, and it got to the shortstop too soon, who launched it to third for the third out. The runner at third that crossed home plate doesn't count. 

Game over. They lost. 

It's brutal. I mean SOMEONE has to be the third out, and it wasn't a strikeout, he smashed the ball and put it in play on a scoring chance. Honestly I couldn't be more proud. 

The calm before the battle. 

Day 143: The Grande Finale

 This is it! This is the final day of our celebrated Crabfest! 

Normally you'd go "awwww" but secretly I'm kind of going "yay!" because between me working it, Brad working it and the kids working it, I think we are all done, done done. 

Although when talking to the kids about it, they were totally bummed, because that means no more Soda Jerk or dough buoys after today for a whole year!

The audacity. 

We started the morning with a double shift. I worked cleaning up the Bruin Burger booth (which we thankfully sold out last night, so it took no time at all) while the boys walked the festival and did their janitor duties. 

 
Seeing as we started before the food trucks really opened, their workload was super easy. 

As a grand finale, we naturally ended their shift at Soda Jerk for one last delicious Denali milkshake (and a mixed berry for me). 

And that's it folks! Until next year Crabfest!

Day 142: Traversing the Old Woman

 We all needed a break today. 

It's been a lot of volunteer hours and hard work, and the sun was almost shining. Our really good friends called and asked if we wanted to go out on a family hike. 

Heck yes! We are overdue for an adventure!

We've all done Old Woman a bunch. I've probably done Old Woman exactly fifty thousand times, since the trailhead is literally right behind our back door and I use it as a weekly (or monthly, if I'm honest) workout when the sun is shining. BUT, they had a very clever idea. 

What if we traversed Old Woman?!

Starting at the trailhead behind my house, we would hike up to the summit like we've always done. But then, we keep going to the high lake, which we've also done many times, and then continue down the other side of the mountain, which pops out past the Fairgrounds at Salonie Creek. 

This is a fantastic new adventure. It was just under six miles and took a little over three hours and honestly I loved it! It was extremely refreshing to go on a new trail, and the boys appreciated being able to hike with their friends.

Photo dump!

Day 141: The Rainy Day Parade

 I mean, of course it would rain today. 

How could it not rain, it's rained every day for the last three months. Even yesterday, which was almost sunny, it still rained. 

Also, it's not just rain. It's freezing cold rain. 

I mean we might as well put our Christmas tree up. 

But that doesn't stop our proud tough Kodiak peeps. The Crabfest parade was on and we were going to participate, darn it!

Both boys walked the parade. Calen marched with his Little League baseball team and tossed candy. Camden rolled (literally, on roller blades) with the Kodiak Hockey league. It poured the whole time and I hid in the back of the Yukon with my trunk door popped open to watch away from the rain. 

Really, it was a lot of fun regardless. 

Mid parade! Cam with the blue and white hat and the white "C" on his jersey

Day 140: Crabfest Day 2

 It's Day 2 of Crabfest! Today was much more work than play, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't sneak some fun into it. 

We started the day off dawning our (well, their) Boy Scout uniforms and were put to work flipping and readying trash cans, sweeping up bits of trash, wiping down tables, that sort of thing. It's a LONG, four hour shift, but they had good attitudes and received many compliments of keeping the festival so clean. 

Meanwhile, while the boys worked the streets of Crabfest, I holed myself up for a six hour work shift at Bruin Burgers truck. 

Also, I bought a new hat at Crabfest

After "work", we bought some Bruin Burgers (I mean, of course) for dinner and headed directly to Calen's baseball game. 

Trading in one uniform for another.

Calen and I first enjoyed a moment together sitting in the trunk eating Bruin Burgers together

He had a spectacular game with a two RBI double, and is finally gaining a lot of confidence at the plate. 

A great ending to a busy day. 

My favorite thing is that at Fourteen he is still running up to the back of the car after every inning asking me "did you see how I SMOKED that ball?" "Did you see that out?". Yes, my darling son. I am always watching. And I'm glad you still want me to watch. 

Day 139: Crabfest Day 1

 It's the biggest weekend of the year for our little island in the middle of the Aleutians. 

It's Crabfest!

Basically I would describe Crabfest as a Farmer's Market with food trucks. But hey that's big news to get it all together for a five day festival around here, and a lot of the tents and food trucks came from the mainland, and us variety-deprived Kodiakans that are sick and tired of Subway and McDonald's are completely elated of all the options available to us in one convenient parking lot!

The boys, Brad and myself have to work a LOT of Crabfest this weekend, so the time to spend actually enjoying it is few and far between. Brad is working the Chiefs Petty Officer Association turkey leg truck, the boys are doing Boy Scout janitor services throughout the festival grounds, and I'm working the KHL Bruin Burger truck. 

But today? Today we are going to enjoy it. 

Our first stop was to get us a Dough Bouy. Basically everywhere else in the Lower 48 would call this an Elephant Ear, a big giant flat piece of dough deep fried and covered in powdered sugar and cinnamon. A healthy lunch, obviously. 

Our next stop on our Crabfest food tour is our favorite booth in all of Crabfest. 

Soda. Jerk. 

The best milkshakes in the history of ever ANYWHERE. 

With our signature favorites. The boys had Denali's (PB and chocolate), I had mixed berry

Literally, I could eat that every day of my life and be 391 pounds. 

I also like to get a piece of local art every year, and this one was extra amazing. A local artist collected sea glass at our favorite treasure hunting beach and using some colorful wire and sea glass balls, made these AMAZING trees. 

And I just HAD to have one. I mean look at the colors!

It's really a good thing that Crabfest isn't all year long, because I wouldn't have the money to sustain this. 

Day 138: Fly By

 Wednesday, May 24th

I had to work for half the day today cleaning a house. 

As it's the busy season with everyone moving out, this is a regular thing lately. 

Luckily, with most of school being done, the boys are fine at home in the morning just doing their final warmup books and math. 

I also had a meeting today with the Homeschool liason, meeting up at my favorite remaining coffee house on island (Fly By, the winner will always be Monks Rock, rip), enjoying a white chocolate mocha and watching the sea planes land on the pond outside the window while turning in my grades and talking about how awesome my kids are. 

That's a win, I'd say. 

And yes, I gave them all A's. 

Day 137: Four Seasons

 Tuesday, May 23rd 

We are wrapping up the 22/23 school year around here. Not quite done, but getting there. 

We finished Botany unit study today, and instead of a massive final project like our Medieval Faire, I decided we would just do a good old art project. 

Pinterest for the win. 

Since Kodiak doesn't believe in seasons this year, we decided to make our own seasons on paper. 

On canvas, we painted four panels in water colored/acrylic. Then they painted a single tree in acrylic over all four panels, and acrylic pointillism in each panel to represent Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. 

I'm REALLY happy with how these turned out. They just might end up on the wall permanently. 

Camden's

Calen's

Day 136: Court of Honor

 Monday, May 22nd

For the first time in a year and a half, the Boy Scouts finally had a Court of Honor tonight!

What is a Court of Honor?

Simply put, it's an assembly of sorts with the Scouts and their parents, where they recognize all the achievements that the Scouts accomplished since the last assembly. 

And it's been a long time, so there was a lot to catch up on. 

Calen was awarded Star Scout (two away from Eagle) and seven merit badges. He's also being moved to Bear Patrol, which is the Senior Scout patrol (the older kids, and leaders of the troop). 

The merit badges he received BEFORE today

Camden was awarded Scout rank and three merit badges (Weather, Oceanography and Canoeing). 

This troop is so small (ten scouts), but it's carrying on and I'm so proud of them!

Four of the ten Kodiak Scouts

Day 135: Cam's Day Out

 Camden has a great little group of friends here. 

It comprises of about half of his State hockey team. Himself, and four little best buddies.

Us moms have a group chat to get them together often. 

It was yet again another gross rainy day. One of the moms sent out a rally on the group chat to get the boys together to go see the Super Mario movie in the theaters and then the bowling alley on base for a few rounds and dinner. 

I had a house to clean, so she picked him up and the five of them had a great little day out together. 

I'm so thankful for his friends AND their moms!

The only photo I got before he was picked up

Day 134: Balls In Coming Down

Saturday, May 20th

Oh guess what?? It was raining today. Cold, rainy and windy. 

Surprise, surprise surprise. 

That didn't stop Calen's team from playing their baseball game though, regardless of how many balls the pitcher requested to swap with the umpire for a dry one, and the umpire constantly asking the coach to place the soaking wet ones in the dugout near the Buddy Heater. 

Calen was the catcher today, despite new (and wild) pitchers, cold muscles and a wet baseball, and he struggled despite himself. 

But it's sure amazing to watch him play. 

 

Day 133: Use The Force

 May has been a long month. 

It's hard to believe that May the Fourth was actually this month. It's rained so much that really all the days have run together like some endless grey gloomy marathon. 

But, our goal this month was to watch ALL the Skywager Saga Star Wars movies, starting with Episode 1 on May 1st and going all the way through Episode 9 (and side stories Solo and Rogue One AND series Obi Wan and Andor) before the end of May. 

The rain is good for one thing. We are watching a lot of movies. 

Today was Episode 7: The Force Awakens. 

And honestly, that was the extent of the day. 

The rain is getting to us all. 

Day 132: The Simple Joys

 Thursday, May 18th. 

Calen is easy to please. 

I mean, from the time he was born, he was easy to please. As a baby, I could plop him on a blanket on the floor and surround him with a few toys, and he'd sit there for literal hours, never crying, never fussing, just happy and content. 

He's still this way. He's never "bored", he always finds something to amuse himself, and takes pleasure in the simplest joys in life. 

Literally the easiest kid on the planet. 

While he was at baseball practice today, I ran to Walmart to grab a couple things. His current obsession is Fast and the Furious (which feeds into his lifelong obsession of cars), and sure enough the first thing I see on a rack in the Men's department is this $8 Fast and the Furious shirt. 

Welp. 

Of course I purchased it and tossed it on the passenger seat for Calen. 

After practice, Calen hops into the car and SQUEALS for joy over the shirt. He's SO happy in fact, that he promptly hangs it on the car handle and stares at it in glee for the entire ten minute drive home. 

All that elation over a t-shirt. 

It's the simple joys with him. 

Day 131: Exhaustion

 I cleaned a moveout house today. 

From the moment I woke up and drained a cup of coffee, until 8:30pm. 

I. Am. Exhausted. 

So this is all you get today. Me, completely done done and DONE, having much needed relaxation time. 

Day 130: You Mean To Tell Me The Sky Is Blue??

 For the first time in like, a month, the sun came out. 

And all around the little island of Kodiak, people came out of their dwellings, bewildered and confused, at the brilliant orb emitting warmth, and the strange tint of the air. 

You mean to tell me the sky is actually blue?!

I was supposed to work on a house today, and I did, but I cut out early because the sun is shining for crying out loud. 

So I dawned my hiking boots and dusted off my sunglasses and stomped up my backyard mountain, Old Woman. 

And man, was it nice to get some Vitamin D for once. 

My neighborhood from above