Day 163: Father's Day Adventures

 Today is Father's Day and it's a gorgeous day to celebrate this guy!

The weather suddenly, miraculously, changed. The high today was 72. 72!! It was mania. The entire island suddenly erupted, having the intense need to execute their summer to-do list within the next 48 hours, before winter arrived again. Should I mow my lawn, or grill, or hike a mountain? Wait, fishing season is open! My list is so long! 

Obviously, we had to have some sort of adventure today. It's a double whammy, a sunny day and Father's Day. So what to do?

Brad loves being on the water, so we decided to pull out our kayaks for their first use of the summer and explore a new lake: Buskin Lake! This is a bigger lake, but not far at all from the house. In fact, this is the same lake we walked on when it froze over just a few months ago, nestled happily in between Barometer and Pyramid Mountains. 

It was drop. Dead. Gorgeous out. A warm breeze, vibrant sunshine, and more pollen than you've ever seen in your life, as all 300 billion trees that have waited all spring to pollenate all decided to today. Six months worth of pollen floating through the air like a yellow biochemical grenade. 

But it actually didn't bother me, so I'm not actually complaining. 

Bumper boats

We sailed (sailed? Paddled?) across the length of the lake and beached ourselves on a nice gravelly beach on the far shore, near the inlet where the river pours into the lake. Completely quiet and secluded, with a beautiful grove of alder trees and a flat beach to rest on, it was the perfect place to hang out and have lunch. 

Don't let him fool you. It was terrifyingly cold and he's crazy. 

It was the perfect way to spend the day! After we got home we flipped on the Mariners baseball game and grilled some ribs outside (summer to do list: check), and then I did a quick run up Old Woman to get a good workout in (very humid, so hot, 0-5 stars in the hot sun). Once I got back we did our daily Space adventure calendar, and that was it! What a perfect day!

Day 162: A Glorified Taxi Driver

  Today was the final day of Little League, officially. Even though games were over, the official end of season bbq was this afternoon. We've never bothered to go one before, but the weather was perfect, it's Calen's last youth baseball year, and he had a planned hangout date with his buddy and teammate Hunter, so how could we resist?

We got to the ballpark, and Calen immediately found his buddy, which resulted in super elated bro-hugs like they haven't seen each other for 3 years or something. 

Bros

And then they were gone in a flash. I spotted them here and there, in line for food, playing basketball and then 2 HOURS of wiffle ball with half their team and a bunch of other baseball kids, while I sat on the grassy knoll and ate a cheeseburger and basically waited for Calen to be ready to leave. 

I mean, he's 14, he doesn't need his mother to follow him around. In fact he'd probably be elated if I was completely undetected by his friends. 

Just kidding. He's a good sport and doesn't mind me being around. But I know what it's like. I was fourteen once too. 

It's happened, I thought to myself as I sat on the hill by myself. I am just a glorified taxi driver for this event. The on-call Uber. 

I am not necessarily disappointed or shocked about such things, but it was an interesting revelation. 

End note: Also it meant I got first dibs on his team photo. Man, what a great team. Even after we got back and watched the Mariners game on TV, when at one point there was 2 balls, 2 strikes and 2 outs, Brad and I shouted "Two-Two-Two!!!!" and tapped the bill of our ballcaps with two fingers over and over and over until the pitcher wound up. I don't know what it means, but it was a superstitious thing that Calen's team would call out on a 2-2 count with 2 outs, tapping the bill of their hats with two fingers until the wind up. And every. Single. Player did it.

Sox. Slabs. Cookie. Sibs. Jackhammer. Can he do it? Yes he Canada. 

The best kids ever. The best coaches ever. And I'm so thankful that this is how Little League ended for us. 

Day 161: Ever Have That Feeling You're Being Watched

We had movie night tonight, since I worked the better part of the day. The movie: newly released Avatar 2: The Way of the Water. It was a smash hit with the family. 

Rebel, on the other hand, was intensely offended that we weren't paying him any attention, or feeding him popcorn. So he got as close as possible without actually touching Calen. 

Ever have that feeling you're being watched?

Day 160: Life Lessons About Weed Eaters

 Life lessons are tough when you're 14. 

Like how impossibly frustrating it is to try and start a weedwhacker. 

Sorry Calen. It builds character, and all that. 

Day 159: The End of the Era

 Tonight was a do or die playoff game for Brechan. Winner goes to the championship, loser ends their season. It was freezing, pouring rain, and downright miserable conditions. But Calen's team fought on. 

After being behind by 5, Brechan pushes back, creeping up run by run and finally tying it up in the 5th inning. Calen started and remained at 2nd base the entire game, snagging the lead runner out twice. 

Rally caps, baby. 

The tie lasted into extra innings, but ultimately Brechan fell in the 8th inning, and their season is over. 

And the worst part? This officially ends Little League Baseball for Calen. After ten years of spring little league, the drives to practice, the late night dinners, batting practice, pitching practice, spring ball and fall ball, it's no longer waiting for him. High school ball is a prospect, but it's tryout based and not guaranteed, and regardless it's a different beast than youth rec sports. 

How did we go from this:

To this??

And from this:

To this!

My feelings on this subject are very emotional and raw. I waited my entire adult life to be a baseball mom, and cherished every. single. moment. To say that I'm devastated that it's over is an understatement. But I'm very hopeful and excited to see what might happen in the high school baseball years bring. 

Day 158: Adventure Is Out There: Pillar Mountain

 The sun came out and showed it's absolute glory today, for the first time since, September?

We wasted NO time to get outside. Brad had to work, but the boys and I had a quick breakfast and then packed up our bags and headed down to the road to hike up a foothill that is quite the symbol for our island: Pillar Mountain. 

Also known as: "The one with the windmills."

This hike is very Old-Womanish. Fairly steep going up, gravel trail, and humid brush on either side until you hit the treeline (about 30 minutes of hiking). The difference though is that there is an almost continuous view heading up, and, due to the onslaught of the endless rain this spring, a stream basically running down the trail the entire way up, which makes for fun little mini-waterfalls and peaceful sounds to add to the views.

The funniest thing about this hike is that about 2/3rds of the way up is a car. A car, sitting on the side of the trail, on a ridge, like it was about to go Dukes of Hazard off the side of the mountain. I'd really, really like to know the story behind this old car. 

Of course, my car geek Calen was delighted beyond measure that there was a car on the mountain. 

And suddenly, a car. 

Calen of course had to give it a full inspection. 

Once you hit the tree line you're basically at the top plateau of the mountain, which is where the windmills sit perched over the city of Kodiak. This is where I like to switchback and hike away from the windmills, just a bit, maybe 100 yards and possibly 200 feet higher than the plateau to the true summit. This gives an epic 360 degree view, plus a really neat overlook of the windmills. 

The boys, often blaise about hiking, were really delighted about this hike and the summit. Calen has a lot of arms out whoops and hollers on the summit, and they were both excited to see the sea planes come in at eye level to us. 

Looking towards the USCG base and our house

Heading down to the Windmills

We decided only to hike to the first windmill instead of reaching all 5, just because we plan on going up here again this summer and we can save it for that. 

The best part of this hike was the conversation. Normally the boys like to talk about video games the whole time (not terrible, but kind of irritating after a while). But this time, we talked about things that happened in books, "what ifs", old classmates that drove us crazy, favorite breakfasts, and what we should pack at Disney World. These are the conversations I love and cherish.

What a perfect day. 

The cutest little "Woolybear" catepillar!

Day 157: Trailblazing

 It didn't rain today!

And by that I mean it was still chilly and very cloudy (and yes, it's almost mid-June), but it didn't rain. And you know what that means? It means we are doing something outside, immediately!

Our very good friends are moving in a couple weeks, and this was the perfect opportunity to get out and hang with them. So we met up at the parking lot to our favorite beach (Boy Scout Beach), but instead of going to the beach, we diverted and headed up Boy Scout Trail, a new trail for us, which is deeply wooded that is absolutely gorgeous. 

This trail is super cool because there is a LOT of abandoned buildings, telephone poles and wiring from World War II. I almost could count this is a history field trip if I really wanted to. 

After about 3 miles the trail spits us out at the beach, right at the mouth where the Buskin River meets the Bay. 

Proof that we made it! Calen, Destan, Lily, Caden and Camden 

We did an about face and hiked back down the trail and then continued on to our favorite beach, just in time for low tide, C-130 flyovers and some epic tidepooling. 

We all REALLY needed this day outside!

Day 156: How To Make Leftovers Fancy

 Sunday, June 11th 2023

It's Sunday and that means family game night!

It's also June and that means moveout cleans are taking over my liiiiiife. I was gone for most of the day working, but made sure to finish in time to come home and enjoy family game night. 

But, I had absolutely no intentions of cooking. We had leftovers in the fridge, and I'm tired! So since I've left this expectation with my family of making these fun Sunday game night dinner/snack boards, how do you do this with leftovers? 

You dump it all into the snack board and fake it till you make it, that's what you do.

 
I mean, it works, right? 

Tonight's family game was Arctic Scavengers, one of Calen's favorites, a card/deck building game that involves digging for resources and hiring members of your survival tribe. 

I cherish these game nights!