Our life isn't all about FIRE!

I know it's hard to believe, but our life isn't all about fighting fires (but it's pretty darn close!) Here's a glimpse of the other life we lead.

Meeting new friends at the beach.

Picnic Lunches.

Blowing bubbles at the glacier.

Feeding the ducks at Duck Pond.

Visiting Daddy at work.



Jaeger's new favorite pastime - playing in the Ward Air Van!


Waiting for swim lessons to begin. (This picture cracks me up - doesn't he look so serious?)


Strolling with friends.

Snacking with friends.


Looking for Daddy. The Airport Trail is a goldmine for this plane loving boy. He absolutely LOVES seeing all of those planes take off and land & during the summer it's one after the other. :)

Jackpot - Yep, that's Daddy flying that plane. Pretty cool!

Really?

Because we weren't obnoxious enough coming to the fire station once a week (sometimes 2 for the airport fire truck maintenance checks on Thursdays) we thought we'd step it up a notch and actually bring lawn chairs!


Yep, we're officially OBNOXIOUS!

Underwear Helmets!

Ready, Set....


GO!!!!

It's the simple things in life that bring you the most joy!

It just keeps getting better!

As most of you know, Monday mornings are our fire station day (See here if you need a reminder.) We are official groupies and it can be somewhat embarrassing as we pull up once again to watch their weekly maintenance checks. Yet, somehow each week gets better and the amazing firefighters never seem to tire of seeing us (at least they're not showing it!)

Last week, Firefighter Cameron gave Firefighter Nigel the royal treatment!

He started by letting Dane pull out the aerial truck. If you look closely you can seeing Dane bending over to turn on the lights & siren.


Then he took him over to the pumper truck and let him turn on the hose to drain the excess water in the truck. It was pretty amazing.

Here's a video of what Dane did!



As we were leaving, Firefighter Cameron gave both the boys an OFFICIAL Juneau Fire/Rescue Badge. And we thought the stickers were cool.


To top off our extraordinary Monday we went to story time at the downtown library and MJ (the amazing story teller) had a book picked out especially for Dane. It was one that he's very familiar with and he loved the special reading at story time. Here's a picture I happened to take of him a few weeks ago with the very book MJ read.

A new park!

We took a drive to Douglas yesterday and wound up stumbling upon this great new park (well, new for us!)

It was the perfect place to play fire fighter (the little picnic table under the slides became our fire house), give horsey rides, and having running races (I came in last every time!) And Dane loved the robe climbing structure (I did too!)

Makes me wonder what other little gems are we missing out there.

Happy Birthday Auntie Kissy!

Happy Birthday to my amazing sister Kristen! I'm blessed to be able to call her not only my sister but my friend as well.

We've grown so much closer in recent years and I cherish the times we've had together and hold those memories close to my heart. Some of my favorite times have been just the simple times - hanging out on the bed until the wee hours of the night talking and giggling. She always lifts me up in my times of need.

I admire her so much.
She's strong, independent, caring, a damn good poker player, giving and always game for anything. She has a sharp sense of humor and is extremely intelligent to boot. Her laugh is contagious. Spend just a few minutes with KP and you're having the time of your life.

May your birthday bring you as much joy as you've brought to my life.

I love you Kissy Poo!

Preschool Birthday Celebration

Dane got to celebrate his summer birthday a bit early this year. His preschool makes sure to recognize those summer birthdays in the month of May. I love this idea, but I just wish I had known a few weeks in advance. I had this great sugar cookie recipe and I knew that's what I would want to make for his class. I pulled out all of our cookie cutters and asked Dane which shape he would like. I knew I was doomed the minute the cookie cutters came out of the bag. He barely even sifted through the helicopter, train, cars, and multitude of tools before exclaiming, "Fire Truck!" Of course Firefighter Nigel would want to make a fire truck cookie and of course Firefighter Beth (my new Firefighter name) would not have a fire truck cutter. :(

So I immediately got online to see if I could find one. Strike 1. (not enough time to get it to Alaska) I then asked a few friends that I knew loved to bake. Strike 2. I even posted a help note in our Juneau Parent Group and Freecycle (you'd be surprised at the things I've asked for that I've received!) Strike 3.

What's a Mommy to do? Try and make her own, of course!

I started doing a little research on line and came across several do-it-yourself ideas. See here and here. It looked pretty daunting, but I thought I'd give it a try. On the way to the hardware store for some aluminum flashing, I thought I'd go to Gourmet Alaska to see on the off chance they might have a fire truck cookie cutter. Of course, they didn't, but they did have a cookie cutter refill kit. Bingo!!! This was much easier than using aluminum flashing or aluminum oven liners. I still had to shape my own firetruck but the refill came with the perfect sized aluminum and tape needed to get the job done. It wasn't all that easy to form the fire truck from the picture I printed off the internet.


But after several tries, I came up with something passable. I put it on the counter the next morning so that Dane could see my handiwork. I asked him what he thought it was and his first response was "don't know." Great!!! I told him to look again and he said, "it's a fire truck!" Phew!

Here's Dane making the cookies.




Frosting these cookies was a whole other debacle. I made a million mistakes, but I think I may have actually learned from them for the next time I decide to decorate cookies. :)

And here's the final product.


And this is the reason I went to all that trouble.