Montana Family Reunion!

First Food! Watermelon!

Sleeping in the pool at Fairmont

The Jacobsons! 27 of us camped at Georgetown Lake... everyone was there!

Anna and Fiona getting to know each other

Georgetown Lake

What an incredible trip! All of the Jacobson's met at Georgetown Lake campground for our family reunion. It was so much fun to see everyone and to have all of us together. We ate tons of good food, fished, searched for saphires, and walked in the woods. It was just like the old days!  I hope that we don't have to wait so long to see each other again.  Fiona was a great camper and loved falling asleep by the campfire each night. The nights were cold but we bundled her up and cuddled up together in our tent. I can't wait to get her out camping again. We spent one day at Fairmont Hotsprings where Fiona got in the pool for the first time. She loved it and actually fell asleep in Brian's arms in the water. A water baby for sure. Now if only the Kodiak pool was heated to 92 degrees!

Brian flew home on Monday but Fiona and I get two weeks on the farm with Granny and Popop and the "farm cousins".  I'm really enjoying having free time in the summer (a luxury I haven't had in years) and relaxing on Whidbey. Fiona loves all of the attention from her cousins. Aunt Molly and Uncle Dave are running a produce stand with such fresh things it would make our Alaskan friends cry! Fiona couldn't resist having a slice of watermelon along with the big cousins. This was her first food and she LOVED it! So fun! Uncle Dave is picking up peaches this week... she can't wait to give that a go!

Peace Butt

We are so excited! In a few days we are hopping on a plane and heading down south. It's time for the much anticipated Jacobson family reunion camping trip! We've been thinking about this for over a year. We're reliving the old "trip to Montana" that we used to do every year. We'll stop for milkshakes at the same spot, camp in the same campground, fish at the same lake. Only this time we will be a much bigger crew! Ma's reserved 6 campsites to hold the 27 of us that will be there! It's going to be great! I can't wait for Fiona to meet her family.  Aunties, Uncles, Grandparents and tons (13!) of cousins to love her up!  Woo Hoo! Let the fun begin!

A late Happy Fathers Day!

early mornin' wake up

We celebrated Fathers Day today since Brian was still on the boat last weekend. It has been a wonderful day. We headed out to Java Flats for a wonderful breakfast and the best latte in town. Fiona chewed on Papa's finger while we ate our breakfast burritos. Then we walked down to one of our favorite beaches, beach glass beach. This is the same beach where we collected all of the beach glass to decorate the tables for our wedding 4  years ago.  Brian threw sticks for the dogs while I nursed Fiona on the beach. It is one of those beautiful Alaska days. Blue sky, sparkly water, sun shining. Sitting on the beach I kept thinking how lucky I am to have this incredible family and to live in this incredible place. We are truly blessed.

Happy Solstice!

A tired girl

New Jammies

Are these really for me?!

lovin' the stripes

Happy Solstice!  Today is the longest day of the year. From sunup to sunset Kodiak will get 18 hours and 7 minutes of daylight today. With dawn and dusk we're looking at more like 20 hours of daylight! I've always loved that about Alaska.  We've often celebrated with all night bon fires and parties which isn't in the cards this year for obvious reasons (see pictures of little person above!).  She and I have had our own celebration today though.

We started our day by discovering the Solstice Fairy had been here! I read an article a while back about a little girl that loved fairies. The Solstice Fairy brought her new pj's at each solstice! (summer and winter) I thought, wow, I hope she comes to our house. We are all familiar with the usual fairies. The tooth fairy leaves us money under our pillow, the sleep fairy leaves us treats in our shoes when we take naps, but the solstice fairy brings us pj's! I'm so glad she found us! Fiona is modeling her new jammies in the pictures above and they look pretty darn cute.

This baby has decided that she had a nice nap from 8-9:30 instead of the bed time Mama thought she was getting. We may hit those bon fires after all.  We'll be wearing new pj's of course.

Rolling

Babies Don't Keep

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton