Take a peak by May 31st

Last weekend was beautiful in Fairbanks, and Chris and I soaked up every bit of sun that we could. We had a very relaxing weekend and enjoyed our time together. We were supposed to go up to the cabin on the Salcha river for the weekend, but Chris's dad's airboat was having problems, so we ended up staying in town. On Monday we took my dad's boat up the Chena River to have lunch on the riverbank.

We didn't know if the boat would scare Tucker, but obviously he did just fine!!

Chris worked really hard this weekend to get Tucker used to the water, and as you can see Tucker caught on really quick. It was the strangest thing, he would get into the water about chest deep but wouldn't take the plunge in to swim. He would duck his entire head under the water to get rocks and sticks from the ground but he was really uncomfortable swimming. Chris threw him in the water, but that didn't work out too well because he just panicked and almost drowned himself. So we remembered that he is a Labrador so he would be food driven, and lured him out there with treats....sure enough he started swimming in minutes!!

We also got maternity photos taken by Chelsey Mach (thanks to Michel for finding her....she is amazing). We took photos late at night on Friday at Skiland, and it was such a fun time. She did a wonderful job and captured some amazing moments the 4 of us had! She has a gallery of the session online, but it expires on May 31st, so please take a look before they expire!

They are located at http://machcphotography.com/clients
Email: clutz01@hotmail.com

Access code: Tucker

Click on My Favorites to view the ones that Chris and I fell in love with.

On The Road Again

Chris and I headed out of town again last weekend and took a road trip down to Valdez. We left late Thursday night after child birthing classes and Chris booked it down there in 5 hours. The road isn't the best and so between going 800 miles an hour (I might be exaggerating a little bit) and the windy bumpy road, I was feeling a little queasy. We made it down there all in one piece and met my dad, Aunt and Uncle as well as one of my cousins. My Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to invite us down to go shrimping in with their boat, just in time for me to actually enjoy myself (I am getting bigger by the minute).

As you can see we were quite successful in getting some huge shrimp. Yes I am a weeny and had to wear gloves because the little creatures scared me a bit, and yes the shrimp laid down comfortably on my belly!

I did not take part in the processing part because frankly I am a bleeding heart and felt bad for the shrimp. So my dad and Uncle ripped the heads off the shrimp while my Aunt and cousin deshelled them. Chris and I do not eat seafood but we tried the fresh shrimp and actually enjoyed them, they weren't fishy tasting nor did they have a rubbery texture.
In between shrimping we toured Valdez and got to see some amazing sights and wildlife. I saw more Alaskan wildlife on this trip than I ever have. On our way down we saw some caribou hanging out on the side of the road, some porcupine, and a ton of rabbits.

While driving around in the boat we saw sea lions, sea otters, whales, dolphins, bald eagles, and even a black bear.

It has been warm and a big section of a glacier had broken off, so we ran into a bunch of ice coming out of the Narrows. The colors and mass of the chunks of glacier was breathtaking.

Like I mentioned to you before I am growing by the minute. My belly is getting HUGE, and I still have a month and a half left...yikes! But baby Bunch and I are still doing great, we are staying as active and busy as possible, although at times that can be challenging :)

A Bunch of Busy Bees!

Chris and I have been really busy these past few weeks, and are trying to take full advantage of our time and energy before baby Bunch arrives!! Over the past few months we have been taking Tucker to retrieving classes and not to be a biased bragging mom but he is really starting to shine! Chris got a little frustrated with us this past weekend because he has been busy the past few weekends so I ended up taking Tucker to class, and so at the beginning of class Tucker brought the dummy to me instead of Chris. Hey I can't help it :) But the two of them quickly fell into sync and did an amazing job!

The picture above shows a tricky test for Tucker, he had to watch people throw 2 different dummies, memorize where they fell, and then go retrieve each one individually and drop it at Chris's feet. Notice Chris's shorts, it was 75° this weekend....yea summer is finally here!

We got Tucker August 1st last year, and so he was too little to learn to swim. Well, we thought that swimming is instinct for retrievers....but we thought wrong. This was his first time swimming through the water, and he wasn't too sure about the freezing cold water. Chris and Tucker had to climb in the boat and then someone shot a gun and threw a dummy in the water. Tucker had to jump out of the boat, swim through the water, get the dummy, swim back through the water, and then jump back into the boat and bring it to Chris. It was quite a task, and about half way through the pond Tucker decided that it would be way easier to swim to the side of the pond, run on land to the dummy, and then run on land back to Chris. After a few tries, he got the hang of it!

At night, we have slowly been working on the nursery when we have a chance. We decided we wanted to keep Chris's red wall, but tone it down a little with stripes. Easier said then done, stripes take a LOT of time...but we are really happy with the end result. Chris spent hours taping the lines for the brown stripes and then decided we would paint the next night. Well then Tucker decided the next day that he was bored because he got left home and he would have some fun taking the tape down. So then Chris re-taped a few stripes and we painted a few every night. After we finished painting the brown stripes, Chris had the creative idea of adding little dark brown stripes on each side of the light brown. Yikes, he had to tape 36 lines! But it was worth it! While he was busy with the stripes, I painted the other walls a light brown. Because I am a little OCD, I had to make life interesting and trim the ceiling and sides by hand. Which for a normal person isn't that big of a deal, but with my huge belly it proved to be a little challenging. My belly had to fit between the steps in the ladder, and I had to hold the paint can because I got tired of going up and down the ladder!

Last weekend Chris and I took a road trip down to Anchorage for a hockey tournament...and shopping of course. We left Thursday night, and happened to pick the worst weather to travel in. It snowed pretty much the entire way down, but we still managed to make it down there in 5 and a half hours. We relaxed the entire weekend and didn't get very much shopping in but we really enjoyed our time together. Chris's team won 1 game and lost the other 2, they were close games and he had a fun time, so it looks like we will be going down next year!

On the slate for this week is to finish up the nursery, work on cleaning up the outside of the house (yes the snow has finally all melted away!), and go to birthing classes. I will keep you updated!