Fun Under the Midnight Sun!

I wish that our summers were longer up here because it feels like we try to jam pack everything possible into every day, night, and weekend of our summer! That being said, we are taking full advantage of the midnight sun and are having a blast! In between the rainy weeks of June, Hayden would jump into his pool whenever it was nice out. He is quickly outgrowing his kiddie pool but it doesn't matter to him, he is happy jumping in and splashing our in it!

We have slowly been experimenting with his food allergies and with the recommendation of the doctor we introduced cheese and yogurt. Hayden did great with that so we thought we would add milk and if he could tolerate that then he would have grown out of his milk allergy. Well that didn't prove to be the case.....which means that he is lactose intolerant. The good news is that he really enjoyed the ice cream that he got to try for a few days! The bad news is that he can have processed milk products like cheese but not straight milk.

Hayden's pappe got a new Harley this summer and was very reluctant to ride it but Hayden was very interested in it. I think the loud noise scared him, but he always pointed it out saying "varoom varoom". So seeings how my child will do anything for candy, we coaxed him on the bike with some jelly beans, and he rode on it like a champ while stuffing jelly beans in his mouth!

My mom and I went on a playdate with a group of moms and kids to Calypso Farms up in Ester, Alaska. They are a wonderful group of people that grow vegetables for people who buy a "share" of the farm. It was such a fun place for the kids to run around, and was very educational for the older kids.

We walked around and learned about the trees and environment around us and we also learned about wildlife around us including bees. They had a hive of bees in plexi-glass and Hayden loved to watch them buzz around!

There were lots of animals that the kids got to interact with...which was Hayden's favorite part. When we were in the chicken coop, the chickens were in their little cubes laying eggs and two chickens were fighting for a spot and then one chicken got pushed out of the cubes and jumped out. Well Hayden happened to be right next to it and it scared the heck out of him. He talked about the jumping chickens for weeks.

Hayden fell in love with this little goat and would only feed the "baby" goat!

They taught people how to milk the goats, and my mom jumped right in and learned first hand. Hayden wanted to be right next to her and watch, but had no part in the milking!! She was a pro, and caught on right away!

We've been taking lots of boat trips all around the interior. One of our favorite trips is to take the boat from North Pole into Fairbanks to one of the restaurants in town to have dinner on their deck. Our good friend Mike goes with us often, and as you can see from the picture above, Hayden is loving the boat ride with his buddy Mike!!

I did a lot of research on bike seats because I thought it would be a fun activity for Chris and I to do with Hayden and Tucker. I found that the Europeans use the front seat on the bike for many reasons...it is safer, you can communicate with your child easier, they don't have to stare at your back, and many more. Well, this is absolutely perfect for Hayden, he loves being able to "drive" and Chris loves to take him. So we have been enjoying nightly rides together as a family :)

Easter

Another holiday has come and gone and we are so lucky to be able to spend them with Hayden and our families :)

Easter was so much fun this year, Hayden understood what was going on and really enjoyed all of the goodies the Easter bunny left!

He didn't care what was in the eggs, he just had fun finding all of them! Once he found all of his eggs and placed them all in his basket, he kept saying "more". So we had a fun filled day of hiding and finding eggs!

While Chris and I enjoyed a wonderful date night on Easter eve, Hayden was lucky enough to dye Easter eggs with grandma and grandpa.

There were only a few causalities and Hayden was very proud of his beautiful creations.

My dad even patiently added stickers to each and every egg with Hayden!

We had a fun morning at Easter service at our church and Hayden did great at entertaining himself.....including chewing on the pew, drawing, listening to the choir and bells, and "reading" the bible! We then enjoyed yet another wonderful dinner at my parents with the company of our friend Skip!

Seattle Fun With Auntie Amy

We were lucky enough to get to spend a wonderful long weekend with my sister and Hayden had such a great time with his Auntie Amy!

One day we went and visited her friend Melanie who has been spoiling Hayden since birth and she gave us yet another cool present...a cute Winnie the Pooh coach that folds into a bed. Hayden and Hank both enjoyed it all weekend and had to fight each other off of it!!

The next day Chris was able to join us and enjoy rainy Seattle not to mention a really nice date night while Auntie Amy spoiled Hayden rotten.....as usual!

We jumped at the first sight of blue skies and headed to Point Defiance Zoo and had a great afternoon at the zoo. Hayden enjoyed feeding the goats (that is after he warmed up to them and Amy and Chris went through a couple of handfuls of goat food!!).

He was in awe of the giant elephants and loved to watch the giant kitties (beautiful Siberian tigers).

It was nice to see the green grass and we enjoyed the warm weather. The rain did not stop us and Hayden enjoyed playing outside, climbing on the trees, and splashing in the puddles.

Thank you Amy for the amazing time, we loved being with you and can't wait to see you again:)

Winter Fun

It is finally warming up in Fairbanks and we are enjoying the longer days and sunny weather. We went on our annual walk through the Ice Park with my parents and Hayden enjoyed all of the fun activities in the kids park. Hayden is an adrenaline junky so he enjoyed spinning in the ice ball over and over again really fast. Chris thought it was funny to then let him try and walk around!!

My parents enjoyed taking Hayden on all of the slides and my mom and Hayden went on a "train" ride where they were pulled around the park in a trailer behind a four wheeler.

Chris enjoyed the slides as well!

Hayden has been enjoying going on daily snowmachine rides with Chris and I. He loves going on his kitty kat snowmachine and tries really hard to push the throttle...he needs a little more weight on him!!

We played outside with Hayden's cousins and loved to go on Madison and Macy's snowmachine. He would go for a ride until someone got tired of going in circles and then would go up to someone else and ask them to take him! Madison and Uncle Lance were really good sports and took him riding all night long!

Chris has been able to make a couple of snowmaching trips down to Cantwell and has been lucky to catch 30+ degree weather and lots of snow to play in, you've got to love Spring!

A long day of playing outside calls for snuggling up with daddy and passing out :)

Fun in the Sun!

We got the best Christmas present in the world this year......a family vacation to Maui!! It was such a wonderful escape from reality and we really enjoyed our time together as a family.
We stayed in Kihei, and there were different beaches every few miles so we spent each day exploring all of the the fun beaches! It was easiest to let Hayden run around naked, otherwise the sand got caught up in his diaper!

We loved to spend the evenings sitting on the beaches and watch the sun set.

We caught some amazing sun sets!

We had a wonderful condo that was right on the beach, so the first evening we walked down to check everything out and a big wave took out Hayden's feet from under him. He was a little timid about the ocean for the first day or so. After that, we couldn't keep him out of it!

He would run to the water all by himself and fill up his bucket full of water. I couldn't believe how fearless he was of the big waves crashing in front of him.

We rented a boogie board a couple of the days we were there and as you can see, Chris was a pro at catching and surfing through the waves!

Hayden enjoyed his lessons in surfing as well, but he mainly loved to just sit on the board and cruise through the waves.

Our favorite beach was Big Beach, it had miles of beach, wasn't crowded, had great boogie boarding waves, and was beautiful and peaceful.

Hayden built castles and creatures in the sand, but mostly enjoyed flinging sand everywhere!

After a long day in the sun, Hayden crashed in his stroller!

Of course Hayden couldn't leave home without his hockey sticks. They had a miniature golf course on the lawn in front of our lanai, so whenever he was outside he was playing "hockey"!

Out of all the days we were there we booked a luau on the one night it rained. Luckily they were able to move it in doors and we stilled enjoyed the awesome show and food. Hayden was mesmerized with the hula dancers. The picked Chris out of the crowd to go up on stage and show the audience what he got!! He is so outgoing and went up there without hesitating and shook his booty with the gorgeous dancers (and he was mighty good at it if I don't say so myself!)

At the luau we learned that the green coconuts had the sweetest milk and water in them so we had to get one to test it out. Sure enough that was a true statement, it was great...and Hayden enjoyed it as well.

The whole vacation Hayden had this smile on his face, he had such a wonderful time!

We took a break from the sun one day and went to the Maui Ocean Center. It was a really neat aquarium that had some awesome creatures in it.

Hayden did not want to leave the shark tank and through a huge fit when we tried to pull him away. So we decided to test everyone's theory and just walk away hoping he would follow us and stop crying. He stopped crying all right and walked over to another exhibit happy as can be and could care less if we weren't there!

We went hiking on the most recent lava rocks (from the late 17oo's), and saw the beautiful coastline of the southern part of Maui.

We went on a snorkel cruise to a crater in the ocean. The ride there was awful and the ocean was very rough, thank goodness it was calm and peaceful on the way back!

It was the peak of the whale season, so we were able to see whales jumping out of the ocean all afternoon. It was so cool to see them up close and so active!

When we went snorkeling they had a platform that had a Plexiglas bottom and Hayden laid on top of it and was able to go snorkeling with us. He was a little unsure about being on the platform swimming throughout the ocean, but enjoyed seeing all of the fish underneath him.

We had a pool at our condo, and Hayden played in it for awhile....but he was in love with the hot tub. He would sit on the little step and ham it up in front of the old people, they just ate him up!

Every morning Hayden would get up and run out on the grass and catch ladybugs. He would let them crawl on his finger and up his arm....he is braver than me!

We were very fortunate to be able to go on such a wonderful vacation and had such an amazing time together. It was definitely a week of Fun in the Sun:)