Coast Guard Beach Pt 2 6.27.11

Natasha and Quent had a joint effort in taking some more photos of me with my 32 week pregnancy belly.

Pregnancy Photo Session 6.27.11

This was a beautiful day! It got to 70 degrees and it was just gorgeous! Sunshine! I'm glad Natasha was able to see one nice Ketchikan day.

In the morning we drove to Buggy Beach with plans to take some pregnancy photos, but there were more people around for my taste and the sun was too bright for photos. But we did get to see all of these children swimming in the ocean. Mind you, it wasn't even 10:00 am and it was only 63 degrees. Only in Alaska...

So we went to the hatchery park in town and took pictures. There were lots and lots of tourists from the cruise ships walking around the park. So I didn't have the privacy I wanted, but that was ok. I had fun with Natasha!

Paddle & Fish 6.26.11

One evening Quent and Natasha went canoeing in the ocean along the coast. Quent brought along his fishing pole. Although he didn't catch any fish, there were salmon jumping all around them.

You can see some splashes from the fish in this photo.

Belly Photos 6.26.11

When we were at Lunch Creek, Natasha took some pictures of Quent and I. It was quite comical.

I love this one!

This one makes me smile. Quent is always trying to impress me with his skill of making it look like he has a big belly. Am I impressed? Sure! It makes me laugh!

Lunch Creek 6.26.11

We picked up some subs from Subway and drove to the end of the road to the Lunch Creek trail.


When we first started out on the trail Natasha spotted skunk cabbage with huge leaves. We had just been talking about how in some places people have skunk cabbage leaf competitions to see who can find the biggest leaf. Well, I think Natasha wins! This leaf is HUGE and we haven't seen any as big as this since.

We found a spot across from a waterfall to eat lunch and take pictures. Here is Quent leaping between rocks.

Sister and brother

Ward Lake 6.25.11

Quent's sister Natasha came for a 2 week visit the end of June through early July.  Unfortunately, it rained most of the time she was here, but she was a good sport about it.  Go Natasha!  We teased her about how she must have lost her touch because when she would visit us in Wrangell she would always bring gorgeous weather.  Since I wasn't able to do too much (as far as hiking, camping, etc) we stuck close to home.  I had so much fun with her!  We talked, watched shows, played games, and just hung out!  She was able to do some Alaskan adventurous activities with Quent, but we will get to that later.

One afternoon we went on a walk around Ward Lake:

Natasha next to a really cool looking (slippery) dead tree.

Christina posing on the bridge.

When we were walking through the campground we noticed a little Merganser swimming (toward the top of the photo).  It was SO cute!  I love watching Mergansers swim and fish, no matter the age/size.  They are funny!

Chocolate lily; one of the few brown flowers I know of.

A beloved (gag) slug.  Slugs are disgusting!  As far as I know, nothing eats them.  Maybe it's because they eat dog poop?  Maybe it's because they are cannibals?  Quent kept on pointing the slugs out to us and then telling us gross facts about them.  We weren't impressed.  He had fun flipping them over and making them shrink.

Father's Day 6.19.11

It had been awhile since Quent went skiing.  On Father's Day he went up on the Dude Mountain/Brown Mountain area with some friends and they had fun in the snow.

Here is the group of them.

Quent's friend Shawn's son, Cade.  I believe he is 10 years old.

Shawn is on the right.

Quent enjoyed his time with the group!  And I think he got a kick out of watching Cade ski (based on the pictures taken).  I think Quent is dreaming of the day when he will ski with our little girl...and Mommy...she wants to come too.  But first Mommy needs to learn how to ski!

Teeth Marks 6.18.11

You may remember reading this post about the bears chomping on our bird seed from our bird feeder. Well, they were back at it again...



I believe this is the 3rd bird feeder they have destroyed. We knew the bears would be back after the winter months, but we just didn't know when. One morning I woke up and looked outside our bedroom window and saw that our feeder was missing. A bear really worked hard at getting this feeder off the pole. This is the first time we saw these big ole teeth marks in the plastic tubing of the feeder. We haven't been feeding the birds (or the bears) with a feeder since. Bad bears!

A friend of mine who lives in our neighborhood said that there was a sighting of a bear with a large Costco-size mayonnaise jar stuck on it's head roaming around. The State Troopers were called. They tranquilized the bear and then got the jar off it's head. Serves it right!

So far we have found 3 nice piles of bear scat in our yard and some piles on our street. One bear got into our garbage one night. Quent chased it off, but it did manage to take off with one sack of garbage which Quent had to clean up the mess the next morning. That same night, and probably the same bear, got into our neighbors shed where they store their garbage. It went through 4 bags of garbage there. Our neighbors said that it's evident that bears don't like tomatoes because they wouldn't touch those. On another day I saw that our plastic tote which we store bird seed in was moved and the cover was off...hmmm...

One neighbor said that this is the most bear activity seen since the mid '90s. Not very comforting to hear.

Purple Flowers 6.18.11

I love taking pictures of flowers! Especially when they are in our own yard! Because of our cool and wet summer, we have been denied seeing some of the beautiful seasonal blossoms. Most of our rhododendrons didn't even bloom; it's really sad! Quent says it's because of the lack of sun.


Pansies

Columbine

Iris. My mom sent us bulbs from Michigan. I love the smell of these!

Backyard Beauties 6.18.11

Directly behind our house we have this tree that has these beautiful hanging yellow flowers. I forget the name of the tree/flowers. It's just gorgeous! I think they were even more beautiful this year than last year! When I was taking pictures of the flowers all I could hear was buzzing from all of the bees. After a few weeks all of the flowers drop and the slugs eat them...among other things.

Miss Baby Smith 5.24.11

I had to have another ultrasound, which I didn't mind.


I think she has my profile...haha!

This is the one and only "3d" image we were given. The baby moved her hand while this was taken, so her head looks a little warped.

And here is a progression of pictures from January 5th thru May 29.

Ferry Ride 6.2.11

Quent and I took the ferry from Ketchikan to Wrangell, which is a 6 hour ride.

Traveling by ferry is a great way to see the beautiful islands all around. It's our "highway" in Southeast Alaska.

I read a lot, knitted, and chatted with my friend Nettie. The time went by fast, which I was thankful for. I also overheard tourists talking, which made me laugh. They were slightly confused. One of them said something about the glacier water reaching the salt water, when in fact it's actually the Stikine River water. And then one proclained, "Oh, there's the scum line!" Scum line? Funny tourists!