Calm Afternoons

The past several days have been glorious!  It's been sunny and in the 70s. While we have had errands or other things going on in the mornings, after naptime we have made sure to spend time relaxing and playing outside on our front porch. We don't really have much of a yard or patio, so that's why we like to play out front. That and the amazing views!  :-) I turn on Pandora, let the boys play and I just sit back and breathe.

Watching the neighbor boy mowing the yard. They were thoroughly entertained!

Annie was hot, tied to the porch post and getting bitten by mosquitos. Poor girl can't catch a break. #prayforannie

A New Moms Club

While in San Antonio, I was a part of the MOMS Club of Schertz.  I met some wonderful, fun women in the club and it was really hard to leave them.  Before moving up here, I checked out the MOMS Club site (it is an international club, so check and see if there is one in your area!  It has been an amazing support system for me as a new mom!) and found the Eagle River chapter.  The second day we were here, I sent an email and got the information about some meetings I could attend to get to know everyone.  I was supposed to go to a playdate on Tuesday but it didn't work out, so I went today.  We met at a park here in town and I got to meet some great ladies.  I'm looking forward to doing all kinds of fun things with them and getting to know them better.  The boys didn't socialize a ton, they just kind of went off and did their own thing.  But I had fun!  And, honestly, the MOMS Club is about the moms!  The boys loved sliding, playing with rocks and rolling in the sand volleyball court.  :-)

Rocks!  My precious!

Whose big hair is that?  Good grief, get out of the picture! ;-)

What?  It doesn't go in my mouth?!

Busy boy!

What I'm Loving Now: Part 2

Several months ago, I blogged about some of my favorite things and I think it's time for a follow up.  I'm still loving the things I posted except one and am going to tell you about its replacement.

Dr Jart+ BB Cream

-This bb cream is unlike others that I've tried.  It's not greasy or really dewy, it just provides great coverage and reduces the redness I have around my nose really well.  I don't use a primer under it or powder on top of it.  It sets perfectly and lasts all day!  I apply it with this brush in order to get it all blended well.  The brush also helps me to not use much cream for each application because it's not absorbing into a sponge or a my fingertips.  If you have a Sephora near you, go and have them apply this bb cream on you with this brush and you'll see why I love it!

Benefit's Fake Up

-I had seen and read about Fake Up for a while but hadn't actually used any because I wasn't convinced it was better than the Maybelline Highlighting Concealer that I was using.  Well, when I was visiting my friend Kasie before we moved, she mentioned she was using Fake Up and loved it.  That was enough for me and I hightailed it to Sephora when I got home to try it out.  I went with the lightest color instead of the color that matched my skin so that it would work as a highlighter as well as a concealer.  I apply it in a triangle under my eyes and tap until it is blended.  If you notice it is too cakey, try not putting any foundation/bb cream in the area where you are applying the Fake Up that way you aren't layering them.  

Urban Decay Lip Junkie in Naked

-I love this lip gloss so much, I have gifted it to several people.  I love the color - it's not too pink, it's not too neutral, it's just the right shade.  Goldilocks would love it.  Also, the gloss isn't sticky and it lasts for quite a while.  I have two tubes, one in my bag and one in the car so I am never without it!  

Lancome Hypnose Star Mascara

-This is the last makeup product, I promise!  I got this mascara as a sample and I love it.  The brush is tall and fluffy if you hold it one way, then adjust it differently and it is short and skinny.  That way you can target different parts of your lashes with a quick roll of your fingers.  I only apply one coat and my lashes looks super long and full.  Once I'm done with this sample, I plan to get the full size.  I also really like Benefit's They're Real but the Lancome mascara wins tonight because of the brush!

Arbonne RE9 Facial Cleanser

-Recently, I started noticing lines on my forehead that weren't going away.  They are always staring back at me when I look in the mirror.  So I decided now was the time to put away my Clean and Clear and get some grown up skincare!  I love the RE9 line from Arbonne but my favorite product is the cleanser.  I use just a little bit and it gets rid of all my makeup (including mascara) with barely any scrubbing.  It's amazing!  I also love the Renewal Masque.  It makes my face so smooth and bright (after the redness and tingling goes away!)

Hulu Plus

-Since cable is ridiculously expensive up here, we have decided to just go with the trusty rabbit ears.  That's fine for my morning news and watching Ellen in the afternoon but then we are left with not many options for evening TV.  We have pretty much exhausted all of the TV series on Netflix, so I signed up for Hulu Plus.  LOVE it!  I have already watched several seasons of shows and I like that I can be caught up with various shows that are airing now instead of having to wait for 6 months before the episodes show up!

Oregon Cafe Chai Latte Concentrate

-I'm not a coffee drinker.  I can't even stand the smell of it.  I know, I'm totally weird.  But I love chai lattes.  It is my go to drink at Starbucks but sometimes I don't want to drive to the 'bucks for my fix.  Tim found this at the grocery store this weekend and got one of the regular and one of the caffeine free.  We've pretty much made it our evening ritual to have a glass of the caffeine free and I'll have a regular one in the morning.  Seriously, it's so good!  Just mix it with a little milk or milk substitute and you're all set!  I like mine on ice, even when it's cold outside.  To add to my weirdness, I don't like hot drinks that much, so it's always iced for me!

Tillamook Caramel Butter Pecan Ice Cream

-I've been eating more of this than I should.  Seriously.  I've never lived anywhere that carried Tillamook (or at least not that I knew of) so I'm excited that we have it here.  This flavor is so good!  It's nice and creamy and mmmmmm!  good!

Zero Water Flitration System

-I'm a water snob.  I can't just drink tap water from anywhere.  I think it's because I grew up with the most amazing, crisp, flavor-free tap water ever so nothing has ever been able to measure up.  Even water that others think tastes great, I can taste the weird minerals or too much chlorine.  I can't just do a Brita filter because even though the water is now pure enough, the flavor is still off.  At our house in San Antonio, we had a reverse osmosis system that made the water bottled water quality. At this point, I should probably add that I drink about a gallon and a half of water a day.  I'm constantly drinking and filling up my nalgene, so buying bottled water is just too expensive.  Anyway, we can't do the same water system in the house we are in now because it's not ours, so we are using the Zero Water system.  It's amazing!  Amazing, I tell ya!  The only downside is that I have to constantly refill it because I'm drinking so much of it.  They also make smaller, pitcher versions.  So, if you are picky about your water like I am, give this a try!

The Fresh 20
-I tried meal planning on my own and even tried out some meal planning sites but this is the first one that I have been able to really use and that I LOVE!  I subscribe to the gluten free version (I have celiac, for those who don't know) and it is so easy.  You login, pull up the weeks menu and it has your grocery list (grouped by sections of the store), a prep-ahead list, detailed directions, and even nutritional information for all the meals.  I love that it uses mainly fresh produce (thus the name "Fresh 20) and that all the veggies and some other parts of the meals are prepped ahead of time so that when time to cook comes, it takes 20 minutes max to make the meal.  They are creative and use things I never would have come up with on my own!  It has also taken out the stress of grocery shopping because it's all right there for me.  Not to mention it has reduced my grocery bill by about $50 a week because it's so organized, I'm not getting too much of something or flying by the seat of my pants.  Check it out, it's great!

So tell me, what are some things you're loving now?  It can be beauty, food, or baby related, I just want to know!

Fun at the Playground!

When we first talked to the people who own the house we are renting, they told us about a school just down a little path two doors down with a great playground.  I've been busy unpacking and setting up the house but this afternoon after nap time I decided we would go down and check it out.  A bonus was that Tim got off early from work and met us down there about 30 minutes after we got there.

 I decided to let the boys walk instead of putting them in the double stroller.  They loved it!

 What you see in this picture is about all of the trail.  It's not long at all and then you're in the school parking lot.  

 Big boys with their juice boxes!

The beautiful mountains as the playground's backdrop!

 Cheeeeeese!

 How Charlie likes to slide...

 And how Robby likes to slide.

 "What's that mommy?" (They were clouds)

 Charlie LOVED the swing!

 Robby hated them.

But we found a happy medium and Robby pushed Charlie.

Slides!

Getting up there with a little help from daddy.

KaiKai enjoyed the slide, too!

Too busy drinking to smile.

Daddy's turn to push!

We are going to LOVE having this park just down the street.  It's an easy walk for the boys but I can also load them up in the stroller and go for some runs on the trails all around the school.  We can't wait to explore more of our little town of Eagle River!

Day 12 of the Great Adventure: Smithers to Dease Lake

Awake and ready to go!  Family shot for the day shows us still smiling.  How could we not be?  We're in the middle (literally/geographically) of Beautiful British Columbia!  Seriously, it's beautiful, green, mountains everywhere, rivers and creeks full of water (this is a big deal to a Texan, our rivers and creeks tend to lack the wet stuff).  

By this point in the trip, I'm loving Canada and trying to fully embrace it.  I (Tim) grew up playing hockey, watching movies like Strange Brew, Canadian Bacon, and CBC's Hockey Night in Canada with Don Cherry (not a movie, it was actual hockey games).  It took some convincing of people in high school that I, in fact, was not Canadian (mostly in jest, but still).  All this having been said, I had to get donuts and coffee from Tim Hortons.  I had to, it's the Canadian Dunkin Donuts.  I don't know for sure, but Canada probably runs on Hortons.  

Mission accomplished.  We acquired a half-dozen assorted delicacies and a couple of chai teas (I chickened out on coffee, I was uncertain of the facilities down the road, and coffee has predictable results).  The donuts were good but... different, I will stick with Shipley's.  Of course we don't have those in Alaska, so I'll probably just lay off the donuts for a while.  Randi doesn't eat donuts anymore as they are essentially 'gluten-Os'.

Robby says, "YUMMY DONUTS!" (He didn't really say that)

Charlie is a big fan of sprinkles we all discovered.  He nearly ate his body weight in donuts.

"Thank you for your prayers"

Spoiler ya'll, Annie made it.  The whole way.

Some of you might be wondering why there are so many pictures of 'Brutus' on this trip.  Well, a couple months before the trip I joined the T4R.org forums for advice on all things 4Runner.  In return for advice and well wishes I promised pictures and narration of the trip.  I have failed miserably so far to post said pictures and narration, but I'll get to that later.  So this picture was taken at the Petro Canada station at the junction of highways 16 (Yellowhead Hwy) and 37 (Cassiar Hwy).  Hwy 16 continues west to Prince Rupert, BC on the coast while 37 heads north to the Yukon to the Alaska Hwy.  By the way, I'm a huge geography geek and this trip fed that geekiness quite a lot.  As such, I would urge the reader to open google maps (in a separate tab or window please) and check out some of these routes.  You really don't appreciate the scope of the drive and the expanse of Canada until you do, and you really don't quite get it until you do the drive in person.  It's huge, like mind-bottling huge (please see the movie Blade of Glory for reference on mind-bottling) and beautiful the entire way.

Enough of that, NORTH TO ALASKA.  This was actually in the parking lot of the Petro Canada station.  It was about now that things started to get really really rural.  We were heading to Dease Lake, the largest town left in BC on this route and it has a population of 303.  While stretching our legs we met a nice older couple from Iowa who were pulling a BIG travel trailer and vacationing around Canada.  Randi and the wife chatted about family and nice things, the husband and I talked about how sucky the roads were.  

 That bridge was immediately after the right turn out of the parking lot on the Hwy 37 side of the parking lot, onward north!

Our view as soon as we crossed the bridge, a preview of things to come.  Also, as is the case with all of the roads around these parts and north, there are two main seasons of road conditions:  covered with snow and under construction.  Our trip, thankfully, took place during the latter phase.  Shortly after this picture was taken we happened upon a road crew.  They were alternating traffic down one lane as the other lane was being worked on.  The details are fuzzy, but I sort of almost ran the sign holder guy over.  Not really, he was a good 30 yards away... but he got nervous and his non-chalant waving to the open lane became rather emphatic for a moment.  Ahem, moving on!

Quick potty stop (just for me, caffeine is a diuretic, eh) at a sketchy, though Canadianly clean, rest stop out-house.

Oh yeah, the rest stop was adjacent to a river crossing.  On a single lane wood plank bridge.

Over a roaring river, the Nass River.  Look it up eh.

A shot back.  Yes, I was running around on the highway with the camera for these pictures, totally worth it.

Decisions decisions.  This is the junction along Meziadin Lake where one may choose to continue north on 37 or take a left and go to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK.  We turned right.  

Oh?  A modern amenity possessing stop along the way?  I think we'd like that.

Here it is!  The Bell 2 Lodge, nice staff, clean, new, modern facilities.  Good food and not outrageously priced considering the area.  Randi and I bought matching t-shirts as our souvenirs for the trip.  I'm actually wearing mine right now (OMG how cool Tim!).

The view from the parking lot, we ended up seeing the people driving the U-Haul a few times on the way up, they are from Oregon and are moving to Alaska for the husband's research.  That's about as nosy as we got.  No more 'deets' on that one.  Well, they had their 3 year old with them, and the 16 month old was back in Oregon with grandma.  They'll fly up to Alaska once mom, dad, and big sis are settled in.  They also had a Subaru (two cars, they're nuts).
ANYWAY, much of the rest of this post is pictures of scenery along the way.  I will interject when necessary.  Enjoy the views!

This picture of Brutus, the one preceding it and the next one are all the same picture basically.  They were all taken from a picnic area turnout with a sign about the avalanche programs, thankfully that is not something we had to worry about.

I forget the name of this river (for shame) but it ran along the highway for quite a while.  It really never got old to see it over and over.

Ok, hold the phone, did someone let their Rottweiler loose in the wilderness??  No folks, that's a black bear or oso negro for our Latino readers.  This was the second or third we saw but they always scampered (read: lumbered humorously) away before we could slow down in the middle of the highway, roll down the window, and take a picture.  This one was obscured by the bushes but was the best one we got.  We saw 7 total black bears along highway 37 (over two days), every time it was a dramatic, nearly religious type experience for Randi and me.  Why?  Because we saw countless bears, moose, elk, etc. along the way that, in actually, were tree stumps, rocks, and bushes.  So to see an actually living mammalian bear that contained no sticks or rocks was quite a feat of observation.

Back to the beautiful river, this was just a couple miles south of Dease Lake, BC (the town, not the lake itself, though that was also just a few miles north).  We were close, the kids were fussing, we all wanted to be there, but it was too pretty to keep going.  So we stopped and I got out of the car to use the bear-proof litter bins and take some mediocre photographs.

Mommy failed to offer a picture of herself for the evening's meal, but the boys are all together at Rumor's Cafe in Dease Lake.  It's basically the only restaurant not able to be towed by a pick up truck in town.  The food was surprisingly tasty and not too expensive either.  I swear I took multiple pictures of our hotel but have been unable to locate them.  So I'll let you investigate it on your own: 

Northway Motor Inn - Dease Lake, BC

I will say this, the hotel was clean and the rooms were large for a reasonable rate.  But they were also not air conditioned.  So, despite the fact that it was a gorgeous 65-70 degree day, it was stifling in our room.  To add to the problem, our window's screen had a hole in it, small as it may have been, so I was awakened about 4 am with mosquito bites between my fingers and on my head.  Truly, though, aside from that it was a great stay and a nice little stopover before we made our way to Whitehorse, YT.