Fun at the Park

Kyla on the "wiggle slide"

Kyla loves the tunnel slide

Rock climbing

Kyla was climbing this wall all by herself!

Head first down the tunnel slide

Kyla loves to go to the park! We have to drive right by it whenever we are going anywhere and she always asks to stop. She is so funny at the park, she just gets so full of energy and goes full speed the whole time we are there. She climbs up everything and this last time even learned to do the rock climbing wall all by herself. She runs from one slide to the next and just has a blast! It is so fun to see the pure joy and excitement she has when playing!

Hatchers Pass

TOO CUTE!!!

Sitting pretty!

Enjoying hanging out at the lake!

Out for a walk

Playing in the cold water

The most stylish little hiker at Hatchers Pass!



Yesterday was a really foggy day in Anchorage so we decided to head out of town and go for a walk and have a picnic up at Summit Lake in Hatchers Pass. The weather was beautiful, very sunny and warm. We had a great picnic lunch at the lake and then walked around the lake. Kyla had a great time looking for rocks to throw in the water and splashing in the water in the shallow areas of the lake. The fall colors up in the mountains were beautiful and their were plenty of people up there picking blueberries. We had a very nice and relaxing family day.

Pyrah Pioneer Peak Farm

Kyla having fun bouncing around

Kyla was very interested in the kids milking this pretend cow

Looking for Pumpkins

So Cute!

Kyla on a Tractor ride

In her wagon ready to go

Trying to find her way through the haystack maze

Bounce, Bounce...


Saturday we went to the Fall Festival at Pyrah Pioneer Peak Farm in Butte. It was a great festival for young kids with so much for them to do. They had live music, lots of games that were farm themed, face painting, hay rides and so much more. Kyla loved bouncing around on these cute little bunny balls that you sit on and bounce. She also really liked the haystack maze that led to a really stinky pig pen. Kyla got to ride in a wagon pulled by a small tractor and got to roam around in the pumpkin patch. We had planned on picking vegetables in their u-pick area, but the lines were way to long for Kyla to have to wait in, so we would like to go back some other time to pick vegetables. We had a great time at the Fall Festival and will definitly go again next year.

Mommy's little helper

Kyla is quite a little helper! She loves to help me do the dishes and she very carefully grabs each plate and the silverware out of the dishwasher and hands it to me to put away. She also helps me "fold" and "hang" the laundry and helps me make the bed when I put on new sheets and pillow cases.

When I am wiping down the table and counter she will go and grab a diaper wipe and start wiping things down too. When I am vacuming the rug she always hangs onto the handle with me. She even wanted to help me clean the toilet bowl the other day. She loves to help mommy! I just hope that she is this interested in cleaning things once she is old enough to actually do chores on her own! Everything ends up taking a little longer but she loves to be involved and it is so much fun to see her so proud of herself for helping me clean.

Enjoying Fall

Swinging with Ethan and Ella

More Swinging Fun

Playing Sidewalk Chalk with Ethan

Kyla and Daddy down at the pond

Having Fun at Potter's Marsh

Playing in the water table in Grandma's Greenhouse

Hiking in the Chugach Mountains

Kyla and Daddy out for a Hike

Playing with her car

So happy in the swing!

Kyla loves slides!

Play time!

Fun at the zoo!

Rainy day at the zoo



August was a very rainy and cool month for us. Anchorage set the record for the most consecutive days of rain, 28 days! The previous record was 27 consecutive rainy days in 1951! It has also been one of the 10 coolest summers on record. So, we have had to just enjoy playing out in the rain and really enjoy the short breaks we have had each day without rain. Even with the wet weather we have gone to many differnt parks to let Kyla play, have gone to the zoo, fishing, farmers markets, state fair and much more outside. While babysitting we get out each day to play in their yard on their playground equipment. We have also gone to Grandma's house a lot to pick fruits and vegetables.

September has been much nicer weather and we have enjoyed going on walks at potters marsh, playing at Grandma's house in the water table (in the greenhouse), coloring with sidewalk chalk, going on hikes, walking around Potters Marsh and so much more. The fall colors are beautiful right now so we have really enjoyed getting outside.

Harvest Fun

Grandma's apple tree

Kyla enjoying her first apple from Grandma's garden

Yummy Peas!

Kyla loves to pick peas from the garden

Eating Tomatoes

One of Kyla's favorite things to do is pick tomatoes in the greenhouse

Look at all those Raspberries!

Eating Raspberries straight from the bushes

Our little helper

Sneaking into the garden...


Kyla has loved going to Grandma's house even more now that it is time to pick fruits and vegetables from her garden and greenhouse. And she loves to eat the fruit and vegetables that she picks too!!! Her favorite thing to pick are the small tomatoes, which she calls "baby tomatoes". She loves to pick them and eat them right off the plant. She also really enjoyed eating a cucumber from Grandma's greenhouse.

In the garden Kyla stays busy picking the peas and eating them and then picking another... She absolutely loves peas! She is also a big fan of her broccoli and carrots. Soon the beets will be ready too and Kyla loves beets! It is so fun to see her so excited about picking and eating her vegetables.

Kyla and I have been going over several times a week to pick raspberries with my mom since there have been so many. Kyla loves the raspberries, especially the golden raspberries. We were picking a lot of strawberries, but they are now done for the summer. Grandma also has a garden full of apples which Kyla has recently been enjoying.

Unfortunately, we only have a few more weeks of enjoying all the wonderful fruits and vegetables before it begins to freeze so we are enjoying it as much as we can right now!

Funny things Kyla says

Kyla has been speaking so much more lately and I just love to listen to the new things that she says. She is so funny and remembers everything that you tell her and has no problem repeating things. Kyla is at the point that I can understand everything that she says, although I think that is just because I am always with her because Jon has a little more trouble understanding her sometimes. She is now talking in sentences and learns so many new words everyday. Lately she has said some things that just make me laugh so much.

*We saw a rainbow and Kyla saw it and pointed, then she said "A Rainbow! It has pink in it!"

*We were at a friends cabin riding the four wheeler and Kyla was just talking and singing the entire ride, one of the things she said was "Love Mommy, Love Daddy, Love Rainbows, Love Unicorns sooooo much!!!"

*She saw a preview on TV that we have never before seen for Barbie's Fashion Fairytale and said "That's Kyla's Favorite movie, Buy it!"

*Kyla loves to say "Look at me" when she is talking to you. The other day she said "Remember Hawaii?" I replied "Yes", again she asked "Remember Hawaii?" again I said "yes". Then she grabs my face and said "Look at me! Remember Hawaii?" I looked at her said "yes" and the was the end of the Hawaii conversation.

*When we were visiting my sister's family in Hawaii her daughter Madeline was always saying "Oh Yeah!". That was about two months ago and Kyla is still saying "Cousin Madeline, Oh Yeah....." and repeats this over and over and over again! It is pretty cute.

*We called her cousin Madeline on her birthday so that Kyla could sing "Happy Birthday" to her. When Kyla woke up in the morning she wanted to call and I told her we had to wait because Marcie was probably still sleeping. The next day after already calling to sing happy birthday to Madeline, she started singing "Happy Birthday to Marcie sleeping!"

*We were at the Kenai River Fishing with both Grandma and Great Grandma. We were in the bathroom and she was talking about Grandma and was calling her "Great Grandma". I said "no that is just your regular grandma", so now Kyla sometimes calls her grandma "regular Grandma".

*Kyla went to her 2 year docotrs appointment and had to get a shot. She got a bandaid that had suns and earths on it. She knew what the suns were, but I had to tell her the other was the earth. About a week later her friend Ella had to go to the Doctor. Kyla said "Doctor. Shots? Bandaid, sun and (long pause to think real hard) earth!" It's amazing how well she remembers!

*When we were at the Doctor's office she kept calling it the "Doctor's House". I said "we are at the hospital". She kept trying to say hospital and then would go back to saying Doctor's house. A few days later she was talking about the Doctor and I said something about the Doctor's House, she looked at me and said "No, the hospital!"

*I am always telling Kyla that she needs to sit on her bum, not stand on the chairs and that it is not safe. Occasionally I have to stand on a chair to put something high up in a cupboard or on top of the fridge and she always says to me "Mommy, sit down! Bum. No standing, not safe!" Atleast I know shw is listening to me when I tell her this, even if she does not always follow directions.

I could go on and on and on with the list of funny things that she says everyday. I just laugh so much when she comes up with funny things to say or copies things that I say to her, it is so entertaining!

Blueberries!

Kyla loves to have blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup for breakfast!

Silly Blueberry Face!

So Funny!

What a mess!


Kyla loves blueberries so much, we went blueberry picking at my parents cabin in Petersville as well as in Glennallen and picked plenty of berries. We have been making really good bluberry pancakes, bleuberry tarts and blueberry pies. Kyla gets so excited to eat her berries and is so cute with her messy blue hands and mouth!

Labor Day Weekend in Glennallen

Ready for smores!

Kyla and Ethan loved throwing rocks in the lake

Kyla and Ethan out for a four wheeler ride!

Looking at an owl through the binoculars

Out for a walk!

Kyla in the pretty Fall colors

Kyla loved eating all the blueberries right off the bushes

Picking berries is so much fun!

More Berries...


We spent Labor Day Weekend in Glennallen with Sarah, Greg and Ethan. We had a great time and had some really nice weather for part of the trip. I had not been to Glennallen in a really long time and thought that it was a really pretty area and loved all the fall colors. Kyla and Ethan both had a great time throwing rocks in the lake and riding around on the 4 wheelers. The trails were pretty muddy, which Kyla loved! She would get so excited to go through all of the deep puddles and would just squeal with delight! Over the weekend we also picked a ton of blueberries, Kyla loved picking the berries and ate all of the ones she picked plus many of the ones I picked too. We also went out in the boat in the lake, sat by the fire and just enjoyed being at their cabin. We were very thankful of Sarah and Greg for inviting us out to their families cabin, we really had a great time!