Jens & Amy

Boat Graveyard

2010-07-27T23:59:32Z

Tea Party

2010-07-27T22:16:52Z

Slideshow

2010-07-27T22:08:07Z

Get Your Wiggles Out

2010-07-27T05:42:09Z

Forth of July in Seldovia

2010-07-27T05:00:01Z

Seldovia is a tiny town. The full-time population is about 200 people, though that grows in the summer. Every year, they have a parade that the townspeople and children participate in. There are costumes, “floats,” food, vendor booths, contests and wood carvings.

I’m not sure what the group in the middle is supposed to be (the tubes they’re blowing in are hollow seaweed stalks often found on the beach), but the back three are three volcanoes in this area: Iliamna, Redoubt, and Spurr.

George Washington crossing the Delaware:

A tribute to the Harbor Master:

Kaelin’s favorite part was the candy. Every group in the parade that passed her threw a wad of candy at her feet. It was better than Halloween!

After the parade, we enjoyed a walk around the town.

I have an appreciation for the slightly irreverent, so I got a kick out of this:

We paused to admire the wood carvings:

And let the kids play around in the grass while we ate lunch (halibut spring rolls) on a park bench with a view of the harbor.

Then we headed over to “Old Seldovia,” where the main part of town was, prior to the Great Alaskan Earthquake that destroyed a lot of Alaska in 1964. The town used to be built entirely on piers over the water, and was razed to the ground during the earthquake. As a result, they decided to rebuild on the land, which is where the majority of town is now. Old Seldovia is a very interesting mix of earthquake ruins and new construction, as they have rebuilt portions of it.

After our walk, we admired some more wood carvings, and then headed back down to the dock and across the bay to the cabin for some R&R.

Seldovia Eagle

2010-07-26T18:51:11Z

Korenisms: Awesome Edition

2010-07-26T18:47:05Z

Seldovia

2010-07-26T17:55:44Z

On Saturday we took a boat ride down the bay a little ways until we came to a stretch of beach that has a waterfall. Kaelin wanted to get out and see the waterfall, so we did ... for a very short period of time, because the little trickle of water was surprisingly loud and sort of freaked Koren out. He’s not into loud noises, especially when they’re made by water. He did enjoy the boat, though.

Some Beach Pics

2010-07-26T17:42:43Z

Wet

2010-07-26T17:37:05Z

So far, it has rained 17 days this month. We’ve had twice the average precipitation in inches, and the month isn’t even over yet. It has been raining steadily all morning and doesn’t show signs of stopping any time soon. Normally I would be jogging while the kids are in school, but since that’s not going to happen today, I figure it’s a good time to get caught up on some photos and blogging, n’est pas?

Starfish

2010-07-26T02:22:41Z

Doggie Chow

2010-07-26T02:08:45Z

Back Yard Weenie Roast

2010-07-26T00:17:50Z

We suffered through about a week’s worth of clouds and rain, and then we finally got a beautiful, sunny afternoon on the last day our friends were here.

The Three Musketeers enjoyed running, running, laughing, playing and running around the back yard, while we grownups enjoyed weenie roasting and each other’s company. The girls had a blast together and were great about including Koren, who tried to keep up as best he could.

Been a While

2010-07-25T23:41:19Z

It has been a very eventful few weeks, and mid-summer took its toll on our household. In addition to multiple illnesses, injuries and trips to the ER, we recently lost a member of our household:

I returned from a great Fourth of July weekend in Seldovia to find that good old Dell had given up the ghost. I took it to the local repair man in desperation. As an indication of how that diagnosis went, he gave me a huge discount on his time because he “felt sorry for” me.

Dell was, indeed, toast.

I fretted about this for several days because in addition to the inconvenience of having to use my phone for all internet-related things, and being completely unable to download, edit or do anything with any of my photos (!!!), I had just scored my first paying graphic design job since moving here and would be unable to complete work without a computer and the rather expensive set of software being held hostage on my dead machine.

Long story short, with the help an early Christmas gift (thanks Mom & Dad!) and an educational discount (thanks Adobe!) I was able to score myself one awesome computer (thanks, Apple!) that I have been quite pleased with.

Unfortunately, my new toy arrived on the same day that my parents did, so I haven’t had time to do much more than take it out of the box and occasionally sneak upstairs to pet it for a few minutes at a time. Therefore, I am severely behind in ... well, pretty much everything. Pictures, blogging, software, work, editing, migrating files, etc.

I am still getting used to the way Mac handles files and have found iPhoto to be quite useful, except for the part where it pulls all my photos into the program and won’t let me access them outside of iPhoto. It’s reminiscent of iTunes and makes me wish Apple didn’t have such a proprietary outlook on things that are mine.

My plan is to do some updating more in the next few days. My parents left today and I’m already missing them, but this should keep me busy in the meantime.

Korenisms: Happy Ocean Edition

2010-07-08T06:34:44Z

Koren: Hello, Ocean! Daddo?
Jens: Yes, Koren?
Koren: I talking to ocean.
Jens: You’re talking to the ocean?
Koren: Mmm-hmm. How are you, ocean? Daddo, Ocean says it’s great.
Jens: Oh?
Koren: Yes. It has big boats so it’s great.