Wild Edibles...from our yard

It's back...the rhubarb plants, that is.  As you can see from Cora's face, she's wondering if this is the year I will use enough to stay ahead of the plant before it starts to look like "Audrey" from Little Shop of Horrors.

So far I've made rhubarb strudel bread, 2 batches of rhubarb chutney and vanilla rhubarb simple syrup to be used later this summer in my rhubarb fizz cocktails.


This year, I also harvested some spruce tips from the gigantic spruce trees in our yard.  This particular batch I used in some spruce tip shortbread cookies.

Maiden Voyage of our Kayak

Some people buy jewelry or go on trips for their anniversaries.  We bought a kayak.  It was the end of the season sale from a local tour company and it's been stowed in the garage since then.  We finally got to take it out on its maiden voyage.

Graham took a day off from work and we set out at Auke Rec.  After we sort of got the hang of it, we paddled over to one of the small islands.  It was such a cool feeling to walk around on the island knowing that there was no one else there at the moment and probably very few people who could say they had ever set foot on it!

We had a little harbor seal pop up to say hi to us.  We stopped paddling and just floated for a bit to watch him.  Shortly after we started paddling again, I turned around and wouldn't you know, directly behind us was the seal.  Apparently he wanted to check us out just a bit longer. 

We had such a great time that we picked the girls up from school and had them give it a go.

Addy liked kayaking but she also just enjoyed soaking up the sun with a good book.  I love that in the background you can see Graham and Cora just making their way back to the beach.

Mother's Day Low Tide Adventure

A -4.7 low tide was predicted for Sunday morning around 9am.  Lowest tide of the year.  That alone would have been enough to motivate us to get out and enjoy searching the tidal flats for sea critters.   It also happened to be Mother's Day and sunny!  We joined forces with our friends the Kellers and off we went to the Rainforest Trailhead on Douglas Island to hike the illusive footbridge to Shaman Island. The footbridge to Shaman Island only reveals itself at very low tides and if you walk out,  you have to make sure you time your return before the footbridge is back under the water.

We found more sea critters than we could have imagined.  In fact, at one point, I felt like I could hardly walk because everywhere I looked there was an anemone or star fish and I was worried I would crush them with each step.  In the bottom left picture, can you spot the baby eel?  Sometime when you talk to the girls, ask them what happens when you try to feed an eel to a sea anemone...(just a hint, it involves lots of people shrieking and laughing)

The kiddos really had a great time exploring and showing each other their finds.

I claimed this star fish as my own - purple!

Our favorite find of the morning had to be this big, beautiful sun star.  The color was just breathtaking.  I love that you ended up with two views: one from the phone I used to take a picture and one from our friend's phone capturing all our looks of "wow!"

With such a low tide we really did have a good couple hours to spend on the island but eventually it was time to head back to the big island.  After we made our way across and were hiking back to the car, we kept turning around and watched the footbridge get smaller, and smaller, and smaller.  To the point where we looked at the people remaining to cross and wondering how fast they could run.

Definitely a Mother's Day to remember!

First fish for dinner

Some of our dearest friends here recently purchased a boat and they have been kind enough to take us out on it a few times.  The first time, wouldn't you know, was pouring rain and despite our best efforts we didn't even catch any fish.  

The girls were fascinated by watching Trevor bait the hook with herring.  And held tight to their poles in hopes a great king salmon was going to give them a nibble.  

Our second trip promised better weather and as it turns out, better fishing.

We thought for sure Graham had hooked a halibut...but no, just a sculpin "lovingly" referred to more commonly as a double ugly.  Cora calls is a double disgusting.

But then Graham pulled up a rockfish!  We kept it, filleted it and had it for an appetizer with our dinner.  It was delicious!

Beach Day Field Trips

One of my favorite field trips for all Juneau kids - Beach Day!  They take each class out to a beach at low tide and they get to explore for as long as they want.  Here's Addy's class...

Anemones, urchins and crabs, oh my!

Addy and one of her dearest friends.  I have a similar shot of them from last year's beach day in 1st grade so they wanted to document that this is their 2nd grade photo :)

In all our waterproof glory

When it was Cora's class's turn a few weeks later, the weather was not so cooperative.  40mph winds and pelting rain made it a little less enjoyable to be at the beach but the kids were all troopers and hiked all the way around Indian Point Cove.  I did manage to sneak one picture of Cora and one her classmates with their biggest discovery that day - a king crab shell and some legs.

JAMM Spring Concert

We Love JAMM (Juneau Alaska Music Matters)!

Here's a sampling of the music they played:

Beautiful ballerinas

Both girls took ballet lessons with Ms. Janice this spring and showed off their skills at their spring recital this past week.

Some video of their recitals:

Beautiful ballerinas.  Both girls really have developed some impressive skills.  And some serious muscles.  Cora snapped this picture of Addy's legs, all muscle.  

Addy is so focused while dancing that she rarely smiles.  But we did get her to let loose at the end during the creative movement part of the recital.  

When asking Cora to pose, while she may look like a ballerina, you can't mask the true Cora.  

 Cora proudly standing with Ms. Janice.

And just because it needs to be documented, I really stepped up my "bun" game this spring.  (If you've heard Ms. Janice critique my bun skills previously, you would understand why).  Addy's bun was really one for the record books :)