always late to the party...

From Adam, Matt and Jake's hike on Sunday

alternative title: how we spent 5 hrs in Costco.

in another life, i was a trendsetter, a fashionista, an 80s child diva turned 90s spiral perm princess. i wore color coordinated outfits with matching scrunchies. i rocked my pink sweatsuit and red boots at my third birthday party and cried when the snow touched them (good little southern girl). i was rainbow-brite hair color queen for a decade or so in my 20s. i love huge shiny jewelry and i still love my pointy toed stilletos, even if i can't walk in them in the snow.

part of me wants to burn all those photos, and part of me wants to keep them for when i'm 80 and no one believes i was ever cool.

while my shoe collection has been holding its own pretty well over the years, i've been slow to keep up with the technological trends. i refuse to buy a book without pages, held out against cameras that didn't need film, waited as long as possible to avoid getting a touch screen phone. i still don't have an iphone or an ipad and can't tell you how to turn my contraptions into mobile wifi hotspots.


Matt and Jake

 i've been slow to keep up wtih store trends too....it took me four years longer than everyone else to get around to sauntering into the Swedish heaven known as IKEA.

So this weekend, after feeling productive about getting the chips in the windshield on Adam's car replaced, we snuck ourselves into Costco to peer around at prices. i whimpered, discovering fancy scales for cheaper than the ugly one we just got, and nectarines at literally a third the price of the grocery store.  five hours and an executive membership later, we found our new winter happy place...replete with peanut butter filled pretzels and jumbo bags of m&ms. The amount of money we will save on Coke alone will pay for the membership. alright america, i know---i'm late, but i get the obsession with Costco now.

oh, and the pictures are because it snowed heavily on the boys when they went hiking on sunday, while i napped :)

my no bears song

"No bears!

NO MOOSE!

No mountain lions, or cougars, or mosquitoes,

No anything else i forgot to name"

"You said mountain lion twice," Adam says. i'm singing off key (the only way i know how) as we walk through heavy brush on either side. "huh, oh yeah cougar is mountain lion--i really don't want to see any," i reply. We haven't seen anything other than a few tracks to imply any of the aforementioned critters are around except the unceasing buzzing of the mosquitoes. Nevertheless, i am armed with my trusty bear spray and keep singing my song (much to neah's chagrin as she started woofing at the end of each refrain).

We were somewhere around 3 hours and 1500 feet up, too far into the valley near Chugiak to see the Knik Arm. The rain fell intermittently, not enough to deserve the rainjacket, but too much to not wear it. Neah decided to make herself a little seat to rest her legs on some grass....and give you a chance to check out her pack-pack.

As we crossed into the tundra, around 1800 feet, it became markedly colder, with some lurking snow. My song seems to have worked. Nothing moved, not even birds--well, one tried and Neah barked her displeasure. Second lunch happened on the ground, "in brown bear country" with Neah eyeing Adam's chili until he flicked a morsel towards her and me eyeing the mountain faces for any of the song's animals.
 
In 6 hours, we see four people.
 
Upon reaching the car, the usually energetic Neah curled up on my lap, nestled her head into the curve of my elbow and tried to sleep her way home. It took all her might to get back out of the car. i felt her pain--i have four impressive new blisters. At least i thought they were impressive until Adam starts telling me a story of blisters worse than mine followed by several more days of hiking. Apparently, my blisters are not so impressive afterall. harumph.

toe shoes and mosquitoes

It has been making it to 60 on a regular basis. i think this is what the locals call summer. My friend Leili joked that she was wearing a tanktop because it was hot..i'm pretty sure hot was 50 F or so since they are in Ft. Smith in northern Canadia. so, in honor of summer, i am listening to Bachata music, dancing in the livingroom, and continuing the job hunt. There are some great options out there, as always the question is whether they think i am a great option too. In the meantime, sing on Prince Royce.

We've been trying to allow "summer" to usher in new fun things to do. We went hiking again last weekend to some falls just outside of Eagle River. It was a good opportunity to break in the Vibram Five Finger toe shoes. I think there may be a whole series of posts about the adventures of the toe shoes this summer. brace yourselves. The first time i saw a pair of these, Logan had them in Hawaii and i was convinced that this strange shoe fetish must be some crazy hippie stuff. truth be told, the rubberized toe-socks grip better than my hiking boots, are way lighter, and dry out faster.  Back to the hike: the first part of the trail was very wet/muddy. i spent the hike trying not to get my feet muddy, dantilly prancing along the edge of the trail and forging my own way through trees, much to the irritation of the dog who was pissed her herd was not being herded. feel free to mull over the idiocracy of wearing toe shoes and trying to keep them clean and pretty in the mud then sloshing though a stream. the second half, dry and mosquito filled. mosquitoes are the Alaska state bird. they are huge. they swarm. they are out to eat me alive. yes, me personally, no one else.

Back to the picture, yes that is still snow. It is in a shaded area. Also, that's a river (read stream) that comes down from the falls. We had to cross it twice. it was about ankle to calf deep. let me make this clear. THAT ISH WAS COLD. like barely above freezing. but, the shoes were great for getting across because (drum roll please) your feet freeze immediately and once numb you feel nothing. Neah, however, was PISSED that we took her through freezing cold water to see some water thing with a bunch of mosquitoes.

The falls were pretty..mostly it was just nice to get out and moving. And because there must always be a cute picture of the dog: