Wow! We've had a busy few days. At the beginning of the summer, I agreed to give camping a better try. It's pretty rare to live in Alaska and refuse to camp -- yet I've pretty much been doing that for the past 10 years. My kids love it and my husband loves it, though -- so I agreed to two weekend camping trips, the first of which was last weekend.

Wouldn't you know that our weekend, chosen months ago, would be one of the windiest and coldest we could choose? And I must say, THAT is saying something given the cold and wet summer we've had. We were in Portage campgrounds and the wind can really whip through there, creating cold gusts that come down off of the glaciers.

We actually had a nice time given the weather -- we enjoyed the time with family (Greg's folks, the cousins, a few of Greg's aunts and uncles) greatly. We got a few nice nature walks in on the beautiful trails in the area before the rain really started pelting down. The kids really enjoyed the time with their cousins. For me, it was really nice to enjoy the outdoors during the day and then sleep in a friend's condo in Girdwood at night. They were kind enough to loan us the keys while they are on vacation and it was really wonderful to be able to dry off and warm up at night.

We returned from our weekend of "camping" to find that a dear friend had gone into labor with her 2nd child. I had offered to help out with her toddler if she needed it, and apparently she did. We walked in from our camping trip, got the phone call, and immediately went to pick up Annika. She stayed with us for about a day and a half. It's been a while since we've had a toddler in the house. It was reminiscent of the good, the bad, and the ugly of those years. It was wonderful to see my kids being so kind and thoughtful and helpful with her. They genuinely enjoyed having a little one around and I didn't even have to ask them to help me out with her -- they just did it. Yes, that made my heart beam.

You do forget, though, how much less you get done. And how tiring it is. We had a great time with Annika although by the afternoon of the second day, her exhaustion got the best of her. It didn't help that she was trying to keep up with the big kids -- we had an afternoon of music lessons, swim lessons, and the first match of the end of season soccer tournament. That's a lot for a 2-year old to keep up with, especially one who has had no nap (her mom warned against a nap if she was to sleep at night) and is off of her normal schedule with all the excitement of the preceding days.

Like the photo? After our wet weekend, Annika couldn't help but find giant puddles at the soccer field. They were impossible to NOT find. It was impossible to keep her out of them. And honestly, it was better than having her run out into the soccer fields in the middle of the games and get her noggin hit with a ball. I just had to laugh, though. I have pictures of my kids in giant puddles at that age, too, but it's been a while. It's amazing how quickly they grow up!