Ah, sunshine and warmth!

It's too bad we're now back in Kodiak...

Well, not too bad, so much, but it's probably fair to say that we're both missing that warm dose of Vitamin D we got over the past week or so. Back from where, you ask? From Florida and the Western Caribbean - a couple days at sea and port calls in Grand Cayman and Cozumel to be exact. I'm convinced cruise ships are the greatest invention ever - all the good parts about being underway without any of the work!

Fearing an impending volcanic explosion, and bad Kodiak weather, we took advantage of our first class tickets and changed our reservations at the last minute to head out a day early. This gave us a day of shopping in Seattle, and a guarantee of actually making it down to Florida on time. That was fun, but that wasn't the real reason for the trip.

The real trip started in St. Petersburg, FL, where we spent a couple nights with Ryan and Gina before heading out on the cruise itself. It was awesome to get to see them - we hadn't seen Ryan since about this time last year, though we'd at least gotten to see Gina last fall when we were at Disney. Call me sappy, but I missed my brother! From St. Pete, we were dropped off at the cruise ship terminal in Tampa, where we set out on the Carnival Inspiration for a 5-day cruise. The weather was perfect, I didn't puke (Woo-hoo! This was a major worry since I couldn't take seasick meds due to my "condition."), and we enjoyed time with a good chunk of Jason's family. We cruised with his Mom, Jim, Peggers (his grandmother), Margie (aunt) and cousins Meadow and Megan. The cruise was the perfect format for a family get-together because we had the chance to do some of our own stuff, but enjoyed plenty of time together, especially our dinners! I think our table had the most fun in the dining room!!! After the cruise, we got another couple days with Ryan and Gina, with Ryan winning the brother of the year award for carting me around to the best craft store ever and all the maternity places he could think of. What a guy!!

I'm going to take the cheap way out on the pictures for this one, because I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to post. We didn't take a ton on the trip, but came up with some decent ones anyway. So here's a slide show for ya...
Kodak slideshow link that I hope works!
(My apologies for the cut and paste method. I'm having technical difficulties with my normal Slide show method of sharing things. This is the only other thing I could think of.)

The other exciting thing that happened over the vacation was that I sort of popped during the course of the week. From trying on clothes in Seattle to doing the same thing in St. Pete a week later, I saw a major difference in how they fit. Let's just say I didn't need the little pillow in the dressing room at Motherhood the second time around!

So here's the latest installment of...

BUMP WATCH 2009

These were just taken this morning at 19 weeks and 6 days. I swear I look a lot bigger when I look down at myself, but I know I'm actually looking pregnant these days because my seamstress commented on it when I picked up some stuff from her today. Besides looking pregnant, I also have the pleasure of feeling pregnant... specifically feeling Green bounce around in there. Unfortunately, it's too early for Jason to feel anything on the outside, but a 5-hour flight from Seattle to Orlando taught me that I can pat my belly and get a response. Too funny!

Finally, in baby news, the big ultrasound is Wednesday - we'll finally know whether Green's middle name will be Pink or Blue for now! So, hopefully Green will cooperate and show the parts! I'm sure we'll have more pictures to share on Wednesday or shortly thereafter!

That's all from here. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Has it been that long?

I honestly didn't realize until I logged in tonight that it's been so long since I last posted anything. I'm going to blame Jason on this one since he said he'd update with his exciting deployment out to St. Paul. So, if he'd done that when he got home, about a week and a half ago, I'd only really be another week and a half behind. Oh well...

I have to make this quick since it's getting late and I've been running around all night trying to get my stuff together to get out of here tomorrow. We're definitely looking forward to our trip, and bumped the start up a day to try to stay ahead of the pesky volcano that's been threatening eruption for a couple weeks now. Mt. Redoubt is up on the mainland, not too far away from Anchorage, and could seriously hamper air travel if it actually blows. So we've been watching it diligently for the past week+ just hoping it wouldn't come between us and vacation. If we can get as far as Seattle tomorrow, we're good to go!

I don't really have much to say this week.... we've just been chugging along with work, school for Jason (he started another class about 3 weeks ago), class for me (I'm taking EFM through church), walks for Fred, and enjoying the sunshine when we can. We did have a minor glitch a couple weeks ago when a cyst on Fred's tail decided to get infected and scare the crap out of me (while Jason was gone, of course). A few hundred dollars later, and the cyst is gone, the stitches are out, and you'd never know there was anything wrong with him!

Speaking of enjoying the sunshine, we got out for a great hike at Ft. Abercrombie yesterday afternoon. It was only about 20-ish degrees, but the sun felt great and we got the chance to walk across Lake Gertrude, following the cross-country skiers who showed us the lake was, in fact, frozen under all the snow. Even though I hauled my camera around, there wasn't much to take pictures of, except, of course, my favorite subject: Fred.

I also let Jason take a picture of me... I had to show off one of my best Christmas presents! (A hint: it's on my head....)

I did manage to get a few neat shots of the trail, too. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that they're paying us to live here. Kodiak in the summer, when everything is lush and green, is probably the best way to see Kodiak. But, Kodiak in the winter, on a sunny day with fresh, crisp, white snow, is a very close second.

And, of course, beyond the outdoor scenery, is the indoor scenery that probably no one but my mom wants to see... so.....

BUMP WATCH 2009

This was taken last Friday, at 17 weeks, 3 days. I'll hit 18 weeks tomorrow!! I have to say that, looking at this picture sort of surprised me! I had no idea that I was actually looking that pregnant. Huh. Go figure... must be a kid in there or something!

That's the news from here! Hope everyone's doing well!
Becca

As seen in Kodiak this week(ish).

I say this week(ish) because the first couple of pictures are from last Friday, a little over a week ago. I had to dig a little past just this week since there's been nothing to look at, really, around here this week. That is, unless you enjoy muddy streets, gray skies, and rain... a lot of rain. So much for all that snow - we got our normal Kodiak winter weather back this week and it's not pretty. And, of course, it leads me to do my blogging today while sitting on the couch under the bright glow of my SAD lamp. Ah, light therapy!!!!

Anyway, before the weather turned really bad, we took the chance to get out in the snow for a walk at Ft. Abercrombie last Friday afternoon. We put on snow boots, snow pants (for me), gaiters (for him), and bundled up against the cold; then headed out knowing Fred would be VERY happy to get the chance to play in the snow. Sometimes I think he likes the snow almost as much as he likes the water. Here he is trying to get the stick before Jason had a chance to throw it. (My apologies on the blurry photo - I had just finished taking a nice scenery picture and hadn't set it for action!)
After a brief break to play with Fred, we headed back down the trail to finish up our hike. Now, as I go along through this pregnancy, one of my goals (besides only gaining baby weight and not any extra) is to try to stay as fit and active as I can. I've never been one to really work out, so our nearly-daily walks with Fred are my normal form of exercise. I have found, however, that they aren't as much of a workout anymore because I'm just SLOW these days. I try really hard to move at my old speed, but it just doesn't work that way. Poor Fred gets frustrated, and Jason generally ends up about four steps ahead of me. I just end up breathing really hard, like I'm running a marathon instead of walking on a level trail. I learned last Friday that I become especially slow while trying to climb a hill in too many layers of clothes, snow boots and 5 inches of snow. Luckily, I had my camera with me, so I could use the perfect photo op as a reason to stop and catch my breath when I needed to. Excuses aside, the clear, cold afternoon provided ample opportunities to snap a few beautiful pics. This is one of my favorites of a winter moon.


I'm hoping, now that I'm firmly in my second trimester, that my body will start getting a little more used to its extra cargo and I'll start getting some of my regular energy back. I can't complain about how I've been feeling, though - other than the physical exhaustion, I'm having a pretty good pregnancy so far! Speaking of which, this next picture is for my mom. I honestly can't believe I'm going to put this up here, but whatever... This picture is from this past Friday, at 14 weeks, 3 days. Pardon the unbuttoned pants... I'm trying to stay in my regular clothes a little bit longer, though they're quickly getting too tight. The brown thing around my middle is the world's best invention - the BellaBand. These little pieces of stretchy fabric are the trick to keeping my old clothes on longer! So I've decided that I look much bigger to myself when I look in the mirror, and especially when I just look down, but this is my beginning "baby bump." I've been about this size for the past 3 weeks or so, so change is slow to happen, but I guess there really is a baby in there! With as good as I've been feeling, it's reassuring to see this, at least, since I don't feel pregnant. And, looking at this picture, I feel like I just look a little pudgy. *sigh*

Finally, we'll get back to the good scenery.... Jason and I were both off during the afternoon last Monday, the last day when there was even the slightest hint of a blue sky around here. After grabbing some lunch at a local sandwich shop, we went out in search of some good eagle photo ops. After being doused with slush and mud by a passing truck while I was standing on the side of the road, I actually got my two best pictures under much more benign conditions. The first one, I took while sitting in the truck on the side of the road (warmer and much drier!), and the second was just down the road from our house.

The eagles are back in town in full force now, so it should be easy to get some more good pictures as the winter goes on. They hang out through the early spring, scrounging for food downtown near the fish processors, and then move back away once food is more plentiful outside of town, usually by the end of May.

As I said at the beginning of this post, unless you like muddy gray roads, and gray skies, there hasn't been much else to look at around here since last Monday. Hopefully this latest round of bad weather will clear out sooner than later and I'll have some more of beautiful Kodiak to share. If nothing else, Jason just left for SAR duty in St. Paul for the first couple weeks of the Opilio crab season, so, once he gets back, we'll probably have more dead caribou pictures to share! I'm sure everyone loved that one from last year!

That's all for now - I'm off to stare directly at my SAD lamp or something! (Just kidding!)

Becca

Who am I, and what have I done with the real Becca?

Anyone who knows me, knows that snow has never been one of my favorite things in the world. I was always the first kid to head back inside the house during a day of sledding because of the snow under my cuffs and down my collar, or numb feet, or whatever (and also the hot chocolate we'd get when we came in!!). Snow's always been great for a snow day, or to have a pretty white Christmas, but, beyond that, it's never been my favorite thing. Well, actually, I pretty much don't like it at all.

That was, until the last couple weeks. As I watched the reports of all the snow on the east coast, I couldn't help but be a little envious of their White Christmas, and, well, winter. When all the major snow hit the east coast before Christmas, we were having temperatures in the mid- to upper-30s, and rain. A lot of rain. Rain just makes it messy around here, and it made it feel not like winter, and not like Christmas. Then, on Christmas day, it turned sunny, and over the past couple of weeks, it's been sunny every day! YAY! Except that the temperature slowly crept down into the single digits, the wind kicked up every so often (serious wind - like 40-50mph winds), and it just became miserable to be outside. So, it was sunny, and it was cold, but then the ground stayed brownish (and gray, can't forget the Kodiak gray), and I was still jealous of the east coast snow.

And then we get to today. *sigh*

As I was listening to NPR on my way into work this morning, with a few flakes falling along the way, I heard the forecast - 2 to 4 inches of snow by the afternoon (my first thought: shoot, I only wore my hiking shoes, not my boots!), with more possible overnight! And then, when the sun finally came up this morning (at 9:50am, by the way), the sky was overcast, and more than a few flakes were coming down. As the day went on, the snow started falling faster, and, by 1:30, while I was sitting in the dentist chair, they were closing the base for a blizzard warning! Woo-hooo!!! SNOW!! (For the record, I still left work at the same time as normal, so it wasn't like an actual snow day or anything...)

Of course, said blizzard has not really materialized, but, still, I'm actually happy to see the snow! This is a strange thing for me. I don't remember, other than a cancelled school day, EVER being happy about snow. And yet, I put on my new bomber hat (I'll have to share a picture another time), my extra warm coat, my longjohns and ski pants, and headed out on a walk in the snow with Jason and Fred. And I was happy.

Huh. Who knew? Apparently, I don't hate snow afterall!

Christmas in Kodiak, Year 2.

Another year, another Christmas in the great white-ish north! Unfortunately we were only white-ish, with just a light dusting of snow over night on Christmas Eve. I think I'd rather that than the 3-feet of blizzard-dropped snow we got last year, though!

We both left the cameras sitting on the ground for most of the day, so we don't really have any good pictures from the day. So I'll just tell you what we did!

We had big plans for a day spent in our pajamas, and we didn't have to change those for the most part. We took our time opening gifts, even breaking for the traditional monkey bread breakfast in the middle. With our bellies full, we started making our phone calls when Christina called and asked if we wanted to head out to Ft. Abercrombie for a quick hike/walk with the dogs. Still in our pj's at that point, we put on the warm clothes, tossed on our hats, and headed out for a walk. You don't throw away the opportunity for a hike on a beautiful sunny day up here, even if it is Christmas and you didn't plan to put real clothes on all day!

Jason and I left Brad and Christina to do another loop and headed home, with a date to meet up in a little while for some hot chocolate. In the meantime, we put ourselves together, and headed out to deliver some cookies to some friends in the neighborhood. Cookie delivery done, we changed back into pj's and Brad and Christina came over a little after 3-ish, I think.

Our hot chocolate turned into hours of chatting and laughing, and the next thing we knew, it was almost 7pm!! Though we had each planned our own dinner-for-two, we combined bits and pieces into dinner-for-four, and the good times went on until almost midnight! Lesson learned: never plan a short visit with the Andersons... it hasn't worked yet!!! We had a great time, though, and really enjoyed our low-key dinner and hanging out on the couch!

Of course, there were presents involved yesterday, with Jason getting a gift certificate to design a custom tap handle for his kegerator from Bass Custom Taps as his "big gift," along with a handful of other things he wanted. I think I was a little spoiled, though, since I'm now the proud owner of a gorgeous piece of metal sculpture from a local Kodiak artist. Jason (and his mom and step dad) had an octopus made for me by Mark Witteveen of Metallic Marine Art. The one I got looks a lot like the one at the top of the home page. I LOVE it and have been drooling over them since the first week we got here!!! Fred wasn't left out of the fun, either, though we mostly just used the wrapping paper as his gift! We did get him one new toy, though, which I lovingly brought back from CT when I was there in November. We think he likes it...

But, the best gift of all for us actually came a little earlier in the week. Well, it actually came a lot earlier than that, but we got a first glimpse earlier in the week...


For the four people who may not have heard yet (courtesy of a soon-to-be-Grandma who hasn't stopped telling people since November...), our family will be growing by one this year!!!!! Those fabulous little pictures up there are of our little "Green" Dorval, who will be making his/her appearance sometime around July 15th! The top picture is a great profile, and the bottom one is the baby's two little legs, kicking around in there. That was the first view we had of Green (so named because it's a gender-neutral color appropriate for either a boy or a girl!), and I instantly melted at that sight! I then said to Jason and the doctor (who probably thought I was nuts!), "Hey! There really IS a baby in there!!!" I'm still getting used to the idea of being a mom in just about 6 more months, but I couldn't be happier! We're very excited, and even more excited to finally be able to share the news with everyone!
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and we wish you all a blessed 2009!

The Shortest Day of the Year!

....and it was also the sunniest day of the week. Seriously, the sun came out for the first time since LAST Sunday today. I think maybe God has a sense of humor - the SUN only comes out on SUNday. Ha. It's not funny.

Moving on...

As the title of my post says, today was the shortest day of the year. That's not something I ever paid attention to when I didn't live in Alaska. I mean, I knew when the official first day of winter was (which was always funny, because it always seemed like winter started LOOONG before that first day), but I never really focused on the importance of the daylight associated with that. But, when you live in a place where the shortest day of the year consists of 6 hours and 30 minutes of daylight, you pay attention! For the record, tomorrow we'll have 9 more seconds of daylight than today. Yes, that's important, even if it's just 9 seconds. The key is that it's MORE than today.

So, what does the winter solstice look like in Kodiak? Well, this picture shows what noon on the solstice looks like. On the left-ish is the sun, just barely clearing the top of our neighbor's 2-story house. I actually took this picture at about 12:30, so we were definitely at the high point of the sun for the day!

There is much rejoicing in the Dorval household today - mostly by me - since we're officially on the downhill of this winter. Yes, winter will still last until sometime in mid-April (if we're lucky it won't go til May), but the sun will be out for longer and it will get higher in the sky on the days when we actually get to see it.

Speaking of the sun, as I said, today was the first day since last Sunday (it might've been Monday) that the sun made an appearance. After a week of rain and snain, the blue skies and bright orb in the sky were welcome visitors to the neighborhood. Between batches of Christmas cookies, we took the opportunity to head out for a walk at Ft. Abercrombie. It seems like a lot of other people had the same idea, too. We counted 15 cars in the parking lot on our way out. I think the most we've seen there on the nicest summer day was about 8 or so. Yep, we all were going a little stir crazy!

With that, I'll just share some pictures I took today... the camera finally came back out on a hike with me for the first time in months!

Ft. Abercrombie view: Notice the bit of ice fog on the water... it was just gorgeous out there.

Fred enjoying the view - and some time off leash letting some energy out!

This is why I need an even bigger zoom lens. That's an eagle on the rock.

And, finally, the money shot. It only took me about 10 minutes and too many tries to count, but I really wanted a picture of a water drop on the spruce.

That's the latest from Kodiak. Hope everyone is ready for Christmas and can take the next few days to relax and remember why we all go crazy getting ready!

Delinquent bloggers are the worst!

Don't you hate when you click on one of the blogs you follow regularly, only to discover that the slackers who own it haven't updated in over a month? Yeah, me too. So for everyone who's been asking (and that's not just a few people), here ya go... hold on tight because it's going to be long and picture heavy!

I'll start way back at the end of October, about a week after I last blogged. Jason and I go the chance to fly out to Chicago/Grand Rapids, MI for a weekend to go to my friend Justin's wedding. He got married on Nov 1, but we wanted to make sure we were there in plenty of time, so we actually flew into Chicago on the Thursday before, which gave us time to sightsee a little, and meet up with another friend, Sean, and his wife Katie (and to get a quick peak of their sleeping 3-month old twins, Brendan and Ben).

We didn't have a ton of time in Chicago - and we were exhausted thanks to the red-eye from Anchorage on Wednesday night - so we tried to make the most of the time we had. We walked down the "Magnificent Mile" and headed to the top of the John Hancock building to see as much as we could from there. They take your picture before you head up, and then put it against a Chicago-skyline backdrop. So, here we are on the shore of Lake Michigan!And, of course, I took pictures from up there, too. This one was one of my favorites.

It was a gorgeous day the day we were there, with temps up in the 50s, which was a nice treat for us! When we got done at the Hancock, we headed back down the Magnificent Mile, in search of something to eat.

Although I've never been a fan of deep dish pizza (a la Pizzeria Uno), we figured if we were in Chicago, we should probably eat like we're in Chicago. On a tip from Sean, we hit Giordano's, which is apparently "THE" deep dish pizza place. It took forever to get the pizza, which totally cut into our nap time, but the wait was definitely worth it. A tip from us - never get something bigger than a small to share between two people. We probably could've gotten a kid's size and been fine. There's a LOT of cheese on one of these things! Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!

Later that night, we drove out to Sean and Katie's house in a local suburb, completely misjudging how much traffic we'd see, and how much of a delay that would mean (we don't have traffic in Kodiak!!!). We were a bit late, but it didn't seem to matter too much. We had a great dinner with them that night at the Naperville branch of Rosebud (Italian.... mmmm!!!) and then wandered around Naperville for a while, just catching up. I hadn't seen Sean since I moved from NJ (he helped us pack up the house), though Jay had seen him a few years back. And this was the first chance we had to meet Katie - now I just wish we were closer - we had a great time with them!

From Chicago, we headed north to Grand Rapids for the main event - Justin and Sharon's wedding. We went to the rehearsal and dinner on Friday night, which was a great chance to spend some real time with the two of them. Again, this was the first chance we had to meet Sharon, but I've known Justin since my freshman year at the Academy. Saturday was the wedding. Jason and I were both in the sword arch (a 2-for-1 deal, as Justin said), and also acted as ushers at the ceremony. Following the ceremony, and a quick change into real clothes for me (YAY! A fancy dress! And no, I don't have a picture!), we drove around Grand Rapids with the wedding party in a trolley for a while, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery until it was time to head to the reception. Unfortunately, it was an early night for us because we had early flights the next morning from Chicago (3 hours away) back to Kodiak (for me) and to Portland (for Jay).

That brings us into November. Is this long enough yet??? November was pretty uneventful. Jay and I didn't see much of each other for the month. He was in Portland for the first week, came home for a while, then I left for CT (work/leave). He got called out on a 3-day case while I was in CT and didn't get home until the day after I got back, and then he left again the day after Thanksgiving, about a week later. It was a crazy month, though not much happened!

We did get to have Thanksgiving together, though, which was fantastic. We did a progressive dinner with four different households in our neighborhood, and had a ton of fun! Thanksgiving lasted about 10 hours, starting at Roger and Margo's for appetizers at noon, heading to our house for the main meal later that afternoon, then to Brad and Christina's for dessert, and finally to Beth and Zach's for after-dinner drinks. Here are a couple shots from the day.

I have some other pictures, but that's probably good. We had more food than we could possibly eat, so everyone took their leftovers home (it was progressive AND potluck!). I think we might have had as much food as last year, though, with 6 more people, though. So at least we got closer this year!! And, of course, ol' Tom the Turkey had to have his last flight. Jason thought it would be funny to introduce him to Fred. Ha.

Following another trip out of town for Jason (this time to Mobile, where it was colder than it was here!), we're now into December. The big business this month has been getting ready for Christmas, including tree hunting. We headed out to about the same general area as we found our tree last year, and tromped around for a while in search of that perfect wild tree. This year, we went with Brad and Christina (and Brad's mom), and Roger and Margo (new friends who just moved here this summer). Christina headed up a hill and took off at a trot, so we let her go, and stuck a little closer to the road. In an amazing feat of tree-hunting skillz, Jason managed to find us a tree in less than an hour - and I like it. Roger and Margo got one just a little while before us (that's Fred watching them haul it down the hill), and then Brad and Christina finally scored a little while after us.

Keeping with tradition, we chopped the top of a tree off - though I think we took more of it this year than the one we had last year. We still had to do some trimming once we got it home, but not nearly as much as last year! Here's Jason trying to cut the tree down... can you find him?

I had a bunch of other pictures to share, but I think this is plenty long enough now. So that's the last couple months in the Dorval household. I'll try to stay more on top of things. I have to admit that the onset of winter was definitely messing with me a bit, and I was having a hard time wanting to keep up with this stuff. My SAD lamp has made it back out of the closet, though, and things are back on track. Now you'll just have to wait for updates as I try to get everything done for Christmas! Anyone want to come bake my cookies for me?!?!

Finally, on the Christmas note, here's the (mostly) finished product of our tree hunt (we haven't put our glass and tin icicles on it yet). It's another beautiful tree... and yes, the star is touching the ceiling!