Otter Lake, Alaska

May 27, 2014 ~ Crystle ~ 3 Comments

It took longer than I thought it would for us to go camping with Margot. She’s fourteen months old, and before this last weekend, she’d never slept in a tent. Shameful, I know.

We likely would have stayed in a hotel while in Anchorage this past weekend for a Newborn Photo Session, but most were booked, and the Memorial Day Weekend prices were astronomical. On principle alone, it was much more preferable to camp outdoors for the weekend. Otter Lake, Alaska | Yea Yea Pueblo The six-hour drive south from Fairbanks seems to go by quicker in the spring months, maybe because of the long daylight hours, or new budding greenery. Spotting Denali while driving through Denali National Park is the highlight of the commute, so long as the mountain isn’t masked by cloud cover.

It’s not uncommon to see caribou, ibek, moose and other Alaskan critters from the highway all along the scenic drive. This time we spotted a black bear and her three adorable cubs just a mile from our campsite at Otter Lake on Fort Richardson. If photographing the bears were a gun sling, I surely would have been shot dead on the spot… I can never seem to be quick on the draw when obscure wildlife presents itself. One day I’ll get a better shot than the grainy brown bear-butt image I captured in the Yukon last fall. And it’ll always be from the safety of my minivan!

Black bears are small and skittish, though. If we had spotted brown bears, we most certainly would have turned back towards Palmer to find lodging indoors. Sharing a grizzly attack story on an episode of I Survived should be left to more adventurous souls.

We brought Sally along for the trip. My dearly departed Yango, and our new dog Sally have a lot in common — they’re both exclusively city dogs. Being tied to a tree, excluded from hot dog dinners, and swarmed by mosquitoes didn’t equate a good time for Sally, which is weird, because she’s a dog.

It’s a little embarrassing when your dog whimpers at the tent door for you to let her in because she’s cold and the mosquitoes won’t leave her alone, while your camping neighbors have real dogs who chase balls, bark at wildlife, and enjoy dog food. She’s just a spoiled indoor dog who needs her beauty rest.

I love our Sally, though. She’s so docile, lazy and tolerant — all the qualities I want in a dog while my increasingly wild toddler runs amok all around her. Otter Lake, Alaska | Yea Yea Pueblo The novelty of the outdoors was lost on the dog, for sure. The jury is still out on Margot.

She’s a new walker, and she is used to level flooring where she can walk quickly, carry things, and otherwise live out her busy toddler life with ease. In the wooded campground, however, tree roots, rocks, and debris all compromised her gait, leaving her on the ground every few steps, with sticks, dirt and leaves sticking to her clammy toddler palms. She was a good sport about the new method of exploration, but when it came to nap time or bedtime, she was non-compliant. The cry-it-out method we implement at home during nap and bed time was totally futile outdoors, especially without Margot’s precious sound machine and blackout curtains. Fellow campers were assumably unappreciative of her protest cries, and Isaac and I certainly weren’t enjoying it at ground zero, either. To maintain our sanity, we ended up caving to a later bed time (10pm instead of her usual 8) since rowdy young campers were still taking advantage of the extended daylight that runs long into the midnight hours.

We made it through the nights, though. All three of us (and a dog on the second night) in a two-man Mountain Hardware tent.

Isaac was the camp chef for the weekend. He was lucky though, we were close enough to town that we were able to eat out a chain restaurant for lunch one day. I had to go into town for the Newborn Session Saturday, so I obviously wasn’t going to pass up on Starbucks that morning! We were probably the only people disappearing from our campsite during the day to go into town to visit Starbucks and Target. We cheated, okay? Truly we were just trying to get away from the mosquito blood bath we had been enduring at the site.

I came home with over 50 bites and Isaac wasn’t far behind me. We look like we have chicken pox, but the itchiness should subside in another day or so. Margot was the camping miracle who endured not a single bite. She had a few layers on that the mosquitos couldn’t get through, I assume.

Citronella candles and herbal bug repellant were useless against the sheets of swarming mosquitos that are legendary in Alaska. Next time I’ll just layer up much better.

I have no problem car camping near town with a dog and toddler while pregnant, as long as I layer up against mosquitos better the next time, and understand that outdoor sleep schedules nearing the summer solstice in Alaska are for naught. Starbucks helps, too.

Oklahoma City, OK

May 1, 2014 ~ Crystle ~ 6 Comments

Touring a metro area that I called home for nearly a decade seemed a little surreal to me, especially with a growing baby bump and a toddler in tow. I commuted back and forth from the City to Norman, 70 miles a day at my claims adjuster job in what I can only refer to as my ‘old life’.

I worked hard. I still work hard, but I don’t have a paycheck to reflect that every two weeks. Visiting OKC reminded me of the career and young adult life I left behind a couple of years ago. I appreciated the work experience I gained, but I’m happy as an entrepreneur and housewife. On days that I’m bored and cooped up in our on-post housing in Alaska, I remind myself that it could be worse — I could be sitting in my cubicle in OKC, dealing with unhappy insureds, with only a long commute home and a cold meal to look forward to. I spent those days counting down until the weekend when I could have brunch with friends, or until the next payday. Now I’m watching Margot grow up little by little everyday while her little brother tosses and turns in my belly. It’s been so much more rewarding than the insurance workflow I was previously overwhelmed by.

It seems that even while I’ve been away, making major changes in my life over the last two years, Oklahoma has remained the same. Sure, there are a few I-35 improvements, new restaurants, and expanding suburbs, but the landscape hasn’t changed much overall. The scars from the Oklahoma City Bombing remain, although healed in part by a spectacular memorial site. The University of Oklahoma in Norman retains its Cherokee Gothic integrity, even while enduring its decadent student housing expansion. And the downtown area is still under construction — a metropolitan anomaly that is not unique to Oklahoma.

The Arts Festival was more of a people-watching event for me, since Oklahomans wore their Sunday best everywhere. Where were the Chacos? Where were the zip-away hiking pants and gawky gardening hats that I’m used to seeing in the Pacific Northwest? It was a deviation from my new norm, to say the least.

It only took 12 years since moving to, and moving away from Oklahoma to finally visit the OKC Zoo. I guess I was just waiting until I had a toddler of my own to make it more fun. Margot enjoyed waving and playing peek-a-boo with the animals in their exhibits. It was a fairly one-sided engagement for her, since the animals didn’t wave back. It was a sensory treat for her.

Margot got an even better look at the animals near her Great-uncle Sam’s house on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. She ‘helped’ feed the goats, horse and donkey that lived on farms close by. Outside of the zoo, she’s saw her farm animal friends from books in real life. She gleefully waved to them as well.

Traveling with a one-year-old went better than expected; she kept the screaming to a minimum onboard the aircrafts, and back on solid ground, she happily played ‘chase’ and ‘peek-a-boo’ with her Aunts and Grandparents — she even got to meet the Great-aunts who have welcomed her so warmly since her birth. I speculate she is receiving special treatment from Isaac’s maternal side of the family because Margot is the first great-grandchild. She is the changing of the guard, so to speak.

My side of the family is ever-booming in population, so much so that I have aunts and uncles younger than me, and my grandparents have grandchildren older than me. The Sanchez and Shamblin generations know no cyclical bounds in my neck of the family tree.

Visiting to the lower-48 was totally necessary, really fun, and a little too short lived. Next time we’re up for traveling again, we may not be ‘up’ for traveling again! Woodrow Paul will be here, yay!, and Margot will be old enough for us to purchase her plane ticket…grumble.

Oh, looks like you caught that — Woody is what we’re naming our boy. We think it embodies his Okie roots well, while still nodding dutifully to his wooded Alaskan birthplace. We’ll meet our Creole-Mexican-Alaskan baby boy in September, when the leaves turn amber, and the air turns cold once again. Until then, we’ll stick close to Fairbanks.

Las Vegas, Nevada

April 28, 2014 ~ Crystle ~ 4 Comments

Las Vegas, Nevada | Yea Yea Pueblo What an exciting week we’ve had.

It’s been at least 17 years since I’ve been to Las Vegas, and though I’m over 21 this time — pregnancy limited my activities in the same way they did back in the late 90s. No drinking, and well — no gambling, but mainly because shopping was more fun. The Vegas nightlife wasn’t entirely lost on us, though. Isaac and I made our way out to the Mirage to see the Cirque Du Soleil show Love. I’ve been a die-hard Beatles fan since the last time I was in Vegas and this performance showcased tracks from every period of the Beatles discography. It was positively sensational! I would go again and again if price and location were no obstacle.

Las Vegas, Nevada | Yea Yea Pueblo I’m surprised I didn’t have the cops called on me while waddling my maternity body down the Fremont Street Experience with a virgin Margarita in hand. Fortunately, my teenage step-sister was in stride, with the same drink in hand. It must have appeared less incriminating to see a pregnant woman and a juvenile boozing in Las Vegas. I swear, contrary to appearance, they were alcohol-free!

Las Vegas, Nevada | Yea Yea Pueblo Margot was fascinated by the lights on Fremont. She probably thought she had arrived in some cartoon land, which may have been confirmed for her when a homeless-looking Elmo showed up for a photo-op. These street performers and impersonators were everywhere; their tip jars overflowed while happy tourists cheered them on.

Las Vegas, Nevada | Yea Yea Pueblo While in Las Vegas, we had a gender scan to find out whether or not our newest addition would be a boy or a girl. We were happy to discover that our baby will be bundled in blue this September. It’s a boy! We shopped extensively at the outlet malls, and strip malls for our baby boy, coming home with an additional suitcase full of baby boy clothes and toys. The excitement of a second child is finally setting in, and after returning home, the nesting process has officially begun. Margot has no idea what’s going on, except that there are toys in the closet that I won’t let her have.

Outside of the Las Vegas city limits, Red Rock Canyon National Park beckoned — we toured the park briefly, letting Margot see the landscape, and check out a few desert tortoises at the welcome center. Military families get a free membership to all of the National Parks. Those military discounts always put a spring in our step.

Las Vegas, Nevada | Yea Yea Pueblo Margot wasn’t used to all the sunshine yet. She was slathered in sunscreen, tucked under a sun hat, and hiding behind toddler sunglasses almost the entire time we were outdoors. I suppose some of that may have been the first-time-parent syndrome kicking in.

She’s walking a lot more these days, although she prefers to hang onto our hands above her head while she walks — she lacks the confidence to venture out on her own most of the time. She’s getting better at it every day.

On this trip, all of Margot’s grandparents agreed that she is one adventurous eater. Here at home, she eats anything we eat, from feta and salad, to lentils and curry. She really only rejects broccoli and meat — even then, it’s only on occasion. She ate her weight in berries, cheese sticks, and yogurt on this vacation; she even indulged in Southwest Salad, Chinese food and Cajun while we were sojourning. I hope her openness to different foods doesn’t end anytime soon.

Margot also swam for the first time on this trip. It was nerve-wracking for me, probably because I’m a chronic worrier. She fared well, but preferred dry land overall.

She’ll miss all the attention and additional playmates she had while visiting family in Las Vegas and Oklahoma City. Peek-a-boo with her aunt Kelli, and chase with grandma Mimi solicited baby giggles that could end a war. We’ll try to keep her occupied half as much as her family in the lower-48 did, but they are a tough act to follow.

Las Vegas, Nevada | Yea Yea Pueblo I’ll post photos from Margot’s Zoo visit in Oklahoma City soon — there are even a few I took while we fed goats on a farm near her Great Uncle Sam’s house.