A week with Grandma and Grandpa Neal

Grandma and Grandpa Neal had not seen Lucy since she was 12 days old and we were so excited for their arrival! We took the train down to Denali over the weekend and had a fabulous time.

Lucy really enjoyed watching everything go by out the window. We saw a handful of moose and beautiful scenery.

Upon deciding that a long bus ride into the park in which Lucy would have to be restrained in a car seat would be a trying experience for all, we went in only as far as Savage Rock and did a great little hike to the top.

Lucy walked almost the entire way to the peak all by herself!

We had a lot of down time at home. Grandpa enjoyed snuggling with both the "babies" one afternoon...

One day we took the Riverboat Discovery and Lucy's favorite part was the float plane of course!

There was a lot of blueberry picking this past week. Lucy is a pro at it. One for the basket, one for her. Grandma and Grandpas helped us pick so many blueberries despite our busy week. Our total was 2.5 gallons this week! We keep waiting for the rain to stop so we can get out and pick some more. Lucy will need a stockpile for the winter.

Grandpa left yesterday morning and we miss him already! Grandma stays two weeks longer and she is giving Lucy constant attention...Lucy is soaking it up. Lucy started saying both "yeah/yes" and "bye bye" and also decided that she loves eating toasted seaweed! This girl has interesting taste buds for her age. She says "grandpa" pretty well and it sounds a bit like "papa". She'll see him again in December and will be talking up a storm, we think.

Lucy started eating meat this week! She asked for some NY Strip (um...hmmm) and the next night practically devoured the meatloaf that I made for Grandpa the night he since it is his favorite meal. He was sure proud!

Weekend at Byers Lake

We spent the weekend at Byers Lake with our good friends Mike and Jenny. It was a beautiful place to relax and simply hang out for a couple of days. The water was rather chilly but that didn't stop Lucy from wading and splashing around!

Can you see Lucy?

The view from our cabin. Denali was out the first morning we woke up! It is right there in this photo but hiding behind clouds.

Lucy loved going for walks all over the place to explore. She and dada went for a walk Sunday morning and she picked her very first wild blueberries off a bush and ate them! It's a good thing it is berry picking time in Fairbanks as well.

Snuggled

Lucy may be growing fast but we still love to be very close together and she never falls asleep so contently and peacefully as when she is attached to me. It is the best feeling in the whole world. I also couldn't get anything done otherwise with such an active little toddler on my hands! This particular night I made homemade gnocchi with her on my back.

Happy 15 Months to Lucy!

Our little Lucy is growing so fast and bringing so much happiness to us every day!

Lucy weighs in at 18.6 pounds and she is 28 1/4 inches tall.

She knows a good number of words now so I will list as many as I can, including ones I have listed in the past:

mama

dada

baby

ball

bug

fish

peas

keys

leash

dog

peepees

whoa

go

oh

She signs for: milk, more, food, hot, plane, cat and dog. I am sure she'd know more if we actually taught her more! We got lazy I guess.

She eats like a champ now in terms of what she will try. The other night she ate salmon ceviche, she likes leeks, spicy food, refried beans, indian food. She's my daughter for sure!

Lucy has quite a personality but most of all she is very loving. She gives hugs often to all of us, including the pets and the chickens. She really enjoys feeding Matt and I real food with a fork or spoon. She knows where all of her facial features are as well as her belly button, hands, fingers, feet and toes. Lucy loves to sing along to music with adorable "ahs" and humming. She is definitely an explorer and we cannot keep up with her sometimes. She takes us for walks basically. Lucy loves to help out with things such as watering the garden (she holds the hose with me), throwing things in the garbage and putting things away. Every single day brings new things and we soak each one up in enjoyment.

Lucy's First McCarthy Trip

We just returned from spending 10 days camping with little Lucy so we could work on our place in McCarthy. It was a great trip and Lucy loved being outdoors so much! I have a ton of photos from our trip so I will share a small percentage of them here. The first bunch are of Lucy just cruising around and exploring McCarthy, quite boldly. She felt right at home!

We went into McCarthy from our property for the Fourth of July parade. Lucy really like watching all the festivities that day. I enjoyed pulling Lucy in the Chariot stroller for the first time ever on this trip. The way into town was so much easier than the trip home which is mostly uphill!

Tent life was so much fun! Lucy did very well considering the amount of time we had her in the tent. She and I hung out and read, played games, napped, and even ate in there. Since we were on the raised tent platform without toddler-safe rails...the tent was the safest place to be on rainy days.

We took walks near home and explored with Canute on sunny days.

We even fit in some glorious tent platform baths. Lucy enjoyed the leaves that would fall into her bath and float around.

Matt put in the first level floor and the stairs on this trip. It was a lot of work!

Canute has a new girlfriend, our neighbor in McCarthy's dog. She's very wolfy and made quite a show for Canute daily. He didn't know what to think of it as he's never had a dog make such moves on him.

We took some breaks on the drive home to enjoy the scenery. Matt also dip-netted for salmon in Chitina while Lucy, Canute, and I hung out in the tent and rested.

We're looking forward to our next trip to McCarthy at the end of the summer!