The Deepest Heart.

All of my funny (to me) posts are not a completely true reflection of how Taylor and I are feeling. My insides still feel muddy and tired most of the time. Even hearing Carol Burnett on NPR talk about her friend that just died set me off for a couple of hours. Laura was just that cool! She was that important! She was part of our deepest hearts, that area where only a couple people in your lifetime can get into, because it is so completely vulnerable.
Two years ago, when Laura gave us our car, her 101-year-old neighbor John came over to see what was going on and talk with Taylor and Laura about proper car maintenance. Notice how, like in any good mechanic's shop, only one person is working while the others stand around and give advice:

From the Vast Archives of Glory.

I found something beautiful today whilst looking through our old pictures. Here is my birthday cake from 2 years ago, when we apparently didn't have any birthday candles or a real cake. Matches, chunks of chocolate, and a maraschino cherry make a fine and tasty treat.
That year the weather got up to a scorching 85 degrees, and in the spirit of summer we went swimming in our mighty Moose River. This is, of course, the year before we discovered the 7 inch long leeches and 3 foot long Arctic Lamprey lurking in the water (read up on lampreys, they are freaky looking things- like bottom feeding eels. My insides squirm with the mere thought of them...). Look at that happy boy wash himself! Look at the murky water! Look at the floating non-bio-degradable shampoo! Ahh... the follies of youth.

A Veritable Cornucopia of Awesomeness.

The many, many hours of daylight combined with Taylor's gift for gardening have made our garden explode! Please note when looking at these pictures that we planted the plant starts only 2 weeks ago. (And then think in your head, "Golly those Great Green Gardens are Good!")
And here are our herbs (you got your basil, your basic oregano, your lemon thyme...) and broccoli (the little guys in the black pot- they were started from seed).
Lest I get too serious and boring, here is a WONDERFUL picture I found yesterday while cutting up a Natural History magazine from the early 80's. If only my child's destiny could be so promising...

Foreign Goodies

Since my thoughts, and therefore my camera, aren't in a funny-thinking state of mind, here are some great pictures from Ecuador, when my brain and my camera were lovingly in sync:

A very popular idea was to top off the ugly old trash cans with the head of a strawberry, or clown, or Donald Duck! Imagine all the fun that can be had! Now everyone will want to throw away their trash because it's such jolly old fun! Sadly, this lady washing her cart thingy didn't notice all the fun being had behind her.

We were watching one of the daily parades one day and I spotted my all-time favorite Ecuatorians, ever. I like every single thing about these three gems. (By the way, the other day I was reading something in the phone book and I saw the word 'jem' used where 'gem' should have been, which made me sigh, 'Ah, Alaska...').
Taylor went CRAAA-zy with his new charongo! Just plain crazy!
We stayed in this amazing hotel. I'm not rating the amazingness based on things like comfortable beds, or lights that work, or constant hot water- no! I'm judging this place as a 10 out of 10 because of the decor. Every room had a different animal painted on the doors- we stayed in the Golden Retriever room, but my favorite was the Horse room. The Lion and Tiger room was cool too. Unfortunately, the door painting theme didn't make it into the room- our room was clearly lacking in any sort of real Golden Retrievers, or even a stuffed one.

To Our Dearest.

Our wonderful Aunt Laura died a week ago, and this has been the hardest week we have ever gone through. She was more of our surrogate mother than our aunt, and the reason we came to Alaska three years ago. Everything I could say about our emotions right now would be a cliche- our hearts are broken, we're shocked, we feel numb... but I now realize why those phrases are overused in the first place- because they are accurate descriptions of how people feel when something tragic happens.
And so we dedicate this day, June 24th, to Aunt Laura. We chose this day because it is Adalie's birthday as well as Aunt Laura's funeral day, and so we will always remember her and how she was one of the greatest people we have ever known.
We love you, and adore you, and will always remember you.

A Portrait for the Ages.

Alaska has been good to us.

Noteworthy Events.

Many exciting events have been taking place in the lives of the Von Beckleys. First, we went to a plant nursery and saw a real, live banana tree, growing actual bananas! And we live in Alaska! Look at the ripening bananas:
Secondly, Taylor built a raised garden bed so we can have an organic garden. Here he is surviving hordes of mosquitos in the quest for perfect dirt:
Thirdly, and most importantly, I finally noticed what a funny sign our local gas station has:
But the clown isn't lying- those ice cream cones are huge! Here I am (or rather, here my knee is) with a SMALL ice cream, and I've already eaten HALF of the cup! The audacity of those people! Who do they think they are?! Crazy, that's what I think.

One Joyous Activity Down, Many More to Go.

Our glorious days of hiking in along the scenic power lines have come to an end. The water in our mighty river has now risen to acceptable levels (meaning, 4 inches deep) and our mighty, Louisiana-born Go-Devil boat can slog it's way through mud and silt to our place.

Here are some selected scenes from our last day hiking in to our lodge:

Please note the petrified animal droppings gracing the edge of this classic mix CD. This was found near a rubber boot with a bullet hole in the side. The locals here are a real classy bunch.
After seeing all the trash and the general unkempt character of Nature, I decided to really go for it and cleaned the hell out of the messy, dirty land.

A New Car Will Soon Be Yours

Taylor and I are thinking about buying a new car, and we have found a several that we really love. Taylor thinks we should go with the blue one, but my heart is set on the one in the middle!

On a more serious note (C? B Flat?) for all of the moms reading this, we are finally getting to open up our lodge, even though there is still no water in the river- which means we have to hike in 3 miles to our place, through a crazy land filled with teenagers with automatic weapons and really big, hungry bears. We like it, mostly because of the AWESOME DANGER around every corner and the HUGE ADRENALINE RUSHES we get! Here's a picture demonstrating the riskiness of this hike: