Second Half of Summer and HEATHER'S VISIT!

Heather came and visited last week! :)

Her visit was SO good, but before I get into it I better write about the second half of summer before I forget all about it!

Back in July, Matt left for a month-long work trip. Lydia was only 3 weeks old. While he was gone I wasn't cleared to start teaching yoga yet, and the university semester hadn't started, so I had no responsibilities other than taking care of Lydia. Which gave us LOTS of time to get to know each other!

Chatting over breakfast :)
(2 months old here!)

In full disclosure I was pretty nervous about this. OK, it's not that long and he's been away for longer than that before. BUT I was really unsure of myself with the baby still and was recovering from a few complications from her birth.  So my mom came for a week. And it was the best. :) (More on her visit back a couple posts!)

But I was still on my own for 3 weeks. And everyone survived. :) And it made me more confident than ever about this whole parenting thing. :)

During Matt's trip Lydia and I hung out, had NUMEROUS doctor visits,

little get-togethers with friends, 

Linking arms!

joined a workout group to get out and about, 

 

started figuring out how to do chores and errands with a new baby,

Still working on this one

little outings, 

chatted with family far and wide (see them in the bottom left? :) 

CHEEKS

got this surprise from Matt after Lydia had a particularly rough day, 

Accidentally matching the bouquet - also Barkley's nose!

and we got to stay in contact with him throughout the trip which was nice. I love this FaceTime screen shot because it shows how bright it was even after 11pm. It never gets dark in June / July in Alaska!

So we made it work but were all really glad when he came home!

...even if she doesn't look like it in that picture. Ha! Then, to make up for lost time (since she was twice as old as when he left), there were books to be read, 

work softball games to go to,

baths to be given,

songs to sing, 

and Gone With the Wind, the movie, to watch because I read the whole book during his time away. :) Reading was the perfect way to get myself to sit still and recuperate.

A week later my family all came up which was SO GREAT (posted about that back HERE)

and the week after that I started teaching yoga again! There's this cute little gym near our house where I started teaching child-friendly classes. That just means kids are allowed to come. :) They've been going really well (Lydia sleeps the whole time) and it feels SO good to get back into it!!

It kind of feels like a mother-daughter thing now, which is cool, and something I hope to continue for a long time. :) 

Oh and then Matt was away for another 4 days. :) Welcome to our life.

Then the week after THAT, the semester started so I began teaching UAF classes again (all online this semester) and HEATHER CAME! :) She and I had been planning this trip since Matt and I first found out we were moving to Alaska!

The highlight of her tip was, for sure, the Northern Lights! She got SO lucky with timing. The first time we saw them, we read that the lights were supposed to be good that night so we drove out to Chena Lake after midnight and decided to stay up waiting for them. We watched a movie in the car, and when it was almost over, we looked out the window to see streaks of glowing green light snaking across the sky! We jumped out and watched the show for a while as it got brighter and bigger, surrounded by a million stars and even the milky way. My pics from that night didn't turn out, but here's one that someone else took of the exact lights we saw!

We considered ourselves lucky that we got to see them together, and figured that would be it for Northern Lights during her visit. HA!

The very next night, I was up late taking care of Lydia, when I looked out the window to see the lights even brighter and bigger than before!!

I ran and woke up Heather and Matt and the three of us went to the front yard to watch as green and pink waves of light filled the sky. It was the first time Matt had ever seen pink aurora (it's usually just green but when it's really good you can see pink and orange or even purple). It was one of the best shows I've ever seen. And we didn't even have to leave the house! This time it was so bright that my iPhone pics actually turned out. :) 

At one point an all-pink explosion opened up right over our heads and filled the sky with solid pink - Ah! I just can't get enough. :) SO GLAD Heather was here to see it with us! 

So after that we REALLY thought we'd be done with lights for her trip, but wrong again! On her last night as we were putting her stuff in the car to drop her off at the airport, we casually said 'I wonder if there's any aurora right now' and looked up to see... northern lights everywhere! Ha! We joked that she was our northern lights magnet. :) It was the best week for aurora that we've had since living here. Great timing, Heather!

The lights were unbeatable. :) But the second-best part of her trip happened during our tour of Denali National Park. Towards the end of our tour our group saw a bear waaay across a valley on the side of a hill: 

Suddenly it started running, went through the little river, up our side of the valley and popped up RIGHT NEXT TO the bus!

...and then casually walked past our window and around the back, and then continued up the mountain on the other side. At the closest point he was probably 5 feet away. 

The rest of our Denali day was fun too. :) We were surrounded by pretty views and it was the perfect opportunity to spend the day chatting and catching up. 

Hard to see but there's a caribu out there

Matt watched Lydia all day while Heather and I were there - I think they had a great time together. :)  

On a different day we hiked Angel Rocks - my favorite hike in Fairbanks. We had perfect weather and the fall colors were just starting to come out. 

See Heather? :)

It took us just over 3 hours and Lydia was an angel the whole time!

Other things from the week: Matt made us a German dinner one night, 

plus the balloons from my dad's birthday when my family visited a couple weeks ago - ha!

We went to the botanical gardens at UAF, 

Shopping, went to yoga (took a class together and she came to the class I taught), watched Troll Hunter (haha!), Fish Taco Friday, the crepe place, other restaurant eating, laughing as we looked through old pics, and lots of baby cuddles. :)

two of my favorite people!

It was such a great visit. :)  Miss you already Heather!! Time to start planning the next trip! :)