Hurricane's, Earthquakes, & ........... Tsunami's?

Last weekend as the east coast braced itself for one of the biggest tropical storms to ever hit the U.S., a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of Canada.  The earthquake was followed by a 5.8 magnitude aftershock causing a Tsunami warning for southeast Alaska.  Of course, being a Coast Guard family, Kolt received phone calls & the neighbors were outside trying to get more details from each other.  Living on an island is new to us so of course we hear "Tsunami Warning" & we started throwing stuff in the truck.  The alarms didn't sound, but from what we were told we had about an hour until the Tsunami would hit.  So, we loaded up the family & headed to high ground.  The warning ended up being downgraded to an advisory for Alaska & we returned home.  The effects this ended up having on Alaska?  A four inch wave in Craig which is southeast of Sitka.  This Tsunami was originally not supposed to have any effect on Hawaii, but sea readings later changed & Hawaii was then issued a Tsunami warning as well.  Hawaii's warning was also downgraded later that night.  This was extremely scary for me & since I have not the slightest clue as how to handle this, I started throwing stuff in bags as I walked around shaking not being able to think about anything.  Situations like this have all of a sudden become a lot more nerve racking now that I have a little baby to protect.  Even though I don't foresee us having to deal with Tsunami warnings a whole lot for the next year and a half that we have left here, I have decided to type up a "Tsunami Evacutation List".  This will help guide us as we pack & load the truck if we ever have to do this again, or at least give me a peace of mind about it.
Oh, & just in case you were wondering, the rest of Sitka was not rushing around like a bunch of nervous wrecks getting gas & trying to find the Tsunami evacuation site.  Only us & about five other Coast Guard families.  Oy!

    

Brinleigh is 3 Months!

Can you believe it?  Because I sure can't.  I know every parent always says how the time goes by so quickly, but the reality is..... That statement is 100% true.  Every time Brinleigh does something new it is absolutely amazing to me.  I get so excited that I feel the need to take a thousand pictures, update my face book status, write a new blog post, & text everyone I know.  Don't judge me, she is my kid.  So on that note.....
Brinleigh is now holding her head up on her own.  It is still a bit wobbly, but that's not her fault.  She inherited her daddy's big head so she has a lot of weight to support.  Hahahaha.  She loves to sit up so she can look around at what is going on & so we recently pulled out the bumbo seat for her to try out.  She seems to be okay with it, not crying or anything, but she is still a little small in it so she gets wobbly.  We are trying it out for a few minutes at a time right now, usually every few days.   

                                                                  What a Big Girl!                




I mentioned before that she was learning to smile at us, but now it is on a whole new level.  She has got to be one of the happiest baby's I have ever seen.  And we LOVE it!  It is absolutely adorable.  As soon as she wakes up & see's one of us, she smiles.  When we change her diaper, she smiles.  When we give her a bath, she smiles.  When we talk to her, she smiles.  Just about any time we are interacting with her, she is smiling.  She has recently become a lot more vocal too.  Cooing & squealing at us constantly.  We thoroughly enjoy talking to her & watching her face light up & hearing her make her little noises back at us or laugh & giggle. She also entertains herself by "talking" to herself when she is in her swing or on her play mat.  She is getting better with her hand - eye coordination and can grab on to the links, rattles, & other toys that we have dangling above her on the play mat or the bouncer.  She bats at them with her hands & kicks her legs & feet but is starting to grab on to them as well.  She still enjoys anything musical & seems more interested in things that light up.  She also seems to have a pretty routine schedule now as far as night time sleeping & day time naps.  Since Kolt is working the night shift (4pm-12am), Brinleigh & I also seem to be on his schedule.  She usually goes down for the night between 11pm - 12:30am & she will usually sleep until 11am - noon.  She does wake up around 6am to eat & since she will fall asleep again while eating she will want to eat again around 8 or 9am.  Since she is only 3 months old, I am not too concerned with setting a specific schedule for her.  I have not tried to adjust her schedule or sleep train her or spread out the night time feedings.  I will focus more on an earlier bed time, earlier wake up time, & specific feeding times throughout the night at around 6 months.  But we are perfectly fine with the way things are as of right now.  I think we are just very thankful that she actually sleeps through the night.  
We are really enjoying life with our precious baby girl & could not have been more blessed to have such a great baby.  Happy, healthy, AND sleeps through the night?!?!?!?!  What more could we ask for?         

 

God's Beauty

Mount Edgecumbe during a beautiful sunset  
(P.S.  These pictures were taken while sitting in my car in the grocery store parking lot)

Alaska Day!!!

Every year on October 18th, Alaska celebrates what is considered to be a holiday called Alaska Day.  It is the anniversary of the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, which took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867.  The original ceremony for the transfer included 250 uniformed U.S. soldiers, who marched to the Governor's house in Sitka at "Castle Hill", where the transfer was made. It was here that the Russian troops lowered the Russian flag and the U.S. flag was raised.  Although the formal transfer of Alaska took place on October 18, 1867, the signing of the treaty for the purchase of Alaska from Russia by the U.S. occurred on March 30, 1867.  Alaska Day is observed statewide, and is a paid holiday for State of Alaska employees. The official celebration is held in Sitka, where schools release students early, many businesses close for the day, and events such as a parade and reenactment of the flag raising are held.  Even though this is a statewide holiday, most of Alaska does not actually celebrate the day with events the way Sitka does.

Castle Hill has a beautiful view of the town, the ocean & some islands, surrounding mountains, the O'Connel Bridge, the Coast Guard Cutter Maple station & part of Japonski Island (where we live).  Here are some pictures I have taken from the top of Castle Hill.

Here are some pictures of Castle Hill that I got off of the internet:

                                           View of Castle Hill

                                          

                                          Stairs leading up to Castle Hill

                                             This is the top of Castle Hill

 

And the view of the town from the top of Castle Hill

We experienced our first Alaska Day last year after we had just arrived in Sitka.  The bank that I worked for at the time, closed their Sitka branch & Kolt had the day off but was required to march in the parade.  This year, as usual, the Coast Guard marched in the parade & I of course went to watch with the rest of the town.  This was Brinleigh's first parade & even though she isn't old enough to be interested in any of it, I thought she might enjoy all the movement & noise of it all.  She slept through just about the entire thing, including the soldiers who were shooting as they marched by.  Of course it was just air & smoke coming out of the guns, but it was still very loud & I thought for sure that the bang would wake her up.  Not a single movement.  The Coast Guard is usually at the front of the parade line & so once they reach the end of the parade route, they walk back down the street & watch the rest of the parade with their family or what not.  Brinleigh woke up towards the end of the parade & we were able to take a few pictures with her.  

Getting bundled up to go watch the parade

                                                     Sleeping during the parade

                                                After waking up

                                           My friend Kate, Me, & Brinleigh

                                             Kolt & Brinleigh after the parade

                                           Our Little Family

Eating lunch with Daddy after the parade.  And wearing her new winter hat.

Changes

I originally started this blog to write about all of our new experiences in this foreign land so far, far away from what we are used to.  Every time we talk to family & friends, they always want to know what Alaska is like & ask all kinds of questions about what we do here, how we are adjusting to the environment & weather, what it's like living in such a small town on an island, & what kind of animals we see.  When we got pregnant, this became the place to update everyone, or anyone who reads this blog, on the pregnancy.  Now that we have had a baby & have been here for over a year, the blog topics seem to have shifted.  I will continue to keep everyone updated on our adventures here in Alaska, but I will also focus more on writing about our family, thoughts & ideas, future plans, & anything else that comes to mind.  With that said, I will probably be making changes to the layout & design of our blog as well.  But now.... what do I change our blog title to?  We are no longer "Kolt & Lexi", the couple, but now Kolt, Lexi, & Baby Brinleigh, The Foreman Family.  Hopefully, something creative will come to mind, but in the meantime, any suggestions are welcomed.  We hope that anyone who reads our blog continues to enjoy learning about & keeping up with our blossoming family.   

2 Month Well Baby Check Up

We had Brinleigh's 2 month well baby check up on Monday & surprise!  She has grown!  Baby Brinleigh now weighs 10.5 pounds, she is 22 1/2 inches long, & her head is 15 1/2 inches around.  She had to get an oral vaccine which she seemed to like & three shots which she was NOT pleased about.  The shots were the very last thing we had done during this visit & Kolt actually left the room before they were given.  That's right, completely up & left me with no back up for our sad screaming baby.  He just could not stand to be in the room to watch the nurse stick her several times or listen to his poor baby cry from pain.  I, on the other hand, had no choice but to be strong, which was actually pretty easy because it wasn't that bad.  The nurse gave her two shots in her left leg & one shot in her right leg.  She didn't scream & her cry wasn't a high pitched wail, but she definitely let us know that she didn't like the shots, but what person does?  She seemed a little sore later on in the day & I gave her some baby Tylenol (the nurse told me I could) which seemed to make her sleepy.  
My dad came to visit last week for a few days & it seems he picked the perfect time as far as Brinleigh's age, not so much for the weather.  Brinleigh is starting to recognize when we smile at her & she will smile back.  She loves being talked to & of course hearing about how cute she is.  She gets the biggest smiles when you tell her she is the cutest baby there ever was.  She smiled all sorts at her Grandpa Keith & she seemed to really enjoy sitting with him on the couch & just hanging out with him.  The weather was typical Sitka weather, cold & rainy, so we didn't do much outside.  
The seasons are changing & we feel winter fast approaching.  Our day light hours have decreased & the sun rises & sets at normal hours as of right now, but we lose five minutes of daylight every day until the end of December.  The temperature is also dropping & it seems to be getting colder at night & even a little cooler during the day.

9 1/2 Weeks until we go home for Christmas vacation!