June 27-June 30, 20222 Days 31-34: Juneau
Our first week in Juneau and in our Airbnb. It’s been nice to have somewhat of a schedule again!
Chris started work on Monday. It’s weird having him out of sight and not around. He did have to take a lunch break to run a few errands and return our rental car. I’m glad he was able to do it because returning the car with three kids, then getting on the bus to get home felt a bit overwhelming. He’s also trying to figure out the internet situation. We do have WiFi at the Airbnb, but it isn’t the best. Chris was afraid that might be the case and he was thinking of getting a hotspot hub from Verizon, but we weren’t sure how Verizon service would be up here. We had heard that AT&T was the way to go, so Chris wanted to wait to see. Luckily Verizon is decent and he was able to use his phone as a hotspot until he could order a hub.
I spent Monday trying to settle in. I had some emails and other chores to take care of and then I worked on updating my blog. I really wanted to get everything from my journal onto the internet in case I lost my journal. It was quite the project, but I made good progress. I also worked on organizing all our pictures and going through them. It’s great that with digital pictures I can take as many as I want, but going through them sure is a chore!
Monday evening, after Chris got done with work we walked to the park that is nearby and let the kids play. Ellen especially loved it. This week has been quite warm and sunny. Seems like that would be ideal, but we are all a bunch of heat wimps now. Anything 70 or warmer and my kids feel like they are melting. We had highs in the 80s!
The rest of the week we spent time going to the pool. It’s Ellen’s first time swimming and she is loving it. She is much more fearless around water (and in general) than my other two kids. She really is a full time job.
The big kids like practicing their strokes and just playing around. During certain times the slides are open, so we made it a priority to go once this week when the slide was open because Ryan was really looking forward to it. He went down the slide almost the whole time we were there. Lillian really wants to go down the slide, but she is nervous. There is always next week for her to try it.
We’ve kept up the tradition of going to the park when Chris is done with work.
I haven’t taken any pictures this week since I didn’t have a phone and lugging the big camera around with me wasn’t really doable. But luckily I got my new phone last night! It’s weird having a phone again after so long. I will be happy to be able to communicate with people, but I am hoping to keep out of the habit of being on it a lot. Parts of not having a phone were really nice.
I was nervous how Ellen would sleep without having everyone right there, like she was used to in the boat. She also would stay up really late while we were in the boat. She went back to her normal sleep habits really easily and it hasn’t been a problem. Our Airbnb is great, but it is small. There is one room where Chris and I sleep and Chris works. There is a little space off the entryway where the kids each have a twin bed. (They are right behind the couch that is in the living space.) There is a small kitchen with a dining table in it. (The kitchen is right off of the living space.) Then there is a bathroom. There is shared laundry with the hosts in their garage and we set up a time when we can use it. Our Airbnb is connected to their garage, but it is its own space. It’s really nice and perfect for what we need it for. It’s great that it is walking distance to the pool, library, and the park. (Even Ellen can walk to those places.) It’s also really close to bus stops, so that will be nice as well. It is walking distance from grocery stores, but I Think I will just get groceries delivered.
We decided to put Ellen near where the kids sleep in a port-a-crib. We do have a slumber pod, which is a black out tent that goes over a port-a-crib. She goes down great and it hasn’t seemed to be an issue that she doesn’t have a room.
We have been watching movies/TV shows as a family before bed and it’s been fun. We watched Togo, Artemis Fowl, and the TV series Sulfur Springs. It’s been really fun for all of us.
Now we are getting ready to head out on the boat over the long 4th of July weekend. The kids aren’t excited to be sleeping in the boat again, but I am really excited for where we are going!
Ryan’s Thoughts: We got new mods in minecraft, I went swimming, and I won the swing contest. I also had ice cream and popcorn.
Lillian’s Thoughts: I woke up and I was still really tired, why was I so tired? We played tablets, watched movies, had popcorn, and ice cream. We went swimming and I made a new friend at the pool.
