*I started this post in late February, over two months ago, so I’m going to keep it brief and finish it up.
January blues have faded and the February crazies weren’t all that crazy. (March: Hold my beer!) In fact, the last two months have passed rather quickly and, as a few students have realized, there are less than three months left of school.
Iris asked to go to Seward to the Alaska Sea Life Center for her birthday, so that’s where we spent Saturday February 15th. She loves to be able to pet the starfish in the Touch Tank and play in the model wheelhouse of a fishing vessel. I love the up-close view of seals and sea lions. Ophelia the Octopus made out of ocean trash creeps me out just a little. Students from Kodiak cleaned up a beach and instead of putting the rubbish in a landfill, they decided to transform the refuse into a work of art. The result is Ophelia. On this trip, we also decided to spend the night in Seward, even though it’s only a two hour drive home. The Harbor 360 Hotel is the only hotel in Seward with an indoor pool, albeit a tiny one. A cozy little pool that was constantly filled to capacity with families and small children. I silently laughed at the one childless couple who thought they were going to enjoy a relaxing evening in the hot tub. They left after about five minutes, during which they shared disgusted and exasperated looks with one another.
Two weeks before the Seward trip, her school celebrated the 100th day of school. It was a pretty big deal and she brought home lots of kindergarten bling to prove it.
In addition to her weekly tumbling class, we also take ice skating lessons together. She wanted to go ice skating with me and the Sports Center advertised these lessons that were for kids and adults. Yeah, I was the only adult, surrounded by a half dozen five and six year olds. Also, I was extremely nervous. I have one vague memory of ice skating when I was young and I did not do well. I had no sense of balance and clung to the side the whole time. It was not an enjoyable experience. That’s why it was with much trepidation that I laced up our skates. She was very excited and thought she’d be skating around like the big girls we had watched earlier. Unexpectedly, I managed to stay vertical for the entire lesson and grew to enjoy the sport. Iris, on the other hand, spent most of that first and second lesson horizontal and it took weeks to regain confidence and actually skate and not just scoot around.
We’ve had so much snow! I know it’s Alaska but even by those standards, it was a good snow year. The eagles hung out close by for most of the winter. The neighbor may or may not have been feeding them fish one day, which allowed us to get close enough for a few close up shots.
wild iris adventures 