So, Matthew didn’t take any photos of us (read: me) packing. It was a frenzy of nonsense, as is usual with pretty much anything I am involved in. The plan was that we would be in bed by 10pm for our 5am wake-up (with a couple days in transit, I can’t really pack the fresh and frozen stuff until right before we leave). 10pm came and went. We were close. We could have gone to bed at 10. But there were all those papers on the flat table. And dishes on the counter. And laundry lying around. We didn’t want to saddle Emma with cleaning up after us on her first day. So we spent a couple hours throwing everything into a large box (except for the dishes, which we (read: Matthew) actually washed) labelled “To Sort Through When We Get Home”.

Matthew went to bed around midnight. It was at midnight I decided to make the weirdest thing I’ve ever made. It’s actually been on my to-do list for a long time – but as with all things I want to do for my kids, it gets left till the absolute last minute (see Alden’s birthday bike). Such is the way it is.

So, here it is (Matthew wasn’t available to take any process pics) on the floor of baggage claim in Anchorage, where we are currently hanging with Iggy for our 8-hour layover:

It’s basically a beanbag with 5 sets of clips sewn in to the sides. Kato loves clipping clips. He will walk around with Iggy’s collar for hours, clipping it and then demanding that we unclip it. I thought this would be a way for us to keep him distracted for at least five times as long on the trip up to Alaska.

Luckily, I was right.

We call it Clip Monster, which means I probably need to add eyes on to it when I have time. There are many ways to clip – Kato’s specialty is haphasard, Alden’s is by matching ribbon colors.

Either way, each clip is clipped with ferocious effort followed by a self-congratulatory “GOOD JOB!” .

Good job all around, I say. Hopefully it has lasting entertainment value, given that it robbed me of 2 hours of sleep on the front end of this ordeal.

Onward. Up next: the end of civilization (King Salmon, AK). Don’t stay tuned.