2009....still winter

Before Christmas, our great neighbors, Tricia, Jamin and Laney left for Scotland. We will miss them. Here is Hope and Laney, with Hope giving Laney one of her most prize possessions, a purple tu tu.

We went to Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Film Festival. Visited friends there and then drove to Colorado. Here is Grampam with the kids and grandkids.

Hope turned six January 13. Her best buddy, Tasso the cat is helping her blow out the candles.

Anchorage hosted an outdoor art festival called the Freeze Project. Here is Jolie and Hope going through a maze at 10 below zero. They don't call it the Freeze Project for nothing. This is on the Park Strip. A park down town that was an airstrip for Anchorage back in the day.

No Alaska adventure is complete without a sled dog ride. We went up to Girdwood, and although the skies were clear, it was cold, even by Alaska standards. Jolie and I took turns holding Hope on our lap in front of us, that helped break the wind for Jolie and I and kept us warm. Hope (who rarely complains about the cold) on the other hand, was so cold she had tears coming down her cheeks and her toes were numb. This ain't no Colorado ride with blankets and hot cocoa. We left the ride with a perfect imprint of our butts on a wooden seat of ice. It smelled like you were behind 16 wet dogs, with a 15 knot head wind.

Here is Jolie holding Hope in front of her.






Here is Nic holding Hope in front.

There is a new speed skating oval in town. We checked it out. It is a good work out to get in shape for the ski season. What a way to kill some time at ten below zero. The picture of Jolie with frost on her eyes was before she lost feeling in her toes. The picture of Hope and Jolie on the bench is after she lost feeling in her toes.



Jolie and I took a trip on the "ski train". The Anchorage Nordic Ski Association chartered the train and took us off the road system towards Talkeetna. It stopped at a spot called Curry and dropped us all off. It was a blue sky day; we saw bald eagles and Mt. McKinley (Denali) on the way up. Here we all are sorting out the skis.

Below is the polka band. They went through and woke everyone up at about 7:30. Then on the way back from skiing they played in the Polka Car. Jolie and Nic danced the chicken dance. Not easy on a moving train, after wine and cheese, but we met the challenge.

Above is Nic and Jolie out skiing.

Here is Jolie on the train.

Below is Nic and Hope at a cross country ski race. It was Nic's first race ever and Hope's first race ever. It is called the Sven Johansson. There are more than a couple of Scandanavians skiing in Alaska. Nic did a 30K and Hope did a 2.5K

Hope did her race at the same time Nic did his. Jolie asked Hope if she wanted her mom to go with her. Hope was adamant about doing it all by herself. After the flag went down and all of the 12 year old boys raced off into the woods, Hope was in the back of the pack, sans poles, skiing off into the woods. Jolie wasn't sure if it would be a good idea for a kindergartner to be all by her self in a maze of trails in the woods. Jolie evenually caught up with her and joined her to the finish line. Here are a few shots of Hope going out on her adventure all by herself. The last picture of the three melts my heart. Nic.

Below is Hope on the first day of spring. She was so excited about the equinox she put on her flip flops and exchanged her winter coat for a light wind breaker. It was pretty nice, finally, above 30.

Getting the Tree

Nic and I feel that traditions and customs are important. Nic is better at "enforcing" them than I am. I cave to the stresses of life, and would sometimes "vote" to forego a tradition in favor of doing one less thing. Thank goodness for Nic, though, since I know these traditions will become a part of who Hope becomes as she grows up. (So, I know I don't say it enough, Thank You Nic!) One of the traditions for us is cutting down a Christmas tree. Nic has cut down a tree with his family for as long as he can remember. (We even cut a juniper tree down last year to preserve this tradition - even though our movers were coming Dec 27 to pack us all up for the move from UT to AK. The juniper tree, cut from the desert of Utah, smelled an awful lot like cat pee. Our house was on the market to sell, and we had to put the juniper on the back deck - but we did put lights on it. But, the point is, it was a tree that Nic and Hope went to the great outdooors for, searched for, cut down, and brought back to our home. I "voted" to forego last year - and I think that will be the last time I make that choice...)

This was the first year for our Alaska tree - Hope is standing in front of the one we chose. We went the Saturday after Thanksgiving to a spot about an hour south of Anchorage. It was unseasonably warm - in fact it was raining. It was warmer than any other time that I can remember getting a tree. Turns out we cut down a hemlock. It's quite nice! But, doesn't smell very "piney."

Last weekend, we had a moose sleeping outside of our dining room window. She was a joy to watch. She stayed for at least an hour. How amazing!

The three of us (4 if you count the new cat!) will be home together this year. We will still have our traditions. Nic and Hope will make Christmas cookies and make cinnamon rolls (just like his grandmother did) to bake on Christmas morning. I have some traditions too - cut and bake chocolate chip cookies when we decorate the tree - and we talk about EACH ornament as we hang it up. We talk about where it came from and share a lot of memories as we put up each one. It takes us a while to decorate this way, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's to your Christmas traditions...with love from our home to yours...here here!

Fun in the Sun in Hawaii

We snuck off to Hawaii for a week in mid-November. We got an email from Alaska Airlines about an airfare sale to Honolulu, and we found a cheap place to stay (you get what you pay for) and the three of us went 10 days later. We were there for our 8 year wedding anniversary, so this was a great gift to ourselves. We stayed in Kailua - a beach town about 20 miles from the bustle of Honolulu/Waikiki. We spent a lot of time just hanging out at the beach. We played in the sand and in the surf, baked a lot of pretend sand-chip cookies, and I (Jolie) was fortunate to make yoga on the beach for four mornings (one morning for sunrise). It was a great vacation!

Hope and Nic enjoyed the boogie board, but I suppose I still have my New Orleans bones because I thought the water was chilly. That didn't stop me from enjoying a lot of nothing on the beach. We spent a day snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. I can't believe how incredible that was. It is a state park that gets really crowded, but in good Nic fashion, we were one of the first people there in the morning. So, it was great. I forgot all about the chilly water when we were snorkeling, because there were fish galore. But, the first thing was saw was truly wonderful. The three of us were swimming, holding hands, and a sea turtle swam right up to us. All 3 of us watched him and we were giving each other the "thumbs up" since we couldn't really talk about it with snorkels in our mouths. Since that was the first thing we saw (before fish even), I thought we'd be seeing sea turtles all day. However, that was the only one we saw and I think it's because we were there so early. This is a picture (that we didn't take) of what the turtle looked like while we were looking underwater. Truly amazing!On the last day, we visited Pearl Harbor and walked around Honolulu's China Town. We saw women making leis, and we bought one for Hope. It had plumeria and orchid and smelled absolutely wonderful. She brought the lei to show and tell and we used it as part of a Hawaiian Princess outfit for a Pirates and Princess party the weekend after we got back.

TASSO THE CAT!!!! I keep meaning to post photos of our new cat Tasso. He is now about 9 months old. He is an absolute wild and crazy cat. We were looking for a cat who Hope could play with and who was kind of "dog-like." Well, we got Tasso. He is very outgoing, and not afraid of anything. Purrs constantly. He lets Hope cart him around holding only one leg. They are best buds. With that, though, comes a cat who is NOT afraid of the squirt bottle or anything else for that matter. We keep hoping he'll mellow out as he ages. We'll see...

(Hope was a cheeetah, again, for Halloween. She picked it - I promise!)

Fall

The weather turned out great for Fall. Nic's mom and dad "Grampam and Grandpa" came and visited. It was great to have Pam and Larry here in Alaska. We were able to show them around, and they went to Seward for a few days by themselves. They also helped us finsish some projects around the house. Of course, they spent a lot of time playing with their Hope.

Here is Hope helping Larry and Nic split wood for the wood stove to help heat our house for the winter.

We went for a hike on Winner Trail outside of Girdwood.

Above, is the hand cart that we used to cross a small canyon with the creek at the bottom. Two people (or two with a 5 year old) is all that fit in the cart.

Hope's Cross Country Training
We've experienced a great fall. Hope ran her first cross-country running race (maybe the first of many to come?). Here she is after "winning" her first medal, and with our friend, and her classmate, Tatum.

We all went for a hike to Hatcher Pass, north of Anchorage. It is the site of an old silver mine. We lucked out with beautiful weather again and had a great day exploring the area.

Nic took his parents on a short but steep hike above the Turnagain Arm for a view of the Kenai Peninsula. Once at the top they were treated to a spectacular view on a great clear day in September.

Above are a few pictures of us hiking to Portage Glacier. Hope wanted to keep hiking and we went bouldering for a while. Some hockey players on the same hike were not going to go further down the trail, until one of them pointed out the fact that a 5 year old girl kept going. "Dude, she owns those rocks," one of them commented to no one in particular.



On Columbus day we had to take Pam and Larry back to the airport. We awoke to snow and a suprise guest on our front steps eating the rose bushes. Shoo moose shoo.

First Day of School!

Hope started Kindergarten at Denali Montessori yesterday. Her teacher is Mrs. Irene. Hope loves it! She wants to eat "lunch on a tray," so today she got the hot lunch. It was very impressive - egg roll, rice, and a "peach thing." She loves it and wants to have lunch on a tray tomorrow too.

Grumps, my dad, brought Hope back to Alaska from two weeks in New Orleans where she had a lot of fun and played a lot of Uno (the card game).

One of our favorite activities these days is going to the raspberry bushes in front of our house and gobbling up all of the ripe berries. The morning of the first day of Kindergarten was no exception.

Trip to Seward, Alaska

In August, Jolie's mom came to visit and we went to check out Seward. We took a boat ride around Resurrection Bay and saw whales, sea otters, sea lions, seals, eagles, loons, oh my! It was a lot of fun, but not real toasty. A boatride is something all visitors should do.

Glaciers:


Glaciers calving - booming and splashing - it's an incredible site!
We saw several humpack whales - Nic did a good job of getting this dive captured with our camera:

Judy is getting our photo with the New Orleans' daily paper, The Times Picayune - we'll let you know if we're published in the paper:
Steller's Sea Lions sunning (?? - sun is all relative - ??) themselves:

A side trip to Exit Glacier outside of Seward the day before the boat ride:

The sun making a rare appearance on a picnic on our way to Seward:

In case anyone is following our remodel, pics will be posted soon. And we are DONE!...with the things we're paying others to do. Is anyone ever truly done??? Well, we are as done as we can be for now. Of course, there's always the paint touch-up, picking out the right thing to hang on a strange wall, etc. And there is still more fun to be found outside (we've identified the trees to sacrifice to improve our view of the ocean!). The saga will continue - as most of you can relate to. And summer is almost over - WHAT HAPPENED??? Still hoping some of you will make the time to visit the last frontier!

Love, us!