Rope Tow Graduation

I think next time up we'll try the lift (if I can talk them into it).

I love you daddy!

I was up with the kids this morning. Owen was first to awake and I came downstairs to play legos.

"I love you, daddy!"

"I love you too, Owen!"

"...because mommy isn't awake yet."

Holy Birthday Party Batman!

I'm not sure if this one will ever be topped (at least by us).

Over this past weekend, the kids went to a birthday party for a friend of theirs. We had cake and ice cream (and some delicious lasagna). There was also a book exchange which by the way is a great alternative to the present thing. Each parent brings a wrapped book and you play a game with the kids where each one has a turn to pick a book out of the pile in the middle. Each kid goes home with one book including the birthday child. This makes for fewer trips to the birthday party isle at the local mega mart and headaches over how to store 12 new toys. Great idea.

So is it the book exchange that will never be topped? Well, maybe, but I think we could probably do our own book exchange at some point so no...that's not it.

EACH KID GOT TO GO DOG MUSHING!!!

Yeah, that's right. It wasn't a pony ride or a clown...it was a team of 6 dogs pulling each kid for about 15 minutes on a ride down a frozen river. One of the mushers that took the kids is entered into the upcoming Iditarod race (if you don't know much about long distance dog mushing, it is about the most extreme test of human endurance I have seen)! They all had a great time. They got to jump inside the kennels, see the dogs up close and sip hot chocolate on the banks of the Tanana river. It was incredible!

Carol and I didn't go for a ride, but we have been and it's really an amazing feeling. It's somewhat unique in that you move through the snow at a fairly brisk pace, but there is almost no noise. You expect to hear some type of motor whenever you're moving that fast, but it is nearly silent. I guess the closest thing to it that I've experienced is sailing. Anyway, it you ever have a chance to go on a dogsled ride...do it. You won't be disappointed. Owen also was a little cold to do the ride, but he did take a nice tumble on the way down to the river.

More photos here.

Oh, and they also have some crazy pilots up here in Alaska...

Vday and Brownies

We had a great Valentine's Day. The kids made chocolate hearts from white chocolate tinted pink with regular chocolate highlights. It was Carol's idea and they loved it. They kind of painted the chocolate into the molds and anything that involves painting is an automatic hit. The kids also did the filling out of cards and the all school delivery. V day receipts included a fabulous card from Popop (as usual), giant candy hearts from Gram and giant chocolate lips from dad. Holiday + sugar = fun (until the sugar high comes down). Anyway, it was a great day.

For my office staff, I decided to make brownies. I thought of going to find a brownie recipe but then remembered the one my mom used to always make. It was probably the first recipe I actually cooked on a regular basis and even sold the brownies on a couple of occasions at school. I didn't have the recipe, but thought I could maybe remember it from days past. I honestly hadn't made the brownies in 20 years (I know Carol has never had them) so I never expected to be able to put them together from memory, but somehow the numbers were still there. I started thinking about other random things I remember from long ago. This included mostly phone numbers of friends on my street that I have long since lost contact with along with some random book facts. It's not unusual to remember phone numbers, but I am not particularly good with them and have difficulty recalling the phone numbers as common as the one Carol and I had in SLC at our apartment! How could I forget that number, yet remember a number I have dialed a thousand times less. I guess there are just some things that get seared into memory and they'll never leave. That being the case, there are certainly worse things to have seared in than a brownie recipe.

The brownies turned out just like I remember (I'm not quite sure about the cooking time as they took a little longer than expected and I am cooking at a slightly lower altitude). They are mint brownies and not really a cake-y or chewey brownie but kind of a hybrid. Here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 325
Melt 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate with 1 stick of butter in microwave
Mix 3 eggs and 1 cup sugar
Add chocolate/butter to eggs/sugar (may need to temper)
Add 1/2 cup flour (do not overmix)
Add 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
Place into greased 10x10 square glass baking dish
Bake for 30 minutes (I had to keep mine in for 40)
Cover with powdered sugar or frosting (I'm a powdered sugar guy myself)
Eat!

San Diego

So I finally made it through all the photos from our jaunt to "the lower 48" as they're called up here. We first made a fabulous stop in SLC (see post below) to see family and then we were off to San Diego. We did have to take a detour through San Francisco but eventually made it to what has to be one of the best places on the entire planet. Warm...sunny...paradise!

We spent most of the trip sleeping in, going to the pool, going to the beach and eating lots of ice cream. The Hotel del Coronado is just down the road from where we stay and has become a favorite ice cream spot. They even have sorbet for little O. They also have a great Christmas tree over the holidays and an ice skating rink, but these were pretty much gone by the time we arrived.

The girls had started playing a little tennis up here over the summer, so we brought their rackets and played a little. The courts are close by and they had a great time. If anyone out there is doing the tennis thing with little tykes, get the superlight balls (basically foam balls). They make things so much easier. Regular balls are way too heavy for them to hit anywhere, but the light ones are relatively easy and keeps the frustration level low. Next time I'll have to get a few more. I only had six which made for lots of ball chasing (the aim part of the swing is still under development for the kids).

A couple of days into our stay, we decided to brave Disneyland. This was the first time Carol and I had gone solo (we usually come armed with very helpful grandparents) and we missed them dearly but still had an incredible time. I don't know what it is about Disneyland, but for kids, it really is magic. The kids walked around in a kind of Disney gaze all day and kept talking about it for weeks afterward (o.k. maybe days). We have been three times now and crowd wise this was by far the best. We first went during the week between Christmas and New Years. Do not do this. Our first ride was Dumbo which took 2 hours to get on (6 minute ride). There was a sea of people we had to wade through all day. They did have a great parade and fireworks show, but WAY too many people. Last year we went the week after New Years and it was MUCH better. Lines were long (30-60min) but manageable. We felt like we had a little space to breathe. They still had a great parade and shows. This year we went two weeks after New Years (yes, the kids missed 3 days of school). Lines were 2-15 minutes (we didn't do Space Mountain which was probably a little longer) and crowds were amazingly low. There wasn't a parade (I guess they only do these when crowds are high), but there was a small show at the end of the day and we got prime seats to a princess extravaganza during the day complete with interactive princess pole weaving (running around a pole with a streamer and Sleeping Beauty). The girls got their face painted and Owen got to go on the space ship ride (like Dumbo but in Tomorrowland) 3 times. The park also closes a little earlier (8PM), but overall it was a great time to go.

My favorite thing about Disneyland is the churros. They sell them at most amusement parks and I'm completely addicted. I told Carol I was going to eat 20 of them and I may have come close (well, maybe 10). I'd learn how to make them at home, but I'm afraid I'd make nothing but churros everyday and I don't see myself being around past age 50 if all I eat everyday is fried flour rolled in sugar, although I'm sure it would be a blissful 50 years.

Post Disneyland we mostly did the beach/swim thing again including a daily hunt for shells at sunset. It was great to see the sun after being in Fairbanks with 4 hours of daylight for the past 6 weeks. I would just sit and stare at those sunsets everyday and try to make them last for another 6 weeks.

Oh, Isabel also lost her first tooth and we found out that the Tooth Fairy does know when you're on vacation!

The kids have now fully adopted one of the longstanding rituals of San Diego which is the fight to push the elevator button. This is not a hard ritual to adopt and they had begun to catch on in previous visits, but the button pushing was in full force this time. The other ritual that I remember is jumping up and down in the elevator as it accelerates. You can do an unusually high jump if you time it just right and it's quite a thrill for a 10 year old. The kids haven't done much of this yet and they may not ever get to as apparently I was not the only kid to jump on the elevator. I guess so many kids (maybe a few adults?) did it that the elevator was damaged! A sign now hangs in the elevator at one of the buildings in the complex we stay in (La Playa) forbidding jumping in the elevator. Bummer!

Carol and I both experienced something very familiar to me as we were leaving. Some of my best memories growing up were at San Diego. I'd usually go down with my family around Christmas and come back a couple of weeks later. While these memories are great, I also have memories of some very sad days. That feeling you get when you realize you have to leave this paradise is not good. I'd been through it many times before and it still came (usually 24-36 hours prior to the flight/drive). Carol got it a little too. It's just a really hard place to leave. We're already looking forward to the next time we can make it down there.

More photos here.

It's cold!!!

Can someone point their turbocharged high capacity industrial strength hairdryer this way. It is seriously cold up here!!! Click here for details.