Time

The school year is just about up here in Fairbanks. School starts pretty early (2nd - 3rd week in August) and gets out early as well. You can imagine trying to get through a high school football season when it's -20F in November (games I think wrap up in October in the snow). Anyway, Carol had me snap a few photos of the girls as they went to school at the beginning of the year and then I grabbed a few more last week. It's amazing what happens in a school year. The girls have both grown and learned a ton. They really enjoy their school and friends and each other. I continue to be amazed at the capacity of the human mind for learning. I feel inept at my lack of talent in adequately filling those minds with the stuff they need to grow, but I'll keep trying. Owen has also grown a lot in the past year. We watched family videos tonight (a great Sunday tradition from the Cooks) and saw Owen when we first arrived in Fairbanks at a wee 9 months old. He was crawling around and babbling and crying. The crawling and babbling have now been replaced by running and talking. I wish I could say the crying has also been replaced, but I fear it has just gotten louder although it is somewhat less frequent.

Anyway, time does go by quickly. The individual minutes can occasionally tick by slowly when I'm reading the same story for the 9th time or rounding the train track for the 21st, but looking back it really does fly.

Piano Recital

On Sunday Beth and Isabel got to display some of their hard work on the piano. Their piano teacher had a little recital and it was so fun to see Beth and Isabel perform. Take a little listen if you like.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

So I was trying to get away with not giving the girls a "friends" birthday party this year. They both celebrated with family when we were in Salt Lake and so I thought they were done. They had other ideas. I soon realized I would not hear the end of birthday talk until the friends were assembled and some cake was consumed. Beth and Isabel helped plan the whole thing, and I helped them learn the art of compromise. They decided they wanted a slumber party; I compromised with a pajama, "late-over" party. They both wanted to invited every friend they have ever met within a 30 mile radius; I told them each to chose 5 friends. They wanted a huge elaborate three-tiered birthday cake; I baked some cupcakes, put a few different candies on the table and told them to let their creativity flow. It really ended up being a fun little party. All twelve girls arrived at 6:00 and we played animal charades. Then we had a delicious dinner of pigs-in-blankets, jello and whipcream, fruit, veggies, and chips. The kids then had a fun and creative time decorating their cupcakes. Then they all snuggled on the couch and watched "Enchanted". The movie ended about 30 minutes before parents were to arrive and I was a little panicked to have 12 screaming, unoccupied girls still at my house, until it was decided that they would all play hide and seek. All in all I think the girls had fun and it was a success. The best part, I got to take care of both the girls parties at the same time!

Andrew's Baptism

My nephew Andrew was baptized on April 26, 2008. It was really nice to see the Cooks even though it was much too brief. What a great day for Andrew! It had been a while since I had been to a baptism and the service was perfect. I also got to see my sister-in-law Mary's new twins. They are beautiful! I'm already looking forward to my next visit in June. Congratulations Drew!

The End of an Era

My inspirational grandmother (mother's mother) passed on to join her soulmate (Pops) on April 25, 2008. She was truly an amazing woman. I love you Mammy! I miss your pancakes and spaghetti sauce already!

For those interested, you can read a wonderful summary of my grandmother's life written by my sister, Kathleen here.

Fire

I always remember how anxious adults were whenever I was around a fire as a kid. I never quite understood why until I had kids of my own to understand the often limited forethought they use. It is this understanding that has let me to not venture into the world of fire with them yet. I did however love fires growing up still do. We had a great fire at our family reunion last year on Orcas Island and the kids were absolutely mesmerized. Anyway, after some prompting from Carol and all the kids, I went out and bought a firepit. Why would you ever buy a firepit instead of making a pile of rocks? Well, one reason is that up here in Alaska all the rocks are covered with snow for 7 months. The other reason is that when the rocks are not covered, there is a large forest 20 ft away from our house and kindling a plenty for a friendly neighborhood forest fire. So we got a firepit.

I set it up with Beth while Carol was out on an errand with the other kids and from the minute it was set up all three of the kiddies were counting down the seconds to ignition. I did cheat and use one of those handy firestarters (works fantastically well) and rationalized it because the wood was still pretty wet. I did a pseudo tee-pee method and we were off and running in no time. Hot dogs (turkey dogs) and marshmallows were the feast of the day and we downed almost a whole package in about 15 minutes (of hot dogs, that is). There were no major accidents other than a grazing of Beth's neck by Isabel with a marshmallow roaster. I did have visions of disaster, but fortunately all permanent injury was avoided this time.

The kids did roast me a few marshmallows and they got them just right. I have always been an efficiency nut and learned early on in the world of marshmallow roasts that you can consume about 10 times the quantity of marshmallows if you set them ablaze instead of trying to get them golden brown on all sides. I know there are strong feelings about this either way, and if you hate the char taste, then you obviously can't go this route, but I kind of like it and it's certainly speedy. The kids didn't like the black mallows as much (mom helped them with the browning), but they loved making me the carbon treats and I inhaled them like always.

We didn't do songs or dancing or anything like that, but we really did have a great time. We're definitely going to do it again and hopefully we'll make it through the summer without starting each other or our foliage on fire. That would not be a fun blog post.

Conclusion: build a fire...it's fun.

Science Day

I must admit that if any of you are thinking about moving to a smaller town...pick one that has a university. The resources available to a university town are several orders of magnitude greater (in my opinion) than a similarly populated town without such an institution. Fairbanks is a city of about 80,000 (greater area including towns of North Pole and Ester) but due to the University of Alaska - Fairbanks (UAF) that is situated here, we have great activities for kids, classes that high school students can attend, and some amazing visits by some metropolitan bigwigs. We also have decent college hockey and this year the national cross country skiing champ (Go Scott!)!

Our kiddies got to avail themselves of one of these opportunities a couple of weeks ago when UAF hosted it's annual Science Potpourri. All three kids went and had a great time. They got to slice through several rocks with a diamond saw, felt wool, simulate earthquakes, be a human gyroscope (hold a spinning bicycle wheel while on a rotating platform), and see man made lava poured over plastic dolls. They also got to make crystal structures out of toothpicks and gumdrops which I thought was a fabulous idea that you can do pretty easily at home. You get toothpicks and gumdrops and then look up crystalline structures on the web and try to make them. Beth, Isabel and even Owen made a crystal. Owen's only lasted a few minutes as he couldn't resist the gumdrops. Beth's lasted a little longer and is pictured above, but it also succumbed to Owen's sweet tooth.

Here is a quote which was typed by Beth:

"Hi I'm Beth, the science potpourri was fun! My favorite thing was sculptiring.''Ok maybe i'm not done talking. if i like it then maybe i should go their again. Dad says that we can go their again next summer. it will be so fun! I can't wait!''

We'll definitely be back next year!

Icepark

The annual World Annual Ice Art Championships has come and gone. It's really quite amazing what these groups can do with basically a chain saw and some chisels. You can see all the sculptures at the website including the winners. The photos really don't give you a true sense of the sculptures (as I think is typically the case with sculptures). The carving gurus also do contract work for a lot of the local businesses around town so the whole city kind of turns into an ice park of sorts. They actually have an ice hotel up at Chena Hot Springs on occasion. Ah Alaska!

The best part of the ice park is actually the kids stuff. Our kids look forward to it every year and spend hours there when we go. It basically consists of giant ice slides made into animals and houses. There's a giant maze the kids can walk through and giant bowls you can dump the kids in and watch them try to scramble out. The kids stuff has a best part too and it's way in the back where the ice blocks are harvested. There they have about 4 alpine slide type tracks that you can ride down on sleds you can bring. You can get going pretty fast and I must admit when I first saw them I thought there's no way I'm letting my little kiddies get on them with the sleds. I let them go down sans sled which is much slower until finally I think Carol went down with one of them in her lap. It was pretty quick, but the carving folks have likely learned from experience that if the finish is long and flat enough, you can make a high speed run with a consistently bland finish. I thought it looked pretty safe and so the kids got free reign and so far we've made it through with all joints intact.

The park is now mostly melted (it actually closes down at the end of March). We're now looking forward to Spring (it seems a little delayed this year) and all that comes with it (smoke, bugs, etc.) but I'm sure the kids will be ready to get back to the park when next March rolls around. It is a pretty good time for visitors wanting a good Alaskan winter experience as the aurora (northern lights) are usually out around that time and it's not so cold (10-20F). Come on up!

More photos here.

April Snowman

My girls have learned about the snow quickly. I guess it may be a cultural thing although I don't think we get any more snow than many places down south, but it is certainly around for a larger portion of the year. Someone told me (totally unconfirmed) that the Athabaskans (native Alaskans up north) have 100 words for snow. They understand things about the character of snow that helps them predict weather, know hunting patterns and make housing. I know a few words...powder, corn, slush, ice, sleet, flaky, ice...but not anything close to 100.

Anyway, my girls have learned enough to know that the snow here usually doesn't pack. It's so cold most of the year, that the ideal snow temperature (just below freezing) is never really present. There are a few times at the beginning of the snow season (October) and the end (April) when you can get warmer snow. Well, that day happened this past Wednesday and the following day, the girls could talk of nothing but snowman building. I thought it would be the last of the year, but as I write this, it is currently snowing pretty good outside. Maybe we'll make another one today. The one we made fell over that night (it was 50 degrees outside and it basically melted and fell...certainly it's construction was flawless and played no part in the demise).

The first snowman I built up here was done in October '05 and I knew it would be standing for a while, so I actually got a step ladder and made a 5 ball beast (it was about 12 feet tall). A second smaller one was about 10 feet. They melted in April the following year.

I did look up some interesting facts on snowmen while diligently researching this article.

1 - The largest snowman made of natural snow (there was a synthetic one in Singapore in 2004) was made in Bethel, Maine. His name is Angus, King of the Mountain and you can see him here.

2 - Boogg is a large "snowman" made of explosives by the Swiss and is burned after the vernal equinox as a celebration of spring called Sechselauten. More info is available at Wikipedia on snowmen here. I actually though there would be more there.

3 - You burn 238 calories per hour building a snowman. Just remember to bend with the knees and watch that back!

More photos of our snowman here.

Primary Activity

Carol hosted another Primary activity last week. It was a smashing success and there were no serious injuries (always the mark of a "banner" day). It involved various stations including sewing, Family Home Evening kit making and crayon egg making . The last idea was something Carol got from some of her genius friends' Easter celebrations. One thing friends/family are good for is idea plagiarism and we have some incredible sources! Our girls and Owen all had a great time. Carol really did a great job with the whole thing. I don't think anyone realizes what goes into planning these things until you're in the thick of it. Growing up I just assumed meetings, activities, scouting etc. just magically happened. Oh how wrong I was!