San Diego

We went down to San Diego right after Christmas this year to see the sun.  It was fantastic!  Days get down to about 3 hours of sunlight and it's all kind of twilight sun so we do miss the big yellow ball quite a bit come December.  We usually try and go somewhere and that somewhere is often San Diego.  It rarely disappoints and this year was no exception.

We arrived after flying all night and were greeted with 65 degrees of heaven.  We made  our way to Coronado and spend the next couple of days at the  pool, tennis courts and beach.  The locals kind of think we're crazy swimming when it's 60 degrees outside, but that's July weather for us.  The kids I think could swim 25 hours a day and had practically grown  gills by the time we were done.

Our first trip off the island (Coronado is for  some reason referred to as an island though it is in fact a peninsula) was to see Steven and Alyson who not long thereafter became engaged (Congratulations!!!).  We went to the Wild Animal Park (kind of roaming type zoo) with Aly's sisters and the girls really bonded and had a great time.  I hadn't been to the zoo in a while and we don't have much of one up here (the whole State is kind of like a zoo :)) and it was great to see all the animals running around.  They also had free face painting by some local Jr.High kids which is always fun.

Maama and Popop came down midway into  our trip and it was so great to spend some time with them.  We went over to the Del, took bike rides, ate gelato, knit and played card games in the condo.  Carol and I also got a day on our own while they took the kids to Balboa Park and it sounds like we'll definitely have to be back.  They were there for about 4 hours and could have stayed for a couple more days.  We all went  to the Children's Museum which we hadn't been to before and while the building is nice, I must say that the exhibits need a little work.

The kids right now are prime Disneyland age and so we were all  looking forward to a day in Anaheim.  We drove up with Maama and Popop and the kids got a big surprise when Gram and Gramps met them there during the Jedi show.  They were so excited!  We ran around until we were all ready to fall over.  Autopia seems  to be the preferred ride at this point for all three kids.  The lines weren't bad (we had gone a couple of years ago and waited 2.5 hours do get on Dumbo) and there were of course lots of churros to be eaten (I think I was just shy of double digits at 9 this year).

Maama and Popop left the next day which was sad but fortunately we'll see them again in April.  Gram and Gramps stayed and the kids had a fabulous time running around Coronado and going to Sea World.  The girls did some more knitting and Owen played lots of "Go Fish".  We spent more time at the Del and swimming.  The time went by too fast.  The girls and Carol are already looking forward to seeing them again in March.

Our final days were warm, sunny and a little sad as we get ready to go.  My cousin Eric and Nicole   (his new wife) came down the weekend we left and we were so happy to get to spend an afternoon with them.  They are expecting and we are very excited for them! 

Overall it was a fabulous trip and it was so nice to be warm, see the sun and be with family.  We miss everyone and can't wait to see them again!

More photos here.

Christmas!

Wow.  It's hard to believe it's here and gone.  The kids just went down after a long day of new games, new toys, family phone calls and lots of sugar.

I really love Christmas.  I know I'm not the only one, but it is just a fabulous time of year.  It's a little chilly and dark up here in Alaska, so looking forward to December 25th really helps get us through and it never seems to disappoint.

We started our celebration last night with a family from our ward and the missionaries.  We ate, played some games and the kids ran around enough to crash around 8:30 at our house.  The girls put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  We did read Luke 2 before the kids drifted off which was nice.  Beth and Isabel are now both old enough to read it on their own well enough to understand while reading and I think it really helps them understand the real Christmas story.  I got called in to the hospital, but not for too long.  Carol and I did the standard prep and made it in bed by midnight.

 This morning we got up and I did the daddy  duty of turning on the Christmas music and setting up the video camera.  The hounds were then unleashed and they all came crashing down to a mountain of presents.  Carol and I tell ourselves every year that the mountain will be small and it actually was a bit smaller this year, but could be much smaller still...maybe next year.

Last year we had the kids take turns opening presents to make the experience last a little longer.  This year we just let them at it and they  really had a good time.  They kind of took turns anyway and helped each other track things down and get things opened.  We missed grandparents and cousins but got to have a little extended family love with presents they had sent from around the country.

My present had to have been the best one of all.  A couple of years ago, Carol made a blanket for my mom and hers in red and green with reindeer formed from the kids hand and foot prints.  I loved them and so she made me one this year.  It is really amazing.  It's one of those things you know you'll have forever.  Thank you Carol!

The theme this year was mostly board games and legos.  Owen got some train stuff and everyone got some books.  Owen also got a great race car helmet from the Edwards which he absolutely loved and ran around with for hours.

After the gift frenzy, we had crepes with apple filling...my standard Christmas breakfast for most of my 35 years (thanks mom!).  I also had to have some Andes mints (another tradition from my youth) and Carol made some "pulled pork"  style BBQ chicken in her new cast iron pot from her mom that was incredible.

Overall, we had a great day with lots of great family memories.  365 more days and we get to do it again!  What a great holiday.

More photos here.  I also added our Halloween and Thanksgiving photos to the Zenfolio site.  You can see Halloween here and Thanksgiving here.

Owen Turns Four Years Old!

Owen was so excited about his birthday party.  When I asked him what he wanted to do for his party, he initially wanted to do the same thing as last year and invited all his friends to Glow-Putt.  I didn't think I could handle another party with a bunch of 4 year olds, in the dark with neon shining everywhere for 2 hours, so I steered him to an at home birthday party.  Once he was on board with that, he decided it would be very cool to have a penguin theme birthday party.  We had a penguin scarf that all the kids got to make and penguin mobiles they got to color and put together.  Then all the kids got to play the penguin bean bag toss game.    Following the crafts and games, we had cake (gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free cake mind you, try finding a recipe for that one) and ice cream.  Owen seemed to have a great time and all the kids that were there had a nice time too.  The best part of the kids birthdays for me are after the parties, on the day they were actually born when I get to snuggle with them and let them know how special they are and how glad we are to have them in our family.  We are so blessed to have such an exuberant and full of life boy like Owen in our family.   We love you and are glad that you are growing up to be such a wonderful, smart, handsome boy!  Happy Birthday Owen!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Oh we have so much to give thanks for!  We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend.  Liz and Jack came to the frozen north to keep us company.  We had such a great time with them.  Thanksgiving day was started by the kids watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

The kids were delighted to be able to spend the entire day in their pajamas. The day was full of cooking (Liz made her fabulous orange rolls, Tom the pumpkin pie), games of Go Fish, knitting, coloring, more Go Fish, a walk, a movie, visiting with friends, more Go Fish, eating, and a little more Go Fish (guess what Owen's current favorite game is).  

Beth is our cranberry girl, and would eat the whole jar in one sitting if we let her.   Needless to say, she enjoyed her CRANBERRY and turkey sandwich the next day.  We had a ton of left overs, but somehow they all disappeared!

Much of the weekend was spent in the house playing with paper airplanes, doing puzzles, reading books and yes, a lot more Go Fish. 

Maama taught Beth and Isabel how to knit.  They both were able to complete a scarf which they gave to each other.  One day was spent skiing.  Another day we went to North Pole, Alaska to visit Santa's house.   Santa was home even though this is a terribly busy time of year for him so the kids were able to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  Each of the kids picked an ornament to put on the tree and then we went to a little Chinese restaurant.  It was fun because it reminded us all of "Chu Dynasty", a favorite Hammond Family haunt in San Diego that is no more.

The last night, Liz, Tom, and the kids all made sushi.  Beth really got into it, and she made most of the rolls. 

It was a great visit and we had a lot of fun.  The only hard part was when the kids woke up on Sunday morning to find Maama and Popop on the plane back to Salt Lake.  There were quite a few tears, but they have been comforted by spending their nights reading to them on the phone.  Thanks for a great visit Liz and Jack. 

Skiing anyone?

Owen is skiing now. He has gone twice and he loves it! He asks everyday when he can go again. He only knows how to turn one way, but he is just happy to be out there with his sisters this year and not left at home.

Halloween!

 

Halloween is always a little different in Alaska. Usually costumes are bought a little (or a lot) larger than normal to accommodate parkas and snowpants. The temperature is a little lower (-6F this year...a new record low for us) and most of the houses a little more spread out (there's lots of land up here in Alaska). Carved pumpkins also last weeks as they freeze overnight after being placed outside and will really keep until spring if the temperature stays low enough although I wouldn't recommend eating it at that point.

The part that is the same is the free candy. The little packaged concentrated sweetness fills young hearts with excitement here like anywhere. Our kids look forward to the day certainly for weeks and they may have even brought it up in September this year. Dressing up is also fun, but really I think it pales in comparison to the sugar goodness.

Carol makes fantastic costumes which cannot be equaled. This year she was out of town for a bit (see NY post) and is trying to get a big program together at church, so the dress up for '08 was the box store version. I think there's a video in a previous post, but Beth went as Cleopatra, Isabel as a bride (changed Halloween night to Belle) and Owen as a knight (changed Halloween night to en elephant).

It was quite cold this year. Our previous Halloween record was -2F three years ago and this year it was lower. We made it down to -6F and I was pretty darn chilly, but the kids kept warm and probably gone for another hour of door-to-door. It did take a good half hour to get them all bundled up appropriately, but it does make for much happier kidlings.

The take from the trick-or-treating was actually much larger than I would have thought this year. We went to a decent number of houses, but from the amount of candy the kids brought home, it looked like 500! I think the houses were doing more handfuls of give outs than single pieces. The kids loved it, but it will mean a much longer on the sugar titration before the stash runs out.

Overall it was a great Halloween and I'm sure the kids are already looking forward to the next one. There's a small video posted below. Enjoy!

New York City

I think Tom must be the best husband and father in the entire world.  There are so many little things he does all the time that let the kids and I know he loves us.  In addition to the little things, Tom decided to surprise me with a big thing.  He knows how much I love and miss my sisters, so he planned a trip for us to go to New York.  He surprised me a couple of days before I left.  I met JoAnn and DawnAnn in the airport and we took a cab into the city.   We went shopping on canal street where DawnAnn, in spite  of mom and dad's very specific orders not to "Obamasize" us, did just that.  But mom and dad, you needn't despair too much, because we did get some "fair and balanced" time in later!  That night we went to "A Tale of Two Cities".  It was great play.  The next day we walked around town a bit and took a rickshaw ride through central park.   Yes, all three of us!  You should have seen the three of us squeezing into that thing.  Needless to say, our driver was very fit.   After that we met Boosh at Penn station.  That night we went to see "Spamalot", at the end of which Joey caught the bridal bouquet.  We all had a good laugh.  The next day we went back to canal street for a little more shopping (purses anyone!). 

That night, I had us all go to the MESA Grille for dinner as I am a bit of a Food Network junkie.   It was delicious!  We saw another play that night called "Avenue Q" (another good laugh).  The next day went to the MoMA.  There was a special Van Gogh exhibit that was amazing to see.  It is a very cool museum.  After that, we walked around 5th ave. and then we went to lunch at Serendipity.  It was another delicious meal with fabulous desserts.  After lunch we decided to walk off some of the calories on the Brooklyn Bridge, which ended up being a highlight.   

We took the subway over to Brooklyn and walked back to the city.  The weather was perfect and it was so fun to see the New York skyline.  That night we saw "Wicked" to the delight of us all.   It was a great musical and I would highly recommend it to anyone.  Lots of fun. 

Thank you to DawnAnn, Katherine, JoAnn, and to Tom for making it happen.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Mary could have joined us!  We missed you Mares.  We also missed Diana and Amalia.  Thanks also to Mom, Tom, Matt, Steve, and Chad who took care of the kids and everything else that has to get done at home.  You are truly the very best!!!