Fun! Fun! Fun!

The holidays have creeped up on us as usual. It's not like we don't know they are coming, it's just they seem to be on the way one day and here the next. As is becoming the tradition, we spent Thanksgiving with my DBIL and DSIL. The dinner was fabulous and now we need to cook our own turkey so we have some additional left overs. What we came home with were gone before the weekend was over.

Then DD and I may just have started a new tradition. I felt that since she is doing so well with her ballet class that she deserved to see a real live ballet. Every year the Eugene Ballet Company comes to Anchorage and performs the Nutcracker over the long weekend. They include many local performers, especially children. It's a wonderful way to kick off the season. DD had a wonderful time and I'm sure her cheeks must have hurt by the time it was over. I had almost as much fun watching her as I did the ballet. I think we may just have to do it again in the future.

Brrrrr...!!!!!!!

It's been mighty cold out there this week. Temperatures actually dropped below zero Fahrenheit. No more snow, but it's only because it's just too cold. They are predicting more snow by Sunday and then right back into these frigid temps.

Oh well, just means more time curled up with knitting on my lap and with all the holiday projects on the list that isn't a totally bad thing.

Look what DD did!

OK, so I can't say that I'm at all surprised. She asked for this the last time she had a hair cut, but the gal who did it didn't really listen. And it's not like she complained when it wasn't exactly right. But recently, she had started asking for another hair cut. It was getting very long again, so with Daddy having the day off for Veterans day, I said, "Why not!" So, first thing this morning we were off and the salon was our first stop. It is awful cute, but what a shock when the women took it to just below her shoulder and DD softly asked to go even shorter. She was thrilled and the first comment from DD was, "Now it won't get in the way when I put my seat belt on."

It sure doesn't.

Fa la la la!

Yep! That's what I'm hearing around the house these days. Sunday we woke to a lovely covering of snow. About an inch. And the cold winter weather was upon us that fast. The days preceding were cool, highs in the 40s. But now we are lucky to see the top side of the 30s. And yesterday.....well, we got even more of the white stuff. If it weren't for the kids and their snow fort, I would most likely be cleaning an accumulated 3 - 4 inches off the drive. As it is, they have worked every spare minute building a fort with all that snow. As we don't have a lot, they have been robbing from the unoccupied home next door. (TeeHee) The fort is mostly a foundation for now, but I think by the end of winter they should have a respectable room.

Not a good week!

This has been the weirdest week. Stressful and yet some things went so much smoother than I thought they would. First, DH was in an accident early in the week. He stopped a little hard when a light turned yellow and the gal behind him thought he would just blow through it. (So many here think yellow means to speed up. Arrrgh!) The rear of his car is crunched just enough to need fixed, but amazingly, the tail lights still work. After some brief concern about possible whiplash, DH seems to be fine though.

The story doesn't end there though. You see, the other driver left the scene, called the police and reported she had been in an accident and that supposedly DH left the scene, and is uninsured. Well, thankfully there were witnesses that gave the police her plate number as being the runner in the Hit and Run, plus DH waited until the officer arrived proving he hadn't fled. And to top it all off, she works for the Department of Public Safety (State Troopers) just like DH. All in all, that girl is in a world of hurt as she was arrested (but not held) and could still end up loosing her job.

After all that excitement, DH had to take a work trip to Juneau. This is where life was good. The kids were well behaved and the days flew by. We had school and Aikido to keep us busy. I sure wish I could get some photos of the boys at Aikido to share.

Then yesterday, the landlord replaced our furnace. It took 12 hours with no heat and limited hot water after they had to disconnect the water heater too. I was pleased the house didn't drop too low, but it was cold even as the kids went to bed. At least we came out the other end with a safe furnace that will hopefully be a little more fuel efficient.

Another Field Trip

We are having field trips galore this month. Our latest was a trip to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. This is a wonderful place with lots of fun things to do, and going as a school group really makes it worthwhile. We had the center to ourselves and they provided wonderful activities. We watched a movie about Raven the Creator, danced and made bead necklaces. Then we had a quick tour of the houses that our native ancestors lived in. (Personally, I wish we had spent more time on that part of the tour, but it was lunch time by then.) Although the picture is not great, you can see some of the dancing. The first dance is "Build an Igloo" and the second is "Raven the Protector". Enjoy the video and don't forget to turn on your sound:

Outing!

For weeks now, we have tried to make a trip to the Anchorage Museum. First, there was a child sick, then Daddy was sick, then there were conflicting obligations. But on Friday, we finally made it. There has been a very nice exhibit on Mammoths and Mastodons since some time last spring. They leave after the coming weekend. When the boys worked very hard writing a Compare/Contrast paper about these creatures and elephants, I wanted to reward them with a visit. It turned into quite the day.

We started with a trip to the Library, where we gathered our reading material for the next few weeks. This was followed by a stop at the park right behind the library where the ducks gather. We fed the ducks and then watched them play as we ate our own lunch.

When we were done eating we headed off to the museum. Most of my pictures didn't turn out because you are not allowed to use the flash. This one,
the flash accidentally reactivated. That is just the rear thigh bone and it's one of the smaller species at that. Once we were through this exhibit (which we went around at least twice), we proceeded downstairs to the Arctic Studies exhibit, on loan from the Smithsonian. This was more interesting for Daddy and I, but there were some things the kids enjoyed viewing. We also stopped by the Anchorage history exhibit. The kids liked this more than the arctic studies, especially since they have full sized boats and replicas of different housing.

By the time we were through this we were almost ready to go home, but to leave we walked through a couple of art exhibits where I took this one photo of a sculpture that was really fascinating. Seen live, the mittens looked as though they hung in mid-air. You really had to look hard to see the filaments that hung from the ceiling! Well done to the artist who created this wonder.