Thanksgiving

Doug prepared a fantastic feast for us all on his own. It was fabulous and we only had to clean up.

The house

Here are some pics from our house. We will post more from Christmas. We will be hosting the dinner for 12. This is a big adjustment from St. George but it is a lot less space to clean. We have a fabulous backyard that we are looking forward to enjoying this summer.

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and family. We appreciate all of you in our lives and appreciate your love and support during this difficult year. Its a skimpy Christmas for us, but consider this better than a Hallmark because these trees are in our very own back yard.

The House....

We are moving in!!!!!!!
<- Sean shoveling off the back patio.

^
Here are some of the pictures I snapped today. Its not officially ours until tomorrow, but we started getting ready to unload our trailer with all our stuff from Utah. Mom was watching Doug clean out the garage. Now with no race car, the 3rd garage bay is a land of mystery and imagination on what toy will fill it!

<- The front of the house.

More winter!

Those big fluffy flakes on Mary are from about 20 seconds out in the snow this morning. We were preparing to move some of our stuff into the house today so Sean had to get the broom out and clean out the bed of his truck.

First snow fall!

The first snow of the year!!! Flakes were gently coming down and everything got the kind of quiet you only get with snow.

My fabulous hubby braving the cold at 7:30 in the AM to get my car all ready for me to drive to work. Didn't have to scrape away snow and ice in St. George!

Brrrr! But I am a sick, sick woman according to my brother because I LOVE the snow and have missed it the last three years in the desert. I don't know if I will feel the same come January!

Preparing for Halloween

The finished pumpkins. Paige and Jared did one and Jennifer and Sean did one. Those of you who are Seinfeld fans will recognize my homage to "It's a Pigman Jerry!"

Jared wanted to get into the photo too!

We set the pumpkins out on the porch and then made some delightful pumpkin bread after Halloween!

Afternoon on the town

To the left is Sean and I outside the Alaska Wildberry shoppe. We had never seen the claimed World's Largest Chocolate fountain.

After dinner my niece Paige made us all delicious sundaes. She can't eat ice cream, so made sure to make ours as she would have liked. The toppings were so plentiful, the dish couldn't contain them. Good but messy! What you can't see is that mine had multiple spoons because the first ones were covered in caramel.

Paige wearing multiple 3-D glasses after watching a Christmas Carol. Excellent movie but there were a lot of bits scary for young kids. It is amazing what they can do with animation now!

Making a time capsule

On this great Sunday afternoon, after a boxing championship game on the Wii, we started making our time capsules. Everyone is making their own envelope to open next Christmas. Jared made a great page of his favorite holiday with doug as a bobblehead chef who was going to cook his turkey dinner.

Weekend picnic in the park

After watching my niece in her swim meet we all had lunch and a game of tag in the park. All the other kids joined in and at one time there were about 15 players. It was fun for all! And the grass was GREEN. In October, in Alaska- UNHEARD of!!!

More Sunday in Talkeetna

I tried to catch the plane and the smiley face it had painted on it. I was practicing being the Vanna White of Alaska sightseeing, but I confess after the quick picture taking it was back to the heated seat for me!!!

Sunday in Talkeetna

It is a beautiful sunny day and we decided that we should take advantage of the sun and have Sean take his first peek at Denali. It got cold last night, but the sun is still warm so off we went. It isn't very often that you get a clear view of the summit. Denali/McKinley generates its own weather system so the top is almost always in clouds.

Bowling

Today the whole family got together for a bit of bowling. There were several of us who had not been to a bowling alley in 15+ years. Sean and I, Mom and Doug and Jared and Paige had a great time playing guys against the girls. We had a great time and Doug was the wringer. He had his own ball and shoes and even though he hadn't worn them in 20 years we figure this is what had to give him the advantage.

Oktoberfest

Fall in Alaska. Jared and Sean on the way to Oktoberfest in Girdwood. Oktoberfest was mildly lame, not that any of us are huge Polka fans, but this was BAD! We spent the rest of the night in the lounge at the Alyeska Prince and that was enjoyable. The colors are out and the snow is creeping down the mountains.

Drive to Alaska

Sean in the Yukon. Lake Kluane in Destruction Bay.

Buffalo near Liard
Caribou

The mountains near the Banff ski resort in Canada.

Hike to the hotsprings

The hot spring pool

Jared and I photo dueling on who can capture the dew on the leaves the best. Jared and Sean on the bridge on the Lochsa River in Idaho. The hotspring was in the Bitterroot National Forest.