The Lion King

Tuesday, September 8

Guest blogger:  Renee

The Broadway hit, The Lion King, came to the Anchorage Performing Arts Center for a few weeks.  Sarah asked if we would be interested in going with her and Jacob.  As the tickets were a little pricey, we initially took a pass.  I heard on the radio that various shows had some tickets for 1/2 price - we were all into that!  Doug got us tickets, they turned out to be great seats - the top balcony, but the bottom seating of that section which meant we had no one sitting in front of us.  We could see everything!

Doug had purchased 4 tickets for our family, and then we got to thinking. Sam would never sit still for the whole performance.  I called Laurie with a proposal - we would take Nora to the show with us if she would keep Sam.  It couldn't have worked out better.  Nora, Zach and Jacob had a wonderful time.  The kids knew the story better than we did and knew the names of all the characters.  The costumes were top notch, the 100 or so puppet animals used were so detailed and beautiful.  It was like a night in New York at a Broadway Show!  

Great seats to see the performance!

Doug wasn't suppose to take pictures, but took a few.  The costumes were fantastic!

The happy performance watchers!  Zach & Doug, Nora & Renee, Jacob & Sarah.

As a side note, when we got into the performance, Jacob couldn't stop talking about seeing our pictures in the window of the convention center across the street.  What??  It turns out the photos we had taken at the 50 year Alaska celebration had been printed in life size and were hanging in the windows downtown.  Very fun!

Labor Day Cabin with friends

Labor Day, September 5-7

The last big weekend of the summer. Clear skies and warm temperatures are in the forecast, and we are ready to head up north out of town.

We are meeting our friend Sarah along with Chris and their son Jacob (Zach's friend for Camai).

Sarah and Chris have a cabin near Sheep Creek. The cabin is about an hour and a half north of Anchorage.

We pulled the Burro up for the weekend, and although they extended the offer for our family to stay in the cabin, we found it easier to just stay in the camper.

A little fishing expedition on Sheep Creek. We saw a few spawned out fish, but nothing was really running.

It was really warm out though, and the kids just enjoyed casting their lures into the creek. I thought that I had forgotten Zach's fishing pole, so we bought him a new on at Target on the way out to the cabin. It turns out that I didn't forget the old one, but merely put it in a safe place that I couldn't find until we got back to Anchorage. Oh well, Zach can always use another fishing pole.

After "fishing", we went back to the cabin. Sarah and Jake built a fort a few months back. It was a little rough, but Zach and Jacob spent hours adding blankets to the fort, and hiding in it with their flashlights. There were many battles between the parents and the kids, as each vied for the bragging rights as "king of the castle". Jacob had a couple swords that were utilized in most all of the battles.

Chris did a good job of getting the campfire going. On it we enjoyed smores and generally just sitting around relaxing by the fire.

The older Sammy gets, the more he is able to interact with the group. He really wants to be a "big boy", and insists on eating what the big people eat. He has a good time despite being locked in his chair during mealtimes.

Jacob invited Zach to spend the night in the cabin. Zach's first big sleep over. They watched a movie until it got dark, and then went to bed around 10. Jacob's schedule is a bit different than Zach's, so there was a little friction in the morning, but overall it was a big success.

We brought along Zach's 4-wheeler, so he could ride on the road and back trails at the cabin. He had a good time riding Jacob along on the back.

Just down the road from Sarah and Chris's cabin is Sheep Creek. This is a bit upstream of where we were fishing the day before. We didn't fish here, just throw rocks.

We finished up day two of the three day weekend with Sarah and Jake at the Sheep Creek Lodge. Nice lunch, and then we headed on our way.

Sammy saying good bye. He sure likes to ride on my shoulders. So does Zach for that matter, but Sammy sure is a lot lighter than Zach!!

After leaving Sarah and Jacob, we went up the road 20 minutes to Talkeetna. We hadn't been to Talkeetna since last winter, so we figured it would be a fun side trip. It was COLD last time we visited, -15 as I remember. The weather this weekend was in the low 70's. Big difference.

I was able to call ahead and find a nice campground right in town. The cool thing about the campground was that it paralled the loading/unloading area for the Alaska Railroad Talkeetna station. We were able to see several trains pull through and unload their "cargo" of tourist from the lower 48.

The big yellow and blue engines sure are impressive. The conductor offered to take a family shot of all of us near one of the engines. The picture kind of turned out nice.

The train is really cool. All passenger cars, no freight. Each tour company has it's own complement of cars, and they all look very luxurious. Princess, Holland America, Celebrity, and Norwegian, all had at least 2-3 double decker cars pulled behind the 6 or 7 Alaska railway cars. The train was huge! We watched the train load and unload for probably half and hour. Then it was on its way again.

Zach's 4 wheeler really came in handy. He was able to ride it into town, and to the park. He is getting very good an driving it, and listens to directions fairly well.

The kid park in Talkeetna was just awesome. It was built last summer by the community. Apparently, there is an individual who goes around to different towns and designs the playgrounds to reflect the character of the community. In Talkeetna's case, the park has a lot to do with climbing, the quant downtown atmosphere and the thriving air taxi business in town. Once the park is designed, it is up to the town to pull together resources and people to build the park. That way, the park is truly a community effort. We have visited one of the other ones in Seward. It's theme is more of an ocean one. With boats and fishing decor.

Enjoying the slide.

Just a swingin'!!

Zach traversing a mountain pass in the playground.

We got done with the playground, had some dinner, took a quick stroll through downtown and then found a store that rented movies. We rented the second Pink Panther movie with Steve Martin. It was predictable, but Zach really enjoyed the slapstick comedy. After that it was lights out. Busy weekend so far, but we still have one more day. On a side note - Renee and I sat up in a rattled state at about midnight when a freight train came past; in the dark still of the night, it sure seemed like that train was heading right into our camper!

Next morning we went back downtown. The tourist really weren't that bad for a long weekend, especially considering how nice it was.

A moose kissing Zach. What a ham!!

Cruisin' downtown Talkeetna.

Breakfast at the Talkeetna Inn. Good food, but slow service. It would be fine with out the two yahoos. Their tolerance for slow service only goes so far. Poor Renee ended up having to walk Sam around outside because he was getting too loud sitting at the table. We ended up taking our food to go. I think that we will have to rethink going out to eat with Sam for a while. Might just be best to do carry-out.

Fitting end to the weekend. We ended up at the Susitna River, doing what else, but throwing rocks. We left not too late, about 1 or so. As we were driving back to Anchorage, we saw a terrible accident, right in front of our truck. Some guy was in a hurry, and was passing us when he misjudged his speed and swerved between our truck, and the motor home we were following, to avoid an oncoming car. When he swerved in behind the motor home, he was going too fast. Because he darted in, and had to apply the brake at the same time to avoid going into the back of the motor home, his car started to shimmy. In the blink of an eye, the car jiggled back and fourth a few times, and then darted across oncoming traffic, narrowly missing an oncoming Pontiac, and then rolled once as it went into the ditch on the other side of the road at a pretty high rate of speed. We immediately stopped and pulled over to the side of the road to offer assistance. There were plenty of other cars that stopped as well, and as it turns out the driver was alright. A bit shaken up, but none the worse for ware. The car on the other hand was totaled. Got to be careful. Mistakes can happen in the blink of an eye.

Last camping weekend for the season. When we got back in town, I washed down the camper, and then parked it in the garage for the winter. I built the cart for the snowmachine a few weeks ago, and figure it will help to maximize the space in the garage. Now we can have each of the vehicles in front of a garage door. It just makes it easier to go in the morning when you don't have to shift around vehicles. Plus, we rearranged the shelves so the camper would fit up right next to the wall. So, even though we have the same amount of stuff in the garage as we did last year, it is way better organized, and there is a lot more room to move around. Now we are ready for winter!! . . . well almost anyway.

The Alaska State Fair

September 1, 2009

Guest Blogger:  Renee

The State Fair was August 27 - September 7 this year.  We love the fair; rides, animals, crafts, fair food, displays of ATV's, snowmachines and campers.  The fair had great weather this year and the attendance showed.  After hearing about the crowds on the first weekend, we decided that we would go during the week.  Sarah and Jacob were also up for playing hooky for a few hours, so we all left school and work around noon.  As Doug signed Zach out for the day, on the list were several other parents who listed the reason as "fair".  So, we didn't feel bad for Zach missing a couple of hours.  We met Sarah and Jacob at Fred Meyers, all piled in Doug's truck and off we went!

While Zach and Jacob had their faces painted, Doug found the potato fries being sold in the booth next door!

Now that is a plate of fries!

Zach went for an army theme this time.  He sure does love to have his face painted!  Jacob opted for a Batman look.

By going during the week, we were able to take advantage of "Buddy Day".  A paid entrance got a "buddy" in free.  A sheet of ride/game tickets enabled you to get a sheet of tickets for free for your "buddy".  Zach and Jacob played a fishing game and each won a little stuffed dolphin or a whale....I can't remember what type of sea creature it was.

Jacob and Zach are starting to get into the rides that, unfortunately, we aren't too keen to go on.  Mainly, they go around and around in a circle.  After hitting all the "easy" rides, they really wanted to go on this one.  Sarah and I braved the circles and went along with.  Doug was more than happy to stay stationary on the sidelines with Sam.  Sarah was our HERO when she took both boys on some sort of "tornado" roller coaster that went around and around while moving up and down.  Doug and I could hear all 3 of them screaming with delight!

After the rides we checked out the 4 wheelers and campers and ended up at the Army National Guard site.  The Guard had a large blow up kid's obstacle course set-up.  Zach and Jacob did the course until they were tired!  The slide at the end was a big hit!

When you are 5, this is a long way down!

Zach and Jacob - best of buddies.

It was getting toward dinner time and we were all hungry.  We scouted out all the dinner options and went for pizza and salmon quesidillas.  We found a great spot on top of one of the vendor's buildings to sit.  A great view from on top of the conex building.

The hula hoop area near the animal barn is always good for a few laughs and some fun.

The largest building at the fair is the animal barn.  The 4-H clubs bring their animals, a petting zoo, flowers, vegetables - a fun place to visit.  In the winter; the barn is rented out for boat and RV storage.  Nice to have a covered place to store the toys!

Doug and the new world record cabbage - 127 lbs!

We were winding down a very fun long afternoon at the fair.  We told the animals good-bye.  See you next year!

One thing in the animal barn that we did want to find was Laurie's honey. Laurie and friend, Melissa, have had honey bees in two hives in Laurie and Karl's backyard for the past two summers.  The warm and spectacular summer we had made for a great year for the bees and honey.  Laurie and Melissa harvested 14 gallons of honey from the hives!  They entered a jar of honey, a honey comb and some honey wax in the fair.  A blue and red ribbons resulted! Congratulations!   We have been enjoying some of the honey from "Campbell Creek Honey"!