Happy New Year!

With the roads as icy as they were, we decided to just stay in for the New Year's celebration. Sam and Zach read books and watched some TV during the day as Renee and I worked on some home projects. The boys being lazy, never changed out of their pajamas. A lazy day is sometimes the best way to say good-bye to the old year and say hello to the new.

Despite "taking it easy" in the activity department, Sammy found time to take a nap on the couch. He was watching TV and fell asleep during the commercials.

Since we weren't partaking in the downtown "Fire and Ice" fireworks extravaganza and Anchorage just so happened to lift its ban on fireworks in the city limits and I happened to have in my possession a large collection of fireworks, we decided to have our own little fireworks show. The kids were of course on board and the weather was relatively warm, we donned our coats and headed on the back deck to start out the evening with some sparklers.

Both Zach and Sam enjoyed the multi-colored sparklers. They each ran through several sparklers before they were ready for something with a little more BANG!

So we grabbed a handful of the "good stuff", called our new neighbors Kenneth and his daughter, Emily, and headed out in the front yard for a little Huntman style fireworks display.

Kenneth and his family had also been taking it easy on New Year's Eve and were in the process of getting everyone down for the night when Renee called. Renee informed Kenneth that pajamas were welcome at our fireworks display and that they certainly shouldn't let a little thing like sleep interfere with their first Alaskan New Year's celebration. With an invitation like that, who could say no.

We started out the show with a couple of Boomer mortar displays that shot sparks high into the air, then we mixed in a dozen or so Roman Candles of all different colors, after that a few more of the sparking/whistling things, then we concluded our pyrotechnic extravaganza with a a large green box with the name "silent thunder" on the side (more sparks and whistles and a few BANGS) for the Grand Finale. Our display was pretty tame compared to the rather impressive displays that dotted the hillside for the next four hours. Everyone and their cousin must have gone out and spent hundreds of dollars on fireworks for the New Year. Since this was the first year that Anchorage has allowed fireworks, the city went nuts over being able to shoot off their own pyrotechnics. Everywhere you looked there were fireworks. Big ones too, I was surprised. Some people really "shelled" out some big bucks for their displays. There is a guy who owns three of the four fireworks stands just out side of the municipality and he must be laughing all the way to the bank. After that I am sure he will be hopping on his own private jet and flying to Hawaii for a well deserved vacation.

We were able to catch the ball drop in NY on the West Coast feed. It actually played at 11:00 pm AK time so the people in Seattle could see it at midnight. Sam and I then stayed up for the next two hours watching the hillside light-up as the fireworks went on and on and on. Every time another one would go off, Sam would say "You missed one!!". I tried to get him to go to sleep, but he was just too amazed by the whole fireworks thing. He had seen fireworks displays before, but I think that this was the first time he actually knew what was going on. It was neat to see Sam so entertained by the whole thing.

2010 was a good year for us. It went very fast, but we enjoyed every minute of it. We are looking forward to the year ahead of us, and hope that it is filled with the same success and fun times that we enjoyed in 2010. Happy New Year. Thanks for following our adventures and we will see you next year!

Mid Winter Thaw

The weather has been weird here lately. After a few weeks of fairly normal temperatures and a fair amount of snow, we were hammered with warm winds (40 deg and 45+mph) and rain. This was enough to make the streets extremely slick. We decided to stay in for the day. This is what our driveway (ice rink) looked like.

We always seem to get this mid-winter thaw. It is usually followed by cold snap that usually lasts for weeks. Despite knowing what is coming, the mid-winter thaw always gives me hope that spring is on it's way. We still have a lot of winter to go, so we will see how this all shakes out.

New Big Boy Bed!

We all wanted to see Sammy's bunk bed all put together. Zach and Sam were big helpers taking the cardboard and plastic wrap downstairs as Doug and I did assembly.

The daybed trundle we already have fits great under the bunk bed! Will work well for when extra friends come for an overnight.

Doug is so handy, he did a great job with assembly!

Yeah! We all love it. Of course, now Zach wants to sleep on the top bunk every night!

New flannel snowman sheets for his first big boy bed! We put the daybed mattress on the trundle and on the top and bought a good mattress for Sam. It is so comfy! I think Doug and I were eyeing that mattress as well!

Nighty-night!

Zach likes the upper bunk! Tomorrow.....some fun paint for Sam's room! Such a big boy!

Dinner with Ted and Andrea

Doug called.....meet with Ted and Andrea in a hour for Uncle Joe's Pizza! Heck yeah!

Take Cover!

Zach and I stopped by Halliburton for a couple of hours today. I wanted to check my mail and had a note that a box had come for me. Zach did great sitting quietly and coloring on the Scooby-Doo coloring book from the tooth fairy. Robert took aim at him a couple of times with a Halliburton bow and arrow! We can't say that we don't have fun at the office!

Zach looses a tooth!?!

Just before tucking Zach in for the night and saying good-bye Papa took a look at Zach's loose tooth. A slight pull with his kerchief and the tooth fairy would be visiting tonight!

Date Night at the Whaler

We took advantage of having Papa and Mema in town and took off for a date night. I had purchased on the "Just Pay Half" website a $50 gift card for $25 at the Whaler. The Whaler is an older bar on the east side of town. We had never eaten there, but I had read that the steaks were fantastic. They sure were!! I had a great steak and Doug had the halibut and chips. Our left overs fed the family for a whole meal. It was a lot of food! We ate at the bar to enjoy the whole experience.

Our bill for dinner, salads, potato soup and drinks was $51! Couldn't have planned that any better!

Let Them See the Light

Doug and Papa did a great job getting the new chandelier installed. It looks so nice! As long as the scaffolding was up, Doug painted the 3 main walls of the entryway nice accent colors. A whole new look!

1st Archery Lesson

Papa, Doug and Zach went to Sportsman's Warehouse to get Zach all fitted to his bow. He had a great time and did really well!

Pirate Scene Completed

We started packing away some of the Christmas decorations tonight. Before we put away the Playmobile advent calendar we took a picture. It was a fun way to count down the days to Christmas!

Denali

Denali wasn't out yesterday when we drove up. From downtown Talkeetna it looked like it wouldn't be a good day to see the mountain today either. As we drove out of town, Doug turned off onto a scenic overlook and turned the truck toward the mountains. WOW! A perfect view of Denali! Fantastic!

Quick Tour of Town

It was cold out, so not a good day to walk to look at the river. We decided to walk back up to town square and to the large gift shop. It was dark when we arrived yesterday, so it was nice to see everything in the day light.

The Roadhouse was built in 1914 and established as an official roadhouse in 1944. It is neat to think about how many people have stayed there. If only the walls could talk!

Louise and I went to the gift shop while the boys played outside. It is a neat store with 3 levels. There is so much to see, it is hard to take it all in! Louise found a couple of neat items. My find was for Doug's office; a "Don't Trash Alaska" metal sign with a cartoon moose head with a tire hanging from its antler. The sign is posted around Alaska. A very fun metal sign that will look nice in Doug's DEC office.

The town square had a Christmas tree and a snowman.

Also a snow fort which Zach thought was pretty neat!

There isn't anything better than climbing to the top of a snow pile. It is nice when your brother offers you a hand and a pull to get up to the top!

Welcome to Talkeetna! "A Small Drinking Town With a Climbing Problem"

Biscuits and Gravy

We slept in until 9 am and then ventured downstairs. We could hear the happy chatting of those who had come for breakfast. The Roadhouse has an AWESOME big breakfast, but we learned the night before during the winter they only offer it on the weekends. No problem, the bakery/kitchen section of the building had cooked up wonderful reindeer sausage biscuits and gravy and had quiche and other breakfast items in the display cases. No one went hungry!

Good morning!

Checking out photos from the day before.

Zach, Sam and another girl about Zach's age "entertained" us with the piano in the room. Not for long, they need some practice!

Poor Sammy, he has picked up a "naughty word" (shut-up). Yikes, he uses it freely and it doesn't matter who he tells. So, that is top on our list to break - along with the need for diapers. Even in time-out he is so cute, it is hard not to laugh. He knows how to work the crowd!