Making a Scrapbook

Tonight at Cub Scouts the kids were going to make a scrapbook. Cecile had cut nice heavy craft paper and with her sewing machine made little books. Cecile is a super woman! We all brought pictures and sticker to decorate the scrapbooks with.

Getting busy. Lots of stickers and fun scissors to use to make neat boarders on the pictures.

Sam did real well playing with Lucas and other little boy at an adjacent table.

Max, Zach and Jacob show off the final products! A very fun evening.

Special Dinner Treat

Doug is taking an eight week boater's safety course sponsored by the Coast Guard Auxiliary. It started tonight and is being held at the beautiful BP Energy Center from 6-9 pm. Karl and Dustin are also taking the class, so the guys will have a lot of fun.

Doug is always the "fun one" when I go to Prudhoe Bay. Tonight I was fun....we had McDonalds happy meals!

Mow & Snow

Cold on Sunday. Weather was bad in Prince William Sound (30 kt. winds, seas 6 feet, rain), so we had the weekend to finish up some last minute house projects that we had procrastinated on during the course of the summer. One last mow of the lawn and re-arranging the garage (big tetris puzzle) and shed and we are ready for winter!!

Had to be in the 40's, and a slight wind. It is deceiving with the grass still green and most of the leaves on the trees. But make no mistake about it, winter is on it's way. Renee made one last pass of the lawn with the new mower, after that, the mower is off to the shed for a six month hiatus.

While it didn't stick, both Renee and I were surprised to see that it was actually SNOWING as we were getting our chores completed. With the boat still sitting in the driveway I am so not ready for winter just yet.

Another tell tale sign of the things to come is the fresh termination dust blanketing the mountains not far from the house. Termination dust is snow of course, but it earns the name termination dust because it is a sign that summer is terminated and winter is just around the corner. Time to break out the skis.

Squeak the Hoover

An oops in the kitchen as Renee dropped a quart of peach yogurt on the floor next to the fridge. This looks like a job for . . .


. . . natures Hoover vacuum, Squeak.

Poor Squeak does not get much face time on the blog. She and Browndog have taken a back seat to the kids for the past few years. But they are both alive and well and often called upon during household emergencies that arise. Needless to say the kids keep them busy.

On another dog related note, one of Zach's new chores is feeding the dogs in the morning and evening. I gave him the job before I fully briefed him on the details of the position. I went to check on him at his post this morning just as he was giving Brown Dog a second heaping scoop of dog food in her bowl. I explained to Zach that the dogs were only given one scoop of dog food at each feeding, he quickly explained that Squeak had already been given THREE scoops and he was just giving Brown Dog her fair share. Of course there were no complaints from the pups. No wonder they are looking a little more round than usual.

Beer Chicken & Cupcakes

Steve Johnstone in the Halliburton Facilities group is so talented with a welder. He makes the Alaska maps from pieces of the pipeline. He also makes beer can cookers which he gives out as gifts. How lucky I was to receive one!

We followed the directions and soaked our chicken for several hours in a bag with seasoning and a can of beer. The beer/juice then got poured in the tube on the chicken cooker and the whole set-up was put in the oven for 2 hours.

Delicious!! So tender and moist! We will definitely do this again!

We topped off dinner with cupcakes that Zach had selected at Fred Meyer. Out of all the cakes that Zach could have selected for my birthday, it was the "beach" ones that he wanted. A good birthday!

Gymnastics B-day party

Fall is here so with that we have again resumed our schedule of friend/school mates/acquaintances birthday parties for Zach and Sam. We usually have a "no party" rule during the summer as we are out and about most weekends.

This party was for Tristan, one of Zach's friends from Camai daycare. We were able to spend time with Tristan and his family this summer on one of our outings to Long Bay.

It is much easier to have a party at a designated party spot, in this case the Anchorage Gymnastics center. 10-12 kids running around ones house, systematically destroying everything they touch is more than enough to justify the cost of having a kid birthday party at one of the popular party hot spots.

Here is Tristan blowing out the candles on his cupcake. No six year old birthday party would be complete with out re-lighting candles.

Zach seemed almost as excited as Tristan about the party, although it could have just been the sugar coursing through his veins. The volume of the party definitely went through the roof after the cupcakes were administered.

After sugar . . . time to go of course. Nice for the birthday boy parents because there is no mess to clean up, but . . . car ride home is very loud for the guests in attendance. The Anchorage Gymnastics has the party scene down though, there was a party ahead of ours, and two scheduled after. I wish I would have thought of that!!

Last Sale of the Season

It was about noon when I spotted a garage sale sign on the corner by our house. We all decided to take a walk and check out the goods! Doug and I knew the moment we walked up to the house that the Little Tikes police car would be coming home with us. Sam loved the same car that is at Kirsten's house. He immediately spotted it and jumped inside.

Zach found some really nice books including a Disney one that is in the same series as the Toy Story book Papa bought. This big world atlas is really neat for the kids; Zach liked it as his Homework Club room at school has the same book. Zach found a few other miscellaneous items including a little ball that folds out into a robot. I am behind the times as I don't know what movie it is from.

So, I didn't really need this sock monkey, but I liked it. I had seen the monkey at Target a few months ago while walking around in the kid's toy section. The monkey was too cute to pass up at the garage sale, so it came home with us. Doug found a nice metal construction truck and Sam got an ice cream Chevron car to add to his collection. It was worth the trip up the hill!

Zach and Garfield

Zach is still not too old to want to have his picture taken with Garfield at the local Fred Meyer grocery store.

He enjoys Garfield cartoons, but fortunately has not asked for a cat of his own. Smart kid.

It Fits!

I went up to Prudhoe Bay to check on the status of our new buildings. They are coming along well! We are planning for the big open house bash to be the first week of November. There is quite a bit we need to get done between now and then!

The building isn't all the way done, but the guys pulled the Coil Tubing Unit in the bay just to see how it fits! It fits great - that is one BIG piece of equipment!

The Nitrogen Plant building is now waiting for all the equipment, tanks, compressors & generators to arrive. All the parts should be showing up between now and February. What a busy summer - a fun summer seeing the buildings take shape from their paper blue prints!

The Police Made a Visit

Zach's cub scout den had an Anchorage Police officer visit their meeting last Thursday.

The officer gave the kids a lesson on what it is like to be an Anchorage Police officer. He showed the kids all of the "tools" a police officer needs to carry on his/her belt to do their job.

Officer Mike patiently answered all sorts of questions from a very enthusiastic audience. He showed the kids his stun gun, and entertained us with stories of chasing bad guys over his 15 year police career. Officer Mike talked about gun safety and emphasized wearing seatbelts anytime you get in a car.

Zach was very curious and asked many good questions.

The officer had a surprise for the kids, as he was formerly a canine officer for the Anchorage Police force. We all congregated outside for a demonstration by his retired police dog named "Veteran". Sammy was interested in the demonstration as well and hung out with me as the canine officer went through the paces.

The kids were instructed to sit quietly and not run or move about suddenly during the exercise. While Veteran was retired, he had many years of of chasing bad guys under his belt and still had his police dog instincts. Staying still is not really in a six year olds vocabulary, but the kids did their best and Veteran proved to be a patient police dog.

At the end of the demonstration the kids were allowed to come up and pet Veteran. Zach and some of the other scouts from his school were excited to learn that the police officers actually give commands in German to many of the dogs on the force.

The den meeting was a memorable event. Veteran was very patient and the kids did well throughout the talk. Zach is looking forward to the next den meeting and is getting excited about scouting.

Birthday #37 Prudhoe Bay Style

Doug had been out hunting, so I was in town with Zach and Sam. Although it was my 37th birthday today, I needed to get up to Prudhoe Bay to check on our construction projects and do asset inventories…..fun, fun!

Donna in Human Resources knew it was my birthday as I had made some comment about Zach being concerned about when we would be having cake. Apparently she can't keep a secret!

I should have suspected something was up when a couple employees wished me a Happy Birthday as I walked in the shops. At dinner everyone burst into “Happy Birthday” as the chef brought out a sheet cake with candles. I am sure I turned beet red, but handled it well.

What came next I was not prepared for. The guys had wrapped up a bunch of gifts in boxes using newspaper, caution tape, duck tape and shipping tape. I was handed a hard hat, a “safety knife” (new cutting tools we now require with retractable or covered blades) and impact gloves (also a new requirement to use gloves with impact protection). I was a sport and put them on and got to work. A Prudhoe Bay hat, a Prudhoe Bay tank top that says “Hot Stuff, Flammable, Prudhoe Bay”, an Alaska pipeline map, a beautiful beer chicken cooker (pour beer in the middle and put your chicken on top before putting in the oven). Also wrapped was a broken camera, a 25 service award globe that someone abandoned, a broken remote control helicopter and my very own “safety retractable knife”. It was funny. As I told the ring leaders of this all…..I like to plan the events, not be the center of them. It was very, very nice of them to put all that effort into this. I was told that I was a good sport…..that is the best I could hope for.

Moose Hunting

Denali was out in full force on the drive up north

Heading North to our "secret" moose hunting spot.

4-wheeler all loaded up and ready to head down the trail. With all of the supplies we brought in we could have stayed a month.

Hunting friends Matt and Chris.

Frank and Karl ready to head 15 miles back to our basecamp for the moose hunt.

Matt having a tough time negotiating the mud bog with a heavily loaded snowmachine trailer. We made it through with a little winching from my machine.

Karl and Frank in the Argo negotiating the swamp. No problem for the Argo and Karl's new 4X4 trailer.

Beautiful weather, 60+ deg during the day, 30+ at night.

Karl and Frank working on the Argo's carb.

Heading back to camp after an evening hunt.

Frank and Karl cooking breakfast in camp.

Frank glassing the opposite bank of the river. There was much discussion as to how we would get a moose across this big river if one happened to be on the other side.

Hanging around camp. One thing we did not lack was food. I think that I may have actually gained weight on this trip.

Argo bustin' a move across a stream.

View from my "hunting spot" on the river. Even had cell service, life is good.

Glassing for moose on the other side of the river. My new scope on my new rifle worked well.

Moon helped add to many impressive sunsets.

Heading for bed.

"Glassing" for moose on top of the Argo.

New gun boot on the 4-wheeler.

Karl working on his moose call.

An impressive hike up a rather steep bluff in search of the elusive moose.

Me on my 4-wheeler.

Still looking for the elusive moose.

Argo making it's way back to camp after a long day.

Matt trying to pull a snowmachine trailer through the swamp with his 4-wheeler.

Bogged down in a mud pit. Had to winch my way out. This pit looked very much like other mud holes I had gone through, but proved to be a challenge. I should have listened to Chris when he told me to go around this particular hole.

Chris wondering where we are?!?

The boys relaxing around the fire after a hard days hunt.

Frost on the 4-wheeler in the early morning.

Karl packing up the Arctic Oven tent. No moose this trip, but still had a fun 5 days of camping.