All Chained Up!

Zach liked checking out the prop set-up to advertise the Medieval Dinner at Sam's school.

Carlos is Cooking!

Carlos is cooking dinner tonight!  Yumm!

HSE Meeting

The turnout for the HSE region meeting in Denver was really good.  The room was filled to capacity with the HSE leads from the Rocky Mountain region, the District Managers and management from the region management in Denver.  It was great to see everyone again.

Larry Wilger, my boss, and Tom Knode, the new HSE Director in Houston.  Doug and I have known Tom well for years - we did the Dubai trip with him years ago.  I did a "happy dance" in the office 3 weeks ago when it was announced he would become the HSE Director.  The previous person in the position needed to go!

Group dinner at Maggiano's - way too much food!

Victor Sparks in the Denver office was retiring after 36 years.  It was also his 60th birthday - so we all sang!

Brent Cook - we sure miss having Brent, Erin, Connor and Madison living close to us.

I sat at dinner with Scott Walker, HSE in Rock Springs, Wyoming and Nathan Snoke, Baroid Manager in Denver as well as Eric Cribbs, Sperry Manager in Denver.  Eric used to work in Anchorage, so it is always great to see him and catch up.

Dinner in Denver

It was great to meet up with Fred, Lisa, Burton and Max for dinner tonight!  Thanks for coming to meet me!  We had a nice dinner at Landry's restaurant near the Sheraton Tech Center Hotel I was staying at.

Forget Me Not Friends

I am off to Denver for the week.....Zach and Sam gave me some friends to take along!  Thanks guys!  I didn't need to drag along more stuff, so they stayed behind.  But, I sure appreciate the thought!

U is for Umbrella

Show and Tell last week.  Today was "U".....good thing I had an umbrella in the car as we forgot to pack something starting with a U last night.  The umbrella worked out great!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Happy 5th Birthday!!!

 

 

It is hard to believe that 5 years ago you came in to the world.  You have always lived by your own rules and find joy in making your big brothers life miserable.  You have an intoxicating smile and a devilish sense of humor.  I am honestly thrilled you are your Mom's "Best Friend", and am pleased at the amount of joy that connection brings to her.  You are a welcome addition to this family and despite some of the challenges, I can't imagine life with out you.  I am very proud to call you son.

Sammy and his favorite present, a remote control car!

He picked up on the controls quickly.  Sammy is a natural race car driver!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

 

 

Presents from Mema & Papa.  Some of Sammy's favorite things, farm toys.  And to top it all off, it is a trailer . . . full of cows!!!

Another favorite . . . a transformer!

 

Do you know the Muffin Man?

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa delivered when they sent another addition to Sammy's farm collection.  This present contained a John Deere riding mower!

 

 

Sammy is quite the master of his domain.  His kingdom has grown quite a bit in a very short amount of time.  These are his favorite toys and he plays with them daily.  Thank you all so much for making Sammy's birthday a memorable one!

Fur Rondy Carnival

Fur Rendezvous is a winter carnival that takes place in Anchorage the last week of February.  This event essentially brushes aside winter, provides loads of activities for all ages, and is generally a good way to beat cabin fever during the long Alaskan winters.

We look forward to Fur Rondy every year.  For me it is kind of a passing of time, the first glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel that is spring.  Every year it gets more fun too.  As the kids get older, they are enjoying the activities more, and are able to fend for themselves better against the cold.  The early days for Renee and I meant trudging around with a stroller packed full of blankets, Sam bundled against the cold, and Zach riding precariously on my back as I navigated around the icy sidewalks.  Changing diapers were especially challenging in the cold, the negotiations for diaper duty was typically prefaced with promises of dish duty or back rubs in exchange for skipping one's turn.

The boys this year were having a blast.  We were fortunate to have a mild temperatures as well. We usually suffer through blowing wind and sub-zero temps during Rondy events.  Maybe there is something to be said for global warming.

Animal furs helped bring the tradition of Rondy to Anchorage as early as 1935.  Back then there were around 3,000 people living in Anchorage.  As you can imagine, Anchorage of yester year was a pretty isolated place.  So to bring the community together and lift spirits, resident Vern Johnson organized a three-day sports tournament, called the Winter Sports Carnival.  Fur trade back then was the second largest industry in Alaska.  Miners and trappers coming in from the woods to sell their furs and minerals found in the last frontier helped grow the festival into what it is today.  It was common for miners and trappers to have beards in the early days, so a "law" was even made that all men had to grow beards for this event or suffer a fine!   Modern day Anchorage has no such laws on the books, but the festival is as big and entertaining as it ever was.  Today, Rondy has over 100 events over a ten day period.  Some of the bigger events include; World Champion sprint dog race, snow sculpture competition, running of the reindeer (think running of the bulls in Spain), fur auction, snowshoe softball, Miners and Trappers ball and, of course, the Fur Rondy Carnival.  In 2012 Fur Rondy was voted the number one winter carnival in the world by National Geographic Traveler!

The kids really enjoyed seeing the sled dogs getting ready for another round of sprint dog races.  Sammy was serious about taking one home.

Sunny skies and mild temperatures punctuated this years events.

The carnival is what we came down town to do and we had a great time.  I thought it would be more crowded, but we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Rondy for us is a bookmark for our winter.  It is very interesting observe the changes in the kids from year to year and see their different interests evolve.  This year Zach was more into the games.  He really wanted to win a giant stuffed penguin (he didn't, but he tried none the less).  Sammy was still into the kid's rides, but not Zach.  He wanted more thrilling rides.  

He is still "our little boy" though.  Here he is still sporting his "flames" face painting from the night before.

Sammy wanted to ride the giant slide first.  It was kind of lame I'll admit.  The sacks that you ride on were pretty wet from all of the snowy feet, so they didn't slide well.  Sam had to push his way down the slide.  He didn't seem to mind though.  Good view from the top!

Next up was the helicopters.  Zach just watched from the outside.  Kind of sad to see our "little boy" not interested in the "kiddy rides" anymore.  I used to love to see the two of them crammed into one of the little helicopters and wave as they went around.

Now Zach is more into the thrill rides.  I don't like these kind of rides myself, so he rides by himself.  He was a bit unsure of this one at first, but once he conquered the ride, he was hooked.

He still looks so small going round and round.

A Sammy ride . . .

 . . . another flame shot . . .

 . . . and a Zach ride.  He sure is brave!!

The kids burned through their $20 worth of tickets pretty quickly.  It was a fun outing for a Sunday.  A very uniquely Alaskan event to be sure.

Fur Rondy is already on our calendar for next year, I am looking forward to seeing what changes another year brings.  Renee and I joke that soon the kids will just want to be dropped off so they can enjoy the carnival with their friends.  I know that day is coming sooner than later.  But for now, I will enjoy our fun family times together.  Go Rondy!!

Dominoes

Sam received some dominoes from Nora/Lake/Ollie at his birthday party.  They have a Car's movie theme to them and he and Zach had a lot of fun matching them all up.  Doug then got to showing them how to line them all up and "timber".  I haven't done that in years....what fun!

Sing It, Baby!

The only thing that went "wrong" this year at the Fur Rondy float was the music system.  It also gave out the past 2 years and at our Trunk-or-Treat display at the school at Halloween last year.  So, Doug fixed that with an afternoon trip to Best Buy.

We are now the proud owners of a 2 speaker sound system.  I have to admit it is slick, it is all set-up for today's technology....just plug in an i-Phone/i-Pod and go!  No running a bunch of lines here and there.  The two speakers hook together for easy carrying and storage.

We will get many years of use out of it.....and if nothing else, we had the best time tonight with singing to our favorite songs.  Listening to Zach and Sam sing their little hearts out was great!!  And, we will continue saving for them in their college fund....we have no future Justin Bieber!  They won't be on American Idol!