Our Florida vacation is finally here!!

 We have been looking forward to traveling to Florida for vacation for about 6 months!  Haven't seen the family since last summer with our visit in Colorado.  Packing seemed to go smoothly, although we all waited until the last minute to pack (like usual)!!  We all piled into the Subaru and had Renee drop us off at the airport while the boys and I checked in.

First stop is always McDonalds at the airport!  Good way to kick off a va-ca!

The travel portion of the trip got off on the wrong foot from the very start.  A few weeks prior to the trip, Alaska Airlines moved our flights around, so on our layover in Seattle, instead of having 4 hours to make our connection, we had just a little over an hour.  The flight from Anchorage ended up leaving 50 minutes late (it was late coming in from Hawaii)!  Before we left Renee talked to the help desk and had a flight set up for the next day, just incase we missed our Seattle connection.  

Yep, before we even left the ground, it was pretty apparent that we were going to miss our connection.  We boarded 55 minutes late AND then the plane circled the runway before we got in line to de-ice the plane.  I think we took off an hour and a half AFTER our delayed flight was suppose to take off.  Just great!  Looked like day one of our trip would now be spent traveling.  We landed in Seattle 7 minutes AFTER our flight to Orlando took off.  It was a bummer for sure.  I will say that Alaska Airlines took care of us.  We were able to get $98 of food vouchers and they put us up at a nice hotel for the night.  We ate at the Pho restaurant in the N terminal and actually had a really nice time.  The shuttle took us to the hotel and we got a fairly solid night sleep.  The kids said that Renee and I were snoring a bunch, but other than that, all was good.  

My favorite part of staying at the Double Tree is the warm cookies!!

We put this up on my Instagram page hoping that Double Tree would give us a like!  Either way, the cookies were great!

Because we had a 24 hour layover, I ended up buying a year pass for the Alaska Airlines lounge.  I had a sneak peek to the lounge a month earlier on a work trip to Seattle.  The lounge is super nice, the food/drinks are free and the cost $350 is not bad considering how much we travel for fun and work.

We got a seat right by the runway.  Awesome to watch the planes take off while we had a light lunch.  The kids said that we were "next level" travelers now.

It was a good afternoon in the lounge and our travels were not delayed after the initial 24 our set-back.  

Beautiful sunset

Making our way!  Florida here we come!!!

Goldenview Winter Band Concert

 Sam's Band Concert WAS enjoyable!! Zach and I walked up from the house and Renee met us after a while.  We sat in the first row and were treated to an excellent band concert.  Sam was great on the clarinet and looked like a pro seated in the band.  I love these concerts and seeing the kids like music.  I wish Zach had continued with the clarinet, but his schedule did not allow for senior year.  Maybe he will pick it up again someday like I did, or maybe not.  I still enjoy playing clarinet with Sam and we have been practicing more as of late.  

* It was snowing after the concert and the kids decided to run home and try to beat Renee in the car.  I decided to ride along.  Of course the kids won.  It was a fun night.

Revisiting Blogging life

 I dont know where the time goes.  Life is still going great.  Snowing like crazy today and it has been a productive afternoon behind the computer!  Going to Sam's band concert tonight, so that should be enjoyable.  

WALL-MT 2.0

 Purchased my second Bobcat MT 85.  These are great little machines and I am buying this one to either sell, or send to Bethel for my backhaul program.  I recently did a presentation for ADEC on the use of small equipment in the landfill for a backhaul program.  The ADEC presentation was actually in requested after a talk I did at ATCEM on the same topic.  Seems like a lot of people are interested in purchasing this equipment for use in their villages.  I actually have 4 brand new MT100's on order and found out that Craig Taylor had this MT85 come off of rental from Fairbanks.  It was a good price, so I picked it up and brought it back to the property on the Red Dragon.  Looking forward to cleaning it up and putting my own decals on it.  Should make like a lot easier during the summer backhaul projects. 

No Swimming Pool Needed

 These guys are nuts?!?  We recently got a bug dump of snow and for whatever reason, Zach really wanted to dive into the snow.  I suggested he try to "swim" in the powder and then his brother wanted to join in as well.  I had to of course record the event and made it into a hilarious TikTok video.  I will just post a few stills from the video, but go check out on that platform to see the entire thing.  Both boys were really red by the end.