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Happy 15th Anniversary!
Today is our 15th Wedding Anniversary!
Pipeline Pictures
The Alaska Pipeline runs right through Delta Junction & Ft. Greely. There are several great viewing spots, but this is my favorite. It crosses over the Clearwater river, which is about 4 miles towards Fairbanks from our house. You drive down off the hill on the highway and boom! there it is. The Clearwater never freezes, so it makes for such a beatuiful scene.
The boys had fun walking along the frozen edge, but I was a nervous wreck and I am sure they were sick of me yelling at them to stay back. I'm such a mom.
Connor's Birthday
We had such a fun Guitar Hero birthday party for Connor. It was just the right amount of kids with the right amount of chaos! It reminded me of being back in Albany with all his friends running around the house. I didn't realize how much I missed the constant barage of noisy little boys everywhere!
The kids enjoyed playing Guitar Hero Band, watched the new Madagascar II and ran around playing with Nerf Guns, Light Sabers and pirate swords... just a typical play day!
I ordered the acoustic guitar cake pan from Wilton and with a few modifications we made it look like a pretty cool electric guitar. I love homemade cakes!
Here is Connor totally stoked about his $25 Gamestop Gift Card from The Pospisils -- thank you, Eileen! He is going to be spending that in Fairbanks this weekend... I think he wants the XBox 360 Hockey game!
And finally here's a shot with some of his new buddies opening his gifts. I just can't believe he is NINE! Where does the time go?
Back from Glennallen
Both teams played some great hockey! Delta did an awesome job though and our Mites team won both their games! Connor scored a goal, too. He was so excited. He had an excellent weekend with several assists, a goal and played some great defense. I love this sport! It is so fun and exciting to watch. Now... if we could just play somewhere it wasn't in negative temps... that'd be good!
One little glitch in the weekend: the school where we were supposed to stay had an 'unscheduled' power shutdown/outage. The city needed to work on the school's power and wouldn't turn it back on... even though there were 50+ people from Delta there to spend the night. There is one hotel in Glennallen, but apparently it isn't somewhere you want to sleep... mostly due to the strange color of water that comes out of the pipes! The conact person for Glennallen was very nice and found us a church to sleep it. It worked out fine... we slept in the basement. But halfway through the night the one women's and one men's toilet plugged up and there was no water availible. Needless to say, it made for an interesting morning (and a lot of yellow snow outside! Gross, I know... but what do you do??)
Here are a few scenes from our weekend:
Below are photos from inside the church were we stayed. It was nice in the fact that there was one big room where we could eat/chat... then there were several small rooms around the two sides (where I'm standing). We had our own room (once we kicked out many of Connor's team mates! -- see below). Lots of people also stayed in a big room upstairs as well, which was much warmer than our downstairs basement (it was up on blocks... not on a foundation). There had to have been 50+ people sleeping in various spots.
These are pictures from the drive between Delta and Glennallen, which is just under 200 miles. It takes about 3 hours. The drive was beautiful and there are more different kinds of landscape in this drive than I could show you... some areas are desolate, some areas are mountains and trees, some areas are totally flat. It was very windy. In some spots, you could barely find the road as the snow was blowing over it. I'm just glad we were traveling in the daylight!
And this was my personal favorite... only because it was so much fun driving it. <insert eyeroll!> Just make sure you didn't blow off the road because that is frozen water on both sides! Also, gotta love the sheet 'o ice we're driving on.
Finally, this is coming out of the mountains looking straight down in to Delta... which is about 20 miles in front of us. The missle defense field is all out on your right. Can you see it? ha ha :)
Happy Valentine's Day & Happy Birthday Connor
I always tell Connor he should have been my Valentine's Day Baby. He almost was. It was 8:00 a.m. on Feb 14, 2000, that I went for a routine doctor appointment as I was just starting my 37th week with Connor. I had been having problems with high blood pressure, but had been put on medication a couple weeks earlier, so that was taken care of... or so I thought.
That morning my BP was 210/130. So..... off to the hospital I went. Checked into a comfy room all by 9:00 a.m. *thinking* we'd be holding our sweet baby boy later that evening. My forever Valentine.
Yeah.
Connor didn't think the same way. Note the TWO days in between Valentine's Day and Feb. 16. Needless to say... those TWO days didn't go as planned, but all worked out fine and today is our little dude's 9th birthday. I'll post more on him after his party today... but I wanted to put these pictures up and hope that you had a Valentine's full of love, fun and lots of sprinkles! :)
From another scrapbooker's blog I read, I saw where she did a little "Sprinkle Bar" in her home. this is my own version... portable. We love sprinkles around our house. What isn't more fun when you have yummy, colorful sprinkles to put on your ice cream, pancakes... whatever. I made this using a spice rack I found in Fairbanks... dumped all the spices out, washed the jars and then used my circle punch to replace the spice lables. (two punches for multi-colored sprinkles -- yes, I'm weridly organized that way!) This seriously makes me happy!
The tag:
This dessert was amazing! I got the recipe from All Recipies . I love this website. User-friendly, easy-to-make, yummy recipies. The best part is everyday cooks rate the recipies, give tips, suggestions and substitutions. The cake is called Flourless Cake II and it tasted more like fudge than cake as I doubled the amount of chocolate baker squares upon another readers suggestions. It was so rich a 1/2" slice was plenty. It was even better the next day.
And finally... my sweet husband rocked this year in the present department! I am the proud owner of a new Flip Mino. Can't wait to start playing with this! Hopefully I'll have a video up and running soon!
Picture Heavy
I need to update some of my pictures of the day. I've been taking them... it's just sitting down to edit and print that is the problem!
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From Feb 3: 34/365 -- Connor's hockey practice. It was minus 24 degrees in the rink. Ice formed all over his mask and his eyelashes! I can't imagine playing in this. He said he wasn't cold. He's either pulling my leg or is cousin to the polar bear! I could only stand out there and watch him for 4.3 minutes before my face started to freeze. They practiced for almost 2 hours.
From Feb 4: 35/365 -- Jack is majorly into any SuperHeros... Spiderman and Batman are his two favorites. I was able to snap just this one picture. He prompty stomped off to his bedroom and angrily said, "You make me MAD!" (in refernce to having his picture taken.) Oops!
Feb 5: 36/365 -- Kevin packing his bags to head out to Anchorage for drill the next morning. I love that he packs his own stuff! He continues to have such an internal struggle with the military. He is passionate that it is his duty... but is so tired of the Army just the same. Feels such an obligation, but has already fulfilled it by his past 17 years + 1 year in Baghdad. He has 2 years left to retirement... to stay in or get out... stay a Major or go for Lt Col. I'm sure this is a question he'll wrestle with for the next couple years. It also doesn't help that when he has drill weekends, he'll work 19 days in a row, with just one Sunday off. :(
Feb 6: 37-365 -- Me, self-portrait. Normally I wouldn't take just a shot of me... but considering I had my hair done for the first time since I left Oregon, which was 90 days ago... this was the biggest deal of the day... the week, no the MONTH! Man it feels good to get those roots done, have a fresh hair cut and silky soft, styled hair. I almost felt girly again! But, then I looked down at my polar fleece pants and big black snow boots and realized that at this point, nothing is going to help! I didn't edit this one... this me, straight-out-of-the-camera. Dark circles, crow's feet and no lipstick. Ugh... I really *AM* going to be 40 this year!
Feb. 7: 38/365 -- Connor's hockey game in Fairbanks at the HEATED ice arena. A heated ice arena is almost enough to make me want to move to Fairbanks! Our Delta boys were soooo hot! I made Connor wear a long underwear shirt under his uniform, plus a t-shirt. Big mistake... that polar bear kiddo of mine almost "passed out" (his words) because he was so hot down there. Please remember though; this is an ICE rink... where the ice has to stay frozen... so it is still cold! But I guess when you are used to playing in artic tempuratures, 30 degrees probably seems pretty hot. He played AWESOME! He was defense and blocked so many shots. He even took one shot of his own into the goal... which their goalie made a great save. I definately think this was Connor's best game. Jack was an angel, too. He played his DS and loved being in the stands watching the action. We were all sad Kevin had to miss the game (he was in Anchorage at drill... but that just seems to be the story of our lives... Kev works so much/so hard... he misses a lot, too.)
This was a shot of the sunrise heading over the mountains from Delta to Fairbanks (100 mile drive). It was absolutely stunning and my lack of photography skills could never do the scenery justice. I had to stop and take the picture... it was minus 40. The boys thought I was nuts for getting out of the car.
Then I had to stop a few minutes later as the sun was up in the sky and get this one. The sky changed from orange to pink to blue in the matter of minutes. I missed most of the pink because there was no good place to pull over. Again, forgive my lack of photo skills. Alaska is simply breathtaking.
Feb 8: 39/365 -- Have you ever noticed that when little boys tell stories, it MUST include a full-detailed, play-by-play dialogue, which includes slow-motion action and sound effects? This is from every little guy that I know... both my boys, Griffin, Jonathon... they all do this! I love it... but it cracks me up. Especially when they have taken a fall on the ground, or they got trampled at recess... whatever it is... they explain it to you frame-by-frame. This was Jack telling me a story of how Connor pushed him over -- which was a total accident and made to be a WAY bigger deal than it was! (And I just love his one little crooked tooth peaking out, too! :)
Feb 9. Oops. Forgot to take a picture. So... instead of a photo I'll post a recent scrapbook page I did. Yup... I actually started scrapbooking again. Not sure I'm still creative with it anymore... but I was having fun. Now if I could just figure out how to 'stitch' each side of my page together in Photoshop without a line running through it. WHY can't they make 12x12 scanners?? Paper is from Scenic Route's 'Surprise' line (love this fun, happy paper!) and stamps are from a Lisa Bearnson CK Kit of the Month.
Today, Feb 10. 41/365. If you saw a nut out on the side of the hwy with a tripod set up at 7:50 a.m. dressed in a down coat, oversized gloves and a purple hat... that was me! The moon was amazing this morning. Bright, big and low in the sky. The sun is coming up earlier and earlier. I don't need a flashlight to walk Connor to the bus anymore. Yea! Another month and it will be totally light by 7:45 when his bus comes. I am so lucky this is the sky I get to look at every day. It is always changing... but always beautiful. Once again, please dismiss my lack of photography skills. I'm trying and learning everyday. It just doesn't seem to 'click' (no pun intended) with me! I must need an upgraded camera and lens! :) ha ha.
31/365
The sun is bigger here than in most places. I swear. It really is.
This photo is on Ft. Greely. This is a shot of the building/project Kevin is managing. You can see the "shell" on the left. This is as close as I can get to it. You take either one of those road and you come to a gate with armed guards. This is part of the "secret" in our secret missle defense system. Apparently if I had been caught taking this picture my camera would have been confiscated. Non-authorized photos on this installation are a huge no-no. But, since I didn't know that until AFTER I took the picture, I figure it's okay! :) I won't take my camera on post again.
I am actually lucky I can get on post. Most people can't. You to have a reason to be there... either work on post or have a military ID. Since Kevin is in the miltiary (which has nothing to do with this project), I am allowed as I have an ID, too. I am the only spouse on the job who can come and go as I please. Not that there's a lot to do/see there... but I did think this shot was pretty cool and am glad I could at least document some portion of where he works.
Here are the boys in Kev's office:
Here's Kev at his desk. Please notice his 3 cups of coffee. He's a coffee-drinking machine these days.
Finally his job shack. This was a on a crispy cold day of -15!
I did get a really cool shot of the set of plans that say "Ballistic Missle Defense System, Power Plant", etc... but I don't know if those a "secret", too. I'll have to ask Kev if I can post them.
Chocolate
Chocolate -- that was his word.
The entire school was there.
The entire staff was there.
15-ish sets of parents were there.
The cafeteria was charged with excitment.
They were competing for the school title... 3rd, 4th and 5th graders all against each other... no seperation between words... a 3rd grader could get a 5th grade word and a 5th grader could get a 3rd grade word. Top 3 kids go on to Fairbanks for the Interior Alaska State Title.
He was first up. He got to be the "test" all the other kids watched.
He got his word. Chocolate.
He spelled it C-h-a-c-o-l-a-t-e.
"I'm sorry, that is incorrect" was what he heard.
I saw his face go bright red. He was embarrassed. Not because he didn't get it right... but I knew it was because he had been up first and was out first.
Practically before the whole thing started it was over for him and he sat back down. I could see he face stay red for a few minutes... and for the first minute or so he his eyes looked a bit red, too. Moms just know this stuff... even though Kevin thought he looked fine.
I LOVE this 3rd grader of mine. I thought he did great. I think it is awesome he even made it that far. I picked him up from school and we came home tonight and had a lot of c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e as a consolation prize.
(I'm so mad... had my camera on the wrong ISO so I got cruddy pictures... this was about as good as I could photoshop them. grrr.)
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