Snow!!

I was bummed all day because Brittney kept texting me about how awesome the snow (first of the season!) was at her house. Who knew 300' in elevation could make such a difference?!? Hours later and still no snow... :(

But it started coming down while I was putting the boys to bed and I noticed it once I walked over to the sink to do the dishes. Haha - forget the dishes, I'm going to go take photos of the snow!

I'm not sure if I was as excited as the girls were - they seemed super pumped to run around and get covered in snow, while I stayed in the doorway to get photos. I think maybe my dogs are more Alaskan than I am... :)

Argh!!!

We got a package in the mail the other day from Grannie and I couldn't remember what she had told me was inside. I *did* remember I wasn't supposed to open it right away. But I had no idea when I was supposed to open it... Whoops! Luckily I thought to take a closer look at the package to see if it had any hints. And there on the outside was a taped on label for "Talk Like a Pirate Day".

Well that's a day I know by heart - September 19th!!!

So this morning, we got the boys all excited and then let them open the package. Pirate gear galore! And she had handmade all of it - I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the boys! 

Henry wasn't quite sure what to do with the pirate's sword...

Thomas had no problem, he grabbed that sword up and started swinging it around. The most impressive part was he started yelling "Yo-ho!!!" Who in the world taught him that?!?

I also learned it was safer to be out of sword distance when taking pictures...!

Henry made some progress on the sword, but still wasn't getting the hang of it. Poor guy would not make it as a pirate!

This is what happens when you don't know what to do with your sword - another pirate takes it and becomes doubly dangerous! I'm betting most pirates don't look so gosh darn adorable though! ;)

After nap time, Thomas went straight for his pirate hat again. He did decide he would rather see than wear the eye patch this time, but otherwise he was a super happy pirate! 

Henry, on the other hand, decided to convince his brother to push him around the house on his elephant. The pirates life may not be for Henry, but he is just fine with a life of leisure - ha!

Eliza was happy the swords were out of reach for a little while. Thomas never got close to her, but she is not a trusting kind of dog and ran every time he was holding them. Also, she looks scraggly enough to be a pirate dog - if there is such a thing? Surely some pirates had dogs?

Henry decides that if his pirate hat won't suit his life of leisure, then his fedora will have to do. The boy certainly has style! 

Thanks Grannie for the wonderful present. I am sure that my pirate hat just got lost on the way. Maybe I'll see if I can cram Henry's on my head while he's not using it. ;)

Hiking Flattop

Matt and I have discussed going for a hike on one of our Friday's off, but for one reason or another, it hasn't ever happened. So when he threw it out as a suggestion the other day, I was on board for getting a hike in before winter settles in! Plus the autumn foliage is gorgeous and I thought I could get some really pretty photos on the hike up. 

See what I mean? Everything is already turning red and yellow from it's previous bright green! But wait... what's that white stuff in the background?!?

Snow?!? Well I guess we weren't paying enough attention to the fact that it dumped several inches on the Chugach Range the day before we decided hiking was a good idea! I'm mostly kidding - we knew there was snow, we just underestimated how much there would be and didn't think to pack our ice grippers for the hike.

We are *those* people... Sigh.

But apart from the snow, it was a good day for a hike. The air was cool, but not too cold and it was nice and sunny. We'll take it - it's still a great day by Alaskan standards!

The hike up wasn't as strenuous as I was worried it was going to be, but when we got to this sign, I still got a little concerned. I have heard multiple people talking about what a scramble it was to get to the top and we were already slipping and sliding a little bit up to this point...

But we carried on! Matt is going on a hunting trip next month and he was testing out his pack options on our hike. I liked that because it meant I only had to carry my camera while he carried my multiple layers in case it got too cold. :)

We made it to the top! It was a little sketchy at the end, but doable! Probably a bit more fun when it's not covered in snow and ice, but it was still fun!

There weren't many other people that went up to the top, but there was someone that nicely offered to take our photo. Which was nice, because you know my motto is that if there isn't a photo, it didn't happen. Ha!

Of course, the weather went from awesome to awful in the span of a few minutes once we got to the top. We already needed to hustle down to make it to daycare in time to get the boys - getting pelted by sleet made it even easier to move fast. Luckily, the nasty weather blew over us in about 10 minutes and was back to being awesome again. It was a great ending to a super fun hike up Flattop! :)

Here's hoping we'll get more hiking in next year (or just be more prepared for snow & ice on the next one!)

Cookies and Car Wrecking

The weather has been pretty rainy lately and this weekend was no exception. I figured since we were kinda stuck inside, we might as well make cookies!

Of course, I had lots of help with ingredient holding and dumping!

I even got assistance with cookie cutting! The boys picked out the shapes they wanted from the huge assortment of cookie cutters and Matt arranged them on the rolled out dough. 

Quite the assortment, huh?

The main goal though, was to use these super cool dinosaur cookie cutters that Rachael had sent us forever ago! It's a two piece cutter - one that is the outline of the dinosaur and the other you press on top to imprint their bones. I wasn't super even on my rolling though, so you can see the T-Rex on the left isn't quite as defined in the head area. But not that bad for the first attempt... 

They looked super cool though! And way easier than free-handing in the skeletal structure!

The car tent also got pulled out for play time since the two of them like cars so much. Thomas got this from my parents for his birthday last year, and it had been hiding in his closet the last few months. Matt set it up in the living room and as soon as he walked away, it fell over.

Well that's weird. It never had that problem before... 

Of course, it never had Henry in it before, either! He was having a blast knocking it over and then pushing it back upright. That kid is a tank...

Thankfully, Thomas was more than happy to roll with getting knocked over again and again!

But the tent is only made for so much abuse... Once one of the tent poles split, I figured it was time to move on to a new activity. So I pulled out the markers and let the two of them color away. Henry did a pretty good job with the markers - one more thing I probably should have let him play with months ago! His technique is a little hard to see, but he is definitely leaning toward pointillism! :)

Finally, it was cookie time! Their momma may have claimed the super fun dinosaur cookies with the excuse that "they have too much sugar". They seemed pretty happy with the ones I made them though - Thomas was flying his airplane around and Henry was letting his dinosaur "eat". 

Well this makes my little lie about the sugar a little more obvious - I had forgotten the one I gave him was covered in icing and sprinkles. Ummm... it's less sugar because it's a smaller cookie?

Ok, fine. I just wanted the dinosaur cookies all to myself. And I am not going to feel guilty about it, because they were amazing. So there! ;)

Thank again for the fun cookie cutters, Rachael! I promise I'll figure out how to make perfect dinosaur cookies before your next visit!

Henry's Growing Up

Sometimes I feel like I'm not paying enough attention to how old Henry is getting until I realize that I haven't done something with him that I definitely had attempted with Thomas at his age. It's probably related to the fact I was convinced he was 18 months for about 6 months. It's hard to keep track of two of them sometimes... "/

The other morning I pulled out Hungry, Hungry Hippos since the game time with Thomas went so well the other night. As soon as I had it out though, Henry scooted over and started whacking the hippo with his hand. I realized he probably had enough strength / coordination to make it work, so I showed him how to make the hippo "eat".

This guy is a hippo pro! He even beat me a few times! Hungry, Hungry Hippos is obviously not my game...

Then I decided to make cookie bars with Thomas and Henry was pulling on my pants while I was trying to assemble the ingredients. Duh, he's probably old enough to help make cookies too. So I put him next to Thomas and handed over the whisk to give it a whirl. Look how excited he is! Also look at the shade Thomas is throwing at his brother, he is not so happy about sharing...

But once I realized sharing a whisk wasn't ideal, I figured out that everyone would be happy with their own spatula! Much easier - unless keeping the counter clean is your goal... ;)

I had thrown this easel in a stack of toys that I thought the boys weren't using anymore (in an attempt to try and free up some space). Matt protested that Henry would probably use it. Of course he would - and I hadn't pulled it out since last year. As you can see, he obviously loved it! 

So I'm a little behind on letting Henry try some things, but he seems pretty happy about all the fun new skills & toys! I promise to try to do better in the future (hopefully)!

Sunday Morning Donuts

Matt had to work late last night - so late that he came home early this morning. But being the awesome dad / husband he is, he brought home donuts for the rest of us to eat. A great surprise and I didn't have to cook. Win-win!

Henry loves sweets, so the fact that he was more than happy to chow down on a donut should not be a surprise to anyone. The only surprise in this photo was how little chocolate he had on his face - ha!

Thomas shocked me by not going for a chocolate covered donut with sprinkles (his loss, I ate it!). He doesn't look to upset about it though, does he?

While I was taking photos of Thomas, Henry started being super silly. I look over to see this... What are you doing son??

Then Thomas started doing similar antics and the two of them were having trouble finishing their donuts because they were both laughing so hard. So I got donuts and a show...

Never a dull moment with these boys! :)

Dance Party!

I'm not usually the one who gets the boys ready in the morning during the week. I go in to work before everyone else is up, then leave work earlier than Matt to go get the boys. I know some mornings they can be a handful to get ready, but Matt manages so that the boys don't have to spend over ten hours at daycare. (The sacrifice on my end is usually lack of sleep from not going to bed early enough..)

A few weeks ago, I ended up being the one to take them in to school and apparently I messed up their morning routine. I didn't know that part of that routine was to turn the radio on and have a quick dance party. Silly me! They were pretty vocal about the omission until I remedied it. ;)

This morning they were having fun playing with all of their toys, but started getting little fussy with each other. I figured it was the perfect time to do a dance party to get the mood happy again. They were on board as soon as I turned the oldies music on. (Not that the type of music really matters, they listen to kid's version of top 100 songs at school all the time.)

The two of them have very different dancing styles. Henry's involves a lot of spinning around, leaving over and swinging his hands in the air. He almost looks like he's going for something out of Thriller in this photo...

Thomas enjoys more running around in circles while laughing and clapping. Thomas appears to be getting the better work out from the dance parties. ;)

I think the two of them have awesomely hilarious dance moves. I have tried to shoot videos of them dancing before, but they usually stop as soon as I pull my phone out. I was surprised they let me take so many photos of them dancing and they never stopped. Now I know the trick to keep them dancing!

And yes, they are still in their pajamas and yes, it is after noon. Whatever, it was a laid back morning. I mean, I did drag them along to me with Starbucks in their pajamas, but I used the drive through... They didn't even have to put their shoes on!

Don't judge - the pumpkin spice latte is only here for a limited time!

Plus how else would I see this adorable toddler belly? His shirts are long enough that I would barely get a glimpse. Hurray for the Cars pajamas that are just a teensy bit too short!

Love you and your dance moves, boys. Stay young and excited forever, please!

Alaska State Fair

Since our impromptu trip to the fair was so successful on a Friday last year, we decided to go again on our Friday off. The weather looked absolutely horrible this morning, but I really didn't want to go on the weekend and figured there was enough indoor activities to make it worth the drive up. Hopefully...

They had these giant block letters just inside the gate and I was so confused what FAR meant. It finally dawned on me that you were supposed to stand there and be the "I" in FAIR, but as short as Thomas is - it still looks like FAR. So I am just imagining it with a heavy southern accent. "We really enjoyed our trip to the far." Ha!

I'm so glad that our favorite food is so close to the entrance. Thomas refused to eat the fried cheese curds at first, but then gobbled them down. Not sure why I was so insistent that he try them. Silly me had to share way too many of them!

Henry is probably frowning here because we ran out of cheese curds. He's still got ranch dressing on his face. I promise he was happy overall about the fair!

Matt and Thomas waiting for the lumberjack show to start. We've not seen it yet and managed to get there right before it started. Seemed like fate wanted us to watch some lumberjack fun!

I didn't get great photos of the lumberjack events because I brought my wide angle lens and they weren't really close enough for it. My zoom lens struggled in the barn area last year since it was indoors and I knew the wide angle would do better there. Given the rain threat, I thought we would be mostly indoors.

Yadda, yadda, my far away pictures aren't great. But you can still see the throwing axe hurtling through the air and that is awesome.  

The boys really enjoyed the show - even the part with the loud chainsaws. Matt and I covered up their ears when the lumberjacks warned us the chainsaws would be super loud and after that, the boys covered up their own ears any time it started to get noisy. That's normal behavior for Thomas, but it was the first time I've seen Henry do it!

Then we headed off to the animal barn to see the prize winning chickens, geese, sheep, cows and rabbits! This guy was the "Best in Show" for the rabbits and my first thought when I saw him was "Brown-Noser!" Hahaha - I pointed that out to Matt and he laughed. So I figured I would share it with you guys. Although it does appear that he really cleaned up with the awards!

Matt and Thomas heading over to the big side of the barn. I think the two of them are adorable. Mostly because of Thomas in his vest and rain boots. For some reason the combination just makes me think he looks super Alaskan. We aren't known for our stylish elements, but we do have fun cool weather getups. 

Henry seemed pretty stoked to meet another Henry! The two of them were about the same age as well - though Henry the cow was just a tad bit heavier... 

Thomas was a petting zoo champ this year. It's about his 4th time at a petting zoo and he seems just fine around all the goats and sheep. He even fed a few of them after I showed him how to hold the food in his hand. After a few times though, he decided I could feed the rest. Fair!

Did I mention how adorable I think he is in that vest? He is adorable. 

Henry wasn't sure about this whole petting zoo thing. He was probably on eye level with most of the animals roaming around looking for food, so that's pretty understandable. But I tried to get him interested in the tiny sheep and he was having nothing to do with them either. Though once he saw his brother feeding the animals, he seemed to not mind them as much. Obviously he already wants to be cool just like his older brother!

And he's also adorable in this photo. Made me so glad I brought my wide angle lens since he never got very far away from me. ;)

We got to use the cool hand washing station again this year! The rest of the day, Thomas kept telling me how he washed his hands with water from the milk. It left quite the impression on him - he thought it was too neat!

He also used the chicken coop hand dryer, but he wasn't quite as enthralled with it. The chickens were "too noisy!" I still think the whole set-up is a brilliant idea to encourage kids to wash their hands after the petting zoo. And you can just see the beehive on the far side of the chicken coop - it has "Bee-Clean" hand sanitizer. Ha!

Our next food find was a mini doughnut stand. The kids loved the mini doughnuts we grabbed before hopping on the ferry to Valdez, so I thought a bag of those would be a hit. I was right - Henry might have a concerned look on his face, but he just had his first bite and I interpret it to mean "Goodness gracious, this is amazing and I must have many, many more!" Between the boys and myself, I am not sure Matt got any...

I was also enthralled by the contraption to make these heavenly little fried dough rings that they had sitting right in front of the pick-up window. It's a countertop sized appliance - I could theoretically have one of these in my house?!? Good lord, I did not need to know that! 

It took some coaxing for Thomas to even try the corn fritters, but once his dad promised they were delicious, he finally went after one. I think he liked them ok, but I noticed he was much more enthusiastic about the donuts. 

Henry was equally excited about both - I can probably claim those genetics. Also, I can neither confirm nor deny that he is covered in cinnamon sugar. "/

We headed over to the ride section of the fair. We had intended on letting him ride in the trucks like last year, but one of us would have had to sit on the side of the truck to drive and thanks to the rain, the trucks were throwing mud everywhere. I managed to avert a meltdown by promising him fun rides like he had at Fur Rondy earlier this year. 

Of course on our walk over there, he was more excited about this rain puddle once I told him he could splash through it if he wanted since he was wearing his rain boots. It's the simple things in life with little kids...!

Finally made it to the rides - first stop was, of course, a train!

Henry was super bummed that he was too short to join his brother on any of the rides. But he was happy for Thomas anyhow and waved to him every time he went by. It was sad / adorable. 

I tried to keep him entertained while we waited in line for the next ride. I think he is secretly trying to ruin the photo by sticking out his tongue so I won't post it. Ha - not so easy little man, you still look cute!

Thomas is ready for his helicopter ride! Seems pretty fitting how excited he was since he was named after a helicopter pilot, huh? Here he is giving his dad a thumb's up before the ride starts up. 

Once the ride gets going though, he is all business. No smiling or waving at us - he is focused on keeping his bird flying. Ha - I don't think he saw us at all in the 15 or so times he went past us. The boy is serious about his rides!

We finally found a ride that Henry could do - the super big slide! (With me, of course.) And I had to carry him up all those stairs - what a work out! I didn't realize how tall it was or how fast we would be sliding down it until we were actually going down...

I wouldn't have been surprised if Henry hated it - it was a pretty fasride. He didn't cry, but then again he didn't smile either... Maybe he was in shock?

You can tell I enjoyed it though! :)

One last ride to finish off our stack of tickets and Thomas decided for a ride in the dump truck. He chose to ride in the cab - it obviously has the better view, but the back part goes up and down as the truck goes around. Oh well, he didn't seem to notice he was missing part of the fun. And, as usual, he was super serious until the ride was over!

Overall, it was a great trip to the fair and we managed to wear ourselves out by the time we had planned on leaving. Matt actually had to go in to work tonight to do an after hours change, so we wanted to make sure we left in time to get him to work on time. 

After Matt left, we decided to do a run to Target to get milk and in the process ended up picking up some new games and Aunt Heather! After dinner, I put Henry to bed at his normal time and let Thomas stay up late to try out one of the new games. And he promptly trounced the both of us on Hi-Ho Cherry-o!

He spent most of the game ahead of us for Chutes and Ladders too! He was super excited about everything - he would get just as excited with a spin of "1" as he was of a "6" or a ladder climb. He didn't cheer for losing ground on the chutes, but he didn't seem to care either. He was just so happy to be playing a game with us! 

In the end, Heather won Chutes and Ladders by getting that lucky ladder on spot 80! Thomas was a super sport and gave her a high-five. I lost every possible game, but I think realizing we can play games with him was a win anyhow.

Game night with the kids? Oh, it's on! :)

Guilt Stickers

Occasionally, people will tell me they are shipping me things and I usually forget by the time the packages arrive because they take sooooo long to get here. Like the other day mom told me she was shipping us something - I didn't even question it because she randomly sends us stuff all the time.

Then the package actually arrived and we opened it to find a pair of Matt's shorts and jeans that she had accidentally packed in her luggage when they left! I think she felt so guilty about stealing them that she stuffed the rest of the box with goodies to soothe her guilt. Ha!

The boys were obviously the most excited about their chocolate donuts, but these star stickers were a close second. Henry hasn't actually played much with stickers yet, but I thought this thick foam ones would be a good starting point. I peeled the backing off for him and then he stuck them down on the paper - he did a pretty good job too! Obviously they got stuck to his fingers on occassion, but overall he was a sticker placing master!

Thomas doesn't need *any* help with stickers anymore. I think here he was telling me to stop trying to adjust the colors in his pile of stickers to be more balanced. I was just trying to give you more of the shiny stickers, little Rembrandt! ;)

The finished masterpieces! Maybe I should have gone with little Picasso... Henry's stars show pretty good coverage of the page and Thomas was much more focused on the one side. Well I guess I can't question his artistic vision!

Thanks for the care package, Nonni - even if it was a guilty one. :)

And there was one other care package this month that I forgot about by the time it arrived - Theresa and Anna sent us their favorite book. I saw it in a photo Theresa sent me and was asking what it was. Since it was about the only book we didn't own, they surprised us with a copy of it.

Thomas LOVES it! We're already read it so many times. If you have a small kiddo and they like to read, you have to get this book. It's pretty much magical! Thanks for introducing us to the awesomeness of Press Here! :)

Fishing for Silvers!

I haven't done a team building trip in quite a while, but the group I just moved to had planned a team building trip coincidentally the second week I was in the group. The team decided to do a guided fishing trip out of Talkeetna and I figured it would be a great chance to hang out with my new coworkers and maybe, actually, possibly catch a fish worth keeping!

The guides took us out to Clear Creek via powerboat. There were enough of us that it took them two trips. I would complain that all the good spots were taken once I got there, but I really had no clue what would make a spot good or not, so I just squeezed in somewhere. Luckily combat fishing isn't so bad if you know the people you are fishing with. 

I waded out in the water a little ways since I had my waders on and the fish were everywhere! There were several that kept swimming around my legs - but those looked distinctly like they were on their last legs. This splotchy guy was definitely not feeling too well... "/

I finally caught a fish without snagging it! Of course, it was a chum - which no one keeps, but I was still pretty darn excited!

And then I caught a silver! Eeeeeeeek! My coworkers nicely offered to take a photo for me, but apparently I couldn't quit grinning like a moron even for a photo. Ha!

95% of the fish we were catching were chums, so I was more than happy with this only slightly pink silver salmon. 

After those two, I didn't catch anything for hours. I got the guides to switch me to a pink lure and that seemed to be attractive to the chums. Shocking...!

Our ride back was significantly less powerful than our ride in. The way back went with the flow of the river, so it was a nice raft trip back to the boat launch. Notice the headgear switch - it got a little chillier as the day went by and we lost what little sunlight we had. Luckily I thought ahead and grabbed Matt's awesome Duluth hat. :)

The catch of the day! Obviously these are not all mine, I was by far on the low end of the totem pole for fishing ability. But it worked out that everyone who wanted a fish to take home got one. Such a great team effort! Also, salmon are not the most pleasant looking fish. Good thing they are so tasty!

Best part of guided fishing? Someone to fillet your fish for you - we really need to work on our fish cleaning and filleting skills. These guys were super efficient at whipping through all of the salmon. 

I found a great salmon taco recipe earlier this year and figured it was the best use of the salmon I just caught. Plus it has our new favorite condiment - Sirancha! I don't much care for Siracha on it's own, but mix it with ranch? Amazing!

But that only took one of the fillets and I had two. Salmon cakes to the rescue! I found a Cook's Illustrated recipe that uses fresh salmon and it was amazingly delicious! I don't generally fry things at home, but these little gems were worth breaking that rule. Can't wait to make them again - yum!  :)