Spring Break! in Fairbanks? hmmm

A couple of weeks late we bring you photos from Mason's spring break and our family trip to Fairbanks, the golden heart city. When we were kids, we usually went somewhere warm for spring break, i.e. St. George or California. Fairbanks is known for being really cold in the winter, and, well, not much else.
We visited Ice Alaska, the world championships of ice sculpting. Enjoy.

An Escape to Paradise

We just got back yesterday (unfortunately) from a nine day family vacation in Hawaii. It was absolute heaven! We escaped from schedules, work, school, church responsibilities, and most importantly, cold weather! We stayed in a condo on the North Shore in a little town called Kahuku. Our condo was a short ten minute walk to a protected bay perfect for hanging out and snorkeling. We relaxed on the beach every single day, swam with sea turtles, fished, ate way too much, stayed up late watching movies, ate the most amazing fresh fruit, went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, got burned, walked through the botanical gardens, went snorkeling, boogie boarded, took lots of naps, and loved every minute of it. It was worth every penny and every extra shift at work to get there. The only problem is coming home to reality...

If you feel like being subjected to some of our vacation photos, you can follow this link for a slideshow: http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv144/christinky/?albumview=slideshow

Why you don't go cut firewood after working all night!

You're apt to fell a stupid tree on yer ding dang ole truck!


At least we got a little more wood out of the fiasco.

before and after #1

So we have finally done enough on the house to have a before and after picture. Here is the slate job we did on the wood stove.
Before:

After:

The Dog Days of Winter

What do you do when you wake up and it's -24 outside?

Hang out in your pajamas, stock the wood burning stove and maybe grout a little slate.

Or maybe just act lazy like a dog.

Back blogging yet again

To rewind a little bit...Mason's birthday party ended up being a lot of fun. We called it Jedi Training Camp. We made each boy a padowan and played different games to train them to be Jedi knights. For lunch we had gallactic pizza and yoda soda (lime sherbet with sprite). Scott and I worked together to create an R2D2 cake. Later on Darth Vader even made an appearance, and the boys got to put their new skills to the test. Interestingly enough, their favorite thing to do was play freeze-dance to the Star Wars songs. Who would have thought?



I got to take a little vacation to Southern California all by myself for my little brother's second wedding fiesta. The weather was incredible, and it was so nice not to have any responsibilities! All of my siblings that were able come also came spouse-less and child-less. We enjoyed going to the beach, visiting Balboa Park, staying up late playing games and laughing so hard we were crying! Scott and the boys survived quite well without me and even got to go out to eat more times than I did!


We got dog #2 two weeks ago. His name is Kaiser, and he's a lab/husky mix. He's a big dog (80 lbs.) with a lot of fur to shed, but he's so wellbehaved and loving. He doesn't even flinch when Tate pokes him in the nose, pulls his tail or uses him as a stepstool to get onto the couch. We had been talking about getting an older dog after the puppy disaster, but it shot up on the priority list after someone tried to break into the house in the middle of the night. I was alone with the boys and felt very freaked out and vulnerable afterwards. Luckily we have an alarm that went off and scared them away. I was sickened by all of the footprints all over our yard and around our house and garage. Thank goodness it has since snowed and covered them all up. Kaiser is so friendly, I don't know how good of a guard dog he'll be, but hopefully we won't ever have to find out.

Thanksgiving was wonderful with good friends. Scott stood up to the task of butchering our last turkey for it. It ended up being a pretty good-sized bird. Tate mostly just enjoyed the chocolate. That's my boy!


We took the boys and dog out today in search of our 2010 Christmas tree (a Larsen family tradition) and to cut some more firewood. It was nice to get out and enjoy the new snow and sun. We've actually had really dangerous conditions this week with two days of freezing rain. Mason's school was cancelled all week! I now understand why Alaskans complain when the weather warms up too much. (One town actually hit 50 degrees!) I would take freezing temperatures over the crazy weather we've had this week anytime.

Where has the time gone...

I guess it's time to play some serious blog catch-up. We have been terrible about posting lately, but life has been pretty demanding too. I did the math and figured out that in the last twenty-one days, Scott and I have had only five together! Yikes! Some of the highlights from the last month include:



World Music Festival at the Alaska Native Heritage Center with the boys
One of the bands included a woman who has been playing with the Saturday Night Live band for the last sixteen years. Scott asked me if I was a little starstruck, and I have to admit I was! I wonder what I'd be like if I met a real celebrity! Just as we were about to leave a moose wandered into the scenic shot.

Scott took Mason caribou hunting. I will refrain from posting the pictures due to the blood factor, but they had a great time. Mason was such a trooper and hiked about four and a half miles without food or water! While the boys were away I put Tate to bed at 6:45, ordered take-out and vegged out in front of the TV with my own bag of peanut butter M&Ms. And, yes, I finished the whole bag all by myself. Here is a picture of Tate enjoying the caribou post-hunting. Scott was so proud of his "Alaskan son," but I maintain that you can get Tate to eat anything if you put ketchup on it.


Halloween! We went with a Star Wars theme this year after I found an awesome Chewbacca costume for Tate online. Scott was the odd man out and went as a nurse (okay, actually he had to work the whole weekend).

Mason's 6th Birthday! Mason has been such a great kid. He's so obedient, kind, sensitive, funny, creative, smart, I could go on forever. He wants so badly to always do the right thing. Unfortunately he also hates making mistakes and wants to be a perfectionist. Hmmm...I wonder who he got that from??? We are having his birthday party on Saturday. Nine hyper little boys - anyone got any extra strength Ibuprofen?