Still here

Sorry for the long break from posting, but we took a trip back to Utah for my (Christina's) little brother's wedding. I'm not calling it a vacation because it was far from relaxing, but it was still a whole lot of fun to see all of the family again. We were exhausted by the time we got back to Alaska - Scott and I fell asleep that night at around 8:30 p.m.! Although I'm sure some of that could be blamed on a not-so-fun plane ride with Tate. Can a screaming baby (namely YOUR OWN) in a cramped, inescapable, coffin-like setting be any more stressful? Oh, yes, it could be with the other non-parent passengers constantly turning around and giving you the evil judging eye of "why don't they do something" while you're sweating and trying every trick you know! I'm proud to say Tate is still alive, but I need some time (or serious meds) to forget the whole ordeal before hopping another airplane anytime soon.

The Larsen Siblings. Good lookin' bunch, aren't we?

Tate is a smiley baby UNLESS there is a camera in front of his face. This picture was hard-earned, and it turned out a million times better than the one we paid to have professionally done!

Hopefully the camera isn't picking up the bags under our eyes. We were all exhausted after a long week of playing and a long day of wedding stuff.
Scott captured this shot from the airplane as we were flying home over Alaska. Can you believe it looks this good from INSIDE the airplane? Amazing!

This morning we watched a moose from our kitchen window. (No, Scott did not kill it.) That is our playset and fence. Later in the day we found a tiny black rabbit hopping around our yard. (No, Scott did not kill it.) I love Alaska!

dust off the snowshoes!

February already and we haven't had a chance to use the snowshoes until now. Friday we took a day off from working on the house now that the kitchen is a little more liveable and we have a bedroom door .
The first new door

The kitchen with a dirty tile floor, appliances in place (matching appliances will make their way in as I get time to pick up some overtime at the hospital).

Friday morning we cruised up the mountain to Hatcher Pass and hit the gold mint trail.

Family photo on the trail

Tate can't always figure out how to smile when there is a camera in front of him and I'm sure people often wish I wouldn't. Course he's a cute little bugger even when he's not smilin'

Does the kid look like a natural little redneck or what? No snowshoe hares were harmed in the taking of this photo, but we did manage to pump some lead into an old soda can.

Now that Scott is showing me up on the blogging, it's my turn to post something. Although I must confess I am doing it because Scott told me to. The remodeling is coming along slowly but at least we are moving forward. I am absolutely loving our new interior doors. I will have to post some pictures of them later because they are beautiful. They have been a lot of work but are worth it! As for life in Alaska, we are now gaining about six and a half minutes of daylight everyday! We've been having blue skies and sunshine almost everyday for the last two weeks. We haven't had any measureable (meaning worth shoveling) snow for almost six weeks. Scott even took the plow off the truck. We did a little icefishing as a family a few weeks ago, and we are headed for some snowshoeing tomorrow! Yeah! So Scott's prediction of never going fishing again has been debunked. No more whining. It's also time to add a few new pictures...

The other day Mason decided he needed to be Superman. This is our attempt at a costume. We were a little limited on dress-ups so the Transformer underwear had to do.

Apparently Tate was still hungry after his breakfast yesterday, so instead of having seconds he licked the bowl clean. How do you like the mountain of tools in the background? That's my livingroom right now. Ugh.

We have a new respect for those who do tile professionally - or at least make it look that way. Wow, it is really difficult! Doesn't Scott look thrilled in this picture?!

You better change your clothes before mudding the pantry...

The remodel marches on, consuming most of my days (or nights) off. I was going to mud the pantry today, and Christina said if I got my new pants dirty I was gonna be in big trouble! Solution - just take them off.

Here's a photo of Christina with her new cabinets and...well... that's pretty much all we have in the kitchen. The subflooring should be done tomorrow and tile in next weekend.

Christina and Mason wanted freshly baked cookies to accompany the movie "G-force" last night. Cookies are a tall order when you don't have an oven, but we improvised with a pizza stone and the blaze king wood burning stove. It took some fine tuning to get the cookies to turn out. Here's a photo of Mason with one of the trial and error cookies. Maybe we got a little carried away with the fire because at one point the thermostat said 94 degrees.

This picture is old, and the snow is now gone due to the 80 mph hurricane force winds we had last week, but I still like it. It's all the snow that slowly slid off the roof of our greenhouse as the boys and I call it a day after working on the house.

no photos. no camera. no computer.

We live in the house - thumbs up.

The good news, that was pretty much it.

The bad news, we have no blinds, doors (except for one bathroom and exterior doors), kitchen floor, kitchen cabinets, kitchen sink, clothes dryer, hanging rods in closets, etc.

All of our stuff is moved in and it is total chaos. We have carpet with a fridge and a microwave set up in the middle of the living room. We are eating a lot microwave dinners.

We have our work cut out for us. On the bright side, the painting is pretty much done and cabinets are coming today. We should get the internet and phone line on Friday.

I don't know if I'll ever get to go fishing again ;)
Scott

Dudes Don't Blog

Scott here, just thought I would throw a couple of photos up and wish everyone a happy holiday season.
I went to the new house to get some work done on Christmas night and was greeted by a a booger blower in the front yard. By the way, booger blower and swamp donkey are our favorite nicknames for moose. Sorry for the poor quality cell phone camera picture - the moose is the big dark thing in the center of the image.



We had a great Christmas. Mason and his Transformers obsession continues on.







Christina insisted if we move to Alaska she was going to get some good quality cold weather gear. Strangely, I could not talk her into buying the mad bomber hat.

Only in Alaska

Saw this at the Palmer Fred Meyers. Yes, it is Fred Meyers, if you say Fred Meyer people give you strange looks. License plate: AK RDNK

Where else ya gonna see a truck jacked up 10 feet off the ground with a confederate flag across the tailgate and... snowmobile track for mudflaps? only in Alaska.