Home Sweet Home

Quite a few of you have asked questions about our house. I'm not ready to show the pictures of the inside yet - we still have a lot of work to do in order to show off the before and after pictures. But I love to share the pictures of the REAL reason we bought our home. These pictures were taken in the fall when we found it. As soon as we pulled up the driveway I told Scott this was the house I wanted. After watching the slideshow I'm sure you will agree with me. Here are the stats on the home: built in 1982, 1620 sq. ft., sits on an acre, 1/2 acre fenced in, has rhubarb, strawberry and raspberry plants, has a shed, woodshed, and greenhouse...need I go on?

http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv144/christinky/house%20photos/?albumview=slideshow

Gettin' some food fer the table!

Monday we had an ice fishing adventure with over a dozen preschoolers. Yikes! All the kids caught fish and had a good time. Three feet of ice over a lake allows you to park a lot of trucks out there just in case kids need to warm up. Fortunately they didn't need it because the weather was perfect. The kids also got to go for sled rides behind snowmobiles (or snow machines as they call them in Alaska).

Grip n' grin with a whopper:



Takin' a ride behind a snow machine with classmates, quite the ladies man, isn't he? That plane in the background was the grandpa of one of the kids who dropped by to say hello.



We all had a good time





Christina was a little wiped out this morning - Tate has been grouchy and the puppy is, well, a puppy. I'd been itching to get out anyway, so I piled the boys and the dog in the rig and headed off in a sleep deprived delerium to chase critters.

Mason harvested his first spruce grouse:



The dog has received a name. We're calling him Chako, short for cheechako - an Inuit term for someone who hasn't been through a winter in Alaska. He ain't the best birddog yet, but we're hopin' he'll be trained up by next year.





An sorry, ya gotta type with a redneck accent when you're tellin' a huntin' story!



As a disclaimer, I may come under some fire for posting hunting pictures. Please know that I work very hard to instill in Mason an appreciation for the animals we harvest. We focus on gun safety and also teach him to respect that not everyone is comfortable around guns and hunting.

Only in Alaska Post #2

Today we took a drive down to Settler's Bay. What do the locals do on a sunny (but chilly) Saturday afternoon in Settler's Bay? They take the upside down hood of a 67 Dodge pickup, mount a couch to it and tow it around a frozen lake behind a truck, of course.
We witnessed this affair and were told it is found on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5r8nfnLuFQ

When the (crazy @$$) fellers doin' it offered Christina and Mason a ride, they strapped on some helmets and brought a whole new meaning to the term "couch potato." Only in Alaska...

Here they are being towed behind the truck.


Gettin' ready to roll

The Junior, Junior Iditarod

So the Iditarod is underway as of Saturday. Some friends of our friends made the paper by handing off hotdogs to the mushers as they made their way out of Anchorage on Saturday. (There are a lot of cool race photos on that site.)
http://www.adn.com/2010/03/06/1170971/iditarod-ceremonial-start.html#id=1171078&view=large_view



I have had to work the last four nights, so we didn't get to see the Anchorage start or the start from "the Valley," where we live. There were plenty of festivities on Friday in Anchorage before I had to get to work, so we made the most of it. Here is a pic of Christina impersonating the goddess of fire and volcano carved out of ice.

We found a nice cool (or ice cold) spot in the shade to sit down and take a rest: (FYI for those of you who are familiar with the book "Flat Stanley," this is Flat Leah from our niece in Sandy, UT.)

Check out the newly initiated mushers:

Dog Blog

No, I didn't kill the rabbit in the yard - but I did catch it. I built a hutch for it, and Mason loved playing with it...until it died. Mason was very sad and kept saying, "But, Mom, we were almost friends." What do you do when your pet rabbit of two days dies? Apparently you get a dog. The unnamed mutt (mostly lab with a little pitbull):

The Iditarod starts in Anchorage tomorrow and they run a few miles to Eagle River. On Sunday, it really starts in a little town called Willow, just north of Wasilla. Is our little pup ready? We'll just be happy if we can get him to just quit peeing on the brand new carpet and go bird hunting by next fall.

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.