Alyeska Ski Get-away!

After Michael got home from the Iditarod, we were due for a family trip. We just wanted to get away from the busy-ness of life, and spend some time together.

We have been doing lots of Nordic skiing this winter, but we all really love to Alpine ski as well, so we decided to just take off and go for a few days.

Turnagain Arm:

We drove (about three hours) to Anchorage, and spent the night there at a favorite hotel. It was so relaxing, just to hang out together, eat snacks, watch a movie and plan the next day. The girls giggled and played until they were exhausted. Our niece came to visit us at the hotel, and it was sooo wonderful to see her, and catch up a bit.

Thursday we were up early and packed quickly. We ate a big breakfast at the restaurant near our hotel, then headed to Alyeska Ski Resort, which was less than an hour back the way we had come.

Our family on the mountain:

There is nothing like the view at Alyeska, or a day spent skiing together. We had such a blast! A few times Michael and I left the girls to ski on the lower mountain so we could take the lift to the top. It was a sunny, gorgeous day, and we didn't even need to wear hats...even on the lift! I consider it a pretty cool date to ski with my husband, and I pride myself that I can still keep up with him. He's a speed demon, and used to hang out with all the ski racers..the "experts" who went on to be Olympic ski coaches. :) I was probably slowing him down a bit, but he didn't let on.

Spring skiing is my favorite time to go, and we sure had a perfect day for it!!!

Mt Redoubt view as we drove back home:

Chena's Cake

By some miracle, I have raised a baker. I like baking once in awhile, but this girl LOVES LOVES LOVES to bake. She is a wizard in the kitchen, adores cute aprons, invents her own recipes, and almost always bakes from scratch. She has so many recipes memorized, I count on her like a walking cookbook. She is on her third district 4-H medal for cooking projects. I'm pretty proud of her!

Well last week, she got a phone call and hung up the phone with an excited squeal..then started flipping through cookbooks. She had just gotten her first paid baking job! She was to make four or five cakes for an event honoring volunteers at a big banquet. She could not stop smiling.

She did an awesome job. A few she made were a lemon cream cake, a mexican chocolate, a pumpkin spice, and a cherry vanilla. Everyone loved them.

That's my girl!

Winter Whine

Yes, its time for winter whining. There is a joke that is told here in Alaska. It goes like this: What's the Alaska state bird? The Ptarmigan. What is the Alaska state motto? North to the Future. What is the Alaska state wine (whine) "I wanna go to Hawaiiiiii".

Anyway, its still winter here, and everyone is posting beautiful pictures of tulips and daffodils on their blogs elsewhere. But that's ok. I am going to keep trudging through the snow, slipping on the ice, shoveling snow in the driveway and wood into the woodstove...and not complain. Much. And you in the lower 48 states, don't you worry your little sun-bleached heads about it. :)

Its been busy. Michael is on the Iditarod, flying clients along the trail. My friend is visiting us from Fairbanks, and she brought her little dog, Windsor, along. So its a bit crazy with four dogs but we are enjoying the entertaining aspects of it. Had a fuel leak in the hangar, so a bit of a panic there..but now its repaired and I have been trying to do the clean up. Scrubbing diesel off the floor on my hands and knees is kind of hard work though!

Yesterday we played outside most of the day, because you know, winter always looks better from the outside, than from inside the house looking out. I played with and trained Mukluk a bit more. We had a major breakthrough! I taught him to roll on command. I will post a video soon, but in the meantime, here is Mukluk just loose and wild and having a ball. If only we all had his energy!

Going Going Gone

Digital, that is. I will probably never stop scrapbooking in the traditional way, its just a part of me. There will likely always be glue dots in my hair, ribbon wrapped around my toes, and glitter under my fingernails. But that said, I am LOVING digital scrapbooking.

I recently had a digital scrapbooking party for my friends, through a company called Heritage Makers. We had a lot of fun. Okay, a BLAST! And my friends got hooked, like me. We are now all daydreaming about our next project.

Which leads me to the collage I just made. Its going to be a canvas wall hanging, in a 16x20 size. I'm excited.

I take annual "school" (we homeschool) pictures of my girls, in the woods behind our home and sometimes at a local park. These are last year's pictures, not this year. I dearly love them, and love the memory of the photo shoot with my two goofballs.




Now get out there and go digital! OR, tell me all the projects you are already doing! I can't wait to hear about them!

Slide Down Memory Lane

Just a little slide down memory lane. Gosh, they are growing up so darn fast! That was then.....

And this is now...

The Demise of Moldy the Frog..Dissection Time!

For Science class yesterday, we had a frog dissection. But first, we had to make our frog. That's right, I don't do real well with real dead animal dissections, so since I'm the teacher I got to decide to go a gentler route.
We "made" our frog by putting him together, organ by organ, then the skeletal system around him, and finally by creating his gelatenous "skin" and "tissues". We named him "Moldy" because we made him with a mold. (and, we figure, if we left him around long enough he would probably get moldy...)

Putting Moldy together...



His stomach goes on next.. now here we are mixing the green gunk that will become his skin and tissues..

After the mold is poured, we wait for an hour and a half for him to set up, and await his slow and agonizing death.

Heeeeres Moldy!

Sorry Moldy, but its for your own good. Well, its for the good of our students at Litzen Homeschool, anyway. Now just grin and bare it. (ha ha)

The first incision is made in the middle of the ventral side (underside) of the frog beginning just below (posterior) the back of the jaw all the way to the tail (caudal) of said frog.Thanks, Moldy, for all you did today. Your memory will live forever in our hearts. (and in yours, which we kept)