And we shall name it Triceratree

We put our Christmas tree up Sunday. I have fond memories of driving to every tree lot in the greater Tri-City area as a child to find our perfect tallest, Charlie-Brown-y-est Christmas tree possible — only to return to the very first lot and buy the very first tree we saw. But since moving to Alaska there are not billions of tree lots on every corner. So we simply go to Home Depot, because it's cost effective.

This year our tree had three tops. So we appropriately named it Triceratree. One was taller in the beginning, but it had to be lopped to fit in our living room.

My sweet mom made us some very special hand-beaded ornaments this year, including the one above. The beaded wreath frames pictures from our wedding on both sides. She has a similar one from hers and my dad's wedding which makes it extra special.

 Triceratree in all her glory.

Davs and I made paper snowflakes out of coffee filters while watching Elf and the Christmas episode of "Glee."

3-D movie glasses are so much cooler than when I was a kid. Pop the lenses out for a fashion statement.

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween. Davin did pretty well on his Trick-or-Treat adventure. He was a penguin, but people kept asking if he was an "Angry Bird." Sign of the times?

If you look back, you'll notice there was no snow when we carved our pumpkins just Thursday. That is no longer the case.

 Over the weekend we went to the Monster Ball at the Museum where our friend dee-jayed the event.

Can you guess what our costumes were?

And it begins

Just when we were all thinking Anchorage kids might be lucky enough to have a snow-free Trick-or-Treat this Halloween — this happened. Anchorage got it's first measurable snowfall last night. Goodbye green. Hello white for the next six months.

The cats didn't know what to make of this strange cold stuff.

 The pumpkins looked a little distraught too.

Carving pumpkins and roasting seeds

Halloween is Monday so it's pumpkin carving time. We drove all over town looking for the perfect pumpkins after early release from school today and ended up getting these beauties at the Carr's [Alaska's Safeway] down the street. Bell's Nursery, which advertised a pumpkin patch on the radio only had discounted, tiny, Charlie Brown pumpkins left.

The ones at Carr's were huge and of course Davin wanted the one at the bottom of the crate. So we rearranged nearly every pumpkin in the stack to get to it.

Above, the victims before carving.

We also toasted pumpkin seeds, at batch of sweet and a batch of savory. The savory were coated in olive oil, garlic salt and cayenne pepper. The sweet were coated in olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, savory and a spoonful of brown sugar. Just spread on a baking sheet at pop in the oven at 400 for 20-30 minutes. If you do sweet, watch that sugar, it will burn if you don't pay attention.

Happy Halloween.

A hipstamatic fair time

I realized on the way to the Alaska State Fair yesterday that I had forgotten to put the Scandisk back in my point and shoot. So I decided to document our day at the fair with the Hisptamatic app on my iPhone. Hipstamatic is kind of one of those guilty pleasure things that I hate to admit I like. Like the Kardashians and Katy Perry. The photos look cool. In fact I got far more comments on one of these pics on Facebook mobile upload than expected. But I prefer a truer image. I wouldn't submit it to the Pulitzer committee of anything ... But it did make a fun set of pics to remember our day.

 Davin and his best buddy.

 The rat race.

 Award winning giant cabbage.

 To the birds.

 Cotton candy.

 The masses.

 It was windy and chilly, but my Alaska jacket from Homer kept me warm.

One non Hipstamatic for the mix, the kids while by on the highest part of this ride.

First day of school

Today was the first day of school in Anchorage. Look at that sharp sixth grader.

Fourth of July celebration

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. I did. We barbecued with friends, baked shortcake and zucchini bread, and rented the latest Harry Potter movie. On Monday we rode the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail on bikes to the city celebration a Delaney Parkstrip. We decided it's about eight miles of cycling round trip. Festival food, military bands, and carnival games for kids. Above Davin nears the top of the rock wall.

 On the way downtown we saw parent geese attending to their young all around Westchester Lagoon.

Friday Fun: Revival of the lemonade stand

May Day was also Lemonade Day in Anchorage last weekend.

We went on an epic bike ride on a lesser-known (read: hilly and muddy) trail last weekend that dropped us off at Westchester Lagoon. After lapping the water we were began plotting where to find a little refreshment when we came around the corner and found a real, live lemonade stand.

Adorable kids were standing on the edge of the trail hollering like newsies and more adorable little people were serving up four varieties of lemonade. I ordered the stands namesake drink, the Lemon Twist, a mix of sparkling water and lemonade for just $1. It was perfect.

Lemonade Day is a city event to encourage kids to learn about entrepreneurship. Participants get packets to help them start their lemonade stands. The website explains it:

"It is a FUN, FREE, city-wide event where KIDS get to MAKE and KEEP THE MONEY that they earn. Kids of all ages learn to set goals, develop a business plan, establish a budget, seek investors, provide customer service, and give back to their community."

After our cool drinks we continued to the downtown New Sagaya Market for lunch and found a less adventurous (read: difficult) route home.

Alaska SeaLife Center

The Alaska SeaLife Center was the highlight of our trip to Seward last weekend. It's no Sea World, but it is the only aquarium in Alaska, and it packs a lot in a small space including a huge puffin exhibit, and both underwater and above ground viewing of stellar sea lions, seals and more. I especially enjoyed watching the kids as the stellar sea lion continuously looped by the main display window like the photo of Isabelle above. Although they also seemed to enjoy the hands on pool station where you could gently touch starfish, sea anemones, hermit crab and other underwater critters.

 

At first I wondered why they were selling finger paintings in the main lobby, but after taking a moment to read the sign, I realized these are no ordinary paintings. The artists are residents of the sealife center: puffins and sea mammals. All the proceeds go to animal conservation and supporting the SeaLife Center.