day hike

We went for a day hike on the Mesa Trail yesterday. High temp in the 50's. Sunny and warm!view of Boulder

Really don't want to head back to AK where the temps are below 0 or in the single digits.

Fun at the H-mart

I've been enjoying my mom's home cooking for over a week now! Here's mom & Kristina making seafood takoyaki.Dave just got into town yesterday. It warmed up to 55 today so we went for a nice walk and did some lounging around the house.

A trip home is not complete with a trip to an Asian grocery store.
This time we went to the H-mart near Sam & Erica's place in South Denver.

We found some interesting items including duck. parts missing.

I think we found the missing parts:

A little Engrish:

had to google this. it's a flower

Art imitates life. Or Kristina imitates cookie packaging.

OOF! anyone need 4 gallons of Sambal???

I love Skype

Video chatting is the greatest. Especially since it's free with Skype! It's a great way to talk to people - to be able to see people is an added bonus. We had a fun session with Eliot & Bennett with lots of show and tell and making faces.We video chat with my sister and my parents quite a bit. Here is Kristina showing us her Halloween costume: Lego Man. Notice us in the bottom left corner.

And more recently, I chatted with Adrian in DC!

And tonight we chatted with Adrian AND Dan! super fun.

AND Adrian's Dad, Pirie

We still need to make a Skype date with April et al. Alisa - let us know when you get Skype hooked up! Ellie! you need a faster internet connection and a video camera! :) And then I can teach Wyatt more words besides, 'Emma J Stinklepants'.

Boulder visit

I've been in Boulder for over a week now visiting my family over the holidays. Enjoying my mom's home cooking. Porter enjoys it, too.

Porter likes Chinese food

A family visit isn't complete without hanging out with our great family friends: the Iyers.

Scott & OwenPorter found a new best friend. Owen started asking for cookies not for himself but for Porter.
One for Porter...one for OwenI finally got to meet Matthew's wife Priyanka and watched some really cool footage of their wedding in India this summer

Because of Facebook, I have gotten back in touch with numerous friends from all the way back from grade school. Patti & I had dinner with Paul, a friend of ours from high school.And I was reunited with some high school girlfriends: Jen, Jessica & Mikki

Everyone with their significant others and kids except for me! Mikki just got married in Hawaii and I got to meet her husband, Arthur who travels up to Nome for work frequently. Hopefully, we'll see them in AK soon!And I had a great reunion with Ashley.
So wonderful to be back in touch with everyone!

My sister is a baking fiend. She made some samoas earlier this week:

And we're getting some good Porter time in. Good thing since I'm suffering from Emma J Stinkletrousers withdraw.

My big project has been to convert all our family home videos from VHS tapes to DVDs. OOOF! We've been getting a good kick out of watching them... might see some video posts in the future.

Juneau

We made a quick trip to Juneau before I headed down to Colorado. Caught up with Yumi, Cory, Corey & Justine! Fortunately, it didn't rain while we were there. Sunny and cold! made for some gorgeous sunsets...at 330PM!Sunset in Auke Bay

Spotted some whales off the beach in North Douglas

Wondering what to do with all those old skis? Here's an idea:

I went for a nice walk on Mendenhall Lake with Justine. There were ice skaters and skiers on the Lake. How fun to be able to skate or ski to the glacier!

Drove out to Lena Point to check out the new Convicted Felon Marine Research Institute... oops, I mean the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute. Caught another gorgeous sunset at 330PM.

There are some neat displays in the facility such as this wall o' fish.

and the weather orb which is really hard to take a photo of.
it shows real, up-to-date weather patterns all over the world

Mile 12 Skate Ski

We went skate skiing for the first time this season at mile 12 right outside of Seward.
Fabulous skiing, gorgeous day.

photo doesn't do the alpenglow justice

going down 'Pyle's Peril'. Dave's the only person I know that wears camo skate skiing. I should probably focus on skiing... what I need is to rig myself up with a critter cam! :)

Thanksgiving Cabin Trip

We got lucky this year and had a snowy Thanksgiving. 5 of us headed out to Trout Lake Cabin on the Resurrection Pass Trail for the long weekend. The group ahead of us broke the trail and it was a relatively easy 7 miles out to the cabin.

Mandy & Emma K

Dave rigged up a sled for me so for the first time, I sledded most of my gear instead of carrying everything on my back. Here I am after we got derailed by 2 sled dog teams. Emma K & Mandy weren't so lucky - they had a minor run in with one of the sled dogs - it jumped out and grabbed Emma K by the butt while Mandy was holding her! Must have been the bright neon green booties that got her in trouble.

The creeks were still open - thankful for bridges:

Dave was psyched that his pumpkin pie made the trip!

We had quite the spread: turkey, gravy, stuffing, carrots, kale, salad, cranberry sauce, home made bread, pumpkin pie, chocolate & butterscotch bars, maple date bars. We had enough leftovers for dinner the next day. I don't think I've ever eaten this well on a cabin trip!

The Gang: Mandy, Me, Dave, & Mr. & Mrs. Solberg! We look a little goofy because the room was actually lit by candle light and we were trying to aim our headlamps at the food (at least I am) so the photo would come out. I have headlamp hair!

The next day the girls went out for some high adventure: to Infinity and Beyond!! We settled for Juneau Lake and Beyond. Beyond being Swan Lake which was 6 miles.

Skiing across Juneau Lake - there was some overflow and the temp got above freezing which proved a little difficult for skiing but conditions improved after we got past the lake.

Had some fun downhills (which turned into uphills on the way back)

Almost there...

Finally, Swan Lake! Emma J was technically the only that made it TO the cabin.

We had to take the summer trail because there wasn't enough snow on the winter trail yet. Here's Ann doing some fancy foot work to get over some dead fall and Emma K helping.

Mandy coming down one of the fun switchbacks and Emma J helping

After logging 12 miles, the first thing Emma J did was make herself comfy on Mandy's bunk!

Next day, Mandy, Ann & Dustin skied out

but the boys had to check their ice fishing lines first.
do the dogs really think they're being helpful?
no fish.

Ann & Dustin

I love this photo of Emma K

I skied out with them to the junction and then took Emma J for short ski-jor to Juneau Lake and back.

the previous cabin dwellers cut down this tree for firewood. Dave tried to count all the rings - over 200!

We had an interesting ski out - usually have icy super-fast and deadly conditions. This time, we had 6-8 inches of new snow on the trail! and no one ahead of us to break it! Poor Dave & Emma. Some of you are familiar with the trail and know how fun and fast it can be for the ski out. Well, I didn't bail once or have to take off my skis to walk down on any part of the trail - that tells you how much the fresh stuff was slowing me down!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving with good friends. I'm looking forward to doing more skiing soon. Dave's looking forward to getting me a bigger sled. :)

Here's a fun video. I call it 'Don't run me over'. I really didn't run Dave & Emma over - it just looks like it...




And here's a short one of Emma ski-joring