Dogmas in Colorado

Or the holidays in Colorado. But Dogmas, as Kristina has deemed this holiday season, might be more appropriate. Sam and Erica's dog Porter stayed at Mom and Dad's while I was there and Kristina brought Digby down, too. Porter and Digby kept us entertained every day with their shenanigans. It took Digby a morning to assess Porter but then they were playing almost non-stop.

Digby post-flight and still on drugs

Weighing in at 10lbs is Digby Tinkletrousers, and Porter 'The Horse' at 110lbs!

Face hug :)

Grand puppies begging at the table

Resting

Keeping a watchful eye on the door

Christmas Eve dinner feast!

Snow storm dropped 12+ inches overnight

Stroll in the sun on one of Boulder's many trails

Sam & Erica

Mom & Dad

Dave really wants to make a saddle for Porter

Are we there yet?

Prince Digby warming up his paws

We played dress up with Digby. HAH. He was a good sport. We took advantage of him when he was tired and couldn't put up a fight.

modeling a hat

Not that excited about the onesie

We had a great visit with my family. The weather was fantastic, mostly in the 50s the last week of my visit. So nice to feel the heat of the sun this time of year. The time went by way too quickly as always.  Thanks Mom and Dad for taking such good care of us! Hope everyone had a good holiday season!

Random

It's been a pretty mild winter in Fairbanks with the exception of our cold snap right around Thanksgiving. Record lows of -40F?!?!

Dave at -30

 Gall-Rizzolos came over for dinner one night

blueberry monster!

Blueberry monster turned into sleepy dragon

Where's the tail?

Love the outfits that parents put their kids in. And dogs. Too helpless to do anything about it! hah!

California

We went down to CA for Thanksgiving and to celebrate Tessa's Bat Mitzvah. It was a busy trip! Events scheduled almost every day. We had some time to catch with some of Dave's friends.

Dave, Kevin, Dave. It's a sandwich!

Going for a stroll in Mt. Diablo State Park

.

Looks a little different than Fairbanks

We met up with Patti! Her aunt and uncle live 10 min away from Dave's mom.

Great to finally meet Katie, her Chinese is better than mine

Shabbat dinner. Uncle Dave with them munchkins

Tessa's Bat Mitzvah service. I finally met Auntie Anne, Dave's dad's sister.

Uncle Dave and Tessa

Post cake and ice scream. That is not a typo.

Hanging out with the Hoffmeisters on a Sunday afternoon

Extended relatives from Ohio and Florida came out for the celebration! It was wonderful to see everyone. Tessa - we are very proud of you!! You worked really hard in your preparations and we're excited to how much you've grown as a individual!

Fall Update

Finally uploaded photos from this fall. We went out to the White Mountains in early September for some berry picking and bird hunting. It was a gorgeous fall day. Emma helped Dave with ptarmigan hunting while I hunkered down in the tundra and napped, read a book in the sun. Then we picked some blueberries.

Emma trying will Dave into sharing his lunch

Blueberry picking

Hunters and their booty

Emma was in good form that day

Dave went goat hunting in Seward. Multiple times. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful and I wasn't able to go with him. At the very least, he got some nice hikes in and did see goats.

View from Mt. Alice

View from Humpy Cove

Jared on Mt. Alice

Colors on Mt. Alice and Resurrection Bay

 More hunting back at home. Fall also means time to prepare the catch so we spent some time making bison burger and canning bison.

with grouse

Grouse soup with canned bison in the background

canner full of bison

So, the next several photos are of Emma. We took her in for a bath and deshedding a couple months ago. The woman who groomed her put little bows behind her ears. She looked so ridiculous and ridiculously cute we couldn't stop laughing at her. If you know Emma, you know that she came from a litter of all males and probably has more testosterone than the average female. She pees like a male, she marks like a male, she's just not very lady like. I left the bows in for 2 whole days before Dave finally took them out. I don't think she even knew they were in there. Hard to see them in these photos.

haha!

Dave made me beaver mitts for my birthday this year! (photos to come) I appreciate his efforts in keeping me warm in Fairbanks. Maybe Emma needs a beaver sweater this winter.

Labrador Rebeaver?

After almost a year of being gluten-free (mostly), I'm still trying to find good GF substitutes for all the yummy gluten-filled food out there. One of things that I miss the most is Chinese food. Making GF foods that involve GF flours seems to take too much time, time that I don't have right now (but I really need to make the time) but buying pre-made GF items at the store is so expensive. So, here and there, I've been setting aside some time on the weekends to do some GF cooking. I found an awesome cookbook: The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen and made some pork dumplings and bison spring rolls (recipe called for pork, chicken or fresh crab) a couple weekends ago. They were super yummy. Even Dave like them.

Pork dumplings

Bison spring rolls

Happy Halloween!

I start my PhD qualifying exams tomorrow. 5 days of written exams and then an oral exam for 3 hours. I am so sick of studying and ready to get the exams started. Ready or not, I'm just ready to move forward and get them over with. I complete my exams right before Thanksgiving and if I pass, I can return to 'normal' life!