Cross Country Skiing

We are finding that in Anchorage cross country skiing is very popular. The city has numerous parks with large trail systems. The trails are groomed for cross country skiing in the winter and biking in the summer. We happen to live about 1 mile from Russian Jack Springs Park. We rented some cross country skis from post and decided to try them out. Joelle went in the backpack and we were off! It really is a lot of fun! We skied for about 30 minutes and Joelle was so comfortable she fell asleep! We will definitely be going more before spring hits.

Attack of the Lasagna!

Santa, Take Two

We got a second shot with Santa and it seemed to go better! Our neighbor is a fireman and he brought the Santa Truck into our neighborhood. The kids in the neighborhood got all bundled up to see Santa on the firetruck and then slide down the firetruck slide. It really was so cute!

Ok, so it wasn't all smiles:

Then again, maybe not

Joelle visited Santa Clause for the first time at our Battalion Christmas Party. It didn't go over too well. I was holding onto her hand and she walked towards him....slowly....and the closer we got the slower she walked. For a second it looked like she wasn't going to make it to him but then I had Justin go next to Santa to see if that would help. It did for a couple more steps and then......crying! So I picked her up and we got a picture and called it good. Yes, we officially now have a coveted baby crying with Santa picture. We will treasure it always!

Christmas for Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we were able to have my entire family up from Spokane, WA. It was great having everyone here! The best part for us was getting to be with family in our own house. We did start the holiday with Thanksgiving. Everyone in the family contributed to a dish or two for the meal, so our kitchen was packed! It was a lot of fun. And Justin grilled a turkey again...so yummy!

My nephew Xander as a Thanksgiving turkey :-)

It was a lot of fun getting the cousins together. Joelle is two months older but she is the smaller of the two. She is almost walking (she has taken a few steps by herself) and Xander is sitting up on his own. They really liked playing together. Mostly sticking their hands in each others faces.

We went into Downtown Anchorage to attend a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. It was so sweet and innocent. It was outdoors (ok, a little cold at 12 degrees) and we saw soloists singing Christmas songs, youth putting on the play "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and then Santa came with his reindeer. Yes, REAL reindeer! We got to pet Prancer. It was so much fun!
We also celebrated Christmas with the family. Joelle and Xander got to open their first Christmas gifts. I thought both of them would be a little more excited about tearing apart wrapping paper, but they were both very delicate about it. They seemed to get a bit of stage fright with all of us staring at them. Xander got an Alaska souds book (push the button and you hear the sounds of animals in Alaska) and a hand carved wooden Army tank! Joelle got The Velveteen Rabbit, a play vacuum and popper and some baby DVDs.
My sisters, their husbands and my nephew left Alaska on sunday and my parents stayed until Wednesday. Sunday evening we went with my parents and bought Alaska King Crab legs and had a big crab dinner. It was a lot of fun! It ended up being a little too much fun for Joelle as she fell asleep in her highchair.
We all had such a great time! Hopefully we'll be able to do it again before we move from Alaska. Here's some more fun pictures from the weekend: