Christmas Eve Ski

I went skiing with my ski group, Alaska Winter Stars, on Christmas Eve. What a great way of exercising before the turkey! It was a cold but clear day with breathtaking views....

Bull Moose Fighting

This was the view out of Ian's office window one morning,
two bull moose having a little duel...only in Alaska!

Christmas 2010

We spent Christmas Eve with our friends Linda & Dave O'Connor. We managed to get a photo of the four of us-cannot believe how big the boys are getting!

The boys had great fun on Christmas morning....lots of lovely pressies

Here's Andrew dressed for combat !

Rory was delighted with his telescope

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with Sheena (my singing buddy) & John Kaigan and their friends....lots of food, bubbly and laughs!

More snow this year

There has been more snow this year and the temperatures seem to be colder .
Here is our table on the back deck - lots of snow.

Our local wildlife !

Here is one of the baby moose that wanders around our neighbourhood. He was having a little rest right outside our back door!

Lazy Pets

Here are our pets cuddling up close to the fire.....not a bad life !

Ian's Polar Plunge !

Ian took part in the Alaska Special Olympics "Polar Plunge". He had to jump into the freezing waters of Goose Lake (after they had cut through the ice!). Here are the boys before the plunge, and everyone was cold, as it was -7 degrees fahrenheit!

Ian is the second 'elf ' from the right...

Head first !!

Still smiling afterwards....he raised lots of money for Special Olympics.

Well done Ian!

Rory's Band Concert

Here is Rory at his Christmas Band Concert. They played a melody of songs including some Christmas carols.

American Thanksgiving

Forgot to mention American Thanksgiving....a lovely holiday at the end of November.
We spent the day with Ruta, Ian & Maddie and had turkey with all the trimmings.

Rory Masters The Rubik's Cube !

Rory has been working on mastering the Rubik's cube this week. He has been researching on the internet and watching you tube etc...
This morning he managed to complete it and was so delighted!

Winter walkies

The weather has turned colder-think it was about -10 on this morning.
As long as we are wrapped up we enjoy our walk.

Rory sledging

Rory loves sledging ! Here he is at a local hill having lots of fun...

Cross-country ski class

Here is my ski class gathering round our instructor for our training instructions!
Great fun-

Another birthday !

I cannot believe another year has passed...here I am celebrating with my boys.

The snow has arrived!

The snow arrived at the beginning of November- it looks so beautiful.
Can't wait to get my skis out...

Halloween !

The boys had great fun on Halloween...Rory raced around the neighbourhood "trick or treating" with his friend! Andrew stayed at a friend's house but did dress up as a mafia gangster.
Still no snow on the ground....
Here's a scary dracula!

Here is Rory & John ready for action

Scary boys!

Enjoying the 'candy' !!

Biking Trip To Serenity Falls Cabin

I went on a biking trip to Serenity Falls Cabin, which is North of Eagle River.
We set out on Saturday morning with our bikes and panniers full of supplies!
We were so lucky with the weather-we had lovely sunshine all weekend.
Here we are at the start of our trip.

The scenery was spectacular....the lake was so still.

Here we are outside the cabin...all packed up and heading home.

Another great Alaskan adventure!

The Termination Dust Has Arrived !

The weather has turned colder and the termination dust has arrived.
This is the phrase that Alaskans give the first flurries of snow that appear on the mountain tops-in reality signifying the termination of the good weather.
Week by week, the snow goes further down the mountains and winter arrives.
Not sure if I'm ready for snow yet, but we have changed our car tyres to snow tyres just incase it comes soon!

Rory's School Hiking Trip

Rory is now in grade 6 and they always have a hiking trip in the Autumn.
We hiked for 8 miles behind the school up through Bear Valley. Here is Rory with his pals John and Jonny.

Here are all the kids.

Walking the dog at Eagle River

We enjoy walking the trails around Anchorage. Here we are at Eagle River Nature Centre-part of the trail was blocked off because of bear activity!

Here are red salmon in the river-look how many there are!

Biking From Bird Point to Girdwood

Here we are biking from Bird Point to Girdwood.
Luckily the weather was beautiful....

Weekend in Seward

We went to Seward for the weekend, which is about one and a half hours south of Anchorage. On the way down, we managed to see some beluga whales in the Cook Inlet.

Seward is a pretty town with lovely views of Resurrection Bay.Here are the boys at the harbour.

It is fishing season just now-here are the boys with one of the local fishermen with a big rockfish!

We enjoyed cycling along the coast and even managed to see some sea otters which were so cute.

On the way home, we stopped to see Exit Glacier.