Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Christmas Tree, and oh yeah, Happy Birthday to ME!

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! We had a very entertaining dinner with our friends from Japan.
I cooked a big turkey and all the basics. It was the first turkey time experience for many of our friends, and I think everyone had a good time. Once again it was fun to have the house filled with lots of laughter and people. The turkey was extra special in my great grandmother's roasting pan....Senor thinks it's a good boat too. We have lots to be thankful for this year.





















And yesterday we had the good fortune to get the car's oil changed at Alaska Ship Supply and discover the newly arrived batch of Christmas trees! Plus we got 15% off for the auto work, so it was an all around good deal. What luck! Of course, Senor enjoyed the decorating process and it is perhaps the nicest tree either of us have ever had and the first real Christmas tree we've had since the good old SLC days.


And last but not least, Happy Birthday to ME! Getting old...what a trip. I'm currently on my way to work, but I left a mixing bowl and cake pan on the counter. We'll see what greets me upon my arrival home this evening. Cross your fingers!

Addenum:

Yahoo!

Weekend Snow Adventure

A bluebird day! Woah, we haven't had one of those in awhile. We took advantage with a little cross country skiing up the Pyramid valley. Of course, no trip would be complete without a few rides in the red sled too.

Dawson navigated some quite impressive snowy (and a little icey) slopes with Senor in the backpack and I was so proud of his developing cross country ski skills!

Here's Dawson getting ready for the family photo pose while I set the timer on the camera.



Unfortunately, he's better at skiing than posing.....


I guess that proves it, he's no poser.....

But we recovered for a good family photo! And as you can imagine, Senor didn't mind the roller coaster photo ride at all.

New boots.....with eyes

I'm happy to report Senor is progressing just a bit beyond "ball." It's still a mainstay of communication, but we've added "hiiiiiiiiii" and "eyeeeeee". Pointing to someone's eyes is just so much fun. And then to get some new boots with eyes, well it almost competes with the fun of a laundry basket (but not quite).

"Eyeeeeeessss"

Record Breaking Weekend

Two records were broken this weekend. Neither of which concern anybody other than ourselves and possibly a few other Dutch Harborians.


Record #1: 9.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep! That's more than three and a half hours longer than Senor has ever slept consecutively. (Not counting gestation, of course.) And after a 5AM feeding, he slept for two more hours. Hooray for Senor! We were all so well rested the next glorious morning we didn't know what to do with ourselves. So we went sledding on the beach and the dunes at Summer Bay, where Revel-Roo also set a Big-Air sledding record.



Okay, so it's kind of hard to see. But if you look carefully, you can see where he was airborne for a good two feet or so. (Don't worry, he had a spotter. And he was wearing his seatbelt.)


Record #2: The Sunday newspaper arrived in Dutch Harbor. On Sunday! The same Sunday! This may not be noteworthy to most folks, but here in Dutch Harbor it is something truly spectacular. In the 10 months we've lived here, it has never happened. The paper usually arrives 3-4 days later than the date on the cover. (A couple months ago we were pumped when the paper arrived just one day late.)

In other news, our Dell laptop finally bit the dust. And we aren't even sad about it.

Sledding fun:

Happy Birthday Paxson Revel Roo Boodah Senor Mister Buddy Racecardriver!

Wow. Thanks for being born Senor! You've brought so much joy into our lives! Here's to one great year, and here's wishing you many more to come. Thanks for all the laughs! And for teaching us a true appreciation for sleep! We love your great big smile and your mischievous adventurous spirit. We love YOU!

PS We also know you can't read yet and we love you anyway.

PPS Your mom is famous!

Powder Day Numero Uno

POWDER!!!!

We got about three milimeters of snow at ground level today, and three inches up at the pass. Senor was ready to go for it. After powering up with a blueberry smoothie.



You can see the stoke on his face already!


Someday he'll be riding one of these...




Let me get the feel for it here.

That's nice.


"For now, that's my sweet cherry ride." So says Senor. (But it comes out sounding like "Ball."
Everything is "ball." He learned his first word and he's sticking with it. Senor, where's the snowboard? "Ball." Where's momma? "Ball." Etc.)



"I'll be sledding over there." (Technically, what we hear is "Ball" and "Oooooooo")





Okay, Dad, here's how I want you to do it.



Got it? Okay. Let's have some fun!





Uh-oh, Mama's driving...




Faceplant? I ain't afraid of no faceplant!





My work is done here. ("Ball.")

Beautiful Fall Day

We took advantage of some rare beautiful blue sky weather and a return to the land of the living (after a family bout of the 8 hour flu) to get outside and enjoy the day! Senor got to practice walking in shoes, not exactly his specialty. And Dawson tried his hand at fishing for silvers.


This juvenile bald eagle was considering the tastiness of Senor.


Senor really enjoyed the mud puddles and has finally learned to throw rocks! In my excitement for photography, you can witness my poor parenting in action!



In other news, Senor is repeatedly saying his first real word, "ball" (besides mama and dada) and Dawson was successful in the fish hunt.