Monday, November 30, 2009

The Trip That Never Ends (cleaned up a bit)

We had a good day yesterday, even though the 3 of us were getting a bit testy and anxious to go home. We bowled 3 games (quite badly...but it was fun nonetheless) then went to Hethykins and Steve's house for dinner! I try to do this every time I'm in ANC if at all possible. She's been my confidant and has been my bestest buddy for 26 years!
Steve made moose steak, garlic mashed potatoes and salad...it sounds like an average meal, not so! Steve is an amazing cook!!! It'd be dull if I cooked it :) I got hints on making our moose as tender as theirs, thanks guys!!
Steve and T had never met...they talked and talked about killing animals to be eaten...Maybe Steve will come out to fish this summer. Soooo I think they got along :)




The kids played Scrabble too. I feel a new game obsession coming on! (I know you'll approve Donna!)


Today we were SUPPOSED to fly home. The flight went, T went. Mandy and I decided to PenAir up on their offer of free tickets ANYWHERE Alaska Air flies (MEXICO??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and stay until 12pm tomorrow...Heth will be here any second, we'll be off the internet until tomorrow am.
LOVE free tickets --some of the fares are $1600-$1800 EACH :)

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Family Friends and Culture

The sets was gorgeous, but we read in the program to not take pictures after I got these few, being a rule-follower I didn't take any more.



Manderzz shared some with me...yum! My salad was gross.
The whole gang...Wonder if we'll EVER have occasion to include MTM's and K's families too??
C & B were so cute. Silently entertaining themselves while the adults talked and talked.
I think Frederico was Mexican not Japanese, oh well. He was good.



It's our last night in ANC --we're sooooo ready to be home. I know that Jr, Dylls and Bella are very ready for us to be home too. Friday we met up with my brother Rick, Brenda and their boys at Benihana. What a meal! It was delicious! We had a great time visiting too. We were exhausted and I was in bed by 9pm.
I'd been up since 5am to hit Sportsman's Warehouse for guns, ammo, hunting/sledding clothes and who knows what else, A LOT of stuff. People thought we were sooo rural Alaska that we chose THAT store and THAT stuff to buy on Black Friday. Whatever --all the other electronics can be purchased on line and shipped to us, why bother with the crowds and lines? (plus we're not doing the crazed electronic thing this Christmas, our "indulged" kids have more than enough already!)

Yesterday we ran a few errands, Target and Old Navy for Mrs. Beard's class. T went to REI for some gifts while Manderzz and I ate at the Middle Way Cafe -
http://www.yelp.com/biz/middle-way-cafe-anchorage
I want to eat that sort of food all the time! I think Jeff needs to open a place like that?!! Or Alena?? Come on guys! Someone...
Last night was the big night, The Nutcracker! We met Patty, Dave and DJ. It was lovely, Manderzz liked it a lot. Patty gave Manderzz a sweet little ballerina ornament as a keepsake (she's so thoughful that way!) T survived and didn't fall asleep, but there will be no more ballets for him.

Today, just a quick trip to Fred Meyers I haven't gotten 2 items for Mrs. Beard's class and T has a few more things to get (don't know where we'll put this stuff. We literally have 9 pieces of luggage and 2 carry-ons each and CB thought we were slackers in the shopping department!! WE acquire huge amounts of crap without even trying.

Thanksgiving..

The youngest kids played the piano together (like 100 years ago??)
AS found T's ginormous flashlight..
We played Apples to Apples...Juno won, if I remember correctly. I got only one card :(
Some of us wrestled.
Others arm wrestled.
AG beat both of us --duhhh.... I'm a treadmill-elliptical sort of gal. I make teens do my heavy lifting or T when he's in town!
Holy cow...we are due for a new video game to entertain us!
They were having some deep conversation about how much line is released when the reel is turned or something ridiculous like that.
We didn't invite the dads to the table.
The spread, I meant to make it all, as I'm the one that is home, but I only had time for half of it. T, Jr and Juno ended up making a couple items each --THANKS GUYS! I was not doing well at about 3pm.
I am going to move on to cookies and more kinds of fudge :) OK maybe after cookies and cream bark (white bark with Oreos --yum!

Our actual Thanksgiving was mellow...we didn't want to crash anyone's dinner here, so sort of snuck to a not-too-fancy restaurant. Ughhh I've been sick ever since! (Or maybe it was the coffee at 5am on an empty stomach on Friday morning)
BUT we had a delicious and fun Thanksgiving with all of our kids and our buddies AG and family (minus MS...we all hope Dyls and MS be OK with being in the same space soon --someday! LMAO...teens!)
I hear it's deep fried turkey @ their house on Christmas and a New Year's Eve party at ours.

T bought some new game (the one that if you buy the REALLY fancy version like Jr's grandmother pre-ordered for him comes with real night-vision goggles!) I'm sure some Modern Warfare 2 parties will be happening this month too. The boat is in town and I HOPE we're done traveling for awhile!!!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Opps AG's Halloween Madness That I Forgot to Share

I know it's totally late, but I went to bed super-early last night and it's quiet this morning (I even did laundry, to me that means we've been gone too long...all my workout clothes have been throughly used) My one complaint about this hotel --it's HOT!! Like 73 or 74 degrees...even in the exercise room!

AG and neighbors (Ray and T's co-workers) put on the best Halloween ever! Full-grown Somans were too frightened to go up the stairs! Mothers were angry that it was so scary and tween and teens had to dare each other to go up the stairs...
They had "dead" bodies with axes in them already in body bags with evidence tags in the yard...fog everywhere and the creepiest 6'7" (or something like that) Jason (or maybe just some scary guy?? I don't want horror movies) at the top of the stairs with a REAL chainsaw yelling at everyone. (the chain was removed) the sound and the smell was very scary then add the huge creepy guy and the fog ughhhh....


and a SCARED teen!




Friday, November 27, 2009

Our First Black Friday in a City with Malls

Wow..where has the week gone? We've gone to dr appts (t is fine) and watched too many movies. I've worked out and we've swam in the pool, played in the huge wonderful hot tub and ate. That's all I can remember from the week!
Thursday we were sad, missing the boys and our puppy has practically adopted the Hladicks LOL...they sent 16 pictures of her with them! They suggested picking ourselves up a new puppy! Jr has been watching her, but between school and work he needs help. I really think he'll never have kids after this week!
AKGlitterQueen and crew picked me up THUR we hit Old Navy as they were about the only open place. Then later T was kind enough to take me to Michael's which opened @ 5pm. We got a lot for Mandy's class. For the family they adopted for Christmas (Unalaskans as always have come through more than EVER expected and this family of 5 are going to have an AMAZING Christmas!)
We were going to hit ToysR Us at 12am...but couldn't justify it. We just didn't have much to get there. 4 am at Sears or was it  JC Penny's?? We just didn't NEED anything enough to get up.
BUT 6am at Sportsman's Warehouse, THAT's Worth waking up at 5am, getting there by 5:30--whatever!
My big purchases...a clearance sweater, matching scarf and some glove-mittens.
My view for quit awhile:











and 3 sleds....
It took until 7:30 we spent soooo much $$$ omg... it was very cute, some people were selling coffee and muffins while we were in line, they'd been up all night going to the lines all over town.
Back at the hotel, breakfast with a 100 happy hungry people (some kids' hockey tournament happening this weekend, good weekend for Alaskans from all over to come to ANC!) then back to the mall to let Manderzz spend HER $$$, She's been patient. 2 stores and she was satisfied. T ran into one of his best friend from growing up in Kodiak, that was very fun! Maybe he'll talk Mark into coming to Unalaska this summer!
A quick trip to Costco..then I demanded to come back to sleep. We should've been bowling with AKGlitterQueen and kids, but ...no sleep was needed.
We did try to pick up our Nutcracker tickets..that was a cold, wet failure, I hope we can get them tomorrow.
T and Manderzz are at a fast food resturant (yuk!) I had half a bagel, peanut butter and some pineapple. Sick of eating. We are meeting my step brother and family for dinner tonight at Benihana's. We've never been, I hear it's wonderful!!
CB was appalled that I wasn't into Black Friday, omg it's too much for my brain, all the crowds, all the lines...no Wal Mart, no Best Buy EVER....but the calm stores we went to were nice. I purposly chose "nice" places.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Wow, We're Easy to Please.


I love this hotel! They took us to the Orthodontist and picked us up...I tipped them, but that's NOTHING compared to paying for a taxi! And they just knocked on the door with a note and a yummy piece of cake --"Dear Hotel Guest: Happy Monday
Since we want you to feel at home here at Embassy Suites, we though y ou would like a home-baked treat. We hope you will enjoy a piece of home baked strawberry cake from our Pi Kitchen + Bar.
LOVE IT!! Ok off to the gym for a couple of hours before we head to the airport to pick T up. Dinner @ Outback and some movie tonight :)
Ohh and braces for Manderzz after her last molars come in. Better get Dyl's done now and her's in a year or so.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Mellow Day in Anchorage!

Heder and Steve 2 of my favorite people ever!!
We needed a t-shirt for working out!
Manderzz at the movie.
We DO need a place to eat yummy food while watching a movie...someone needs to do that in the bottom of the Intersea Mall!!!


We made it!!! The weather was up & down all day....not good at all when we were driving to the airport, but cleared enough that at about an hour past our original time of departure 3 flights landed! We were on the 2nd one....although the 3rd beat us here. We got in pretty late last night, after picking up some people in Cold Bay...man what a full flight, glad we got off the ground that 2nd time!
This has been one of the quietest days I've ever had in Anchorage. It was close to 10 before we got settled into our GORGEOUS wonderful suite at the Embassy Suites hotel. They gave us free Internet, which should be $9.95 PER DAY (not a fee that I care for one bit!) and a basket with some goodies and a free pay per view movie...I love this place! Manderzz was a little hungry, we were able to order appetizers in the lounge/restaurant downstairs. She got hot wings (Go figure, if no chicken strips she goes for wings!) I ordered the cutest, yummiest appetizer. I have to get them again to show Jr a picture! It was like sushi tacos with ahi and cabbage and I think terrikai sauce. Really fun!
The pool looks great, hot tub too. I worked out this morning for 2 hours and the cardio machines all have TVs built in...there is nothing on at 7am on Sunday morning, so it didn't matter, but the machines were very nice! The breakfast was free and had omelets cooked to order, biscuits and gravy and all the fixins...no crab, shrimp or smoked salmon, but the price is right!
We had purchased tickets to the 10:45am Sunday showing of New Moon, thinking it'd be quiet -HA it was packed, we ended up sitting in the 2nd row! I did enjoy the movie and will be listening to the books. I thought I couldn't stand Edward...I think I'm on "team Edward" now, Sorry CB!

H & S picked us up, we wandered around the Sears Mall killing time before the Bear Tooth Theater opened for the movie we wanted to see! It's so fun there. I can't stop ordering gyro pizza to move on to anything else! I have the 2nd half to eat later tonight fter a lot of cardio of course. The play 2nd run movies, this afternoon it was Julie and Julia. I listened to the book. It sort of followed the book, with a bunch of extra "Julia" thrown in.
Tonight...swimming, Manderzz is going to try to help me figure out the arms for free style as I missed class yesterday and again to the cardio machines...lots of books and magazines to read!
T is scheduled to leave Unalaska at 1pm tomorrow, we'll go to the airport to meet him after a long lazy morning of cardio, pool, hot tub and fancy buffet :)