Happy Thanksgiving!

Only a week behind.  Boom.  I'm basically blogging from the future at this point.

So last week, Andy's parents came up to celebrate Thanksgiving with us! Now that I think about it, I think this was the first time we've ever hosted family for Thanksgiving.  Even better - they did all the shopping and cooking! That's my kind of hosting :)

We mostly just hung out on Thursday.  We even let Olive have a little taste of TV, which is rare for her.  She was into it...for a few minutes.  Sitting with Grandma helped.



We brought out her beanbag chair so she could watch and she seemed to enjoy that. Zombie! Also...doesn't she look about 12 in this picture? Where is my baby??



Olive had a great time showing Grandma and Grandpa all of her toys...and her favorite pillow.



Olive had fun goofing off with dad while we waited for dinner.



Andy's dad was in charge of the turkey.  It was beautiful! (and delicious!)



We even set the table like real grownups.



I should have taken a group photo.  I assure you we all looked fantastic that day.

On Friday we headed out for a short walk around Hilltop.  Despite having over a foot of snow on the ground just a few days before Thanksgiving, a weird winter storm brought warm weather and rain just in time for the holiday.  Basically everything turned to ice.

Beautiful and treacherous...

Olive didn't care about the trails though, because she was ridin' in style.  She absolutely LOVES the hiking backpack (thanks for the hand me down, Bryan and Deanna!).





Just look at these two. Oh my god...



Ripley even tolerated the ice...his talon-like toenails help.

This was my attempt at a group photo. Nice.

After naptime, we headed out to the museum to do some indoor exploring and go see the Van Gogh exhibit.  We'd been once already but thought Andy's parents would really enjoy it.  It's not an exhibition of any original works, it's this really interesting multimedia installation with music and videos about Van Gogh's life, along with images of his work.  It's really hard to describe, but it's really cool!

A picture I took from the internet...

It's also amazing to see something hold Olive's attention for more than three minutes.  Thanks museum!



After the museum, we had dinner at the museum's awesome restaurant, Muse, while we waited for the downtown tree lighting ceremony.

We walked over just at the time the festivities were starting.  Since it's usually three degrees this time of year, the program was brief:

Listen to some people talk...



Christmas carol sing a long! - Olive's favorite!



Then santa shows up with some reindeer (real ones, of course, though Star did not make an appearance...I can't believe they snubbed Anchorage's biggest celebrity!) and they turn on the tree. Boom! 20 minutes and you're done.  Good times had by all! I also love that we got there just as it was starting and we had a perfect view of the whole thing.  You never really have to worry about dealing with big crowds in Anchorage...especially during outdoor events in the winter.



Finally, on Saturday night, we went to Zoo Lights.  We got there right when they opened and there were hardly any people.



Olive had more time in the backpack, which she of course loved, and it was a really fun thing to do just a short hop from our house.  I wouldn't say it was the most spectacular light display ever, but we all enjoyed it a lot.  I think the best part was getting to see the animals at night.  The wolves and tigers were especially active, which was really cool!

In fact, while we were walking around the zoo, we heard all the wolves howling and we rushed over to their area to check them out.  I took a video, which isn't much of anything (too dark), but check it out just for the sound - the first time I've ever heard this!  Olive also loved it, and now she loves howling whenever we ask her what the wolf says.

It was a great, but too short, weekend.  Come back and see us soon Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy Halloween!

Look, I know I'm about two weeks late on this, but, considering how far behind I've been with the blog lately, putting this post up on November 15 makes me feel like I deserve a medal.

We got our first snow just in time for Halloween! Snow for Halloween in Anchorage is like rain for Halloween for Seattle, it has to happen so the kids' costumes get covered up.  It's practically a law of nature.  Olive is not quite sure what to think of the snow:

She finally found a way to tolerate being outside when there's snow on the ground.  Riding on Dad's shoulders! 

We had fun carving pumpkins the week before Halloween.  Olive jumped right in! 

About 30 seconds after I took this picture, she demanded to be let down to the floor to terrorize the cats, (her new favorite activity!) so Andy and I finished the pumpkins ourselves.  Guess which two I did and guess which one Andy did.  

Fro isn't as stupid as she looks...the baby can't reach her when she's on the table.

We were scared the moose would run off with the pumpkins so we kept them inside...carved.  We luckily got them outside before they completely liquified, but only just barely.  Next year they're going on the back porch until Halloween.  (oops!)

We can't remember what we did last year for Halloween, which probably means we did nothing. This year, we figured Olive might want to check out some fun stuff around town.  

After her nap, we hit Trick or Treat Street in Downtown Anchorage.  They had trick or treating at a bunch of local businesses and the mall.  Since it's October in Alaska, we focused primarily on the mall.

Isn't she the cutest ladybug ever?  She absolutely adored her costume and enjoyed wearing it to school on the 30th and then all day Saturday.  A few days later, she saw it in her closet and really wanted to wear it to school, so I'd say it was a big hit.  The wings are my favorite.

She really enjoyed Andy's devil horns - they light up! Nice $5 target purchase.

I wore my own $5 target purchase.  Cat mask.  Can't beat it.  I even dressed up in all black to try to make a costume out of it.  We really went all out, didn't we??

She did not really want to be carried, but it was hard to just let her loose in the mall.  There were a TON of people there.

Eventually we braved the cold and went outside. We put Olive's jacket on her, but she was pretty warm in her costume and it was only in the 20s (compared to the -3 the thermometer is reading right now...brrr!) so we didn't leave it on the whole time.  

We walked past the Performing Arts Center and she had fun checking herself out in the window.  

Running is the best!

Eventually we made it to the festivities on 4th Avenue...just in time for the Thriller flashmob.  It wasn't very well attended, but the kids knew all the moves and Olive loved watching them dance.  

We checked out some blow up decor...

And then Olive decided she'd had enough.

We rushed home and I threw a batch of my infamous spinach artichoke dip together just in time for us to head to our friends' house for a halloween party!  The best thing about these friends is that their son is in Olive's daycare class and so when we go to visit them, they have built in playmates and the house is pre-baby proofed.  I am clinging to these friends forever! (in fact, the house behind them is currently for sale and they said if we bought they'd plow our driveway for us and help us move...VERY TEMPTING!).  Their neighbors go ALL out for halloween.  This picture does not adequately capture how awesomely these houses were decorated and how many millions of kids were out trick or treating.  

The kids had a blast running around in their costumes and terrorizing the house...as they do. 

Look at Jaxson's costume! How adorable is he?!

They preferred banging on the table together to watching the World Series...

We did a little trick or treating of our own and went to check out the neighbors' decorations firsthand (including the neighbor who was dressed as a creepy clown and popping out of the garage all night scaring people.)  Their house, full of creepy decor, was right up Andy's alley.  

One of the neighbors was handing out glow sticks to kids and Olive absolutely loved hers.  She even wore it home in the car.

Around bedtime, Olive hit her limit and we packed it in...thankfully they live about a three minute drive from us.  When we got home, we lit our pumpkins, but we don't think we ever had any trick or treaters, which was sad.  Oh well...We had a terrific Halloween and hope you did, too! 

The pumpkins are still on the porch two weeks later...they are full of teeth marks from the moose now!

Five Years Ago...

Five years ago today, these two kids got all dressed up...

Stood up in front of their friends and family to say I do...

And had the night of their lives...

We've had quite the adventure in the past five years and never would've guessed this is where we'd end up, but I'm so happy.  I love living life with you!

Happy Fifth Anniversary, Andy! I love you! Here's to 50 more!