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!