A Busy Week

It's been a pretty busy week up here in Naylorland, and the week isn't even over yet!

On Tuesday morning we woke up to a pretty decent amount of snow.  Since the weatherman, who we affectionately call "Ricky Bobby" because he has two first names and we can't remember what they are, isn't forecasting any temps in the foreseeable future over 32 degrees, it looks like winter has officially arrived in Anchorage and the snow is here to stay.

The good news is that I haven't killed anyone and am starting to learn how to drive in the snow and ice.  The bad news is that everyone in Anchorage is still talking on their cell phones while they drive and we studded-tire-having-people seem to be in the minority up here.  I guess Alaskans aren't very risk adverse, which is probably why our car insurance is officially a million dollars a year now.

I also discovered a new "alaskan" thing this week...school skating rinks!

That's a super attractive (and blurry) picture of me geeking out on the ice rink at Andy's old junior high, which is where we take Ripley to play ball.  In the summer, it's a sport court with basketball hoops.  For some reason I never really noticed the little walls on the side.  The schools in town all seem to have these things and they just dump water in them and let the kids play hockey outside all winter.  This is definitely NOT a thing in Oregon and Washington. Also, I'm really proud of myself for not falling down while walking on the rink.  Go me.  

On Tuesday, Andy got sworn into the Alaska Bar! Good job Andy! And good job court reporter for taking a bunch of awkward cell phone pictures of the occasion for me to use to embarrass him with on the blog!

Tuesday night was also our anniversary! I feel like we just got married yesterday, but it's already been two years! We celebrated with dinner out at Simon and Seafort's, which is probably the fanciest place in town...meaning you wear nice jeans.  We got a nice table by the window and they gave us free dessert! I had halibut cheeks and Andy had an amazing steak.  If we were millionaires we'd eat there more often.  I don't have any pictures from dinner, so here's a nice picture of us from the wedding two years ago:

Sorry you have to look at a picture of us kissing,
 but it's one of my favorite wedding pictures and since I run the blog, I pick the pictures!

This week was also our favorite holiday - Halloween!! We stocked up on candy, but didn't get many trick or treaters.  The ones we did get were pretty dedicated since it was only 12 degrees outside and there was snow on the ground.  Most costumes were either obscured by snow suits or totally ruined by the addition of warm weather clothing - the princess with a sweatshirt and jeans under her dress was particularly depressing.  Andy also scared a small child with his pumpkin, which was really sad.  Here were our pumpkins this year:

Fun fact: in Alaska, don't buy your pumpkins early and keep them on the porch.  When we brought ours in to thaw and subsequently carve, they totally liquified in the laundry room.  We had to make a second run to freddy's to buy new pumpkins which was especially annoying because they are SIXTY CENTS A POUND here.  We need to find a pumpkin patch...or start up a business venture exporting them ourselves from Oregon where they are basically free.

Random note - I just discovered Andy is a total pumpkin face recycler.  I just found this picture on the computer of pumpkins we carved in 2008:

IS THAT NOT THE SAME PUMPKIN?  Also, notice I always do nice ones and he always does scary ones.  This should tell you something.

Happy Halloween everyone! Have a great weekend!