Happy Easter!

Today is Easter! Are you shocked I'm not waiting until July to finally post about Easter? Me too.

Yesterday we dyed eggs.  Olive didn't really understand what we were doing at first, but enjoyed dropping the eggs into the cups.

She even used the "magic crayon" on one of the eggs (I think this picture was taken about 15 seconds before she took a big bite out of the crayon.  Oh well.

The cups were full but she wanted to put more eggs in.  She wasn't happy that she had to wait.

When we pulled the first one out, she suddenly realized what we were doing and she REALLY got into the process.

She sorted all the eggs when we took them out.

And decided some needed to go back in.  She kept saying "more! more!" and when I told her we were out of eggs she was very unhappy with me.  Next year we'll do two dozen I think.

I'm not sure if that shirt will ever be the same...

At night, the bunny came! Are you seeing the Elmo theme?  Everything these days is all about Elmo.

The first things she found in the morning! She took the Elmo bath toy with her to bed tonight.  I tried to find a plush Elmo but they only make ones that talk.  Not in my house.

She was pretty excited about the little chocolate bunnies, even though she didn't understand they were edible.

We got her this book called "Ten Little Ladybugs" that she always steals borrows from daycare.  Now she has her own copy to read all the time.  It's a pretty cute book.

She was also really excited about the stickers in her basket.  She's holding a sheet of farm animals with googly eyes, which made her laugh hysterically.

After she checked out the basket, we went hunting for the eggs.  She loved this part the best.

She especially enjoyed chucking them into the basket.  They're pretty much all broken now.  Time to make egg salad!

After breakfast, we went to Westchester Lagoon downtown to run around.  You'd barely know it snowed 8" last weekend.  It's been warm this week (in the 50s!) and we're supposed to get a lot of rain soon, which should help with the last of the snow.

We told Olive we were going to find the ducks and she got SO excited.

There they are!

Her hands started to get cold (we left her gloves at daycare...) so she had to wear my gloves.

Such a nice day! We love going to Westchester.  If only we won the lottery, we could buy a house there and hang out at the lagoon all the time!

Olive loved walking on the big bridge.

Ripley was kind of annoyed that the foot traffic got heavy enough with runners and dogs that he had to go on the leash. Poor Ripley.

Jumping!!

After Olive had her fill of running around in the cold, we went home where she spent an hour refusing to take a nap before finally being quiet for a few minutes (I have no idea if she slept...but I did!).  In the afternoon, we went to the zoo (I didn't take any pictures, but Olive got a front row seat to an in person lesson on the birds and the bees from the lynx...must be spring...) and then we enjoyed a nice ham dinner.

Happy Easter everyone.  I'm going to go have a glass of wine because WE DON'T HAVE WORK TOMORROW.  Tomorrow is Seward's Day! Thanks for the day off and for buying Alaska from the Russians, Bill.  To celebrate, Andy and I are going to take Olive to daycare (which is not closed because Seward's Day is not a real holiday) and go see a movie. Heaven!

A Snowstorm and a Ball!

I didn't blog much all winter, but if I had, I would have spent a considerable amount of time complaining about the lack of snow.  Once it hit March, we pretty much gave up.  I should have remembered that the biggest snowstorms we've always had up here have ALWAYS been in the spring.  I also should have figured that the snow would hit on literally the one night of the year that we had plans.

A few months ago, our friend Renee asked us to attend a formal ball for her sorority's alumni group. We were really excited to have an excuse to dress up (well I was anyway) and hit the town.  We even finally got a babysitter specifically for the occasion.  Of course, when we woke up in the morning, it was snowing, and by the time we were driving home from the gym around 11 am, this is how the roads looked:

Uhh...

By the time Olive woke up from her nap around 2pm, we had to shovel and we decided to finally give the sled a spin!

All smiles! she loved it...

...but not as much as Ripley!

Not only did it snow a lot, but the lack of snow combined with the generally horrible drivers and the fact that a bunch of people ditched their snow tires early this year meant the roads were treacherous. There was a 20+ car accident that closed the Seward Highway for most of the day.  We didn't let it stop us though!

All dressed up!

Andy and Renee.  Isn't she just the prettiest?!

We were actually pretty under-dressed for the event, which was FORMAL formal.  I wore a short dress because it was all I had without hitting the mall (thanks for the bridesmaid dress, Lauren!). Most of the women were in long gowns and the guys were in tuxes.  Andy said he didn't think he'd seen so many people (400+) so dressed up since our wedding.  I think we haven't been around people THAT dressed up since our respective proms.

Speaking of prom...

My skin is actually reflective I am so pale.

They had a photographer taking pictures in front of a backdrop.  This one got the LOVELY Sheraton ballroom carpet in the frame, which matches the red nicely.  Also we selected the prom pose because we thought it was funny, but I didn't realize it would be quite so unflattering.  I also just noticed that it looks like we just met each other, which is strange.

I even danced!! Which was intimidating considering the crowd...

I don't know why Renee and I are the only ones with our hands up...

As you might have noticed, Renee's sorority is a historically black sorority.  She did mention that it's not exclusively for African Americans, AND that they let older people pledge as adults, which got me thinking about pledging.  I feel like my dance moves might have won me some points with the board, too!

...and then we started taking pictures like this:

Oh well...I don't think I'm cut out for the sorority life anyway.  Can't wait until next year's ball, we had a blast!

New Ride!

So I mentioned that we were in the market for an upgrade from the Subaru.  Mostly, I was sick of cramming 4 adults, a car seat, a 75 lb dog and a stroller into the car anytime anyone visited.  It generally resulted in me basically sitting on Andy's mom's (or my mom's) lap in the backseat while Olivia kicked one of us for sitting too close, Ripley moped because he was crammed in the back, and the men rode in style in the front.  No more! I demanded a third row.  Once we paid off the Subaru we started looking around, but not too seriously.  

One Saturday a few weeks ago, Andy took the Subaru in for routine service at the dealership.  While he was there, he popped over to the Volvo dealership next door to "check things out" and maybe take the new XC90 for a spin.  We'd always been interested in the Volvo since they're incredibly safe and great in the snow and the XC90 had received rave reviews from my sister after she bought one around the same time we got the Subaru.  Oh, did I mention it's a super attractive car, too?

I think so anyway...though this is kind of a mom color

So I went to take Ripley and Olive for a walk when he was gone, and when I got back, there was a Volvo in my driveway waiting for me to take it on my own test drive.  I fell in love immediately (because it's SO EXPENSIVE), but hated the colors/interior of the two they had left on the lot.  So we decided to think about it and drive some other cars.  We tried the Honda Pilot (dislike) and the Acura MDX (loved it! Almost bought it!) and also the Toyota Highlander (also liked it).  You should never drive the MOST expensive car you're thinking about buying first though.

After a whirlwind weekend of driving around, we decided to put a refundable deposit down on an XC90 that was en route from Sweden or somewhere and wait patiently until it arrived.  This is probably weird to most of you, who are probably in a state where there is more than one Volvo dealership within 1,000 miles, so if they didn't have what you wanted you could just go somewhere else or have a dealer from nearby transfer a car to your closest location. After being in Alaska for almost four years, I am totally used to delayed (or no) gratification when I want to buy something (oh, online merchant, you do free shipping "throughout the U.S." but you don't ship to Alaska? TOTALLY REASONABLE. Please take my money).  After a few weeks, we finally got the call and we picked up our new car on Friday! 

Olive immediately climbed all over it while we checked it out.  Black leather SHOULD be more kid friendly than the gray cloth interior in the Subaru, right? 

Buying a car, as you probably know, is a ridiculously time consuming paperwork-intensive process which should never, under any circumstances involve a toddler.  Unfortunately, we have one of those.

Thankfully, they had some cars in the show room to play with.  She was trying to sell us hard on the Miata.

In...Out...In...Out!

She had a change of heart when she saw the little blue wagon.  A little more family friendly, Olive, good choice.

Then I realized the sheer brilliance of buying a tiny sports car.  Andy takes the kid places and I stay home because there's no room for me.  SIGN ME UP.

After about three hours and an epic, totally embarrassing, toddler meltdown in the lobby of the dealership (not pictured), we took our car home!! I didn't take any pictures of the momentous occasion because by the time we got the car seat in the car and got the tutorial on the "command center," Olive was beyond over it.  Poor kid.  Fortunately for her, we won't be able to afford another car anytime soon, so she's fine.  In fact, she'll probably end up driving this car in 14 years.

On Sunday, the weather was absolutely spectacular so we decided to take a mini road trip out to Portage to enjoy the scenery and the sun.

She's more interested in her mittens than me.  Figures.

 There she is!

We took the short, easy hike up to Byron Glacier.  As you can see, the weather was pretty awesome.  About 40 degrees (hey that's warm for this time of year!) and gorgeous.

Olivia was grouchy the whole time.  When we got back to the parking lot, she kicked off her boot and when I picked it up, I saw that she had a GOLFBALL-sized plastic ladybug inside her boot the entire time.  No wonder she was uncomfortable.  I'm still not sure how I got the boot on her foot with that in there. (or how it got there in the first place)

The glacier was in fine form.

And the ice was really blue and beautiful.

Just like the sky...

I had boots on, so I could walk around in the stream and get close to the glacier.  Just like all the warning signs tell you not to do.

Awesome!

Ripley also enjoyed himself, the hike, and the fact that he has about twice as much space in the new car.

So that's the story of the new car.  Goodbye little 'ru! We bought you two days after we got married and we took you on all of our adventures.  You were a trooper hauling a bunch of our stuff (and two cats!) up the ALCAN and you brought our baby home! You held up well to everything Olivia threw at you (literally...mostly things that stained) these last several months.  You're a great car and you're going to make another family very happy very soon.  See you around town!

The 'ru in her element...somewhere in Northern B.C. on the ALCAN - April 2012