Colorado Visitors

When I told people I was moving to Alaska, many people expressed interest in coming up for a visit, but I know it's not the easiest (or inexpensive) place to get so I didn't expect to have many people follow through on their wishes.  However about 10 minutes after getting off the phone with my friend Denise, she called me back and said, "We're tentatively planning on June 2012."

And here they are...

Brad, Damion, Denise & Joleigh

We kept it low key the first day since they were short on sleep after a long, late night flight and early morning arrival - downtown Anchorage has an outdoor market on the weekends which is always fun to wander through.  And the following day we went for a hike to Thunderbird Falls (where I'd visited last fall) and then to a Reindeer Farm in Palmer, AK.

Joleigh

 The reindeer farm also had elk who liked to eat the tall grass around the farm

 they weren't exactly shy...

 many of the reindeer (caribou) had new babies...

The farm was in a beautiful valley, the mountains in the background reminded me of being in Austria or Switzerland...

 heavy sets of antlers

 more babies

 they also had a bison on the farm...

 as well as a moose...the bison and the moose are buddies

We contemplated doing another hike, but decided to just explore the area a little and see what we could see...there were a lot of 4 wheelers along the beach along the Knik River area...

 D&D came along for the hike and the ride, and enjoyed exploring the riverbeds as well...

 nothing like some good old fashioned rock throwing, right?

 Dave quickly plopped down and got comfortable, rocks and all...

 Duncan had a great time too

Joleigh & Damion

 naptime

 we saw a lot of signs that were used for target practice and were amused by the signs prohibiting firearms riddled with holes...

They left Anchorage Monday morning to do some exploring on their own down to Seward and Homer and then we met back up at the week for part 2 of our adventure...

Christmas & New Years

I didn't spend much time on the computer (with the exception of the times I had to work) while my friends were here but we had some good fun and I had some new 'firsts' while they were here...

first Christmas celebrating with little Avery (for me) since bringing her back from China...

Max giving kisses to Travis for his special plane

Austin

Anna & Rebecca

Avery with her new baby

Duncan's first Christmas in Alaska

Travis chopping onions...

There is a ski resort about an hour away from Anchorage and we all decided to go skiing...but rather than taking multiple cars, we all got to ride together in the "Magic Bus"...

first time riding the "Magic Bus"...

 courtesy of this guy... (thank you Travis)

to go do this....

 for the first time in Alaska...(me in blue, Rebecca & Travis)

This is the Alyeska Resort...it was a beautiful day to ski, the sun actually came out, and we had some great views of the mountain range and water below (you can see the water behind us in the upper left part of the photo).  I hadn't been skiing in several years but it comes back to you quickly and the snow was great.  And before today, I thought "The North Face" was just an apparel company...



Alyeska actually has a 'North Face' that I almost foolishly went down... :)

I didn't want to ride back to Anchorage in an ambulance, so I quickly backtracked and stuck w/ the blue runs...

We took turns visiting each others homes for different meals...one night was at the Smith's for fresh king crab legs direct from Dutch Harbor...

ready to go in the pot...

first time learning how to cut into those crab legs...I broke the handle on the scissors I was using

I don't know of anything that wouldn't taste good dipped in melted garlic butter...and these were no exception!

New Years Eve was hosted by Rebecca & Travis...

lots of good food...

first time getting to try Borscht, a traditional Russian soup made from beets...it actually was very tasty, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it.

the kids had a good time with their light sabers

there were paper lanterns everyone wrote their wishes for 2012 on and then we released them into the sky...

Aidan is ready to launch one of the lanterns...

And finally, some fireworks to shoot off at midnight - fireworks aren't really any fun here for the 4th of July because it doesn't get dark enough to see them, so they are more of a big deal for New Years...

We only had one close call where the fireworks shot off horizontally instead of vertically and almost hit the neighbor's house. 

My friends have returned to Russia, so the house has quieted down...however, I have one visitor remaining...my mom is now here for a few days, my first 'official' visitor...so far, she has been treated to lots of snow. :)

My 'unofficial' gift from Travis was a new snowblower...he took care of all snow removal while they were here, so I had a reprieve for a couple of weeks...but they left early Friday morning...and I've already 'gotten' to use it twice...it works great though...I've cut down my snowblowing time to about 1/2 my original time of 3 hrs...