Rodeo Clown

Well, she's gone and done it... Tess has joined the rodeo. Who among you is surprised? Just as I suspected... no one. :o)

Okay, it's the WildRide Sled Dog Rodeo in downtown Anchorage. If you're in town, you should stop by and watch the show. They perform 2 shows daily.

Tess's jobs vary daily. Some days she helps run the show. Other days she's scrubbing port-o-potties and memorizing doggy names. Tonight she was supposed to be working in the dining room. When we stopped by for a quick visit, she was raking the gravel racetrack and covered with dirt. Apparently, part of the job included carting cute sled dog puppies around downtown Anchorage to lure unsuspecting tourists down to the show.

She seems to be enjoying it. And I think it'll be a fun summer job for her. The rodeo has a website at http://www.sleddogrodeo.com/. Have a look...

This one snazzy looking dog is from Hollywood. He was in the movie "Snow Buddies".

Trip the Lights...

Alicia's dance recital was held last Friday night at the auditorium on the UAA campus. It was a long night, starting at 7pm (we had to be there at 6pm) and not ending until nearly 10pm.

All the dancers were scheduled to be in the finale number. So although 4-year old Alicia's dance was 8th in the overall lineup, she and the other preschoolers were expected to remain perky through the other 30 dances or so and perform in the final dance.

It didn't occur to me that this probably wasn't going to go well until the actual recital. I think it would've been better if the recital had been scheduled for an afternoon. Little people just don't do well in general at those late hours.

Despite the timing issues, Alicia did very well, given the circumstances. She enjoyed doing her little dance. And she played with her buddies for the next 2 hours before the finale. With so many dancers on the stage for the finale, things got a little pushy. I think someone bumped into Alicia, because she spent most of the dance bawling. But it was hard to tell because you could barely see her through the crowd.

The show must go on...

Memorial Day Weekend

We participated in the Memorial Day Ride again this year.

On Saturday, Stephen joined a group of bikers for the 4 hours ride up to the Denali area. The girls and I met him up there at the Denali Grizzly Bear Campground. This year we rented one of the "premium cabins" which was a thousand times nicer than last year's tent site, which was wet and freezing. The cabin had its own bathroom, 2 beds, a table and chairs and a TV. It also had a little front porch which overlooked the rushing Nenana River.

We stayed there Saturday night. The Ride took place Sunday. It went from Mary's McKinley View Lodge at milepost 135 of the Parks Highway and ended at the AK Veterans Memorial at milepost 147.

Our previous intention had been to do the whole loop around through Fairbanks and down the Richardson Highway back to our home. But on further consideration, we decided that would involve too much driving for the limited amount of time left in the 3-day weekend. So we opted to just backtrack to Talkeetna on Sunday afternoon and stay at the Meandering Moose B&B in a cute little cabin called the Bear's Den for one night.

We love Talkeetna. We strolled through the town on Sunday evening and again this morning. Yesterday, we got some chocolate at the Chocolate Cache Cabin. And we walked down to the rock beach along the Talkeetna River.

This morning we spent some time at the Talkeetna Cemetery in honor of Memorial Day. There is a special memorial wall dedicated to the climbers who have perished on nearby mountains, including Denali. All of the markers in the cemetery were festooned with American flags.

We also spent some time at the Talkeetna Historical Society Museum which has a great replica of Mt. McKinley (Denali).

On our way home from Talkeetna, we stopped by the Houston Lodge for lunch.

The weather was awesome. Blue skies, snow streaked mountains, lots of sunshine.

Me and My Girls...

Upon looking over the blog, I realize there are very few photos of me on here. Mostly that's because I'm usually taking the photos and therefore not in any of them.

But here's a photo of me with the girls on Mother's Day. Stephen does try to snap some photos with me in them every now and then.

Tess is wearing the dress she made for herself last summer in this picture.

The temps have taken a dip this evening. We've stoked up the woodstove to ward off the chill. It's crackling in the background as I type...

Sunny Days

Another baby shower today! I think there's a baby boom in Alaska right now. It seems like every other person you know is pregnant.

But that just means, more parties, and more cake!

I had to prop up the tiki hut this morning as it was sinking backward into the sand...

These days I don't get to bed until close to midnight. And for someone who pretty much needs 8 hours of sleep each night, this isn't the best thing. But the sun goes down so late (like close to 11pm), that it's hard to convince your internal clock that it's bedtime.

Here's the Dirt...

Yes, I realize this blog is rapidly turning into a blog just about cake. What can I say? I like to share...

This monster truck, 4-wheeling cake is for our little buddy in Eagle River who's turning 3! His big sister is in Alicia's hip hop/jazz dance class. We're headed over to his party as soon as Alicia wakes up from her nap. She's been instructed to bring her bike and wear her swimsuit. They're filling up the kiddie pool. Sounds like a fun party! We'll see how Alicia does.

I'm thinking she should perhaps only attend boys' birthday parties for the time being. Much of her Birthday Party Meltdown Syndrome (BPMS) spawns from her envy over the gift she's giving to the birthday child. But with boys' birthdays, she could care less about those gifts. She has absolutely no interest in anything to do with boy toys. So I'm hoping we're pretty safe from a seizure of BPMS today.

Stephen has gone off on a motorcycle ride with a buddy from work. They plan to end up at some sort of rally in Palmer which is where the riding partner lives.

Tess spent the morning making a diaper cake for a baby shower we're going to tomorrow. She's getting pretty good at the whole diaper cake thing. I'm making the edible cake for that shower.

Stephen, Alicia, and I went into Eagle River this morning to run an errand and hit some yard sales. While we were away, Tess let Bit out to presumably go to the bathroom. The second she let her out, Tess saw a movement behind Stephen's truck. She, at first, thought it was us returning from town. But she realized the van was still not home. Then, a gigantic moose walked alongside the truck and right past her and Bit. She yelled for Bit to get in the house. The moose trotted across the driveway into the yard and then ambled down the neighbor's driveway. Bit, being a dog, paid absolutely no attention to Tess and took off after the moose. Tess had no shoes on and was trying to convince Bit to retreat. She finally got her back in the house completely unscathed. Sometimes I don't know how Bit has managed to survive this long. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Anyway, that's our wildlife adventure for today.

Happy Mother's Day 2009

Well, it's been another week of cake baking. Actually, the bunny was made last week, but I just hadn't had time to upload the photo!

The other two cakes were made for baby showers, both of which were on Saturday. I have another baby shower next weekend. I've already baked the giant cupcake for her and made some spare butterflies to use on it...

Mother's Day was pleasant. We went to church and then Donald met us in Eagle River and we all went out to lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse in Anchorage.

Afterwards, we went to some book stores and to REI (an outdoor gear store) for their big sale.

Our volcano has yet to erupt lately, although they are saying it will blow again soon. "They" being the Alaska Volcano Observatory. So we're prepared. It was kind of funny watching folks in the lower 48 stock up on face masks and quarantine supplies in case of the swine flu. Everyone here in the Anchorage area already has all that stuff in case of volcanic eruption. Hopefully, most of it is completely unnecessary, for whatever reason...

Happy May Day!

I made this maypole cake for a girl at my office who was having a birthday today.

Everyone thought it was lovely, especially the picket fence.

This was the first time I'd used my little "grass" tip. It was similar to playing with the Play-Doh barber shop when you can squeeze out some hair from a little guy's head and then trim it with pretend plastic scissors. I like that grass tip... :o)