Stockings were opened first, then we had breakfast before opening gifts.
The "empty space" on Grampy's head makes for really good 'sticker storage'!
Kyler only asked for one thing for Christmas, so he was pretty excited when he discovered a sheet wrapped "something" on the desk. At last report the cockatiel was feeling pretty comfortable with the kids, coming out of his cage and interacting with them.
Think she likes that new Disney princess comforter?
New Christmas jammies
Dan, Kent's friend since kindergarten, works on the North Slope. He works 6 weeks, then has 2 weeks off. When he went to catch his plane home to Idaho for Christmas, his flight was cancelled, and he couldn't get another flight out until the 26th. We enjoyed having him join us, but it was a bummer for him to not be able to spend Christmas with his family.
One of the games they got for Christmas was Jenga. We played it one evening. Everyone had a good time, and the 2 kids proved to be exceptionally good at this game!
Whoops! Mommy loses!!
Grampy's always good for a horsey ride to bed after the fun and games are over...
...and a bedtime story
We went out sledding one afternoon. Unfortunately, it gets dark REALLY early so even though it was just mid-afternoon it got too dark to take good pictures very quickly. I really did go down the hill with Tori - but only once! That was enough for me; way too fast and too long of a run, although it didn't look that far when I was watching - only when I was on the sled going 100 miles an hour (it seemed)! I guess I'm just not very brave...
Grampy & Tori
Tawni & Tori
Kent with Tori, and Kyler on his own sled - they had a race to the bottom
I think the temperature didn't get above 0 degrees for the whole time we were there (2 weeks). Most of the time it was in the double digit negatives. At the school the kids attend, they keep them inside the building at recess time if the temperature dips below -10. Up (or down) to that point, they go outside - Brrrr! Obviously, they dress for those kinds of temps - it's a way of life in the winter - but that's still too cold for me :)
Roger said he was sure his beard froze stiff. It was sooo cold! I know the camera lens was icing over - you can see it on the right of the picture. (Even the car side windows would get a layer of ice on them ON THE INSIDE! They had an ice scraper in the back seat that came in handy several times. Just your breath condensing on the inside of the cold window would cause it to freeze)
Kyler's class pet, a female turtle named - get this - Razzle Dazzle(!) came to their house for the holidays. The teacher thought Kyler would be the most likely student to want to take care of it. As it turned out, Tori took on the daily feeding, bathing and playing responsibility. She would go to the refrigerator and get out the container of food (some kind of worm - yumm!), then dig out the little treat, put it in the 'pool' area in the tank and make sure Razzle Dazzle found it, then she got the cup full of water and poured it over the turtle's back for her 'bath'. She loved to take her out and play with her, too. I'm sure the turtle never had so much attention!!
Tawni & Tori really got into the New Year's firecrackers that Tawni bought.
Doing the "stomp" on the poppers...
Kyler has a stash of video games, so Roger and Kent had some good father-in-law / son-in-law bonding time--! Roger also helped Kent fix an oil leak in his Bronco and install block heaters in both vehicles.
Tori had her friend, Faith, come over one day for a play date. They did each others nails, tried on clothes - you know, just girl stuff! This was the end result after their day of "pampering" each other :)
The kids backyard slide/swing/fort -- don't guess anybody will be playing on this for a few months!
This picture was taken just before 10:00 am. Roger said it was a pretty good deal to be able to stay up until after midnight on New Year's Eve, sleep in 'til 10 in the morning and still be up in time to watch the sunrise! Actually, it just gets light about then - the sun doesn't actually come up until later (and Roger has really NEVER slept in 'til 10!). However, they're on the downhill slide now - the days are getting longer....
Getting Grampy all groomed for church ;)
It was almost too late (at 4:15 pm) to get a good picture, but this is the sunset over Anchorage-- Tawni drove us up to Arctic Valley one afternoon so we could see the night lights.
This is the main highway into Anchorage from the north. Even with all the traffic on it, it still stays covered with snow.
I looked out the living room window our last morning and had to run grab the camera! These two were just taking a stroll down the street in front of Tawni's house.
One day Roger, Kent and Kyler loaded up the Argo and spent the day having some guy time. Looking at all the pictures, you'll notice that they took the top when they went out, but a few days later when Tawni and I went with them they left the top at home because "I don't think we'll need it today"
Kyler finally found something Daddy will let him drive!
See the cable behind the Argo?
Kyler was getting the ride of his life! He had a ball...
Daddy & Kyler
Grampy & Kyler
I think Argos must be a guy thing...
It was somewhere around -16 degrees the day Tawni and I went with them for a ride. I wanted to at least go for one ride before we left - and that was probably enough to satisfy me for a very long time - especially in the winter! :)
Roger, coming back up from checking out the ice on the Knik River before we took the Argo out on it. It was pretty much frozen all the way across, but no way to tell just how thick the ice was.
We just drove along the edge of the river - no sense in taking chances with the ice by going out further!
Another pic of the river---
We left the river and drove around a bit on the tundra. The mountains were beautiful with the sun shining on them.
It was COLD, so we didn't stay out too long - maybe an hour... it seemed like longer, but was maybe less - all I know is that Tawni and I didn't have very comfortable seats, and since the guys decided against taking the top with us this trip, the tracks were making the snow fly (right onto us) and we were turning numb all over! The camera preview area kept icing over, so it was hard to see just what the camera was aiming at :) Roger cut off the tracks of the Argo in this one.
We saw 5 moose on this outing; 2 in this area and 3 more a little further on. Someone else had been out there at sometime - notice the little snowman on the left side of the picture? In defense of the guys' choice to leave the top behind - since it doesn't have side windows in the back, we may not have been quite so cold but we also wouldn't have been able to see much.
Here's a couple of shots of the piece of property we looked at the last day we were there. We had checked out several lots, but this is the only one that didn't have deep ravines or steep topography. Tawni & I stayed in the car, and Roger & Kent got out and slogged through the snow to check it out. It's pretty large, but it's "iffy" when it comes to dividing it into 2 lots (so one could be developed and sold to defray the costs of building on the other). Roger has already been to the bank here at home to check on financing, etc., and while he was talking to the loan officer he got a call from the AK real estate agent saying that there was someone else also looking at the property. We'll see how everything plays out...
So... maybe someday we'll have a place to stay up there that's a little bigger than the RV we tow up! If not this property, then another one---
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