Green Grass?

Today we learned that we indeed have grass in our yard! It's the first day since we bought the house,  that the snow has melted enough to see grass peeking through... "Come on Spring, I'm COLD under here."
Roma has supplied the backyard with some nice natural fertilizer, so we're expecting it will be nice and healthy come the spring :)

Roma was running around with her skijoring harness on- "DAD hurry up!"

The droplets from the melting, sound like rain.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Back deck.

Yes, we found out what our back deck looks like too :) We actually have a little bricked patio area off to the side. Who woulda guessed?

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Unfinished Business

We all have unfinished business, afterall we're human. For example, I was GOING to clean the kitchen but it didn't happen. Or, I meant to reserve show tickets, but I forgot. Or, I started a novel a couple months ago, but I never finished it. I still can't do a PULL-UP. We can definitely count that as unfinished business as well.

Here's another example of unfinished business:

I can't but wonder, what happened to Mr. Beaver? Why did he abandon his project? Is he coming back?  There might not be a tree standing on our next trip to the pup ppark...

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Longer Days

Sunset was at 8pm tonight! I think we gain about 6 minutes each day until the summer solstice on June 21st. We're going to have to wear our eye masks pretty soon.

I'm still trying to find the perfect blackout curtains for our room, but blinds will do for now.


On another note, Ross made a fabulous meal of Balsamic salmon and homemade caesar salad. You may recall I wrote about an awesome tableside caesar salad that we had on one of our first date nights in Anchorage, made by the owner (Van) himself. Turns out Van's salad really is famous, because we found the recipe in one of the Alaska cookbooks we got as a gift before the move.

So we had to try it... Mashed garlic, raw anchovies, coddled eggs, fresh garlic croutons, aged balsamic, and grated Parmesan.  Van offers caesar salad cooking classes at his restaurant, but I don't think we need to go anymore. So good.

Mashing garlic.

Accompanied by Balsamic Salmon with Tomatoes and Leeks

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Mom's First "Break Up" or "Melt"

Here are some additional pictures from Mom's trip!

All the ice is melting...

I miss the Mom already!

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This and That

MOM's HERE!
We've had a really nice week having our first official visitor and house guest since we've moved to Anchorage. Mom braved 13 hours of airports to visit us, despite it being "Break Up" season in Alaska right now. (Break up is when all the ice and snow begins to melt, forming one big fat ugly mess.)

Her trip has been a little bit of THIS:

 

 

 And a little bit of THAT:

Ross and Mom hanging curtain rods and curtains.

Time to test out those measurements...

 

New chair cushions at last!

I'm so grateful that Mom knows how to sew and do crafty things. I wish I was more proficient in these areas. Instead, I have to make a list of things for Mom to help me with when she comes to visit. Just having moved up here, the list was pretty long this time around. Good thing Mom's coming back in August too :)

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Cookie Duet

When I'm in the mood for baking (which is often) I've found it's much more efficient to do a "two-fer." By making multiple goodies at the same time, measuring cups get dirty once and you only have to pull out the ingredients once, etc. Hmm, let's do the math: TWO for the price of ONE. I love freebies, so I'll take it.

I chose two recipes out of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking, From My Home to Yours": Chocolate Chunkers and Granola Grabbers.

Granola Grabbers

The Oatmeal Grabbers are a crunchy concoction of Granola, raisins, peanuts, coconut, and pecans. I'm not usually a fan of hard, crunchy cookies but these are delicious. Breakfast cookie anyone?

Chocolate Chunkers

The Chocolate Chunkers combine dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, white chocolate, pecans, cocoa powder, and... raisins? Yes! The raisins are absolutely necessary in this cookie. You can't see them when you take a bite, so the chewiness comes as a surprise... A delicious surprise in a gooey chocolatey guise. Here's the recipe so you can do your own taste test :)

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Volleyball

Some girls from work asked me to fill in on their volleyball team when another teammate came down with a bug.

Hmmm, volleyball. Sounds vaguely familiar...

Then I felt really old. Was it really that long ago since highschool? Yes, 9 years is a long time right?

So I went. I played volleyball for the first time in years and had a great time doing it. It's amazing how you lose the muscle memory that used to come so naturally. My forearms are bright red just from passing the ball and I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow. And I'm ok with that :)

On another note we are going to have our FIRST visitor this week! Mom is making the trek from the east coast all the way to ANCHORAGE!! Can't wait!!

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Date Night

Ross and I had "Date Night" on Friday. We went to the Crow's Nest at the Captain Hook Hotel for a good meal and an extra special view. I even got fresh flowers beforehand... from a FLORIST. Sorry, Kroger.

View from our table. Beautiful sunset over the water (ice).

Appetizer: Ahi Tuna, 2 ways.

Deconstructed Caesar Salad- Do you see the whole anchovies? YUM :)

Ross had Kurabuto Pork Tenderloin with Kodiak Sea Scallops.

I had Seared Kodiak Scallops with a Citrus Fennel Salad and Candied Fennel on top.

Happy Valen-birth-iversary! :)

I like "just because" kind of dates. They're fun.

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Chena Landscapes

More Chena pictures. Are you planning your trip now??

:)

 

  

Doggie Camp right next to the Chena resort!

 

Mush Mush!

Frozen Kiss

In one of the ice museum's four bedrooms. You can stay in an ice room for a pretty penny. Not sold? Neither were we...

See the Blue Rose ice sculpture?

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Chena Hot Spings

On the second day of our roadtrip, we went to Chena, AK. This place is located out in the middle of nowhere. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Chena from Fairbanks. The Chena "Resort" includes hot springs, an ice museum, hiking paths, dog sled rides, etc.

 Outdoor natural hot springs.

There were some ducks enjoying the warm water in the pond next to the hot springs.

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Ice Carving Championship

We stopped at some scenic spots for pictures during our drive to Fairbanks...

Denali! Finally a closer view...

 

Fairbanks hosts the World Ice Carving Championship every year. We visited after the judges passed through, so it was neat to see the winning sculptures. There were a couple displays that had crashed down and broken into a million pieces, which was kinda sad. We walked around at night to see the background lights, but it was SO COLD!

 I see 2 bears!

 Of course Ross loved this one.

 Mermaid Fairy Princess

 I really liked this one.

 Jolin & I had some cold bum cheeks after this one.

 Kris finally found a snow machine that doesn't breakdown!

Locked Up.

 Caught some trips down the slides before leaving.

Fairbanks is much colder than Anchorage. Makes me thankful I live south in the BIG city!

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