A Family Visit and Merry Christmas!

Our first visitor to the Island arrived Saturday evening the 21st of December.  Nana arrived on one of very few flights heading to the Island due to weather and fog. BUT she made it.  It was a long 22 hours of flights, cities, and waiting. We are so glad she came to Kodiak.  Since her arrival we've had plenty of Island adventures.

On the night of her arrival was the Harbor Lights Festival.  The Boats in the harbor decorated, lit up, for the town to walk the docks, listening to Christmas Carols and the Harbor Isle Bells.  It was a tad bit rainy but the boats were awesome.  My favorite was the Kayak. Yes, a battery operated Kayak.

Sunday was a beautiful day and we drove around the Island to Pasagshak and Surfers Beach.  It was a beautiful but cold day for a drive.  We ate at the Olds River Inn: http://www.oldsriverinn.com/dotnetnuke/  The food is simple and the view is lovely.  We came across a group of Trumpeter swans and a ton of Bald Eagles.  The Bald Eagles are as abundant here as squirrels on the mainland.

Saturday was a day of pure Kodiak adventure.  We started our day off with a plan and it went south with a twist of unpredictable.  We took a drive to see M's school and then decided since it was a really clear day to drive up Pillar Mountain.   Pillar Mountain has a fantastic view for 360 degrees of the Island but it also holds the Island's source of power...the windmills.

 http://www.newsminer.com/new-wind-turbines-begin-turning-on-kodiak-s-pillar-mountain/article_2dea64ab-204e-5bcb-b8de-5ed390004e27.html

Well, the road was a sheet of ice, but we felt pretty confident. Almost to the top, we decided it was too dangerous to keep going. We slid backwards a bit, were able to turn around, but it was too dangerous to try to go back down without tire chains. We were stuck. Yes, stuck on the top of Pillar Mountain. Oh my.  So, we called the town tow truck. His response was "good luck."  We called the police department: "most locals do not  try to drive up the mountain."  So, what do we do, we walk. We walked down the mountain and with the help of good friends we got tire chains and Andy drove back down the mountain. 

In the meantime, we got notice that the F/V Alaskan Dream, a crabber vessel, was selling Live King Crab from the boat.  We headed to the docks not knowing what to expect.  It was awesome.  We got to climb on board the boat, pick out our crabs, pose for pictures, take them home and eat.  Wow. It was delicious.

Christmas Eve, was another day of Kodiak adventure as a blizzard blows into town. We went to the local Baranov Museum: http://www.baranovmuseum.org/ and then had lunch at Monks Rock: http://www.yelp.com/biz/monks-rock-coffee-house-and-bookstore-kodiak

When we entered Monk's Rock, Father Christmas was in the bookstore eating. He immediately greeted us, took our order, and PAID for our lunch.  No kidding. We were also serenaded by the St. Innocent's Academy Choir: http://www.stinnocentsacademy.org/

Christmas Day was perfect. Snow on the ground, the kids faces lighting up as they open gifts and exclaim "its just what I wanted." and "can I open another?"  Girls had so much fun.  We spent the rest of the day playing with all of our new things.  Dinner was quiet but very tasty.  We are all tired and ready for bed.  Our company leaves tomorrow and I think we will need the weekend to get cleaned up and continue to enjoy our new things.

Kodiak is proving to be a wonderful little community.

Bald Eagles

Surfers Beach

Kodiak

Touch Tank

King Crab

Sledding Kodiak Style

Monashka

Almost Christmas...

If anyone has the desire to come visit, plan a trip in December.  The weather may not be great, think wet, rainy, foggy, possibly snow and then cold temperatures; but the amount of fun stuff will create a an adventure and leaving you wanting for more!

I am truly amazed at how many wonderful events have been happening on this Island. There have been many weekend days when I just couldn't fit it all in...

Its started right after Thanskgiving with the Holiday Isle Bells Concert. Kodiak has their very own Bells Choir and they are amazing.  The group performs two concerts a year, one in the winter and one in the spring.  The concert was about an hour long, very casual  and kid friendly.  Kodiak has a Father Christmas who was the "real thing"  He did a rendition of the Night Before Christmas that gave you goosebumps.  Molly and Amelia are still talking about it.  He dressed all in green, with a lovely white beard and hands out chocolate coins to the kids.  Here is the facebook page of the Kodiak Isle Bells:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Isle-Bells/106975946076593

Next up was the grand opening of the Kodiak Library.  The library has received tremendous funding and it was a much anticipated event.  An all call went out for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts on the Island to perform the Flag Ceremony.  I decided to sign Molly up. We are working on her confidence and what a better way then to have her lead the pledge of Allegiance to half of the Island's population.  If anyone knows Molly crowds and strangers are not her thing; but this girl did amazing!  She marched the line out into a huge crowd, led the pledge and walked back.  It was until we were back in the "Green room" and I said do you want to sit down and relax that I really saw how nervous or scared she had been. Brave Confidence my little friend.  Awesome Job.
By The Way, the new library is amazing too. 
http://www.city.kodiak.ak.us/library/Pages/default.aspx

The Nutcracker.  The Nutcracker is an Island tradition put on by the Little School Of Dance and a few professionals flown in to help out an assist. Its put on every 3 years. This year was a Nutcracker year.  Woah.  The Island is almost put on stand still because so many people are involved in the production that every is there. Its a must see and do event.  We didn't go. Ha! We heard wonderful things and will probably hit it up next year.

This past weekend it was Winter Wonderland and Courier and Ives at the Baptist Church.  The Winter Wonderland is held at the Base and the highlight is floating in a raft through the pool. Its almost like being on a ride a Disney.  Andy took the girls. I had an Ornament Exchange/Steal party.  It was very fun too!  The Courier and Ives event is a potluck, with sleigh rides in the snow, a living nativity, songs and more.

To top it off every weekend is filled with wonderful craft bazaars, local artists, shopping locally to win prizes, boat parades with lights...

Andy's been perfecting his hunting and foraging skills with rabbit and more ptmarigan.  Its really quite nice.  Molly has decided she loves Halibut and Salmon. Yummy.  Amelia is just keeping up with it all.  We hike, ice skate, swim on a regular basis.  This week we made snow globes, and baked goods.

We did get our new flooring installed most of the way as we get ready for our very first guest!  Sharon is coming to visit for the week.

Enjoy a few pictures:

Halloween to Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many prep items I could be doing right now, stuffing, making another pie, prepping my turkey, but instead a very overdue blog post.  I am also anxiously awaiting the start of the Macy's Day Parade.  Honestly, in 35 years I have never made a Turkey Dinner.  Its one of my favorites and I have been very lucky that people in my family (Mom, Sister) have always made it for me :)!  Yes, I am missing them today, very much.  Missing the crazy spirit of the active household at my sister's, missing all of her really great food, and apps (I haven't made one appetizer) and of course the shopping.

I am so nervous about prepping dinner, that I have bought 3 turkeys.  yes, you read it right, 3 turkeys.  The biggest one, at 18lbs, is getting cooked today.  Fingers crossed.

Anyway, a big day ahead as our friends are joining us for dinner and then we will head accross the street for desert with our neighbors and finally I have volunteered to cook for the Shelter on the Island. Yes, a Ham and sides. Woah.

Our time between Halloween and Today has been a mix of fun, cold, more fun, and trips!  I started the trips with a three day adventure to the Girl Scout Conference in Anchorage.  The trip was entertaining, fun to get off the island and a little bit of an adventure.  Example, the plane to get off the island only had 20 seats, you could see the cockpit, and it was freezing.  Come to find out, this is not the  normal aircraft for such a flight. It was just my lucky day.  The nickname is the metal tube and that is just what this plane was a metal tube.

I did enjoy the shops, the smell of the mall, the Kohls.  It was a bit overwhelming and I had to figure out how to get it all home.  The Girls Scout portion was awesome. Met some really great people, including a lovely lady who lives in 600 square feet, in the woods, with an outhouse. Yes, I really do  live in Alaska.

Next up. I arrive home and 12 hours later Andy leaves for Petaluma CA.  His trip lasted two and half weeks and he had a great time. A training class with friends from the coast guard, good food, warm weather, and lots of craft beer and wines.  He brought some home to share. Yummy.

The girls and I stayed busy with Girl Scouts, Hikes, Swimming and a Horseback riding lesson.    We did enjoy our first snowfall.  It was a fast and furious 6 inches and then it rained, and rained and rained. So our 6 inches first turned into mountains of slush.  We were lucky as the temps rose and the slush instead of turning to ice, melted. Thank goodness.

I have found I am very good at volunteering.  I just can't say no, so in the past couple of weeks I have volunteered to cook for the Bachelor's Thanksgiving Dinner, work the book fair at the school, create a wreath for auction to benefit the Kodiak Arts Council, and lastly the Shelter Thanksgiving dinner.  I have also volunteered to plan and execute the year end camping trip for the Girl Scouts.  100 girls on Wood Island for 3 days. Excited about it. It will be a good adventure.

Most people are wondering about our daylight.  The sun rises at 9:21, but really it gets light a little after 10am and sets about 4:30.  You do the math, I am not good at it.

Temps range from 25 to 35 degrees. 

I hope everyone enjoys their Turkey day with friends. I will be cooking and shopping for the next couple of days.  Love to all.

PS. Cookies Sales will be starting in January. I will ship :)

Halloween Kodiak Style

Carving Pumpkins

Molly's Class Parade

Belle Trying to look sophisticated, since she has lipstick on

Obviously, I have not blogged in a couple of weeks, because I put the pictures on first and can't seem to figure out how to add the type up front. Oh well.  Now as the reader you get the "Treat" of the Pictures before the "Trick" of the type.

We have enjoyed October, especially the end of the month. There have been fall festivals, a small pumpkin patch, two school fairs, and then the trick or treat of October 31st.  Most of the people on the Island are asking "Where is the Snow."  Luckily,  we haven't seen any and the temps have been warm and rainy. Actually, there is snow in the higher mountains and it lovely to look up and see their white peaks framing the town.

We have also been lucky to have several night of the Aurora Borealis, unfortunately, I am never awake to see it!  The Aurora has to be seen on a clear night and you have to plan on waking up about  midnight and heading outside to check it out.  I have signed up for the alerts online and will try and get a few photos of the next one, as its a must see!

So, this year we had a vampire bride and Belle.  I tried hard to convince Amelia to tag along and be a witch, but she is a Belle at heart.  She loves a good princess movie and high heels.  Molly loves to be girly, but has a dark side with a fascination with vampires, zombies and all things scary.  Or maybe its a look into the edgy punk rocker side...who knows. It will be fun and/or challenging to see what personalities she explores as she grows up.

The town of Kodiak has trick or treating downtown for the kids.  Each business opens up and its a wild, fun, and crazy afternoon.  There were so  many kids and the girls got a ton of loot!  We had a lovely Halloween party at the neighbors house and then did some trick or treating around our street.  It was very quiet but perfect.  By 7pm we were all home and in bed.  

Right now our lives are school and girl scouts for Molly. Amelia and I have met some great friends and we have weekly outings with various groups.  I have heard the ice skating rink will be opening up soon, so by the end of the winter I am sure we all be skating pros!

Now, time to put away these pumpkins and take out the turkeys!

Fall Fun!

October has started with a bang and the fun continues.  There is so much going on, that some times its hard to chose what to do and go see.  The weekends are the best. 

I'll summarize our Island fun.

Amelia and I are on rewind and repeat but no less having fun.  Our weeks are filled with local playgroups, open swims, meeting new people and playing hard.  I am working with the Girls Scouts and have had meetings and events.  Our little troop, has "filled buckets, planned obstacle courses, made apple sauce, beach combing and made s'mores over a camp fire."  The volunteer portion has led me to into several interesting opportunities. The first is a trip off Island to Anchorage. Its a leadership conference.  The GS are flying me for the weekend to learn about troop leading, confidence building and more.  I am really looking forward to it and getting to do some shopping and eating as well!  I have also volunteered to take on planning the year end camping trip for the entire Kodiak GS organization. Yikes and Exciting all at the same time!

I have applied for a part time job with the Kodiak 4-H as a program assistant, but so far have not heard anything.  Lastly, I took a basic Pistol Safety course. I am now considered an amateur pistol shooter.  It was a fun day on the range. I even shot a bullseye!

Molly has been busy in Kindergarten.    This past weekend we had the PTA school carnival.  The entire school gets involved. Each classroom has an event with prizes, there is food, cake walks, and lots of give aways. It was fun for all. I baked a bunch of goodies for the event.  We also survived school picture day.

Andy is living the Alaskan Dream.  He is hunting, fishing, and hiking.  He has just earned a Board Member spot on the Island Trails Network Non-Profit group.  This group's mission is create safe trails and outdoor areas for Kodiak.  In addition, they do a lot of beach clean up. Check out it: http://www.islandtrails.org/ 

I don't think Andy's bio has made it on the site yet, but it will give you an idea.  Andy's hunting has caught him several Ptarmigan. Ptarmigan are a grouse type of bird. We have yet to eat it, but are filling our freezer. http://www.avianweb.com/whitetailedptarmigan.html

The community has had many fall events including Fun On the Farm, The 4-H Pumpkin Patch, a great local production of MASH, etc... 

Oh My How Could I Forget:  The Tooth Fairy!  Miss Molly has lost 2 teeth!  Pure excitement!

Enjoy the pictures:

Busy, busy, busy

Phew, Sunday.  Sunday has turned into a day of recovery and house updates.  We keep having tons of adventures, and lots of free family fun.

This past week I was busy every single night…can you believe it?  I was busy with social outings, girl scouts, family skate, and getting ready for the auction.

I’ll start with family skate. The gym is open once a month or every other month for family roller skate night. It was fantastic.  They turn the lights off, give out roller skates, play music and its just so much fun. We skated to our hearts content. Yes, all of us. Amelia loves to be in the on the action and did pretty good job.

Girl Scouts is taking up much of my time right now, getting our troop organized and attending events.  This past weekend was the Girl Scout Tri.  Andy, Amelia and I volunteered while molly, jumped rope, ran a mile and biked a mile. Thankfully the weather was clear, a little cool, but not rainy or windy. It was perfect.  Molly did her best.  We had about 50 girls turn out for free fun exercise and community entertainment.

A bonus from this event is that down the road is a construction site that has been posting free wood.  We scored on two shipping containers and little more to build a shed!  Nothing like, free wood framing, in great condition to get our engineer busy busy busy.  He is also busy this weekend installing drainage before the freeze, thaw sets in. I love a good handyman around the house.

Lastly, the Stiles-Clark Auction was this past weekend.  I’ve been hearing about the auction since we landed on the Island.  It’s a huge fundraiser than can bring in 35,000 dollars to support local charities and Santa to the Villages.  It was a massive production with raffle items, a 50/50, silent auction and live auction.  It started last night at 6pm and ended at 11pm. It was very long and lots of money was spent. My dessert paid off….I was very pleased that I had tested recipes before submitting.  They competition was still. I did ok. My cake brought 55.00. It was the most, but not the least either.   We ended up not winning any auction items, but had a great time.

I took the girls to the local quilt show this past weekend too.  Quilting is a big deal on the island. I am not into quilting or sewing but its fun to go look and the amazing hanging art work.

Enjoy the pictures. We are staying busy, the temps are cooling off, just put flannel sheets on everyone’s bed. Its hard to believe that keeping our house at 60 degrees actually feels warm.

Miss you all.

Dessert Table at Auction. Mind is the third one from the bottom.

Waiting for the bus. Sunrise is 8:30am.

A hike to the beach.

Family Skate Night.

Starburst Starfish covered in sand at low tide.