Anchorage

We spent our second week in Anchorage relaxing and hanging with family in Anchorage. Lots of low key fun.

Silas thought grandma and grandpa had some awesome toys.

They live in an awesome location as well.

Skadi's big purchase in Alaska - her dad bought her a pocket knife.

Pirate ship on the lake that grandpa lives on.

Waiting for a table at Moose's Tooth - yummy pizza!

Silas mastered the four wheeler.

Alaska Zoo - always a must do - but pretty run down.

One of my fascinations is the moose wandering Anchorage. This mama had a calf behind her.

Downtown Anchorage - hanging out for a bit.

Hans and I escapted for a long awaited dinner out together at the Double Musky. We have tried for years to get in and for a variety of reasons have always been thwarted. The Alaska version of Cajun.

After the Double Musky we stopped at Beluga Point (where I have never seen a beluga), and built a little fire on the beech.

One of the highlights for the kids - panning for gold at the Indian Valley Mine. We found a few flakes and Leif found a nice garnet.

Hike after the mining at Alyeska - the lowest elevation ski area.

Silas and Hannah

There's something up on that trail!

Don't worry, Leif will save his sister.

Two young bull moose.

The tree with a big butt.

The last night in Anchorage - the sky put a show on for my husband who didn't want to leave. Someday we will make our home here. It may be as soon as 5 years, it may be once Leif and Skadi graduate from high school and we have a 12 year old left in the house. Or it may be when we are empty nesters. It's hard to give up two good jobs in hand and mine affording me the flexibility I want to spend time with the kids and do the work I enjoy.

Insert picture of black bear - here.

We got up the next morning and I was outside in the driveway with the kids. They had (for days) been out riding the little four wheelers up and down the driveway. For some reason this morning I was out with Skadi, Silas and cousin Wesley. Skadi very non-chalantly says, "oh look there is a black bear there!"

Sure enough there was a black bear at the top of the driveway - Skadi says he was about 10 feet from her when he walked out of the forest. Only moderate panicking from me as I scootched all three kids in the front door and cursed that I had left my camera on the counter. I was able to mark one thing off my list new this time around - black bear in the wild. In my own head I collect wildlife sightings - I have seen brown bears, black bear, eagles, and moose in he wild in Alaska. I need to mark off polar bear and musk oxen. Thought the polar bear I hope to see from afar - Hans was able to see one before he left working on the North Slope.

Everyone's Favorites:

Skadi - "Going to the water park. Seeing a bear very close."

Leif - "Going for a long walk with Dad on the beach."

Silas - The four wheelers at grandpa's.

Hans - The octopus experience and fishing.

April - "Seeing wildlife and walking on the beach."

My pictures arrived!

Not only did they arrive in record time - just a few days after I ordered them - but they are so awesome! Really, really great.

And it isn't just me that thinks so.

I had planned on putting them in the entry wall to the Master Suite. AB has nixed that because they aren't center enough there. If we are going to have such cool neat pictures then we should at least put them somewhere where people will see them.

He is right.

But herein lies the problem with open floor plan houses. The number of walls. Not only that, but the number of walls without big picture windows and built ins. All things I love and want in any house I own from now on. But what this means is that my wall display square footage is small.

Something will have to be moved.

So here is Leif holding his picture:

Oh and you want to know where I got my big pictures? Mpix.com

The details - they are 16"x20" mounted on foam core with the special coating (which I forget what they call - but it makes them look and feel like professional pictures). They are printed on Professional Photo Paper - so now my prints look like *I* am the pro! I retouched them myself using PhotoShop (which came out great enlarged to this size - I seriously wiped a lot of snot off Skadi's face). Let them play with the color too, I am quite happy with the way they came out!

I made the eyes pop using the Pioneer Woman's Instructions. (<--Rachel see here! And if you want to play with it with me, let me know!)

The 16x20's came out to about $30 a piece. Then I ordered some 5x7's and wallets. The wallets are die-cut. Love that. No sitting there with scissors hoping you see the lines correctly and shaving off edges where you strayed. I will order more wallets for putting in Christmas cards and handing out to teachers.

Because the pictures I did? So much better than what we got from the school. Even Leif's - which turned out good. The company that did the school pictures did a good job and put up with a lot from my lovely daughter, but I was unimpressed with the little things in the backgrounds - like the chain link fence. Just details.

I ordered huge pictures of my kids.

I have been wanting big huge pictures of my kids for a long time. I mean, if you aren't going to at least print up big pictures, why have an SLR? Ok, don't answer that. Because there are LOTS of reasons to have a digital SLR. But this was one of the many reasons I wanted a digital SLR. I love photographing my kids. Granted I am not a professional, but I still manage to eek out a few good ones every now and then. Helps with being able to just hold down the shutter button and get 5 or more shots at once, especially for those turkey times.

My son is in THAT stage now.

If *I* want to take a picture of him he either runs, glares at me and says, "no pictures" or makes some ridiculous face. Ha. I will show him. I can snap two pictures straight after the ridiculous face that he can't hold forever and catch a smile. Sometimes.

Then there are the times, like this morning when he decalres picture time.

It was 8am and I was struggling to get us out of the house when Leif yells, "let's take a picture now!"

Skadi was looking her cutest in her HA skirt with striped tights, so I grabbed her and stood them next to the door (the one spot in my house where no one can see all the clutter) and started snapping.




(See he *CAN* smile for a picture... when he wants.)

Then Leif declared his need to use my camera to take a picture.

I must have been in a good mood when I agreed putting the strap securely around his little pencil neck and showing him which button to push.

I was so impressed with his picture that you get a view of the clutter here. (Quick someone post indicating that their house looks *just* as bad.)



Anyways... back to the point of the post. My huge pictures.





I took these pictures and cleaned them up with Photoshop. All the stuff that you can't really see here... unless you click on them and they get a little better. Then you might see the crud I am talking about.

Wiped the snot from Skadi's nose and cheeks, the particles of breakfast from her chin and shipped off the huge image. Then I cleaned breakfast off Leif's face and the syrup off his shirt and shipped it off. Oh and I also did the whole "make the eyes pop" thing on both of them. The available standard sizes were cropping them funny and so when I finally found a size that cropped in a way I was happy with I hit order.

Then I layed in bed last night wondering what in the world I am going to do with two 16"x20" photos of my kids mounted on foam core.

I need more walls.

If only I had the time...

One aspect of being a SAHM that I seriously covet is having the ability and time to devote to one's creative side. I don't kid myself into thinking that SAHMs have a whole lot more extra time on their hands than I do... but they are usually more often in an environment that allows for creativity, even if it is in little spurts. Me? When I am at work, I am working far away from my sewing machine.

What really has impressed me in the recent years is seeing creative moms out there, some that I know, take their art to the next level and are not only CEOs of their homes, but CEOs for their own small businesses. And very often... doing the things they love.

Many of the women I know who made the decision to stay home, didn't envision starting their own small businesses - or at least I don't remember this as their goals. Many just happened into it with their niche and have found an audience in the internet. And then there are the ones who just flat out amaze me... the moms who actually have a day job, even a part time day job, and still find time to run a business on the side.

My niche... if I had time would be sewing cute kids clothes. I would buy the cutest fabric and sew adorable clothing and sell it online for a small fortune. My time, after all, is immensely valuable. Something kind of like what my online friend's daughter did here... I covet the clothes she makes, though our dual income still isn't in that bracket that affords me to do my shopping there. I just window shop.

My mom (my partner in sewing crime) is coming out in a few weeks and I have presented her with a challenge. To help me make Skadi the cutest Summer outfit *ever* out of this adorable lemon fabric I bought last summer (and intended on making the cutest outfit ever out of). See I needed her... she is a great seamstress, having made most of my sister's and my clothes from kindergarten through about 3rd grade. But I needed her to do the dirty job of going to the fabric store and picking out a pattern.

Thus insuring I don't drain our savings buying cute patterns and fabric for things I will never sew.

Another small business owner I am jealous of is my sister-in-law. This is my sister-in-laws business in Colorado. Photography... oh yes, I could be a photographer too. Oh wait, no I probably couldn't since my photos never turn out as cute as Angie's. I get one in 50 on a good day. And one in 50 doesn't make a successful photo shoot. But Angie rocks. (My nieces and nephews are in there... aren't they cute? She IS photographing my kids next time we are in Colorado.)

Then there is my friend Kacey. Kacey is married to AB's best friend, JB. Kacey is amazingly talented with her jewelry making as can be seen on her website, Subsixstudios. I just bought some earrings from there and I love them. Not only with jewelry, but I think Kacey has a great style and I am looking forward to her Oddments additions. Oh and she sells Barefoot Books too! On top of working part time, making jewelry, selling books and raising two boys, she is one busy girl!

And related to my addiction with shoes and clothes for my daughter... well she has to have bows for her hair! Enter AK... who fulfills all my needs to have cute bows for my daughter's hair.



I looked at the Children's Place website today and noted that they had bobbledy hair clips too, for $2 a pair. But you know what? I would rather buy handmade and support a mom in her craft. So my daughter sports Hip Clips... when she doesn't yank them out of her hair and stuff them in her mouth...

Yes, I do have my blogging... both here and with the newspaper. And I love that gig. (And once I get the mess of domain hosting and my site designed how I want, I will take that to the next level and maybe be the next Pioneer Woman... ha ha ha.)

So in between my dreams of being a writer / seamstress / landscape architect / chef / photographer / counted cross stitcher, I will toil away in my office being a scientist. My childhood dream. Not many people are lucky enough to get to say they are doing what they dreamed they would do as a kid. Of course it is just a touch different then I dreamt it would be as a kid (Curious George's Professor Wiseman meets Jamie and Adam from Mythbusters).

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A really cool career!

If I just had a little free time... oh yeah, I am going to fill the upcoming half hour of free time with the gym in a couple months. A little more free time beyond that... which would I choose?

AB keeps telling me we just have to win the lottery... which in order to win, I suppose we would have to play.

My only regret in life is going to be not had enough time to try everything I want to do.