Just Another Day

The weather was beautiful yesterday, so we decided to take advantage of it with a little flying. Bill (Jr.) took us out to a beach he’d been to the first time last week. What an incredible spot!

Before we could take off, the guys had to shovel a clearing to get the plane out of the hangar.

The view from the air was spectacular!

Bill got lots of video.

We landed and took some time to listen to the ocean waves crash onto the shore before heading back to look at the state cabin that sits in the woods.

 There was still plenty of daylight left for the ride home. The mountains are still covered in snow; the sight is absolutely breathtaking from the sky! This picture was taken as we got closer to Valdez.

 We got home just after 7:00 and Bill made a tasty chicken pizza with pesto. We got to enjoy that while watching a slide show of Barb and Bill’s trip to Europe last summer. Looks like it was a wonderful time!

We quickly forwarded through some of the day’s video, but I was having a tough time keeping my eyes open. So, not much later it was bedtime. Of course, it seems, the minute my head hits the pillow I’m wide awake – and Bill said something ridiculously funny and got me in a laughing fit… the kind where you can’t stop laughing, and your stomach hurts, and by the end of it you can’t figure out what was funny in the first place! I LOVE VACATION!

I drove down to the Minneapolis airport right after school on Friday. It was interesting to be traveling by myself again – a mix of feelings. I enjoyed taking it all in, thought about the last two years when it was all common practice, and partially wished I had someone to travel with.

I spent the night in Chicago at the airport hotel there. It was wonderful, because I just had to walk through the underground tunnel, and I was there – none of that waiting for a shuttle in the middle of the night nonsense. I was impressed! The room itself was pretty ordinary, but I didn’t hear a single plane the whole night… incredible. Here’s a picture to give you an idea of just how close I was to the runway! I snapped these from my hotel window.

It was good to get a little rest before getting on my next flight yesterday morning. I had to fly through Seattle and then finally made it up to Anchorage, where Bill was waiting for me, around 2:45. We stopped for a little lunch and then made the 5ish hour drive to Valdez. Looking forward to sharing more pictures this week… and wishing you all could be here with us!

Rick made it into Nome at 2:49 AM Saturday morning.

We are proud of you!

Love you!

Check it out! 🙂

I am conducting a little experiment.

I always set a chair up adjacent to the chair I’m sitting in and then another across the table. I like for people to sit beside me instead of across from me… I think it’s less intimidating. (Must be some old Ed Psych thing I learned once upon a time.) Anyway, everyone sits across – if their kid happens to be with them, the kid sits by me.

Funny.

I’ve been very excited about arriving at work in the daylight. I guess that’ll probably be gone tomorrow – with the clocks having been turned ahead. I guess I will enjoy that light in the evenings instead.

We’re due for some warmer weather, which figures after completing my final week of bus/playground duty on Friday. I’ll take the warm weather when it comes, though. I’m certainly ready for spring!

We headed up north on Friday afternoon. Saturday we stopped to see Gram and Gramp. Grandpa was in especially good spirits – cracking jokes and smiling a lot. I love those visits. Gram wasn’t feeling as well, but she perked up a bit and even watched the recruiting video that Bill just completed. I can’t help but be happy to have  great visit with Lou and Lorraine!

The rest of Saturday was very low key. I napped a bit and got a good portion of my correcting done. (Ugh, assigning essays = correcting essays!) Saturday night, though, Ape and Jesse were on their way home. Since I won’t be around for Ape’s 29th birthday next weekend, we decided to celebrate last night with a little hot fudge pudding cake. Mmmm. Ape wouldn’t let me take a picture since she’d spent the day cleaning and moving – but, she was very cute.

This morning Bill mixed up some sourdough pancakes and Dad fried them up. I even got the special Mickey Mouse pancake…

We spent a little time helping Ape and Jesse unload the U-Haul into their storage unit. Then we headed up to a campsite for Bill to shoot a segment for his first BWCA cast. It was fun… I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product and then getting ready for many more episodes this summer.

Now it’s time to wind down. We’ve got a busy week ahead of us…

Hope you find some time to relax and appreciate life and the freshness that spring brings with it!

Truth be told… blogs are very self-serving. If you haven’t got one, you should consider it. It’s funny, because I know that various people will check in to see what we’re up to, but I usually write in a way that I think I’ll enjoy reading later on down the road. (And possibly someday putting into a book… there’s a company that does that – we were hoping Bill was the first to think the idea up.) Anyway, here are some pictures from this weekend. You’ll notice I’m in all of them. Hmmm…

To recap… Lo came and spent the weekend with us. The two of us went out to dinner Friday night and had a good talk. She also humored me with a tour of my school on Saturday. After that, though, we lost her to Guitar Hero. She is pretty much an expert now. 😉 It was so nice to have my sister around. We’re hoping to catch April and Jesse this weekend while they work to get Jesse moved up North.

I convinced Sara to join us for dinner on Saturday so she could meet my other favorite sister and vice versa. Needless to say, there were plenty of good stories and laughs.

On Sunday I got a call from one of my college roommates, Heidi. She was in Brainerd, so we bummed around at Target and Christmas Point for a bit before heading back for the grand tour of our apartment and then out to lunch with Lo and Bill. It’s been over a year since Heids and I have seen each other, but she’s one of those folks that makes it easy to pick up exactly where you left off.

Now we’re looking Wednesday in the face. We had an early release day today, which means we race through lessons all morning and by 1:00 it feels like we’ve been at work a whole day… then we start Professional Learning Community meetings. I’m feeling like I’ve put a whole work-week in already – so, fingers crossed the rest of it goes smoothly.

Our friend, Rick, began his first Iditarod adventure today with the ceremonial start in Anchorage. Tomorrow the mushers will begin the official start in Wasilla. Needless to say, we will be anxiously awaiting internet updates. If you’re interested in seeing a little more – here are a few of the sites we’ll be checking:

http://mushing.bssd.org/ (a site that got a lot of Bill’s blood sweat and tears the past two years)

http://alaskapodshow.com/ (very cool video podcasts – nice interview w/ Rick at ceremonial start) 

http://iditarod.com (Iditarod’s official site)

and of course…The Holt’s family site: mushingdogs.com/blog  

Alright, please excuse the lack of interesting posts… I’ve basically been working hard to move from Easy to Medium status on Guitar Hero. Allow me to explain –

So, the Svirs got Guitar Hero, and Mike was kind enough to bring it over and let us play last Friday night. Wouldn’t you know, we were hooked. In a moment of weakness, I agreed that we, too, could benefit from a little more music in our lives. Yep, I’ve been rockin’ out ever since. 😉

Well, we did take a little break to head to Bemidji this weekend. We had a great visit with Bill’s grandma, and then out to Zac and Bunny’s. It was a beautiful day for a drive and always great to see family.

Tonight we headed out for dinner with Mike, Amanda, and Axton. Then we came back to the apartment for a little friendly competition. Here are a few pics from our evening.

And – one other picture to share from the week…

Bill and I decided on a little fiesta to enjoy the Wednesday I got off from work last week due to cold.  I decided to bring a taste of Mexico to our little apartment. Mmmm!