Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope your holidays are beautiful however you celebrate. We opened presents a day early to make the most of our time together. We felt very fortunate as we drove to a friend's house for dinner last night and saw a man who looked like anyone you might know standing with a sign "Need Work" and a phone number printed on it. He was visibly not your average corner sign-holder in Anchorage. My husband looked at me and said, "Kind of makes any of our problems seem smaller, huh?"

Santa was very good to us this year and I feel blessed to be spending my third holiday season with my little family. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

 "Can I please open this now?"

Gaining daylight

I snapped this photo from my balcony as the twilight set in this afternoon. Today is the shortest day of the year, with just 5 hours, 26 minutes and 58 seconds of daylight in Anchorage. Tomorrow we gain 6 seconds of daylight, which may seem small, but it means a lot as cold winter days become brighter and lighter. Cheers and happy winter solstice!

Davin's Christmas progam

Davin's school performed an original play written by his teacher for the holidays. He played an 8-year-old boy (what a stretch...) in a play about a family who gave up their personal celebration to help make the holidays better for active duty military in their community. Scenes were punctuated by caroling sung by the smaller kids. To kick of the event we had music from the guitar students and a lone xylophonist.


1. The entire cast sings a final number. 2. Joshua sets up the video camera, preshow. 3. Davin takes his place for the first scene.

4. Playing Jingle Bells and I think of Schroeder. 5. Sheet music sits ready for the show. 6. Davin's guitar group does a last-minute rehearsal of their most difficult piece.

7. The Christmas programs. 8. The guitar sequence. 9. Students playing members of the military perform a patriotic song and dance.

Looking a lot like Christmas

We decorated our tree Sunday. We chose a Grand Fir this year and the needles are not kind to my carpet, but the general effect is nice. I also made a new tree skirt this year, but more on that in another post. I'll write late about all my DIY holiday projects.

It's my third Christmas with my little family and our traditions are starting to form. Davin and I talked a lot about our ornaments as we decorated.

First big photo shoot

Saturday I took pictures of the very beautiful Zepeda family on Chester Creek Trail. They were so much fun. With a 7-year-old, 5-year-old twins and the youngest is weeks from her third birthday, things are never dull. Like me, their families live far from Alaska, so they wanted to capture a little of their surroundings in the shoot. This is my first big shoot, so any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

Beyond the Road Calendar

MY LATEST PROJECT: With the help of Alaska Newspapers' amazing photo editor I designed this 2011 calendar at work this fall. It features images from across Alaska inspired by the Beyond the Road photo feature from First Alaskans magazine. Above is the cover and below is the back with thumbnails of the spreads. It's my first calendar and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. However, it's easy to design with such amazing photos.

Our web editor is working on getting online purchasing information up. I'll update with post with a link when it's ready.

I am thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! I thought I would celebrate this year with a pictography of people places and things that make me thankful today. This is just a sample, because if I were all-inclusive, I'd be here until next year!

First and foremost, this guy, who not only gave the greatest compliment in life by marrying me this summer, but is an amazing cook, walk partner and friend. I'm also so very proud of him, because he's embarked on a new career this month in advertising sales for the Anchorage Daily News. Always up for a new challenge and thinking of ways to improve the lives of his family, he amazes me every day.

 This beautiful and harsh place I live. I love/hate it's weather, daylight swings and distance from the Lower 48. It's been my most faithful subject in my study of amateur photography.

 My parents, who have loved, supported and inspired me through everything. Especially my mom who taught me to follow my dreams, where ever they lie, and can take her own advice. She too, is embarking on a new adventure this year at the Seattle Red Cross. This lady is my role model. My dad for encouraging all of us, his patience and stories.

 My boy, who brings love and laughter to our home everyday. Aspiring guitarist and comedian, this guy probably teaches me more about family and what's truly important in life than anyone.

 Sister and Boy Kitty, because everyone needs a little unconditional love. And these guys have lots of it. Especially at 4:30 a.m. when I'm trying to sleep.

 My big brother and his lady. He just got promoted to to head bigshot at his engineering firm, but none of us are surprised.

 

My girlfriends for being the amazing, beautiful people they are. And for all the big and little woes and joys we share.

 My new friend Kim and her beautiful little family who have made Alaska feel so much more like home in the last few months.

My sweet in-laws who have welcomed me into their family as one of their own.

No baseball today

While I hear Washington feels a bit like Alaska this week, I think we've gotten a dose of Seattle's typical weather. It's rained on top of our snow for three consecutive days turning our winter wonderland into patches of ice, slush and mud. While school has been called off in Seattle for too much snow, we had the first "snow" days here in my two years here, for a lack thereof. The rain on top of snow made roads so slick that police responded to 89 vehicle incidents on Monday. I got off work a little early at the start of my four-day weekend and decided to walk through the baseball fields across the street to capture a little of the drizzly mess and play with my new camera.

Halloween ... a belated post

Davin dressed up as a gangster for Halloween and we did both Trick or Treat Street in downtown and Trunk or Treat at a friend's church with my parents while they were in town. Strangely, I never chased them with the camera while they were here like I usually do and am dismayed to not find any pictures of them to add to this post. We had a wonderful time cooking, visiting and relaxing with them.

 Trick or Treat Street was a cool idea but I wouldn't recommend it to parents. It was a lot of long, cold lines at downtown stores for not a lot of childhood sweet rewards. But Trunk or Treat was a ton of fun and will be in our future Halloween plans.

Fun new heights

Davin and I discovered a new piece of playground equipment had been installed at our favorite playground on a recent bike ride. It's a giant jungle gym made of steel and rope. I climbed to the top with another mom on the playground at the cajoling of our kids. It wasn't so bad.

Open eyes

It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget how geographically amazing, beautiful and strange this place I live is. But over the last two weeks, I've had several reminders that I'm in Alaska:

1. EARTHQUAKES: Last week we were rattled with two earthquakes. First was a 4.9 magnitude on Tuesday just 15 miles from Anchorage. Everyone at work jumped as the sound of a semi-truck slammed into the side of our building, but really it was the sound of the earth moving. It shook for several seconds, but no damage was reported anywhere. The second was a 5.4 about a 3-hour-drive north. It woke us up Saturday morning at 4 a.m. I had to get up and to see how fast the local news reported it online.

2. WIND: We had a windstorm Friday with gusts up to 70 mph in places that knocked down trees and knocked out power through much of Southcentral Alaska. Some more remote locations had no power for days after the storm. We actually rarely have much wind at all here, but it contributed to a strange week.

3. SNOW: Termination dust capped the mountains Sunday. The official sign that summer is over. The sight makes skiers cheer and lovers-of-summer like myself pout. We also had flurries in Anchorage Sunday. Nothing stuck, but it reminded us that it will soon. The photo above was taken Sunday traveling south on the Glenn Highway. (Note to my mother: Don't worry, I was in the passenger seat.)

4. FOG: I'm kicking myself for not photographing the eerie for that shrouded the 3 feet over the baseball fields the other day. It looked like the opening scene of a scary movie.

5. DARKNESS: The Fall Equinox passed the other day, and with it, my ability to drive to work without headlights.

Hopefully I won't wait for the next round of earthquakes to open my eyes and remember the beauty and wonder of my surroundings.

Cotton candy, giant cabbage and the gravitron

The Alaska State Fair is know for it's giant cabbage competition with a record of 127 from our intense growing season. But Thursday night, we went to the event in Palmer for the rides and the food. Above is a view of the grounds from the Ferris wheel. We ran into Davin's friend from school and her dad and hung out with them at the rides.

Here, missy got told she was just barely too short to make the cut for the Apollo, a ride none of us adults were brave enough to try.

 

So instead I braved the Gravitron with the kids and my stomach -- and equilibruim -- was angry with that decision. So was Davin's. But his friend was so non-phased she was riding upside down.

However, it was nothing a little over-price cotton candy couldn't cure.