Feast for Friends

We had a few friends over for dinner last night to try Ben's most amazing recipe....Crab-Stuffed Halibut (seriously my favorite dish in the WORLD!).

Kaena showed up stylish to the party in her turquoise scarf.

Ben and Laura spent ALL-DAY making this dish for all of us.......mixed in with a little game of catch

As Zach (3rd from the right) so cleverly put it....."We just a few humans trying to enjoy some watermelon!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANESSA!!!

Our great friend Vanessa is celebrating her birthday today!!!! We're bummed not to be able to share her day with her, but here are some GREAT shots from her birthday last year!

Doin a little jig in the parking lot

Eatin some CAKE!!!

The twins are here!

A little late in posting this, but just wanted to share with everyone that our really good friends up here, the Browns, had their identical twin daughters last week. Babies and mom are doing great, even for being born at 31 weeks. Head on over to their blog to see and hear more about these beautiful and strong babies!

Andy and Lisa's Blog

Here's a great photo of the two of them, Alyssa Renee and Kaitlyn Marie!

Lisa's Birthday

I had a great surprise waiting for me when I got home from work....a balloon, banner and streamer safari!! (Compliments of Ben)

Went out to eat with some friends (including an old co-worker from Hawaii in town for the week) to a great thai restaurant.....I REALLY loved the sticky rice container!

Trying really hard to blow out the ONE match on the cake (couldnt' find any candles)

After having a helium-inhaling-party, Kaena wanted to share in some of the fun and tried them on for a new style :)

Our Yucatan Peninsula 2007 Trip

We had a once in a life time chance to go down to the Yucatan Peninsula with Lisa's cousins and aunt last week....what an experience! We had a great and unforgetable time, doing things like surfing waves with kayaks, snorkling in crazy reef, riding a bike on a zipline above the jungle, snorkling in underground caves, visiting Mayan ruins, eating FANTASTIC fresh mexican food, and of course......getting engaged!

Click the webalbum below to see our pictures!

Yucatan2007

Lisa's mini vacation

I got a mini vacation over the last week and a half...I went to Boise Idaho for a work conference and while I was down in the Lower 48, I went down to Colorado to visit and meet my new niece Kayla. She is my first, and she is quite a cutie!
A self portrait....
Mom/Grandma holding Kayla while Dad/Grandpa and Amber/Mom eat, some good family times....
Kayla chillin on her fun blanket, she like to dance and wiggle on it - hence why her hands and feet are blurry.
Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the 76 degree Colorado weather on Amber and Ty's new porch, enjoying their time with Kayla

Lisa in Colorado

Precious baby K taking a nap with me, she LOVES sleeping on your chest so she can hear your heart beat.
Aunt Lisa taking Kayla for a breath of fresh air
Got to go out to breakfast with Dad and Mom...hadn't had a picture together in a while
Amber, Ty, their friend Brett and I went to Old Chicagos in Fort Collins for St. Patty's day, good times, good beer, good laughs.

Lisa in Colorado

Also while in Colorado, I got to see my friend Becca on her birthday! It was so great to see her and her house that she lives in now with her boyfriend. Thanks again Becca for the great time!
Then I stopped by my dad's work and he showed me this great smoker he's been building himself to have up at their new house in Nebraska, can't wait to use it!
I got to surprise my godson Baylie for his birthday as well, and his parents (my best friend Amber and husband Jimmie) surprised all of us with a trip to downtown Denver in an awesome limo to the Colorado Crush Arena football game! Loads of fun!
Here we all are chillin in the limo - Baylie, Amber, Nolan, Kolin and me :) We had lots of fun waving out the window to everyone.

Lisa in Idaho

Went to Boise for the Annual IMET workshop, a weeklong conference to get recertified in survival standards, here of experiences from the last fire season from other IMETs, and touch up on certain other skills.

(For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, I am becoming an Incident Meteorologist (IMET) - basically a weather forecaster who travels to "incidents" - mostly wildfires, to help forecast the weather for that specific area. We require extra training in fuels and fire behavior among other items. Lots of fun, get to go camping too!)

Here we are practicing how to use a Pibal and Theodalite system. The red ballon is released then the theodolite tracks the elevation and azimuth as it rises, showing us what the winds are doing through the atmosphere.....very important to wildland firefighting.

Here is General Johnson - the director of the National Weather Service (a very BIG supporter of the IMET program!) and Kelly Hooper - one of my trainers during last summer's fire season. We worked on the Rattlesnake Fire in Garden Valley, Idaho.

Down below is Aimee Fish (also an IMET trainee, from Alaska Region Headquarters) and I at Bogus Basin! One night after IMET class was over, about 10 of us decided to go skiing at a place just north of Boise. It was a little sloppy at the bottom (it was 50 degrees!) but we still had a lot of fun!

Dogshow

Cubby recently found a new talent.....flying.

Party for Sergios

Our roommate Sergios is moving back downtown so we threw a "going away" party last night. Events included a Foosball Tournament, Dart Throwing with Darts Not Sharp Enough to Hold, Car Bombs, Gravity Experiments, and Dental Exams.

Said Foosball Tourney (fearturing Ben, John, Zach and Sergios)

Said Gravity Experiments, thought up by Ben, mostly a dog spectator sport.

Said Dental Exam, I won.

Party contd

Ben got the great idea that his face was the scoreboard.....

the results.....

Me and my baby girl Kaena

Skiing at Hilltop

Went to Hilltop with Andy for the first time on Friday....great times with a great sunset. Here Andy is rockin his style :)

Telepalooza at Alyeska

Last weekend, Ben and I were invited by our friends Zach and nicole to a condo they had rented in Girdwood. "Telepalooza", an event at Alyeska Ski Resort to commemerate Jeff Nissman, a telemark skiier who was killed a few years ago. The event was great, and by volunteering only a couple hours, we got to ski for free ALL WEEKEND! Thats $200 worth. And we had a great little condo to share with our friends and their friends Greg and Janice from Kodiak...even had a hot tub! Lisa also took telemark ski lessons, very difficult to learn. We had a great time though, finally made it to the top, taking Chair 6, the highest you can go on the mountain!

If you've never seen a telemark skiier, here's a picture of how the go down the mountain....basically your heel is free, and you drop your uphill leg down and behind your downhill leg. A very graceful sport, if you can do it well!

Telepalooza at Alyeska contd

This was a sight....while coming down from Chair 6, we entered a really thin cloud. Since it was so cold, it was all ice crystals, and the reflected an image of the sun down in the cloud ahead of us. We should have taken a move, it would have shown how the ice crystals were dancing like little bugs!

The great town of Girdwood at the base of Alyeska.

Lisa skiing REALLY fast down a DOUBLE BLACK DIAMOND!!!! Ok, not really, just playing with the "straighten tool" in picassa. :)

Greg tele-ing ecstatically toward the camera!