What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than to have a barbecue with friends who are moving away soon? That was a trick question...there are lots of better ways to celebrate, but it was a beautiful day to barbecue with good friends--who will be greatly missed!
It was originally planned by the Crawn family as a farewell to the Watz family...but now the Crawn's are moving too! (We have got to stop making friends with people in the military!!! Just kidding. But the fact that people move away so much isn't very cool!) Our other neighbor (Todd) and his girlfriend were also there. At least he isn't moving...yet...
K and Cia (The Crawn's chocolate lab)
Taylor helping Karrick walk (and get over his dislike of his feet touching the grass...)
K and Ducati (the Crawn's other dog)
"Hey! That's my hat!" Karrick, Adrienne, and James
James' first s'more in Alaska! He couldn't leave without having one..
More outdoor fun with Taylor!
And a wagon ride with James..
In other Mother's Day news, Luke had to speak in church this morning. He did a great job! I made the most delicious fruit salad (that tastes like Skittles candy) for the BBQ. It's a recipe by The Pioneer Woman. (You can find it here.) And it's officially my first Mother's Day as a mom! I'm so grateful for Baby K--who is not so baby anymore. He is a joy to have around! And now that I'm a mom, I realize even more how much I appreciate my own mom! Sheesh. It's hard work! But it's worth it. Every bit! And I remind myself of that often :)
Have you seen this video?? It is awe.some. I love love love it! It brings joy to my heart…and warm fuzzies. Ok. I've said enough. (I just wanted you to know I was serious…and I totally agree with the message. Thankful people are happy people!)
This year we are spending the holidays in Alaska…and we are so excited! We will definitely miss being around family, but we will not miss holiday travel!!
We had Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors--Erik & Adrienne--and 2 of Erik's coworkers that didn't get to go home. It's good they had somewhere to go--instead of them spending their Thanksgiving in the barracks! (Erik is a dentist in the Army--FYI.)
Luke volunteered to make the turkey. We chose to get a fresh turkey from the specialty meat store here in Eagle River (called Mike's Meats). But first he practiced cooking a butterball turkey a few days before.
Turkey, turkey everywhere! Both of them turned out delicious!
The practice turkey
Making the brine for the "real" turkey. (We used the recipe from the Pioneer Woman website.)
Ready for carving!!
We also contributed dinner rolls, gravy, fruit salad (grandma white's recipe), fresh cranberry relish, and cranberry salsa (which is a delicious appetizer that I learned about at the recipe group I go to..) Oh and we made pies! Pumpkin chiffon and pecan.
This is grandma white's fruit salad…it takes healthy fruit and turns it into dessert :)
Adrienne made all of the other sides (stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, etc), apple pie, more appetizers (baked brie--so delicious!) and a vegetable tray.
We had so. much. food. And it was very very tasty! Our fridge is very packed with leftovers…YAY!
Here are some more pictures from the holiday…
Karrick's first Thanksgiving!
Thanks to uncle Reece and aunt Haley for the Thanksgiving outfit! And Luke is participating in No-Shave-November…if you couldn't tell :)
Karrick drank milk and ate…his bib. Thanksgiving for babies just isn't the same!
Now, bring on the pilgrim sandwiches!! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
I asked Luke to make me a chalkboard, and it's pretty sweet! (Thank you crafty husband!)
I had him hang it on our pantry door, and I use it to write our menu for the week.
On the menu tonight are salmon burgers with cilantro mayonnaise.
I found the recipe on a blog called Alaska From Scratch. It's also the place where I got our recipe for Halibut tacos. I haven't made anything else from there...yet...there are some other pretty delicious things that I saw on there that I think we need to try soon.
Despite what the lady at the local Coca-cola distribution office said last summer, cherry coke zero has yet to make an appearance in Alaska. (She said it would be here in the fall...of last year... Lies!)
Well guess what?? Amazon sells cherry coke zero, so we bought some...and enjoyed every sip!
My friend Lindsay and I went for a walkabout today. We drove to downtown Anchorage, got flavored milk steamers (pumpkin for me...gingerbread for Lindsay) from Snow City Cafe, and then went for a walk along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. It was so much fun!
A view of the Cook Inlet with some of the last fall colors-
Once we got to Westchester Lagoon, we looped back around and headed back towards downtown. (We had to get back before the parking meter ran out of funds...) Anyway, back in downtown we saw a sculpture that we had never seen before. It was made in honor of Captain Cook and all of his adventures.
The Endeavor, Resolution, and Discovery...not in order, I'm sure.
Then we got distracted by an antiques store. They had a ton of very old, very expensive stuff. I saw a cannon that I thought was cool. I didn't dare look at the price tag. But this picture was free! :)
After we made in back to the car, we decided to go get lunch at Great Harvest in Midtown.
I had never eaten at a Great Harvest Bread Co store before. I never knew they let you sample their bread just because you walked in the store. This knowledge is dangerous...very very dangerous...
And you should read this article entitled "Muslims, Mormons, and Liberals"...because it's really really good. Plus it's SO TRUE. Bravo Mr. Stephens, bravo!
Next stop was the Alaska State Fair. Where we walked around and tried all sorts of food.
They tasted like the ocean!
Fried cheese curds
Reindeer dog
Delicious popcorn
Mexican hot chocolate
And I also took some non-food pics...
I hate when this happens...
This little piggy fell down...
And then it fell down again..
Pretty flowers.
The rides we didn't ride...
Me and Luke doing what we do best...being silly!
We wanted to see the cabbage weigh-off but it wasn't until later in the day, so we took a field trip to Hatcher Pass/Independence Mine in the middle of our fair adventure.
Me and Lauren
The colors are really changing up there. It's so pretty!
And then we went back to the fair to see the ginormous cabbage weigh-off.
Cabbage fairies...
Let the games begin! Those boy scouts lifted a lot of heavy cabbages!
The winner! And the new world record cabbage! 138.25 lb.
I couldn't believe how big the cabbages were! The second place winner (at 126 lb.) was grown by the guy that had the previous world record (at 127.something lb.)...we could tell he was pretty upset that he didn't win and that his record got beat by 11 lb!
My grandma White made the best chocolate cake! It was sourdough chocolate cake with chocolate sour cream frosting. I would ask for it every year on my birthday until it became a tradition and I didn't even have to ask anymore.
Yesterday I decided to try making it so Luke could experience the awesomeness.
To make this cake you need sourdough starter. So I had to make sourdough starter and let it marinate (or whatever sourdough does) for 24 hours. Then I could start making the cake. But after the first step you have to wait 3 hours until you can do the rest. Sheesh! Talk about a labor of love.
Sourdough starter...it's alive!!!!
But it totally paid off. Big time!
Most. Delicious. Cake. Ever.
Grandma must have been smiling down on me from heaven...because it all worked out on my very first attempt.
And last night we also made strawberry freezer jam. Because it too is delicious.
