Hawaii: the airplane

The airplane ride is about five hours and forty-five minutes to Hawaii. We went there right in the middle of the day. We saw the beautiful mountains peaking out from the clouds. It was Sabrina's first flight. I nursed her to sleep because I thought we were leaving, and then we ended up stuck in the airplane grounded for another hour and by the time we actually left, she was wide awake again. But she did eventually go back to sleep for 3 hours of the flight (can't get the picture to not load upside-down... odd). Then she held Celia's arm while Celia watched a movie. Celia colored, played, read, watched movies, and ate the yummy airline cookies... which, of course, fit perfectly on the tray-table cup holder. Oh, and she insisted we take a picture of her frowny face.

Hawaii Family Pics

I need to post about our week-long trip to Hawaii, Celia turning 3, her animal birthday party, and Sabrina starting rice cereal, but for now, I'll post the pictures we took in the hours between taking my parents to the airport and us going ourselves. Oh, and so I don't forget, our conversation last night...

It had been a long, eventful day and it was 9PM, Sabrina was taking a bath and we were all in the bathroom watching her splash. We had forgotten Family Home Evening, so I tried to do a really fast lesson (the first line was literally the whole lesson. No mention of Jesus):

Me: For Family Home Evening, we're going to talk about Patience. Patience means...?

Celia: Waiting.

Me: Waiting nicely. Good. So what did we learn about today at Family Home Evening?

Celia: um. I dunno. Jesus?

Me: And patience. Jesus was very patient because he waited...?

Celia: I dunno. Heavenly Father?

Me: nicely. He waited nicely.

She's all ready for seminary answers...

This morning, she was desperately screaming for me in her bed. I ran down there, opened the door and say: "What's wrong?" She smiled and said: "I'm just hangin' around."

I'm trying to work on her putting her own clothes on. She's never really cared to so now I'm making her try more. I told her to try putting her pants on (she's totally capable, just lazy I guess) and I'd help her if she got stuck. She put one leg in and gave up: "No. I can't. It's too hard. I'm having a hard day."

Tom adds a Celia Daily from Hawaii:

We got sugar cane juice in Chinatown, Honolulu. She asked: "Daddy do you like your drink?"

I said: "yes, I love it."

and she said: "no, do you like it?"

and I said I loved it again

and she asked if I liked it

I said I liked it and loved it.

She thought about it for a minute and said: "but you don't hug your drink."

Sabrina's Toy

Before the Iditarod started, we got a new toy for Sabrina. Celia likes it better than Sabrina. She scooted Sabrina over so she could fit in it as soon as I set it up. And then she decided it would be pretty fun to sit in Sabrina's Bumbo and play with the toy too. Sabrina loves just watching Celia play with her new toy.

Iditarod: record time!

Baker won - and in the fastest record time! Check out the full story here.

Iditarod: Ending today!

Looks like John Baker is poised to take the championship. Follow the news updates to the finish line with Anchorage Daily News!

Iditarod update

Maybe they just hadn't updated the Iditarod website when I checked last, or maybe John Baker's lead really was cut significantly. But now he's only just over an hour ahead of the next guy. The Hair is in 4th and Dallas is in 6th. Other than that... the top ten is an unexpected group of people I know very little about.

123 miles to go...

They Match!

Aw. My girls are so cute in their matching dresses. This is the first of many matching outfits, I hope. Now to get them to learn to smile at the camera...

Iditarod update: John Baker (previously unmentioned on this blog) is in first place currently. He's a good 5 hours ahead of the next team so it looks like he's doing pretty well. The trail has been tough and his team is powerhousing through it. He's been in every Iditarod since 1996 and has never won. So that wouldn't be too bad. He's only 171 miles away from Nome... good luck John. And everyone else. Again... never in my life would I do this. But I sure love following it.

Northern Lights!

We saw the Northern Lights for the first time last night and we took this picture from our bedroom window. Also, "the Hair" is now in first in the Iditarod, and Tillamook ice cream was on sale for $3.50. It was a lovely night in.

In other Iditarod news, the trail has been unseasonably warm. The last checkpoint was 23 degrees. Usually it're more like -20. So the mushers have been trying to race at night mostly because the snow is too soft during the day. But I hear they've gotten great Aurora displays. I mean, if the above picture was taken from our bedroom window in the city, imagine what they're seeing 400 miles north in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and Mitch Seavey, Dallas' dad, sliced his fingers open when trying to cut the rope off of a bale of hay. He had to drop out. Poor guy.

Iditarod: My votes.

Okay - gotta introduce you before they get too far along the trail. And I don't have pictures. Sorry. You'll have to look them up. It's really early yet to tell anything by current standings, but I'll include them anyway. So, here are my votes, in order, for who I want to win:

1) Sebastian Schnuelle (currently in 2nd) - I referred to him last year as "the hair." Still appropriate. Love him. His hair is fabulous and he received a humanitarian award this year for the way he treats his dogs. He really loves those dogs. He should win it.

2) Dallas Seavey (currently in 9th)- Nice young man. His dad is also in the race (currently in 6th). So Dallas won the Yukon Quest this year (the other big dogsledding race). It was apparently the worst race in history. Experienced racers had to drop out because of frostbite. The trail was completely wiped out in places. People fell through ice, etc. So he won it. And now I want him to win both in one year. And he just became a father in July, he's been training for the sleep deprivation on the trail (literally taking 50 sleep-deprivation camp outs to prep his body), and his wife is also an Iditarod veteran. He's a good second.

3) Martin Buser (currently in 1st) - He has won the Iditarod 4 times and is looking to make a record breaking 5th win.

Other players:

Lance Mackey (currently in 2nd) - A local celebrity. He's won the past 4 in a row. He's tied with Martin Buser for the most amount of wins. He's trying to break the record too. But I think he's too full of himself. And I'm sick of him winning. So that's that.

Newton Marshall (currently in 28th) - Our token Jamaican. I'm surprised he came back this year to race to be honest. He looked pretty cold and miserable last year, but seemed pretty fired up at this start this year. Tough kid.

I'll keep ya posted. Current standings can be found here.

Iditarod 2011!

While Tom and his mom are trying to make their way back from the official restart of the Iditarod, I'll post about the ceremonial start of the Iditarod that was downtown yesterday. As the newspaper explained, the ceremonial start is like the tailgate party for the real start. It is like a big fake start where everyone gets all excited, they race for a couple miles, and then they pack everything up and drive two miles north to start for real the next day (pictures #1 and #2). The girls were all bundled and excited to be outside (#3). Celia was LOVING watching the dogs running and playing in the snow. Love this picture of Taylor, Travis, Travis' mom, and I all talking and Celia super excited about those dogs running by (#4). Celia's new faces that appear on camera are always awesome (#5). After watching the races for a bit (#6) and warming up in the mall after a minor breakdown by the cold child, we went to see the blanket toss(#7 and #8). This is an Alaska Native tradition where apparently the village would head to the coast, one person would stand on the blanket made of walrus hides and while he was tossed into the air, he would look out onto the water to see if he could spot whales. The downtown version was cool and still used a vintage walrus hide blanket, but they sat down, and they really didn't get nearly as much air as experienced blanket tosses of which we've seen pictures. Oh, and we saw the "Bushman" who charges $1 for a picture with him. Though it's free if you take a picture of him with someone else and he doesn't notice (#9). Then we took what has become the annual picture of Celia next to the Alaskan mural (#10). And then we came home, were happy to be warm, but we had a hard time taking that hat off Sabrina. She was just too cute (#11). And we took an awkward family photo of the girls with daddy (#12). Hilarious.

Tomorrow, using the photos I'm hoping Tom will bring me of my favorite contestants, I will do a little run-down of this year's race. Man, I love the Iditarod. It's the one time a year I sort of wish I was a teacher because there is such cool curriculum available surrounding the Iditarod.

Sabrina: Keep on rollin' along

Sabrina started rolling 360 degrees yesterday. She hates it and gets scared, but can't help it. I can't leave her on the floor for even 2 seconds. She'll roll onto her tummy, start screaming, and then roll back onto her back and cry. Her hair is falling out and coming in blonde except for the rat's tail below her bald spot. She's even blonder now than she was last week when I took the cute big-eared-bald-spot picture. She still has a blocked tear duct (since birth) so her eye is always goopy. And she's still always smiling. The picture of her in the little chair is funny because it actually makes her look chunky. And she's not. All of Celia's baby clothes look so different on little tall, skinny Sabrina. Celia still likes to hold her, tickle her toes, and show her how to laugh ("you say 'ha ha ha' like this"). And Celia's eyes have changed colors. Well, not really changed, but now she has a little ring of brown on the inside so now they're two-toned like her daddy. Can you see it?