Boots.

                                    I will be wearing these for the next 4 or 5 months at least...

lovin' our tree...

                                                             

                                                                     

Our cute little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Every year we pick out a tree in our backyard. It now has a few gifts under it and this year I only had blue and green lights (my multi-color strand burnt out I guess, it wouldn't work) but I like it.

Sunny in AK.

These little guys are like a blast of sunshine in our short, cold Alaskan winter days...

The Mountains Today

Crisp, clear and cold. This was our Mountain view today. I snapped this on my way home from picking Hawken up at Pre-K. Wow... The left one is Foraker, the middle is Hunter and of course the big one on the right is Denali. Enjoy the day!

the rest of the ski post...

These are the 2 photos that didn't want to upload for me yesterday. I love the one of Jax pulling Hawken in the sled, that's the ice showing though to the right of them. The ice is thick and glassy and near the shore you can look thru to the bottom to see the rocks and plants and stuff down there. Pretty cool. We need some snow, it's really cold and windy today. The mountains behind this lake are "The Talkeetnas". It's a really fun, nice and flat ski around the lake.

a ski at the lake

This was our first ski of the winter, which is probably obvious since the price tag is still on the new (used ) skis I bought last month. Wow, what a difference comfortable ski boots make. I had been using a "free box" pair that were too tight for a few winters now. There isn't a lot of snow yet, as you can tell by the spots of ice showing through. Thankfully Jaxon's ski boots still fit, we may get one more year out of them. He's also big enough to pull Hawken in the sled, he asked to try, we use a leash and tie it around our waist. Soon Hawken will be on skis too, I may look for the strap on type for him for Christmas. We have some awesome ski trails around here I plan to use more of this year (last year one of my bindings broke early in the season and I couldn't replace or fix them). There are also some new trails that don't yet have enough snow. The local ski club  grooms them as well as a few lakes close to our house with a nice loop around the edge. Jr. Nordic Ski Club starts up for Jaxon in early Feb. I think and the main trail they use has a bunch of hills, some are pretty steep, it's a challenging course. They also use a pond down in a big lush gully as a "ski meadow" for games and stuff. It's a pretty cool program. Well we are hoping for snow around here and some warmer temps. so we can get our ski on...
*a couple of the photos didn't want to upload, i will try again tomorrow...

Avocado Smoothie?!

Yep, well a little avocado, and lots of other good stuff too. As I have mentioned before here at Alaskan Brothers my boys and their "picky eating" habits in addition to living as rural as we do can make it a challenge to have the things on hand you'd like to. At certain times each month the fridge starts to get a little empty so like most Alaskans you get used to using what you have. Luckily my kids like smoothies and I can put a plethora (never typed that word before, it's weird but I like it) of good things into them, like veggies, yogurt,spices etc. Thank you to the inventor of the blender by the way. So yesterdays smoothie turned out extra creamy, yummy and almost milk shake like, and here's what I threw into it:
A brown frozen banana (we also use them in bread, muffins, pancakes etc.)
1/4 of a leftover avocado
1/2 cup or so, maybe more, I don't measure anything, of honey greek yogurt
*these first 3 ingedients are what gave it that creamy ice cream like texture
juice, any kind, we had cranberry cherry in the fridge
a dash of ginger powder (fresh is awesome if you have it)
a squirt of lemon juice
3 or 4 ice cubes
and blend until creamy!
I love experimenting with berries,veggies, juices & yogurts and the boys, most always, love it no matter what's in it. Sometimes it's more of an icy smoothie, no yogurt just fruit, ice and juice. I do tell them after what's in it. So they know what veggie they had. Jaxon has been really good about trying new things lately, Hawken not so much. We are working on it. Today was our turn to bring snack to Hawken's class so last night I made some homemade granola bars and they were a hit. They are super easy. We also brought some bulk dried banana chips, not as popular but something Hawken surprisingly likes, sometimes...
Granola Bars:
Warm a little butter in a pan, this helps with sticking issues. Add some peanut butter and honey or a little brown sugar. Get it warm and gooey then add whatever you want, I did oatmeal, sunflower seeds and some mini choc. chips (at the end so they were not completely melted) because it's what I had. Sometimes I do dried cranberries or raisins even Cheerios or granola cereal works if you don't have oatmeal. Then scrape your mixture onto a plate or cookie sheet or wax paper works well, press it down and shape it. I put it  in the freezer for an hour or so and then the fridge for the night to set up. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters or just sqaures and enjoy. * (Sorry if I have misspelled anything, spell check isn't working right now and I so winged the word "plethora" I have no idea if that one is right but I really wanted to use it) ;0)