I have been so busy lately, my world has been upside down! But i did post some new shots on our company blog of the Ouray Ice Fest Brian and i just attended. Check them out, www.aaotalesfromtheroad.blogspot.com. I tried ice climbing for the first time, holy hannah it is fun! i loved it, i am addicted now. Anyway, sorry not to write more about the adventure, i will try to spend some time soon recounting tales. But until then, hope you all are well!
I am somewhat cheating in doing this, but i decided to just upload a bunch of pictures from Christmas to a web gallery so that people could browse that way. Otherwise it would have been a million little posts. Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas together. at my father's wishes, we all came home and all the kids got to meet. What an exciting thing to have cousins!
as a big suprise, brian and i went up to suprise ben and lisa for thanksgiving! it was great, they had no idea. We got in super late the first night, and the next day we had a great, relaxing day. Then that night we went to the Alaska rock gym and then to Beerfest at the Bear's tooth. super funny movie. i highly recommend it. 
Such an amazing Thanksgiving in Alaska. We had a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable day with great friends. We started the day with a great breakfast at Andy and Lisa's house. Quiche, fruit and dip, cassarole...so yummy!
Andy and lisa (soon to be two more!)
ben and brian playing cards
the ball won
Holy crap, we made a lot of food. Ben and lisa b. made his mom's pumpkin pie, i just wore the crust. we all made so much food, we could have fed 10! IT was great though, so much fun time together. and the turkey? so amazing. Ben made it on the grill...yum!
another "sport mode" shot
crazy cubby in front of the fire
ben's annual turkey shot
i think all these pictures are funny. Apparently, i am SUPER excited about this...
...and we're eating...
still eating...(kind of reminds you of having to watch people's slideshows of their vacations, eh?)
so, i was wearing a bell sleeved sweater and we were joking about me saving leftovers in the sleeve, so that is what this picture is. The funniest quote about this was from Andy, who was sitting just to the right of me. He looked and me and grabbed his beer quickly and said "Keep your giant sleeve away from my beer". pretty good. great meal.
so, many of you know that bowling is not my strong suit. but, when most of the group is ill and outdoor activities are out...next best thing is beer and bowling. 
lisa set the camera on "sport mode" and took a ton of shots. this was one of many of ben and i moving. 
go lisa!
right before dancing...so fun!
we decided to make the trek to Hatcher's Pass, a favorite backcountry playground of ours. As per tradition, i went out the sunroof of the commander again, to take photos on the way to Wasilla. A car driving at 70 miles per hour with a windchill of -10 makes for some pretty frozen tears.
i think i look like an old man in this one. anyone else?
ben fastening lisa's snowshoes at the bottom of Hatcher's. little frosty to be without one's mittens for too long
brian on a mission up the hill
...still going...
ben must think it is cold. actually, i think it was about 12 degrees, which was quite a bit warmer than what we had been getting
brian gave us an avalanche class halfway up
