More movies from Ava and Willa visiting! Enjoy. Did you know Ava has a brother? 🙂
Willa Hangs with the Big Kids!
Willa and Ava came over for a visit, and Willa had a blast–check out the movie (I’m testing out a new movie export that encodes multiple versions and picks the best one for your network connection–let me know if it works alright!)
 
Coming soon–more Willa and Ava movies as a special treat for Jarrod!
Artist of the Month: Talus Tiles!
Check out the writeup in the Capital City Weekly! Good press for Talus Tiles, and Carrie’s big push on painting and firing over the past few weeks is paying off. She’ll be at the JAG for the “First Friday Gallery Walk” tomorrow (3/7) and she’ll have a table at the Auke Bay Coop Preschool Fundraiser Spring Bazaar at Smith Hall (at chapel By the Lake Church next to UAS) on Saturday (3/8). Here’s the great photo from the Cap City article:
Juneautopia gives up the sun for the locals
Great weather last Saturday in Juneau! Torsten didn’t want to go skiing, and we didn’t want to push it, so we think he’s done for the season. Carrie was busy with the Auke Bay Coop and then making cards with Charmaine. Torsten and Matt went out to Eagle Beach to watch the tide come in, do some digging, play in the snow, and throw rocks in the water. (It looks like the rock is heading straight for the camera in the third picture, but it is flying off to the left.)
The full picture gallery is available, but even better are a few videos: Torsten watching the tide coming in (and playing in it), Torsten throwing rocks, Torsten rolling down a snowy hill.
As you can see, it was a fantastically sunny day–Torsten got warm and had to take off his jacket! Liza and Steve totally lucked out with the timing of their John Muir cabin reservation–enjoy their great pictures! We’re jealous and hoping that we’ll get weather half as good when we head up there in March.
Mendenhall Beauty
Carrie has gotten out to Mendenhall Glacier/Lake a few times for a quick dog run/ski/walk. It is fantastic out there in the winter, and we really enjoy Laurie Craig’s email updates (she is a huge force at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center).. Here are a few photos from Carrie’s recent trips–first a nice walk with the dogs:
and next Carrie and Ginny went out for a skijor. Suka is getting lazy, but Coda is a ski-joring force!
 
I do want to note that we all went out for the Friday “Fireside Chats” on Volcanos. Torsten liked that! We’re looking forward to Roman’s presentation on Greenland research, and then Matt has to come up with a presentation (along with Cathy, Eran, and the SEAMONSTER gang) on what we’ve been doing on the glacier and lake!
Torsten keeps skiing
We got the “report card” after a few weeks of Torsten ski lessons. (We had a parent/teacher conference for the preschool, but I think this is Torsten’s first report card!)
He is moving on to the platter pull (but won’t quite go up on his own yet–he has one of the instructors go with him). And he prefers to hang on to someone, but he’s got a “good wedge” (can stop!) and will go down on his own–both fast, and in control. Amazing! The two photos below give a sense for the platter pull/bunny hill ski area, but the movies below are the best.
First, here’s Torsten waiting in line to go up the platter pull (he is the blue body suit, just about center picture horizontally, in front of Eva (in pink body suit) and the instructor (red jacket)).
Next, here’s a photo of Torsten coming down the bunny hill. (He is the blue body suit, with yellow bib, in front of the instructor with red jacket, on the far upper left of the photo.)
But best of all are the movies! Here is a movie of Torsten going up the platter pull with his instructor’s help. And what goes up, must come down, so here is the movie of Torsten skiing down the bunny slope.
Torsten skis!
In early January, Torsten started up in “Wee Ski School” at Eaglecrest, for two hours every Sunday afternoon. They have great instructors, who Torsten loves. He already knew Kohu from when he went to Jonelle’s for day care. They start out on the magic carpet–here he is going up, and then giving Kohu a high-five after skiing down.
It is better in movie format, so check out this movie of Torsten skiing down the Magic Carpet slope!
Hawaii, part 1
For Grams and Gramps 40th wedding anniversary, we rounded up the whole gang and went to Hawaii. It was a great 10 days, and we only got about 700 pictures.. In addition, it was Tom’s Birthday, Christmas, lots of beach and sun, and storing up on Vitamin D. We got a group shot, and a few others down below. We’re overnighting in Seattle before heading home to Juneau (and hopefully lots of snow up on Eaglecrest!)
Public Market 2007
Carrie went in with Abby and Chip on a booth at Juneau’s Public Market.
Carrie was really on top of it this year, especially with her own Talus-Tiles kiln in the garage. There was of course still a small last minute “get it all together” panic:
 The public market was lots of fun for Carrie, and Torsten and Matt got to hang out together for a good intense father/son weekend.  Here are several photos of Carrie’s part of the booth, and they show off one of her new trials this year–the big noodle bowls which came out amazing!
 
AGU 2007
Torsten missed AGU for the first time in his life–Carrie and Torsten didn’t go down to the annual San Francisco. In addition to missing those guys, several of the regulars didn’t attend–we missed you all! Despite that, the week was full of science, full of politicking, full of friends, and full of good food and city. The stats from AGU are that over 15,000 geophysicists got together. There were an amazing number of posters and talks, including some our groups contributed. Bill O’Brien, a friend/prof/mentor from Southwestern, was there for the week, and got to know the gang (we’re hoping he’ll be in Juneau next fall for some collaboration). Dipa (a Bay Area collaborator) came up to meet for lunch, go through the MOMA, meet the gang, see AGU, and catch up a bit–great to see her, and I think we all enjoyed the MOMA, especially the Olafur Eliasson exhibition (that’s all I had time to check out). The only pictures from this whole week that I’ve got are from this exhibition–check ’em out. (This was a mirrored small balcony built onto the outside wall of MOMA–really cool!)
It was great to see Kevin, Eloise, and Haden up from Australia! And fun to catch up with Tom, Laura, and Waylon with a group dinner at their house on Friday night. Always great to see all the rest of the gang–I’m looking forward to next year’s soon! (And I’ll make the Triton reservation as soon as possible–they don’t have any cheap rates at the moment.)