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.

Torsten (in blue body suit) heading up the Magic Carpet Hi five Kohu (after skiing down the Magic Carpet

It is better in movie format, so check out this movie of Torsten skiing down the Magic Carpet slope!

More from Santa

After Torsten expressed his desire for a bow and arrow from Santa (see last blog entry), he came home and Carrie clued him in on the “Santa keeps track of good/bad” thing.  Torsten considered briefly, and then decided that, well, coal would be ok, because he would like to add some coal to his rock collection.

Little kids rock!

Here are two photos showing Torsten’s enjoyment of the Christmas tree we have up at home..

Nemo and Bob The Builder/Cowboy

Adelie came to visit our new place–she brought Missy, Chip, Blokus, and some great clothes.  She and Torsten had a blast playing while we all enjoyed Blokus.  Bob is nice and safe with the reflective vest!

Nemo and Bob  Bob and Nemo

Yep, we’re catching up on a little blogging, we hope!

First day of school for Torsten

Torsten went to his first day of preschool at the Auke Bay Co-op.  Since it was his first day, mom and dad were there and mom stayed the whole time.  He was with a bunch of kids who were there for their second year, and knew the routine, so he had some catching up to do.  He definitely enjoyed the shaving cream art projects!

 He’s learning group dynamics and enjoyed hanging out with all the kids, we think.

Of course, we’ve got the preschool first day gallery.

Hike to Chuvena

We drove from Fairbanks (thanks for lending the car and gear, Anne & Don!) to Chuvena.  By amazing total-lack-of-coordinating, both the Robinson clan and the Talus-Heavner clan were running exactly the same amount late, and we pulled into the parking area within one minute of each other!  After an instant friendship (memory?) in the parking lot:

We had a great hike into the cabin (Harlow and Matt working as camels, seen below).

 

Then we got to the cabin and all enjoyed saunas, canoeing, catching up, lounging around, etc..

 

The whole gang got in for a dock picture (that’d be, from left-to-right, Dave, Alice (rear-end), Harlow, Carrie, Eli, Riley, Blair, Shawna, Aspen, Rowan, Gina, Tooth, Carrie, Torsten, and Matt).

The kids all had a blast (enjoy the Sauna here):

And they especially enjoyed jumping over to the round dock–it not only made the mom’s scared, but even the dad’s were a bit worried–that’s how much fun it was! 🙂

 As always, check out the whole gallery.

Enjoying the Fairbanks Sun

Matt went up to Fairbanks for a two day NSF grant writing workshop, then Carrie and Torsten came up afterwards to enjoy some of the lovely August Fairbanks sun. It was perfect!!! Thanks to Don and Anne for everything–a place to stay, a car to drive, great hospitality, hosting a good potluck dinner to reconnect with friends, and gear loans! We owe you–come down to Juneau soon! Here’s Carrie enjoying the sun:

A few images from the potluck dinner:

It was especially great to meet Emilie (read her family blog at http://truffer.blogspot.com/ ).  Here are a few of our photos of the 4 day old:

A quick photo-nod to all the fun that Torsten and Sonja had in Anne and Don’s awesome new yard and house:

and a link to the whole gallery will wrap up this blog entry.

Bottling with Dad

Torsten was a great help bottling up the Spruce Tip–the last batch of beer brewed at the Glacierwood House. The beer tastes good, but is slowly carbonating. We’ll have a tasting at the house warming and belated birthday blowout. Mid-September, we hope.

Father’s Day in Haines

After the great bike ride fun (see previous blog entry), we enjoyed the post-race dinner, and then searched out a quiet camping spot.  We went out to the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site and found a really great spot.  After sleeping in a bit, we woke up, had coffee and hot chocolate, then started packing up.  Carrie finished this up while Torsten and Matt went down to the lake to fish and do some father/son bonding on Father’s Day.  Carrie came down and joined us after a bit.

We have some great fishing movies, but I still have to compress those for posting.  In the meantime, enjoy this still shot (and I’ll post a bunch of movies as a separate blog entry).

We went into Haines and had some “famous” fish and chips for lunch at the Bamboo Room, played at the playground, and went to join in with all the other unique, individualists who drive subarus and bikes, just like us and everyone else. 🙂

 

As always, check out the whole gallery (includes the bike race and fishing).

Kluane Bike Race

We had an awesome adventure last weekend centered around the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Race. It started out with a beautiful blue sky, flat water, fast ferry ride from Juneau to Haines. Carrie, Torsten, and Matt were on the ferry with Adelie, Chip, Missy, Mark, and Julie. Chip “Dr. Blokus” brought along his favorite game..

Blokus on the Ferry (Adelie and Torsten)

After grabbing dinner and some new fishing gear for Torsten, we went on up to Haines Junction (Canada) and camped with a lot of bikers. Here’s the start of the race on Satuday.

Carrie, Chip, and Matt rode as Team US Postal Service, with Missy acting as our team captain. Julie and Mark rode the whole race (150 miles–the race was 148.1, but they rode bikes from the campground to the start of the race). Chip rode legs 1-4 (69.4 miles) of the race, and was a bit wet and cold. Once he got up into the mountains, the skies cleared up and things warmed up, just in time for Matt to hop on to ride legs 5 and 6 (36.3 miles). Carrie got this great shot of Matt heading down the road after the station between legs 5 and 6.

Here’s Chip after Leg 4, escorted by Missy, Adelie, and Torsten:

After thoroughly enjoying Leg 6 (check out the altitude profile of Leg 6!), Matt handed off to Carrie (here she is riding off down the scenic road), who did Leg 7 and went on to do about a third of Leg 8 (the line at Customs to get back into the U.S. was a killer!!). Carrie rode a little over 30 miles.

Chip cleared customs and jumped right back in to join Mark and Julie at about midway through leg 7. So the US Postal Service team “cheated” (by covering parts of legs 7 and 8 twice) to get the red lantern (last to finish). But we had a blast and that was our only goal. Here’s the whole team (along with the “finishers”–Adelie and Torsten).

As usual, the whole gallery is available.