Comin' Home...Eventually

Well, we're not home yet, although we were scheduled to be home by 4:00 p.m. Utah time. We're in Anchorage and have been since a little after 10:00 last night.

The last week or more has been great weather with clear skies, besides the dip in temperatures and one or two days with high winds. Yesterday, however, mother nature decided to give us the snow storm she owed us, plus interest. Visibility was horrible, although there wasn't much of a wind. They put our flight on delay. We had been praying that we wouldn't have troubles and that flights would get places on time, so we began praying even harder. It stopped snowing long enough for them to get a plane to us, and the wind picked up to give us a good tailwind. We got to Kotzebue, our first stop, with plenty of time to spare.

When we got to Anchorage, however, we found out that even though we had booked our flights in September, we somehow missed out on seat assignments. There were a few other people like this, because they had oversold the flight. We volunteered to stay and reschedule our flight, because there was a possibility at getting a direct flight from Anchorage to Salt Lake. This was at midnight. By 2:00, they had finally finalized everything, compensating us generously for our trouble, giving us meal vouchers, and putting us up in a room for the rest of the night.

We spent the day in Anchorage. We looked at some fun things to do, and decided on a discovery museum for kids. We got a cab (by the way, few cabs carry carseats for both toddlers AND infants) and went to the museum, only to find out that it was being relocated (and hadn't been at that location for about two months). We decided to look at the shopping they had around there, being downtown. This is about the time that 7 hours of sleep and no naps for two days straight caught up with Chalyse. Luckily, we were able to find strollers for rent at the nearby mall and she took a nap while we were looking around.

It's funny how prayers get answered sometimes. Things don't always turn out the way you envision it, but that's okay. As long as we're doing what we should be, things turn out the way they should.

Oh, the weather outside is fightful!

We are getting SO excited to go home to Utah for Christmas! (and to get out of Point Hope for a little while) We leave Friday afternoon and get to SLC Saturday afternoon. We will take 6 different planes and be be traveling for about 24 hours. This is assuming none of our flights get delayed or canceled. We have been hoping for good weather for our trip. Last week was lovely. We were enjoying beautiful clear days in the mid 20s. Today, I'm afraid is a very different story. It has been about -20 all day today and quite windy (20-30 mph) coming from the North. They just issued a wind-chill weather alert. Brr, I'm glad I don't have to go out today. The forecast for Friday is about the same. I know the cold won't stop our flights (at least i don't think it will) but the wind sure will. Especially with the smaller planes. Here's hoping Friday won't be so bad that the planes can't land.

On a lighter note; here is the update on the girls:

Ellora is growing so much lately. We ran out of her size of diapers so she has been wearing Chalyse's. They are a bit too long but fit around the waist about as tight as they do on Chalyse. Of course Chalsye is a little skinny-minny; she thinned out a ton after she started crawling and then even more after walking. I bet Ellora will too. For now, though, I'm glad Ellora is a chub. Besides it being so cute it will help keep her warm.

Chalyse has been calling Ellora "Reese" the last couple of days. I'm pretty sure she gets it from combining Leese (what she calls herself) and Royce (her friend across the hall). I think I like her calling her "bebe" better than some made up name. Hopefully she can find a new nick name for her that sounds more like Ellora.

Chalyse's still loves teasing Mom. Here is an example of her newest way to get under my skin skin. Last night she was supposed to be going to bed. She was still playing around when I came in to put Ellora to bed. When Chalyse realized Ellora was asleep she started screaming. I left quickly because I knew she was just doing it to bug me but it was too late and she had gotten Ellora all worked up. I waited a few minutes to see if Ellora would calm herself down but when she didn't I went in to comfort her. As soon as Ellora was quieted and I started laying her down Chalyse started screaming again. GRR! I knew she was just doing it to make me mad so i quickly left taking Ellora with me this time. We ended up just waiting until Chalyse was asleep before putting Ellora back down.

No one ever eats the cranberry suace

We had a lot of left over cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving dinner (basically all of it) so we made a yummy dish with it. I was skeptical because i don't usually like fruit on my chicken but it was SO good. Here's the recipe:

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can of cranberry sauce
1 cup of lite mayonnaise
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 cup of ketchup
1 packet of ranch dressing mix

Combine cranberry sauce, mayonnaise, sour cream, ketchup, and dressing mix. Pour over chicken and back at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Tom made some bacon and sour cream mashed potatoes and they went really well with the meal.

Enjoy!

Yesterday we went to the school to watch the volleyball regional tournament. Point Hope took first. When it was time to go Chalyse screamed and screamed. I know she likes to get out and is always sad to go home but this was a really bad fit. A few minutes after we got going we realized why she was so emotional.



I guess she was really tired because she fell asleep in her sled during the 5 minutes it took to walk home even with the wind blowing in her face. It was hilarious! She kept leaning over so that her arm or leg would drag and we would have to stop and out it back on. It is amazing the places kids can fall asleep.

Here is our rolly-polly baby eating her toes. (She has been trying to get them into her mouth for days but wasn't flexible enough before)





Ellora's piggie tails