Mother in Law Fun

This whole week was jammed pack with entertaining Colleen, my mother in law.  We had a blast and we were happy she came, sad she left.  If she hadn't have come, I don't think I would of gotten to do so many cool activities.  She came here in the summer, so this was her first time coming in the winter.  Here is the in a nutshell version of what we did

Sunday December 26:
Colleen flew into Alaska at 3:30PM.  Cory and I were anxiously awaiting her arrival, but we kept busy running errands and such.  Once we picked up Colleen, we rested and she ate some left over shrimp we had.  She LOVES shrimp as much as I do!  Yum Yum.  By night, we headed over to my cousin, Julie's place, and celebrated Kadyn's 4th birthday, which is her son.  It was also my Dad's birthday too, he just turned 49.  Everyone was there and it was awesome to eat yummy filipino food and watch Kadyn open his presents.  Cory and I got him a Ben 10 projector watch and a whoopy cushion.  Kadyn also got a remote control helicopter from his mom.  Well, when Kadyn opened the whoopy cushion, he was skeptical as to what it was.  Cory told him to sit on it and once he did, the noise came out, and Kadyn fell in love with his toy.  It was a self inflatable whoopy cushion, so Kadyn would sit on it numerous times or punch it so it would keep making the fart noise.  Everyone was laughing with him.  Whoopy cushions are a hit.

Monday December 27:
Colleen really wanted to see a glacier, so we headed out to Portage Glacier to hike on the lake.  I made some gourmet sandwiches on the go.  After driving for about an hour and a half, we checked out the lake and it was frozen solid with about 6 inches of snow covering it.  We saw a man in the middle of the lake with his dog, which gave us the signal that it was safe to walk on the lake.  We only made it half way and decided to turn back.  The hike was a lot further than we thought it was going to be, hence we didn't get to see the glacier.  It is alright though.  We got a good hours worth of trekking on the lake.

Colleen making a snow angel, no big deal.

Hi Cory!

Pretty Sunset of Turnigan Arm

When we drove back to Anchorage, we decided to stop in Girdwood to show Colleen what Alyeska looks like.  When we got into town we went to one of her favorite fast food places, Wendys for supper!  I had a frosty, yum!  Felt like a kid again.  

Tuesday December 28:
We decided to take my brothers and cousins sledding at Kincaid Park.  It was a blast.  We got to go sledding with the presence of 3 moose.  One of them even had antlers.  They were far enough to do no harm to us.  The boys had lots of fun and it was really cool to see my 50 year old mother in law hit the slopes.

Junior and Kadyn

Justin!

Moosey

The group

Justin, Cory, Rovic and I

Cowabunga, going backwards!

Snow plow

Later that night, my mom, dad and Nor came over.  They brought over delicious pizza and we watched the sledding videos.  My parents were very proud to see Rovic, my baby brother, go down the hill all by himself on a sled.  He isn't that much of a daredevil, but maybe he is after all.  Our moms also exchanged gifts, how cute.  

Wednesday December 29:

This day, we had planned to go ice skating at Westchester Lagoon.  Except, we were all so exhausted from hiking and sledding from the previous days, that we took a rain check.  However, we did walk a little in downtown to do some kind of activity.  There were artists getting the ice sculptures ready in Town Square Park.  Later that night we went to Bears Tooth Theater to watch Hereafter starring Matt Damon.  We already bought tickets early and got a reserved booth seat.  I scored the best seats in the house.  Right in the middle back.  We ate burritos and wraps for dinner with their famous root beer.  Then we finished dinner off by sharing an ice cream cake dessert.  The movie was a good drama, but the food was 10x better!

Thursday December 30:

This was the last full day with Colleen.  We had our batteries recharged and went cross country skiing on base.  There is a golf course called Eagleglen and in the winter, it turns into a cross country ski course.  The trails are super easy and the classical ski equipment was free to rent.  We were excited to get on the trails.  There was one part where we went down a large hill, which was quite the adrenalin rush.  Thankfully, nobody fell.  We were out there skiing away for a little more than an hour.  After skiing, we were so hungry and went to Arctic Roadrunner for some juicy burgers.  At night we went over to my parents place so Colleen can hang out with them for the last time before she leaves.  We played numerous rounds of Mad Gab with the family and it was hilarious.  

Friday December 31:

Well it was a sad morning, because we had to drop Colleen off at the airport.  She did shed some tears, but once we got back in the truck and watched her step into the airport, I started shedding tears.  Cory was just silent and sad.  Then our truck started leaking from the roof, because it had rained, so I conclude the truck was crying too.  There must be a hole up there from when I got my autostart installed.  It is pretty rare when it leaks.  Hopefully we get to see some of his family again soon.

Then we drove to the gym to work out.  We didn't go all week because we wanted to spend time with momma Colleen!  Plus the activities we did, was a work out in itself!  I later got a pedicure with one of my girlfriends, yippy.  Then we went over to the Leopolds' house on base to celebrate their sons second birthday and New Years.  We got him a Mr. Potato head.  We played Mad Gab and Catch Phrase with everyone there.. and of course had some "adult beverages" in celebration of the New Year.

Jude, Birthday Boy

Happy 2011!!

Well what a great week!  Tomorrow I have to go back to work.  Cory will work this week too and hopefully he can get his job full time!  That is all I am hoping for!  That would be the best ever!!  Tomorrow, I also turn another year older.  I can't believe I will be 23.  It sure doesn't feel like it, but man, life is good.  Cory and I started dating when I was 20 years old, another WOW!  Well, now it is forever, and it is sure fun to count the years with somebody I love.

Always,

Gly