Return to Anchorage

So, upon my return to Anchorage, this was the state of my car:

What had happened was that Anchorage went through an unusually warm period around New Year's (mid 40's), followed back by a very cold period (0-5 degrees). So, all the frost melted, including the semi-permanent layer that's been on my rear windshield for over a month. Then, everything froze back up, so I had a nice layer of ice crystals on my car.

Monday of last week (the 17th), I happened to look out my bedroom window, and guess what I saw?

Moose!

They were just feeding on the trees right across my window. Pretty exciting. I've started to see more in the area I currently live in than my last place.

This last Monday night we had an activity for my ward, called Family Home Evening. It's a weekly activity, where we all get together as a ward (which is comprised of young singles, between the ages of 18-30) and share a lesson and an activity. Our activity? It was a cook-off, kind of Iron-Chef style. We got to pick from a set of ingredients (each team having to pick 1 meat, 1 grain, 3 veggies, 1 canned item, 1 sauce, and seasonings). Each team had 25 minutes to plan and cook. And the judges? Who else?

The Elders in our ward. So, Mom and Dad, rest assured that this is the thing we as church members do often...feed missionaries. Ours get fed; Chris does too.

What other adventures will our hero encounter next? Stay tuned to find out...

Vegas trip part 2

So, on New Year's Day, I went rappelling with my friend Laurie Hansen and her family (no relation to my other Hansen friends (Kyle, Whitney, Audrey, Trevor, Danielle, Tyler, and Jake, who are all either siblings or spouses). Rappelling basically is going down a big rock or the side of a mountain with ropes. Like this:

Me and Laurie on the last part of our descent.

It was the first time I had ever done this, and it was a lot of fun. We went out to Calico Basin. The weather was pretty nice, slightly on the chilly side, with a bit of a breeze, but otherwise a great day to be out. We had chili, and hot chocolate and some other goodies. In addition, there had to be a bit of showing off.

Me hanging upside down. The camera angle and my face makes it look like the rope is causing me pain. It was just the angle I assure you.

Vegas Trip part 1

So, I apologize for the lack of posts lately, so I have some catching up to do.

Dec 21 - Jan 12 I was down in Las Vegas. Here are some of the adventures I embarked on.

Dec 23, the eve of Christmas Eve, I went to a white elephant party at a friend's house. We each brought a dish and had a feast.

People at dinner.

The delicious food.

For those of you who don't know what a white elephant party is, basically everybody brings 1 gift, not for anybody in particular. Then, everybody participating draws a number, and we select gifts in order. Person 1 picks a gift. Person 2 then goes. Person 2 has an option: either select a gift, or steal one already selected. If that person steals a gift from person 1, person 1 selects a new gift. And the same goes for every person. Once a gift has been stolen 3 times, it can't get stolen anymore. So, basically, the later a person goes, the lower the odds a gift can get stolen, but the higher the odds a gift has been stolen the maximum number of times. As it turned out, more than half the gifts were Nerf guns. So, we did what any reasonable people would do and had a Nerf battle.

Me and my new Nerf blaster.

Setting up a fort to give us cover from the onslaught.

My buddy Chris using a chair and Big Fat Nick as cover.

Trying to snipe some unsuspecting guys (this is Big Fat Nick's gun, so I'll assume it was Nick)

To supplement the guns we had, some of us went out and bought more. Well, as if that wasn't enough, the Monday after Christmas, we all got together and had a second round of Nerf Wars, with more guns and more people.

Kyle showing off his gun. He did have the biggest gun around.

Jacob poking through the window to get off a shot from the outside.

Taking cover behind the love sack.

Little Katy, big gun.

Posing for the camera.

Hiding under a covered table.

All of the guns we had for round 2.

And all of the combatants. It was a good night.

Credit goes to Whitney Hansen and Wendy Rosser for all of the pictures that I stole from their blogs/facebook. Thanks ladies.

My 27th birthday

So, I got to celebrate my 27th birthday with some friends up here. A friend of mine decided to host a party for me, so we had some food, some games, and some good company there. We even had a cake, which I decided to cut up in a unique manner.

It says "Hap Frank" if you can't read the icing.

In a completely unrelated event, it's been snowing on a fairly regular basis here. For those of you who are in Vegas and don't see snow, here's what my car looks like in the morning after a snowy night.

Me scraping off the snow.

Talent Show

So, a couple of weeks ago there was a talent show in my church ward. Myself and a few others (the Bishop of the ward and 2 other guys I go to church with) formed a band and did this performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwjt277kdQw

The song? Hotel California by the Eagles. Hope you enjoy it.

Holiday season kicks off...

...unless you work in retail, in which case, it's been going on. Fortunately I do not work in retail.

If anybody has been following the Anchorage forecast (which is very likely to be dad), then you'll have noticed that the temperature here is a bit on the chilly side (we've had a couple of nights when it went into the negatives). We've had some snow (about two feet for the month of November), but snow doesn't keep the kids from going to school. Ironically, it's when it warms up that they shut down schools. Why? When the temperature rises suddenly from 20 degrees to 40 degrees (as it did Thanksgiving week), all the snow on the ground melts in the daytime, and it'll rain. At night, when the temperature drops to below freezing again, all that melted snow and rain freezes and becomes ice. Then the roads become really nasty, and everybody either has to drive 15 miles an hour or end up in a ditch.

So, I've decided that snow doesn't bother me at all. I'm careful enough when I drive that it's not a problem, and I don't really mind scraping it off of my windshield. I'd rather it snow actually, because when it doesn't my windshield ices up. And unlike snow, which I can scrape off, the ice I cannot. So, I have to run my car for about 10-15 minutes with the heat blasted to melt it. Then my car becomes like an oven - which, if you know me, I don't like. Ironic, I know.

Thanksgiving was awesome. I went to dinner at a friend's family's house. All the traditional foods, and as always in large quantity. Thanksgiving really is the perfect time to fatten up to deal with the upcoming holiday season. And it's a commemoration of everything that is awesome about this country. We have a day where we do nothing but eat, sleep, and watch football.

On a side note, I'll be back in Las Vegas for Christmas (Dec 21 to Jan 12). Until next post.

First Snow!

Last night we got our first real snow starting to fall. This is what I saw at 8:15 this morning.

Last night, there was enough snow starting to fall that I could feel my car's handling being very slack. Naturally, I found a safe spot to start powersliding - Mario Kart style. And of course - the first snowball fight!