Friday, March 9, 2012

Aurora Borealis

I got an email from my dad that made me miss Alaska. I heard talk on our local news channel last night of people being able to see the Northern Lights from here if you drove out of town far enough, but I didn't believe it. Then I got this from my Dad:

We drove out to see the northern lights last night and what a display! Everyone was going up to flattop so we went the other direction to upper O’Malley and found a place to park with our lights off. That’s actually hard to do because there has been so much snow the roads are pretty narrow with high berms on either side. The moon was full and almost blinding though. Karin was on facebook seeing how good the lights were in Birchwood, Eagle River and different parts of town as comments came in from all over. However, about midnight, patience proved to be the winner. We had a display better than the fireworks finale at the fourth of July. They would grow or diminish in intensity while moving at different speeds all over the sky. It was like the heavens were shimmering and lines of light leaping in different directions. Though I have seen red in the past, these were florescent green with tips of pink on the ends. It was the most amazing lights I have ever seen.

Hope you don't mind, Dad, but I stole your email. Love you!


A local photographer took this last night. Wow, sometimes I really do miss home.
To see more of his pictures, click here.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Not-So-Mini-Van

Alas, it was time. We outgrew our fun little 4 wheel drive, 5 person Ford Escape, grew up and traded it in for a minivan. We still "fit" in the Escape- Hailey's carseat base was strapped in the middle of Ethan's booster seat and Chase's mondo seat, but I had to heave the poor girl in between the seats and Ethan couldn't get his belt on and off because the base was in the way. So I guess it was time to upgrade-- we found this baby on Craigslist and sold ours after it was listed on craigslist for less than a day. Worked out great! I'm gonna miss my little SUV and I feel like I'm driving no less than a boat, but I'll freely admit that I love our van! It's red, it's got leather seats (you read that right!)-- makes for much easier cleanup with kiddos- and it's got DVD players. No joke. We had been shopping around for one since Christmas, we knew we wanted a Town and Country because they have the stow and go seating, and we finally found a steal online. Horray for roomy vans and my kids being able to get themselves in and out!

Good bye Escape

Hello minivan! Aka The swagger wagon (have you seen that YouTube video? )




Now we just need some help naming the new van, something that goes with the red color... The only thing that comes to my mind is Maureen cause its a name that sounds like maroon. Any ideas?