December 7th

We have been on the go- it was freezing in Anchorage over Thanksgiving and I mean freezing- 0 degrees and under most of the weekend and it was pretty miserable.. the car starter does not work for some reason and so we had to walk outside and start the car and now with all the car thefts in Anchorage I did not feel comfortable leaving it running to warm up like I have done in the past. So we would sit there freezing in a frozen car waiting for it to warm up just a bit so we could go places. I was thinking of what I could take away from the Thanksgiving weekend and being cold is pretty much at the top of my list- our hotel had a fire alarm go off at 5 am and we had to go outside ( you guessed it) in the cold and wait- most everyone including us got into our cars but they were probably colder inside than outside until they warmed up a bit. I think buying a huge amount of hot warmers before going to the zoo and sitting in the car while everyone was shaking them into working so we could go see the zoo lights.. Everyone had them in their feet and hands- but it was so cold that it was pretty much awful- I remember one red tree :) it was pretty but not worth the kids crying - but we made it through as fast as our frozen legs could go.. Rainey was pulling Halen on the sled and I was pushing baby in the stroller and the blankets kept coming off... and all the preparation I took to prepare for zoo lights - it was sad to say the least... it was festive and felt like the holiday season.. we did take the kids around (in the warm car) to look at lights in neighborhoods and enjoy Christmas music... We had a great time at the Nutcracker and that was pretty much Thanksgiving...

We just got back from the second visit to Anchorage.. I got my hair cut and a light wave like I used to have in my hair... Rainey got her hair cut.. we met up with Jordan and took him to dinner on Saturday night with us and then on Sunday we had book club.. which Rainey presented a report on Lewis and Clark that was spectacular... then we went out to the valley to the Blues Jam - Picked up Jordan to go with us- the lead guitar player was our guitar teacher for many years and Rainey has not seen him since we left a few years ago so she was able to visit and spend some time with her dad. Monday she had made plans to meet with her friend in the library at the school an hour before her appointment- the bonus was that they were having a book fair so she got to pick out  a bunch of neat items and visit at the same time.. Her testing was amazing.. she is literally off the charts - she is above the 95% percentile in reading , math and reading comprehension- way above the 95%- so I feel good about everything that we are doing.. we got set up for her testing the end of March- they will be adding Science in this year and it will take two days to do the testing- the other part was that it was much warmer this weekend - 35 and above - we actually saw temps at 47 degrees- but that all brought rain, slush, mud- it was like break up in December... at any rate.. we are home..

Now we are dealing with the fires- we are in between two of them and it could get bad today but we do have a plan of where to go and what roads to take if we do need to evacuate.. I was thinking of going up to Anchorage on Sunday night and Monday but I am not sure   I can go now because of the fires.. I just have to wait - and Adrienne and baby are sick.. I did not get to see them at all this past weekend.All I could do on our last day was go to the store and put together a care package of food and sick items and drop it off on her porch.. and I talked to her last night and they still have the heebie jeebies pretty bad.. so if I do make it up to Anchorage - not sure because of fires - then I may not even be able to spend time with Adrienne and Baby if they are sick.. the only reason I am going is so that Rainey can hit her Gold status for the year.. it would be a shame to only have a few thousand miles to go and not make Elite status- but I could do that down here so we will see what happens.. Right now she has an audition for a Pilot  and an audition for a mini series so I need to get cracking on learning lines...

We are still set to come to St. George - Not sure if it is on Friday daytime or later but will keep you posted.