Anchorage Intl...must be summer

So there I was sitting at the airport waiting to pick up John. I am a regular at the airport. In fact I am there every three weeks, rain or shine, sleet or snow. I am there. Lot's of things go on at the airport. Most of them mundane drop offs. Kiss kiss gotta go, bye I love yous. Or the, I can't wait to get the $%#@ out of this place good byes. Aging cruise line people with there tacky name badges and matching jackets. Why do they like to be so matchy matchy?
Anyway, these guys win the goofball prize of the summer. Mr. Joe Cool in his white rabbit fur coat with black leather sleeves and pink cap. His fashion backward pal in the tight purple pants, flip flops and flak jacket and sadly the most normal one is bubba with the down vest.
If you are not a member of the Black Crowes, by law you should not dress like this.
Not only are they fashion challenged they can't read! Surprising I know. But the NO SMOKING sign was five feet away and bozo 1,2 and 3 couldn't read it.
Summertime gotta love it.

Something to do on a rainy day....

When Jack was just a little over one year old he got what we call the "the peanut car" from his Grandma Orsini. When it was new it looked like the one below

Jack is now 5 years old and the peanut car has made trips all over. Its been to Ninilckik, Anchor River and Homer to name a few places. It also sat outside in the weather for all those years and was looking a little tired. So the other day when it was raining the boys and I decided that it needed a rebuild. Into the garage we went. We took the wheels off, removed the steering wheel and got to work. After doing lots of sanding, masking, painting and waiting (plus some late night special work by Daddy) we where done.

Ladies and Gentlemen I present the new and improved "Hot Rod Peanut Car".


I think Brodie likes it...

The Governors Picnic

On Saturday we decided we needed to get the boys out of the house, just so happens the Governors picnic was going on, so off we went. We took our old Lincoln (Gerty) as the boys love to ride in it and I had not had it out yet this year. When we arrived we found lots of people in line for food and lots to look at.

Jack and Brodie with Boomer the Alaska Aces mascot.
Jack very reluctantly got inside the Air National Guard Black hawk to get his picture taken aiming the mini-gun. Dylan was very jealous.
After that we decided to go look at the food line and holy cow there where about 500 people in line. We decided that a walk downtown to our favorite hot dog vendor was going to be better than an hour in line for a bad hamburger. Off we went down town, stopping to pet all the funny stuffed animals in front of all the tourist traps. We got our dogs, then started back to the car. We stopped off at Grandma Grandma's (my Grandmothers) to say hi then headed home.

This is so wrong..

The boys and I where out playing in the yard today. Since there had been bears in the neighborhood overnight and early AM we where staying close to house. The boys decided to play with the dog carrier in the driveway and I got my picture. I have dreamed of doing this on those days when they are tearing the house apart or shooting off fire extinguishers but never thought I would get a chance to actually get the picture. Does this make me a bad dad?

The Flag is Flying

As some of you may remember back in May someone stole the flag off the front of our home in Eagle River. That flag had been flying since Damian left for Iraq. I wrote a letter to the editor in ADN (about halfway down the linked page) and went about replacing the flag pole and mount. A week or so later we got a call from an ADN reader who wanted us to have a flag, a very special flag, to fly at our home. Jeff Brewer gave us his flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol building in honor of his Father, Robert E. Brewer, on November 28th 1991. Well today I finally finished building our new flag pole, got the new mount on the house and started flying his flag.
A special thanks to Jeff and his family for sharing this flag with our family and allowing me to honor his Father by flying it.