Spring Breakers?!?! ...not so much.

Spring Break was a particularly mellow one this year.  We agreed to rein in any extra spending in favor of saving it for our trip to Italy.  I really missed our usual snow shoeing excursion up Bear Pass in the blazing spring sun.  The drippy grey weather did NOT lend itself to much outdoor fun.  And outdoor fun is what's FREE in our world right now....
I did take Willa out for a promised blueberry french toast breakfast at our favorite cafe to start the week off.  On my work days she came in with me and had fun hanging out.  But mostly the week was spent relaxing at home, finalizing trip stuff-getting all that info plugged into apps on my phone, reading, and puttering while Willa got in some good hard imaginary play time.
We did cram a lot into our last weekend before school started, though.  A fast but hardcore 5k run in 10 inches of new snow-uuuuugghh, dinner at our house with friends who ran the race, too, a nice family skate ski the next morning, and celebrating Miles's birthday.

Breaky at the Middle Way Cafe

We've switched to all-grain beer brewing....

....and it's a LOT of work!!!  But when the sample from the first gravity reading tastes great, you know that beer is gonna be PHENOMENAL!!!!!

Beautiful handmade mash paddle Miles's friend made

Snuggle time with kid and cat



Witness the FITNESS, yo!!!  I'm thrilled that Willa can join us for short runs now! Plus, her fitness fashion is to die from for!!!

She's horse-crazy.  Doing some leather-working on a saddle she made for one of her Breyer horses.

I love when Miles comes home from work early to run with me! 

Shopping day.  Having a little hot cocoa and a cookie at Jitters

She got to pick out a special outfit for Italy

Deep into world-building

BAM!  And then the snow hits.  Saturday's Shamrock shuffle race.  

Tostadas and margaritas with good friends!

And an uproariously funny game of Cards Against Humanity!  ALWAYS is!

Miles's birthday!  Willa gave him the raku trout- the 5th to finish off his collection.

There won't be many more days of this this season!  Taking it all in while we can!

Love to play with my hunny!

Extremely tall peanut-butter-cup cake that Willa and I made

The Birthday Boy chose homemade mac-n-cheese and filet mignone for his b'day dinner.

Oh, hi, sun.  Thanks for making an appearance on the last afternoon of Spring Break.  

BREW-A-THON 2012!

Our brew...mmmmmm hops.....

...And I was sick.  :(
Yesterday was  National Homebrew Day-  "Brew-A-Thon" for the Anchorage area Great Northern Homebrewers.  At 8 am in the morning many nutters brewers hauled their brewing rigs to a fellow member's property and set up stations to commence concocting mucho batches of tasty beers.  Together outside in the Alaska spring (overcast, breezy, 40-ish degrees).   Miles and I brewed a Black Imperial IPA. Our second shot at improving the first one we brewed a while back.  It was a friendly festive climate with food, instruction for newbies and most folks brought homebrews to share throughout the day.  All we needed was some live music!  The gig was fun, I think, but...poor 'ol me...I woke up with rocks stuffed in my chest, a headache and a scratchy throat.  I spent the time just trying to stay warm.  I was so chilled and feelin' sucky that I wound up zonking out in the truck like a homeless person.  I was pretty useless....sorry, Hunny.  And I was very NOT into tasting much beer.  Not happy, me.  And looks like running is out for the weekend.  Meeeeeeeeeeehhhhh....
But here's some pics of the brew fest...

The 8 am GNBC toast

This guy is a sweetheart!

One of the nifty all-grain set ups!

Our rig

Ginger for their honey-ginger ale

Willa grooving on the Iodophor funkiness!

One way to cool your wort...

Tasting table

Doh! My Toe!

FEEL:  Methinks I broke my toe.  Right foot, 4th toe, distal phalanx.  It happened when I was overcome by someones over-the-top, Wasillabilly, Snooki style poof hairdo at work.  I walked into a chair.  I also walked into a door jam later in the day while talking to a client.  Weeeeeee!

SMELL:  Candy by Prada.  I think I may have found my new perfume.  I glommed a tester from Nordy's yesterday and spritzed some on this morning.  I'm not into the whole Pink Sugar, sickly sweet cake and icing fragrances, but this is just plain sex on the wrist.  The top notes don't blow my mind but after about a half hour a musky caramel/vanilla/Benzoin comes out...mmmmmm.

TASTE:  Miles and I tested one of my chocolate bocks- BOCKAHOLIC- out on the sunny deck.  It's been in the bottle a month now.  I'm a little bummed at the sparsity of head and the minimal chocolaty-ness I'm tasting.  I was hoping for stronger but am only detecting the vanilla and choc on the finish.  As far as bocks go, it 'taint bad and has a very nice roasted flavor and full mouth feel.  But as a chocolate lovers dream?  Eh.  We'll wait a couple of weeks to compare it to a bottle of the Sam Adams Chocolate Bock.

SEE:  My daughters kibitzing on the deck in blankets and sunglasses.

HEAR:  A friggin awesome live Lynyrd Skynyrd CD......One More From the Road.  I'm a moderate  Lynyrd fan, but goddamn!  This is tight and crankin'!

One extra day of Spring Break

Spring Eve...
 Willa and I played hooky yesterday.  ;}  I wasn't ready for Spring Break to be over.  And the sun was boomin', so, we went snowshoeing up Bear Pass.  Willa has hiked up there many times, but this was her first snowshoe to the top!  It was quite a challenge for her and I wasn't sure we were going to make it.  Despite the moaning and groaning she was inwardly determined to get herself up there.  And that she did.  We ate our lunches, explored and played around up top for awhile before heading back down.  Down is always the best part because you can slide quite a bit with your snowshoes!  Hearing her laughing and yelling out,"This is the FUNNEST thing I've ever done!" made my heart sing.  I'm so glad and honored that we are able to give her this magic.
WONDERFUL day....

Almost there!

HARDCORE KIDDO!!!!

Made it!  Whew.

So tiny against those mountains!

LOTS of people have been skiing and boarding here.  Tracks everywhere!

Snow angels

Biffed!  Dragon likes it, though!