Fall Foliage Frisking

Every year we go on a
hunt
in the
Autumn.

A hunt for
COLORS
hand-painted by
God.

The key elements of this hunt are:

*We eat delicious pastries and drink hot chocolate.

*We play a special music play list for the season.

*We make a day (or two or three...) of it.

*We take a bazillions pictures...

most of which are never as good as what our eyes can see.

*We don't care about the weather...though it usually is nippy.

*We usually find new jaunts

and revisit ones we have loved from years past.

We have done it for years.

Years ago, we dreamed of times when we would hunt with our kids.

Now

We actually do it with our child.

It's tradition!

This year we had to find a path

and

new types of pastries

having moved across country.

The pastries we settled on Pumpkin-licious donuts and muffins from the local

"The Moose is Loose."

The path was Skilak Loop up to Cooper Landing and back home.

The weather was grey and rainy.

The sun only peeked out about the time we got home.

Our favorite playlist (including Johnny Mathis, John Denver, Karen Carpenter, Tony Bennett, etc) is still waiting to be brought up from the lower 48...

so we had to settle on substitutes or 2nd favorites.

But we still had a blast!

And so it began:

 

Dancing and singing while waiting
for Pabbi to get some bear spray (a must for Alaskan Adventures).
Lil' Monster had his rain-boots and coats
and some warm chocolate milk
to go with our delicious pumpkin treats!

Lil' Monster showing his "afraid of bears" face
while holding the bear spray!

 Alaska's famous Fireweed

 The tree colors are mostly yellow which turns to brown.

 Skilak Lake

 Lil' Monster has to pick up sticks and leaves to throw in the water.

 Pabbi is mostly worried about bears.
Gotta protect his own cub.

 Mr Elskan always knows how to make me weak in the knees.
I could photograph him all day long.

A great thing about rain boots:
you can play in the water and not worry about wet feet afterwards

 Mrs. Elskan peeking through the leaves.

 Mamma tempted everyone to get their feet wet - just for the fun of it.

 Another favorite shot.

Lil' Monster leading Pabbi into the cold waters.

Running on water is only possible when a strong father lends support.

 Our journey not only lent itself to beautiful plants
but also to wildlife:
(Bears not included)

Bald Eagle takes flight.

Red Salmon take a swim


What Fall Traditions do you have?

Making Movie Night Memories

Growing up and moving around a lot, reinforced the belief that

Family Traditions

are a must to keep a secure, safe, cohesive and connected feeling.

My home was often new and temporary so I rarely developed a connection with my surroundings.

So, my parents focused on acts and events to create traditions and a connected feeling.

Some were annual, some seasonal, some monthly, weekly and/or daily.

A common and loved tradition during my teens was

Movie Night.

Many people might think:
movie theater,
popcorn,
candy,
and soda.

In my family it was:
 ordering pizza
(such a treat!)
and
watching a TV movie or borrowing/renting a movie.

Sometimes there was soda.
Sometimes treats.

Mostly it was pizza.

Eating Pizza -
granted it was the super cheap kind, as we were a LARGE lower-income family -

was a little taste of heaven for us!

But what was even more fun was "watching" AND "eating" at the same time. Most of my friends ate every meal in front of the TV - however, in my family, dinner was ALWAYS a family dinner around a table with no outside distractions. But watching a movie AND eating pizza - now that was an event!!

So we started that tradition with our son. It is a new development and we are still trying to make it something fun for him to work towards all week long. He does his part for the week and we will actually eat and watch at the same time (so far - a great motivator). It is fun because this boy doesn't ever watch TV and doesn't even have a basis for most of what his peers know. What is "Cars"? Or "Toy Story," let alone classics like "Mary Poppins" or "Dumbo." So we are exploring these genres of film and eating pizza .

Here we are watching an episode of the old TV classic

"Dennis the Menace."

 Lil' Monster reacts to embarrassment the same way his dear

old Pabbi does: he has to hide his eyes!

These two sit on the edge waiting for a catastrophe of some sort, as Dennis gets into more trouble!

 Despite embarrassing moments Lil' Monster is still laughing and having fun!

I think this tradition is a keeper.
My favorite part is watching them watch the show.

What is a tradition from your youth that you enjoy sharing with your family?