Cabin et. al.

Here by popular request: pictures of the cabin we just moved into! It's a much better "all alaskan" experience than the moldy gross apartment we lived in before. Here's the outside of the log cabin, right at Christmas when we had some lights in the tree outside.

The main level. We have a dining room table (painted like an Ande's Mint) next to the little oven on the left, and a couch instead of the large grey chair the cabin was furnished with.

There are two lofts in the cabin, with one ladder that swivels between the two. Here's the spare loft that Dad is currently staying in. Now that we've moved in, you can't see much but shelves and the bed up there.

This is on the creek just a couple blocks from the cabin during Gretel's first snowshoe excursion. We had super fun, and she really liked chasing the snow! It's a perfect spot to go for a nice long energy-burning walk with our little hyper puppy.

Doggon fishin

Papa Steinmetzer has been in Anchorage for the past three weeks, and now he's down in Seward spending a week of winter fun with us! To celebrate, we went on an ice fishing excursion today. We had perfect sunny, wind-free weather for it. Gorgeous!

Our darling little Gretel was quite excited to play in the snow all day. I didn't think it was possible for a dog to eat so much ice. Her belly became a mini-cooler--we should have strapped some beer to her.  Gretel ate so much ice she almost got hypothermia and couldn't stop shaking....silly puppy! Do you like her ears? They can't decide if they want to be German Shepherd stand-up ears or lab floppy ears, so right now they just stick straight out from her head in her own dopey rendition of a Yoda impression.

Tyler and I took Dad to Hope today...the last town we had to visit on the Kenai Penninsula! It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed a little romp in the snow.

On our way to and from Hope we stopped to do our ice fishing. Gretel tried really hard to help, but only succeeded in falling into the ice fishing hole. Dad got the catch of the day today, and it was Gretel's first experience with a real live fish! She didn't treat it much differently than a vegetable...we have some work to do to get her excited to attack things. :o)

Gretel even tried carrying around the ice hole scoop for us. It didn't work out too well. It became a chew toy. We had a wonderful day in our winter wonderland, and hope to have some more outdoor fun while dad's here!