The Man From North Island

It was Magnus' birthday today!  We wanted to do something special for Magnus, since he's probably never been so far away from home on his birthday before.  We wondered what we could do for him so that he'd be happy and comfortable on his birthday. Was there some kind of activity that we could do with him to celebrate his special day?  Something that would be familiar and fun?  It wasn't long before we got a great idea - we could take Magnus skiing!  We know he loves to ski, and we know a place just an hour away from UAA where there's plenty of snow.  And before you could say "gratulerer med da'n" we were all piling into the team van and headed for Hatcher Pass!

Marine and one of the Everetts

Here's Michaela. To me, she looked strong today.

Jenna

Tuva and Helen

Marine, putting the warm clothes back on after the day's coaching was done.

Skiing is fun and all, but today's real surprise came after skiing.  Helen's mom, Sarah, had somehow gotten word that it was Magnus' birthday and she invited us all over for après-ski at the Wilson House in Eagle River on the way home, where she'd prepared a smorgasbord of birthday lunch treats for us! Austin and Hannah baked a special pumpkin birthday CAKE for Magnus. (Helen baked a cake for Magnus, too, but she forgot to bring it from home, so she's probably enjoying it now as I slave over this blog post.)

Here's Helen, presenting Austin and Hannah's CAKE to Magnus.

This is probably the best photo I've ever taken. I encourage you to enlarge this one so you can check out the look on Everett's face.  (We will be running a contest later to see who can come up with the best caption for this photo.)

Somehow, Magnus reminds me of some kind of Norwegian mob boss. And the Everetts are his henchmen. "Pug Life" for sure.

The birthday scene.

But the biggest surprise was saved for last!  Everett got this cat for Magnus for his birthday! Her name is Mr. Pickles and she loves to wear UAA baseball caps and Oakley glasses.  I think Mr. Pickles has truly found her place with our UAA Ski Team, and Marine announced this afternoon that Mr. Pickles is going to come along on all our road trips this winter!

 Here's the day's magic moment, captured on video: