Today was the first official day of the 2007 Winter Carnival here in Houghton, MI and we braved the cold to see the snow masterpieces.  The students (mainly fraternities/sororities) at Michigan Tech University (MTU) form teams to compete in this annual contest to create the best snow sculpture using only snow and water.  This year’s theme was “Ancient Times” and the sculptures were AMAZING.  Now we understand why people come from all over to see them!

One of a few renditions of the Trojan Horse – it seemed to be a popular theme.

I think this guy was either supposed to be sleeping or injured…next to the Trojan Horse.

Israel and Imanuel trying to get warm inside one of the Tech buildings.

The Sphinx

Even the letters written have to be made of ice (except they can color them).

Cold baby

Ancient Babylon – We all think this one was the winner.  It was beautiful!

 
 The left side of the temple – (pictures don’t do it justice!)

A picture of the little bridge out in front

A small Japanese river (I think this was done by the Asian frat.)

There were some crazy frat boys who were running through campus in
their boxers.  I guess this is how they celebrate winter carnival up
here…so I took pictures.

Mayan building

In the ice pillars on top, they actually put lights inside so they shine at night.

Alanna & Imanuel walking the streets of Houghton

Nordic soldiers at war.  We thought this one was second best.

Their boat with ice oars.

All of their swords were made of ice too!

Just for Israel – This is what the hispanic students at Tech made.  HAHA!   Alanna, Idaliza and Andy helped with this one so I probably shouldn’t laugh…but I’m sure after giving up, they were laughing too.  Imanuel definitely identified with his Korean side at this site. 


Some frozen fruit.  Smoothies, anyone? 


A mini Atlas

One of the few sculptures that was Imanuel’s size

We dropped Israel off early go to the airport (E-com retreat in CA) so he wasn’t able to see all of them.  Actually, we didn’t either because the baby started getting really fussy.  Alanna told me that there’s a really nice chinese sculpture that she saw over in Hancock where she lives.  We may go again to see the rest of them.  Hopefully it’ll stay cold enough for the sculptures to stay for at least a couple weeks so that the missionaries can see them when they come up!  It’s quite a display of art.

Imanuel Alexander Ramos is 11 months old!  We can’t believe it…

On January 4th, 2005, a small puppy was born to a proud mom.  Unfortunately, only a few weeks later, that small puppy was taken away from his mother and was shipped to a pet store.  The good news was that the pet store happened to be located in Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, MI.  The even better news was that my little brother, Justin, happened to work at that mall (Surf City Squeeze) where he made smoothies and other yummy drinks.  On an uneventful evening, Israel and I decided to go visit Justin while he was working and have dinner with him.  (He was still in high school – a big, bad senior wildcat.)  Little did I know that within those few hours that we would spend at the mall, we would visit the pet store, Israel would see a puppy that he wanted, he would beg me to buy it as his birthday present (-even though his birthday had already past a couple weeks earlier and I already got him a present), AND I’D AGREE.  I won’t go into any more detail (because I want to preserve my marriage), but just like that, we came home that self-same day with an adorable, cuddly, needy 2-lb Jack Russell Terrier named Odie.  (The next morning, Israel told me he wanted to change his name, so by that evening, we had changed it to Bentley.)  He was very cute.  (I would post a picture of baby Bentley here, but I’m too lazy to go dig them out.)  But, he kinda looked like these pups:

 
(Now do you see why I couldn’t resist?!)

Well, just last month, Bentley has celebrated his 2nd birthday.  He has grown (~18 lbs more) and matured so much.  He’s learned to potty in the right place, managed to win the trust of 2 cats, and our love and appreciation for him has grown so much since his arrival.  We’d agree that he’s a perfect fit for our family. 
I was trying to think of a nice entry I could write on him.  The first thing that came to mind was Bentley’s tricks.  I taught him a series of tricks and it always amazed me at how brilliant this dog is.  He is a very hyper-active dog, but with a treat in hand, he could literally learn a trick within minutes.  Israel always makes fun of me because whenever people come over for the first time and our attention is focused on the dog, I ask them if they want to see him do his tricks.  (BTW, if any of you have any ideas for tricks, please let me know!  I need help thinking of more things to teach him.)  So anyway, for those of you who have never come over and experienced Bentley’s tricks, here are some pictures (that Israel graciously agreed to take) of Bentley doing his tricks:
       

“Sit”

“Down”

“Shake”

“Stand Up”

“Roll Over”

“High Five”


“Go Home”

“Dance” (more like a twirl)

“Dead Dog”

“Go to your bed”

And I really need to go to bed.  Happy (belated) Birthday to Bentley!  We hope he lives a long, happy life (and then joins us in heaven!  )  

One of our churches called off service yesterday…too much snow.

Temps went as low as -7 as far as I last knew

Wind chill–they said -30

We got a bunch of snow…church members said that  a real winter in the UP is having yesterday every other day all winter long

If things keep going the way they are, one of these days, Alanna is going to come out of her house and not be able to find her car (It’s a really low car)

I hate blowing snow! — we have to do it like all the time now!

We are still under Winter Storm Warning with like 6 more inches of snow to come

Visibility is at 0 sometimes (they call them white-outs)

Wind chill is now hitting -35

Even the dog doesn’t want to go outside hahahahaha

And we are all sick but will get over it in a couple of days.

I’m going to go make The North Face rich as soon as these UP winter sport stores open!

The Report———

/O.CON.KMQT.WS.W.0001.000000T0000Z- 070205T1700Z/ KEWEENAW-NORTHERN
HOUGHTON- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF… COPPER HARBOR…HOUGHTON…HANCOCK
643 AM EST SUN FEB 4 2007

…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM EST MONDAY…

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM EST MONDAY.

EXPECT
OCCASIONALLY HEAVY LAKE EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS TO PRODUCE ADDITIONAL
ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 5 INCHES TODAY… 1 TO 4 INCHES TONIGHT AND
ANOTHER INCH OR TWO MONDAY MORNING. THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL FALL OVER
HIGHER TERRAIN FROM TWIN LAKES TO CALUMET AND MOHAWK. ALTHOUGH THE SNOW
INTENSITY WILL DIMINISH…THE COMBINATION OF THE LAKE EFFECT SNOW
SHOWERS AND BLOWING SNOW WILL REMAIN VERY EFFECTIVE AT REDUCING
VISIBILITY TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES.

WIND CHILLS WILL FALL AS LOW AS
35 BELOW ZERO THIS MORNING. ALTHOUGH WIND CHILLS WILL MODERATE TO 25 TO
30 BELOW THIS AFTERNOON…EXPECT THE AIR TO FEEL AS COLD AS 30 TO 40
BELOW ZERO AGAIN TONIGHT AND MONDAY MORNING. WIND CHILLS WILL MODERATE
TO 15 TO 20 BELOW ZERO ON MONDAY AFTERNOON.

A WINTER STORM
WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING.
STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE WHICH MAY MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR
IMPOSSIBLE. ALSO…THE COMBINATION OF VERY COLD AIR AND WIND WILL
CREATE DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILL VALUES. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST
BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA OR DEATH IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.