Sledding

I live in Alaska…I know this. But today is November 11th and until this weekend we have basically had no snow this year. Since yesterday morning, though, the snow has been falling steadily and we probably have about 8 inches or so on the ground. It is 10:40 p.m. as I write this note. It has been a long day of hard work on the inside of our house…painting, hanging pictures in Sullivan’s room and helping him get it back together after I painted it Friday night, doctoring a sick dog, etc. The kids all took breaks from work and went outside to sled with their friends. This evening I joked to Shaun that we needed to get the kids to bed and go for a sled ride ourselves. He chuckled at the suggestion, and we both went back to what we were doing.

At 10 p.m. I was still staining wood in the garage (for a bed we are making) and he couldn’t help so he went to bed. At 10:10 p.m. I was done but needed to let the stain sit for 30 minutes before recoating so I decided to bundle up and take the dogs outside. I put on my boots, grabbed Shaun’s jacket, Dharma’s mittens, and Barb’s hat (since all my winter gear has been in my car for weeks “just in case it snowed” and I needed it for working outside with my clients) and set off outside. The dogs and I tromped through the snow and I went over to the road to retrieve our two sleds which the kids had left in the hurry to get to youth group tonight.

Not a soul was outside and the snow was gently falling. The streetlights made the new-fallen snow shimmer and the night just seemed so inviting. So I looked at the dogs and waved to a truck heading down our hill and decided “I am going to go for a sled ride.” I left the dogs on our hillside watching me and marched to the middle of the road. Now to explain a little further…the road beside our house is a half mile long heading downhill all the way with a curve at the bottom that takes you to a stop sign. The roads are not de-iced here so it is a solid snowpack making it our own personal 10x wider luge.

I sat down on the sled, pointed it downhill, and gave myself a push start. As I picked up speed I thought “wait a minute, Dharma wore her ski helmet doing this today. I don’t have a helmet on!” and promptly dropped my feet out of the sled trying to slow down and managed to merely send myself speeding off course into a driveway. I steered back onto the road and took off again only this time under a little more control and with a little less speed but with no less fear. When I neared the curve down the road I slowed to a stop just short of a street light. It was a beautiful ride! I took a moment to just sit there all by myself on the sled in the middle of our street and soak in the moment. The snow was still falling and looked beautiful in the light. The night was quiet except for a plane flying somewhere far overhead. It was a moment I wanted to remember and share with you. I felt 11 again…you know, young enough to do these sort of things but confident in who I was without a care in the world except that moment.

Then I got up and started hiking up the hill. As I walked, I passed a man standing beside the truck that I waved at earlier. He saw me dragging the sled and said “ that looks awesome. I can’t believe you did that”. I said “Nothing like being 39 years old and taking myself for a sled ride.” He said “As I drove down the hill with my wife, we saw you picking up the sleds in your yard and my wife said she couldn’t believe kids were out this late playing. I told her that I thought it was the mom just picking up the sleds and she said okay. Then I pulled into the driveway and saw you coming down the hill on the sled and thought: That is sooo cool!” I laughed and told him it felt great.

When I got to the top of the hill… I did it again…only this time faster…and all the way to the yard just before the stop sign all the way at the bottom of the hill. I laughed as I got out of the sled the second time. Then I realized how far I was going to have to hike back…and felt 39 again…because after two runs I was done for the night.

But, I wanted to share this with you, because I wanted to remind all the adults in my life to take moments for yourself amid the chores and hustle that comes especially during this time of year. It was exhilarating to breath in the crisp air, toss back my head, laugh, and bring a little piece of joy into my day. This was a moment I created for myself that I hope I will remember for the rest of my life.

Final Memories of Cabin Trip

This picture is of the infamous "Rent-a-can" we had to use. There is a small hike from the cabin down a trail and down a hill to get to this little gem. The most important things to notice are the treacherous angle at which is lean and the amount of snow on top (i.e. nothing is melting). Now remember that the temperature got to a high of about 15-degrees and the low was close to zero. Open the door to this outhouse and take a step inside but be careful. The floor is slick as ice from moisture freezing on it. Dharma couldn't even go potty by herself because she would step inside and immediately slide to the right and slam into the wall. The bigger kids and parents braced ourselves for the step. Next imagine what the freezing temperatures did to the deposits inside...froze them solid where they fell. Now imagine that this thing hasn't been emptied for a while so the "pile" looks like a termit hill pointed straight for any occupants backside...Got the picture? SCARY!!!!! Fortunately for us a volunteer came by the second day and somehow managed to knock things around a bit...we had tried but failed in the Alaska outdoor skill. Ha. Ha.

The middle picture is of our car greeting us in the parking lot. Notice how high the snow is on the tire wheels. There we were, exhausted from the hike out, counting the steps 'til we got relief from pulling the sleds, and imagine the exclamations when we realized we had to dig out the car before we could even begin to unload everything. It was crazy that this hadn't even occured to

us.

Our final laugh of the day (better to laugh than cry) was getting home and making the next realization that we couldn't get into the driveway because we had 15" of snow in it. Look carefully and the ridge at the end of our driveway left by the snowplow that had just been through can be seen. The sun was setting behind the house, we were wiped out, and the driveway had to be snowblown. Shaun got the task done while we all showered. Then we unloaded everything. Shaun showered and we celebrated our victorious trip with dinner out to a m

exican restaurant because none of us wanted to lift another finger that day.

The Way We Hailed the Start of 2007

These are some more pictures from our cabin trip that I thought were fun. The first picture shows Shaun and Sullivan coming back from rinsing out a kettle and collecting more snow to melt. Notice that Shaun is bundled up including a hood and Sullivan is in short sleeves, shorts, no jacket, and his boots are untied. Ah, the benefits of youth...feeling invinsible. Remember, it is only about 14-degrees outside and this was one of the few brief moments that the snow had stopped.

The second picture is of Barb and her puppy, Oreo. The snow is falling so that is why it looks like there is a smudge over Barb's nose. Oreo LOVED the snow, but after the several hours he played outside, he was ready for the warmth of the cabin and curling up on our sleeping bags.

The third shot is of Sub getting set to pitch a snowball at the photographer...mom. He thought better of it and nailed his big sister instead. Ooops. It is a shot that gives you a good idea of how deep the snow was around the cabin.

The fourth picture is of Dharma sucking on an icycle that Sub pulled off the cabin roof-line for her. ..and this was one of the smaller ones. Sub was a real trooper because all of the snow around the actual cabin was really deep so gathering this for his little sister was a bit treacherous.

The final picture is of Shaun as we began the hike out. We all wore backpacks of varying weight. He and I also pulled roughly 5 foot sleds carrying water, our food, sub zero sleeping bags, cook stove, etc.

Nature Center's Cabin in Chugach Mountains

From January 2-4th, we stayed in this cabin which we rented from the Nature Center. From the moment we entered the parking lot and started unloading the van until the morning we hiked back to the car...it SNOWED! We are talking about 18" at our best guess. It was amazing. We loaded all our gear onto two long sleds, covered everything with tarps, tied the gear on tightly, and then fastened ropes to caribeaners on our backpacks, and started walking. The hike was about 1.25 miles and took close to an hour pulling all the supplies "over the river and through the woods". Both dogs came along on the trip, and Oreo took a few breaks to ride on the sled.

When we arrived at the cabin, we were pleasantly surprised that it was still warm from the fire left by the previous occupants in the woodburning stove. There was no running water or electricity so we put on our headlamps (we arrived at 4 p.m. just as darkness was setting in) and got busy unloading everything into the cabin. We restocked the fire in the stove and set up house. The first night was quiet as we cooked dinner, read books, played some cards, and hung out.

We slept in late since the sun didn't come up until after 10:30 a.m. so the cabin remained dark late into the morning. We cooked breakfast on the propane stove we brought and then bundled up for some fun in the snow. Everyone went outside (and remember it was still snowing) including the dogs, and we took tons of pictures to remember our trip. Because the cabin is set back in the woods and is basically undisturbed except by people staying in it, the snow around it was virgin snow from months of snowing. In places it was up to our adult waists in depth and some areas were almost over Dharma's head. If we stepped off the path between the cabin, lake, outhouse, sledding hill, or woodpile, we just might sink up to our backsides. Shaun had to pull me out once when my entire leg got stuck off the path in deep snow, and I couldn't pull myself out without losing my boot. Even when the dogs tried to venture off they were turned back by the depth of the snow. The kids jumped off boulders into the deep snow, made snow angels, threw snowballs, and generally had an incredible time wading through more white stuff than they had ever seen in their lifetimes. We all went down a sledding hill at least once.

When we were finally ready to warm up, we went back the cabin for food and more reading, card playing, and family time. Barb took a nap which was good for her since she rarely slows down. Oreo decided that he didn't want to leave the cabin again unless he "had" to for the rest of our stay. And even Buster was worn out. Before we knew it, the clock was turning to 1 a.m. and we went to sleep.

In the morning we had breakfast, packed up everything on the sleds again, and hiked back to our car. The trip back to the Nature Center and parking lot was really hard because the temperature had dropped to about 5-degrees, there was about 18" of new snow, and only about 3 cross country skiers had been out to help pack down the trail. The trail that had been relatively wide and easy to travel just two days before was covered in deep, fresh snow that dragged against the weighted sleds. Shaun and I worked up such a sweat that we were opening our coats and taking off layers of gloves, etc. Then we would stop to deal with the kids or the dogs and begin to freeze as the persperation turned icy cold. So we told the kids we just had to keep moving. I made the mistake of taking off my hat when we got to our car to cool off and when I went to put it back on I couldn't because it had frozen. At the same time, my hair had frozen as well. It was crazy. I will attach a few more pictures of the trip to a couple more entries. Before I close I want to remind you to take a close look at the amount of snow on the roof of the cabin and see if you can make out the path running along the right side of the second picture toward the cabin. It was over waist high snow for Shaun and me.

Winter Sunset

This sunset picture was taken off our back upstairs deck. We have a whole series of them...some have white specks highlighting the scene because it started snowing. This shot was taken about a week and a half before the winter equinox on December 21st. That day is the shortest day of the year for sunlight here which translates to roughly 4 1/2 hours from sun up to sun down. This picture was probably taken between 3:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. since it was the last rays before the sun disappeared.

Winter Roads

My brother asked me about driving here in Alaska during the winter and how well they keep the roads cleared; so I took this picture to answer his question. Basically...they don't clear the roads here. It was really crazy after the first snow in October to have 8" on the roads and no one coming to clear them. After two days of driving around, I called my neighbor and asked her when they were going to clear the roads. She replied that God would do it in April. I said "Huh?!?" Apparently the winters here are so long that it is impractacle to de-ice or salt the roads. It would be terrible on the roads, the cars, and the vegetation beside the streets. Instead, sometime within three days of a snow, the plows come through and merely scrape the top layer of loose snow from the streets leaving everything that has been driven on and smooshed down behind. Then if that gets icy, they come along with a different truck and spread this fine gravel and dark dirt mixture over the icy snow on the roads. Also, if the car owners have been smart, they have put studded tires or x-ice tires on their vehicles for the winter. Between the tires and the gravel, we usually travel without much difficulty. But, look at the picture...do you see road markings...NO?! Well, that is another joy of traveling here in the winter...unless you have lived here in the non-snow parts of the year...you will have no idea whether a road has two lanes, three lanes, two lanes each direction and a turn lane, etc. etc. You also have no idea whether you can pass or not and on the highway (which they do a better job of keeping clear) exactly where each lane begins and ends is a complete mystery. Drivers learn to look ahead at what the next person is doing and drive in existing tire tracks. If perhaps a line should show up and it doesn't match the tire tracks, still follow the tire tracks because you will screw everyone up behind you who are also trying to figure out how to navigate the roads. It is really quite an adventure. I would guess that the ice, snow, and gravel mixture outside our home on the street in the picture is approximately 6-8 inches deep. The dark patches on the road are not ashpalt but ice. Kids will literally practice their ice hockey and skating in the street because the ice is right there and ready to be used.

The West Side of Whoville-Dec. 8th

Barb is in the dance program at her high school. She designed the poster for the recital and it was also used on the tickets. Barb also made her skirt, pants, and scarf for her costume. The sequined top she is wearing came from a church yard market in London where she visited her godparents during the summer.

The theme was the Grinch and Whoville and was a complete story through dance. We were really amazed by the program, and all the students looked like they were having a great time...like Barbra dancing in the picture attached. The shot with Shaun was taken after the performance. Now we see a little of where she got her facial features...the cheeks
are her dad's.

Gilley Kids visit Santa

BP had a Christmas party which Santa attended. I love this picture of the three kids. They are all getting older, and I don't know how many more of these kinds of pictures I will get so I hold this one dear. Each of them looks like a great evening was being had. Barb was dressed up for her High School dance program recital later that night (there had been a school performance earlier so she didn't change between them). Dharma was gussied up in her Christmas dress with a beautiful face painting done at the party. Sullivan was just hanging out enjoying himself and being helpful herding Dharma and her friend that came with us from activity to activity. I just love their smiles because they are genuine.

Sleigh Ride on Dec. 2nd

Our town has a big Christmas festival weekend the beginning of December. We went to a town gathering on Friday night where the kids saw Santa and his reindeer, got hot cider and roasted peanuts to warm them, could ice skate in the town square, and had their picture taken under the Christmas tree. It was freezing cold but really felt like a winter celebration in Alaska. The next day was a craft show and free sleigh rides. We all climbed aboard and bundled under blankets from the back of our car and went on a 15 minute sleigh ride through the streets which, as can be seen in the picture, were packed with snow. How fun it was!!

Dharma turns 7

Dharma had a girls and dolls party for 19 girls the week after her birthday. She wanted to have an American Girl Doll party, but they aren't the rage up here like in the lower 48. All the girls told where they got their dolls and everyone was dressed up in pretty clothes. They made bell hair bands, chocolate covered pretzels, played games with their dolls, and ate miniature cakes with gold forks from Shaun and Debra's wedding. It was a fun evening for everyone.

Legend of Sleeping Lady

This mountain is called Sleeping Lady, and I can see it as I drive down the hill toward our downtown Eagle River shopping area. I took this on the way to the gym one morning. The "head" of the lady is to the left on the mountain, and the body is from the chin of the head all the way to the right of the picture. Read the legend that has been passed down here since the 1930s. The origin of the legend is not from the native Alaskans but no one knows exactly where it came from. I copied this from the following site http://d21c.com/Alyaska/SleepingLadysLegend.html . So sit back and enjoy a piece of Alaska lore.

Once, long ago in Alaska, there lived a race of giant people along the shores of Cook Inlet. The land then was warm and covered with fruit trees of every kind. Woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers roamed the forests and beaches but did not harm the gentle Inlet people. Peace and happiness ruled the land. Especially happy were a young man named Nekatla and a young woman named Susitna, for they were in love and soon to be married. As the wedding day neared, the Inlet people eagerly prepared for the celebration.

But the day before the wedding a stranger burst into the village."Danger!" he cried. "Warriors from the north are coming! They roam from village to village, killing people, stealing from them, and burning their homes!" "Stranger, how do you know this?" someone asked.
The man's face clouded with pain. "They have destroyed my village, my family...everything," he answered. "Only I escaped. Beware, these people are cruel and crazed for blood!"

The villagers gathered in council. First one person spoke then another. Some thought they should quickly fashion weapons and attack the warriors. Others thought they should prepare to fight the warriors when they came to the village. Still others wanted to hide in the forest until the warriors passed them by. Nekatla and Susitna listened in silence their hearts deeply troubled. After everyone had spoken, Nekatla rose. "I, too, have an idea," he began. "But I do not know if there are people here brave enough to go with me.I say this: I will not fight these people and neither should you. We have few weapons, for we gave up the ways of war long ago. We've learned a better way, which is peace."

Many of the people nodded their heads in agreement. "Continue," the elders encouraged him. "I will not run away from this danger, for then the warriors will kill many more. This is my proposal: we travel north to meet them. We convince them to lay down their weapons and live in peace. We will carry gifts rather than weapons so they'll have no reason to attack us."And I am willing to go first."

It was a bold plan but the people agreed to it. All the men of the vilage would go. Immediately everyone began preparing for the dangerous journey north. By morning the men were ready to leave. Sadly, Susitna and Nekatla said goodbye on a hill above the village where they had spent many hours together. "We will be married as soon as I return." promised Nekatla. "I will wait for you at this very spot," answered Susitna.

Susitna watched thoughtfully, hopefully, until the forms of the men disappeared into the forested mountains. Susitna made ready to wait. She ran back to the village for her needles, knife, and baskets, then busied herself gathering nuts and berries. On the second day she tired of gathering fruit, so she cut roots and grasses to weave into baskets. This task amused her for many hours, but eventually she tired of making baskets, too. Susitna spent the third day sewing, for she was too weary to gather fruit and cut grasses. Yet she could not sleep, wondering if the men had succeeded in their mission. Perhaps Nekatla would return at any moment! But many days and nights went by, each more slowly than the last. Finally Susitna could no longer pick berries, weave baskets, or even sew. "I will lie down just for a moment," she said finally. And she fell fast asleep.

While Susitna slept, word of a terrible battle reached her village. "Nekatla was brave." reported a boy who had escaped. "He led our men to meet with the warriors. But as he and their leader were about to speak, someone threw a spear!Their men set upon ours and we fought until all our men were dead or dying, and many of theirs, too." The women and children wept to hear the names of the fathers, sons, and brothers they had lost.

When the women went to tell Susitna the terrible news, they couldn't bear to wake her from such peaceful sleep. Let her rest, they decided. Why break her heart any sooner than we must?And they wove a blanket of soft grasses and wildflower blossom, which they gently laid over her. May Susitna always dream of her lover, they prayed. That night all warmth and joy left the village. As the air grew colder and colder, Susitna settled more deeply into sleep. All around her, the fruit trees froze and died, falling like the men in battle. The tears of the villagers gathered into clouds and, in the chill air, returned to earth as Alaska's first snowfall. The snow fell slowly at first, one flake at a time, but soon it filled the sky, spreading thickly across the entire land. For seven days and nights the snow fell, until Susitna and all her people lay beneath a blanket of shimmering white.

Days passed into years, and years into hundreds and thousands of years. For a few months each summer, warmth returned to the land, allowing birch trees and spruce and willow to grow. Grizzly bears, moose, and other new animals appeared, taking the place of the old. After a long time a new race of humans, smaller than the first, came to stay. Today Susitna still sleeps through the seasons, dreaming of Nekatla. If you look across Cook Inlet in the winter, you can see her covered by a snowy quilt. In summer, you see her resting beneath a green and flowered blanket.

It is said that when the people of war change their ways peace rules the earth, Nekatla will return. Then Susitna, the Sleeping Lady, will awake.

Mt. McKinley/Denali

This picture was taken from the same position in my yard with the same zoom lens I used to take the picture of our house in the previous entry. That picture was taken with the zoom in the closest setting and this one was taken with the maximum use of the zoom lens.

The peak of the Alaska Range is Denali or Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America. I did some research and the real name and original name was "Denali" which means "the great one". Denali is the name recognized by the state of Alaska. In 1897 it was renamed for President McKinley, but over time people decided that to rename a peak from the original indian one was not right and the name was reverted back to Denali. The peak is approximately 20,300 feet high and is located about 130 miles from Anchorage as the crow flies.

Denali is part of the Alaska Range which is visible from the edge of our yard on a clear day. (It would be visible from inside our house but trees around us are too tall to see the range.) When it is clear--usually not in the morning--we can see an incredible distance across the Mat-Su Valley, which is the valley pictured. The valley is bordered by three mountain ranges: the Alaska range shown above to the north and west, the Chugach where we live on the edge to the south east, and the Talkeetna Range which is between the first two mentioned on the east side. It is comprised of two valleys separated by two major salmon spawning rivers. The valley is 23,000 square miles and was carved out by glaciers leaving many streams and lakes behind. This is one of the few areas in Alaska that supports agriculture. It is on the edge of the valley that we attended the Alaska State Fair the week after we arrived here in August.

Enjoy another piece of our daily beauty.

Christmas Lights

Well, I included this picture because I took it with my new zoom camera from the far end of our yard just after a fresh snowfall. I love how the sun is shining on the house and the sky is blue in the background. The weather was bitterly cold (in the single digits) but the sun was out every day for almost a month as a welcome contrast to the cold. The other thing I had hoped to show was the Christmas lights on the house, but they are too small to show up in this picture...only in larger size on my computer.

Along the front of the house above the garage and porch and tracing each of the triangles in front are green Christmas lights. The gutters of our house and the facings of the roof are also green so they blend in really well. The reason I wanted to point this out was for an idea of holidays in Alaska…they put up Christmas lights here in early to mid October because it is too treacherous to do later. Our house still had its Christmas lights on it from last year. We made the mistake of not testing them until after the first snow and found that 4 lights were out. Shaun went and bought the lights and discovered first hand that he would have to wait until May (or June) to replace the three bulbs above the first floor. There is no way to safely get on the ice and snow covered roof pitches to change them. I guess when people can’t take the lights down until June and they have to put them back up in early October, most people here seem to leave them on their houses year round. Shaun says it is a mixed blessing...he hates putting lights up outside, but he also doesn't like them being on the house all the time. He says he is grateful, at the very least, that they aren't the dangling icycle type that are on one of neighbor's homes. AND we did talk him into adding garlands to the front porch, a large wreath, and some colored lights along the porch railing when the temperature warmed up into the 20s.

Cool Volcano Pictures

For my birthday this year (and Christmas and my anniversary and my husband's christmas and birthday and anniversary) Shaun got me this really amazing zoom lens for my camera. It is really big and heavy. I had been commenting that my camera didn't zoom in enough to take pictures of some of the things I wanted to capture. He said that if I liked taking pictures of Alaska, this baby would be just the thing to bring Alaska right to me. So on a beautiful couple of clear days I took these pictures.

The first is now my screen saver. The detail is really great when it is the size of the computer screen. The second picture is of the same volcano that is on the right of the first picture...only using my zoom. It is the first time that I got such an up close shot of it, and it blows me away that I am some 150 miles away taking this photo. The snow on it is so beautiful. When this picture is the size of my computer screen, I can also count airplanes at the Anchorage Airport which is just beyond the dark treeline in the middle on the left hand side of the picture. I love my new zoom lens.

Bald Eagles

A couple weeks ago, Barb, DD, and I were on the way to church. We were going to a later service that usual because the guys were out of town at a Boy Scout Merit Badge Lock-In. As we passed the VFW post in town we noticed all these cars pulled over to the side of the road, people inside the cars looking toward the VFW, and other people standing around with cameras taking pictures. We looked into the VFW parking lot and there, to our utter amazement, were more Bald Eagles than we had seen in our combined lifetimes. There had to have been at least 12-18 eagles between those flying around and those on the ground. There were also the biggest Ravens we had ever seen mixed in with the eagles. We were absolutely breathtaken at the sight. Some of those bald eagles were truly enormous!!! We raced back home and got my camera with my brand new zoom lens which was a birthday gift from Shaun. Then we raced back. The birds were no longer on the ground, but they were in all the tree around the area. It was sooooo cool. I got out and took a bunch of pictures. A person driving by told me that the VFW allows people to scatter their fish leftovers in the parking lot at certain times of the week for the eagles and ravens to enjoy. I plan on calling to find out when the next feeding is so that I can watch the whole process. It is apparently pretty amazing to watch all the eagles swoop in for their meal.

The first picture is of one of the many Bald Eagles perched in the tree tops. The second picture is of two Bald Eagles. I didn't know it, but eagles do not get their white feathers until they are at least four years of age. So this is of a young eagle and an older one.

Reflections in a Beaver Pond

Shaun and I went to the Eagle River Nature Center a couple weeks ago. This nature center is run by a non-profit group that helps maintain cabins, yurts, and trails within a section of the Chugach Mountains, the mountains which surround us on three sides. We went there to learn more about renting one of their cabins or yurts. There is no running water, no electricity, and all the supplies needed for a stay have to be brought in by the renter on sleds this time of year. After listening to the information, we then went on the 1 1/2 mile hike out to the cabin to see it for ourselves. Shaun took these pictures at the end of that hike. This is an active beaver pond that sits about 30 feet to the side of the cabin. Water for the stay can be drawn from this pond and purified for use. I knew Shaun was taking pictures with his camera and he had wandered a short distance around the edge of the pond. I didn't know what he was taking pictures of until later when I saw these downloads on our computer. I LOVE THESE PHOTOS. He really did a great job catching the feel of both the cold, the serenity, and the majesty of the location. We have booked the cabin for two days right after New Years...and we hope the kids will mellow to the idea over the coming weeks because right now they are thinking this is an adventure of which they would rather pass.

First Thanksgiving in Alaska-November 23

How strange it is to be so many thousands of miles away from family on Thanksgiving! Our kids' new cousins, Kieran and Clara, were being christened in Tennessee so Mom, Dad, two of brothers along with their wives and 8 children were all together for this holiday. My other brother, Tom, was visiting with his new girlfriend's family so he wasn't with the clan either. We had a nice day here and didn't eat until about 5 p.m. As the pictures shows, the sun was in the final stages of setting and the volcano just over Sullivan's head was glorious in the sky display. Too bad, everyone who didn't come to Alaska for Thanksgiving missed it. Anyway, we have so much to be thankful for this year...Shaun's job with BP, the kids are all adjusting well to our move, our family members--including extended family--are all healthy and doing well. We are richly blessed, and we thank God for this wonderful place we live.

Ski Trip to Alyeska-November 25, 2006

At the beginning of November we decided that we would take our first ski trip the weekend of Thanksgiving. The weather here had been really cold the month of November (highs if we were lucky in the low teens and lows in the negatives and often the double digit negatives) so we kept a close eye on the weather all week. The Alyeska ski resort is located in Girdwood, Alaska...a small town about 45 minutes south of Anchorage and about 1 hour and 15 minutes from our house.

On Wednesday of Thanksgiving week the temperature was forcast to be in the 20s in Girdwood. On the Friday of Thanksgiving week, the forcast was changed to 14-degrees. We had invested quite a bit of money into proper clothing for everyone...long underwear, inner and outer socks, inner gloves for some, outer gloves for all, several layers of non-cotton shirts and jackets, coats, and disposable warmers for both boots and gloves. Shaun, Deb, Barb, and Dharma had their own skis and boots. Sullivan had boots and snowboard. Every had ski helmets (a must here--not only to protect the head but more importantly on a routine basis was that it kept the head and ears warm and dry) and goggles. We were all set, and decided that we would just brave the weather and see how the day went.

We arrived at 10 a.m. and signed the three kids up for two hour lessons. Barb, who had a bad first experience skiing last year at a resort that had more ice than snow, was really ticked off at Shaun and me. She kept telling us that we ruined her day, her weekend, etc. and that we were forcing her to do something she hated and that we were impossible parents. So we responded by telling her to be quiet and get out to her lesson. She and Dharma were assigned ski lessons to a ruggedly good looking young man with a five o'clock shadow who looked like he lived for the Alaskan adventure. Sullivan was given snowboarding lessons by a very cute blond who didn't let him get away with anything and taught him a lot. An hour later when we checked on all the kids, they were thrilled. Barb was grinning from ear to ear and had decided maybe this skiing thing wasn't all that bad. Dharma was doing great on the bunny hill. We met Sullivan at the top of the beginner chair lift when he was working his way down the hill for the first time. Let me tell you, the beginner hill is quite challenging. Barb and Dharma also took the chair lift up and came down a different beginner hill which is pretty lightly slanted until the end when it becomes quite steep. After lessons were over we had lunch in the cafe and met our neighbors who had driven in to join us for the afternoon. That was such a great decision because it gave our beginner kids some more advanced friends to ski with. The neighbors, Hannah (8) and Rachel (12), were such big encouragement to Barb, Sub, and Dharma. Dharma, who took over half an hour to go down the beginner slope the first two times and was scared out of her wits clinging for dear life to her dad or my hand, finished the day doing the slope completely independently and confidently. Barb decided that she liked to "go fast", but needed more lessons in order to be able to stop at those speeds. On one of her runs, she came down the final hill so fast that she flew past the stopping point, past the clubhouse, and across the snow covered bridge that lead back to the cafe and other chair lifts. It was so funny to see her wizzing by. She eventually came to a stop and popped off her skis to walk all the way back. But she was smiling the whole time. Sullivan was amazing to watch on the snowboard. He really had an awesome time and conquered the beginner hill. He can't wait to get back out on the slopes...good thing his Boy Scout troop has a snowboarding outing in two weeks and another one for three days over Christmas vacation.

Shaun and I had a great time as well. My legs hurt in ways I never thought they could, and I only wiped out once--on my first time down the beginner slope. It was scary to me, too. Shaun went down the slopes quite a few times without difficulty so he decided to move up to the blue (intermediate) slope. He rode the chair lift to the midpoint of the mountain and started off. Within a short time, he realized that he was in over his head. He wiped out bigtime!!! Then he sat on the slope looking down and wondering what to do next and how to approach his return to earth. A member of the ski patrol came by and asked if he needed a lift down the mountain. He thought about it and replied that he thought that would probably be a good idea. So he waited, thinking that one of the patrol would be coming on one of the snowmobiles he had seen around. To his shock and surprise, a guy arrived with a bright orange/red sled attached to him. Shaun climbed into the sled and the guy snowplowed Shaun all the way down the hill to the beginner slope where Shaun climbed out and skied the rest of the way to the bottom of the mountain. Shaun said, "I could have snowplowed myself down if I had known that was what they were going to do." He also said to me, "This never happened, and I will deny it because you have no pictures as proof." Darn.

Anyway, it was a great day. We closed the place down at 5:30 p.m. and went home to warm up. The next day we checked the internet weather site and found out that the high the day before had been minus 11-degrees. I guess we bought wisely because we had no idea it was that cold.