Keeping Busy
Hi friends – sorry it’s been so long (again) since an update… I know it’s totally cliche’, but life really does get in the way. And of course, since Howdy is home so much more now, I like to spend my evenings and weekends with him and away from my computer.
This winter in Alaska has been unusual – we’ve had record snow fall (it had snowed over 81″ as of a couple of weeks ago and we’ve had more snow since then!); Almost every day for a month we’ve had temps below zero, usually double-digits into the negatives, which is a lot colder than last year. But I’m loving the weather despite that, because it means the snow is sticking around and piled on everything, the trees are all white and frozen, and it’s just beautiful.
We’ve been doing a lot of skiing too - I think this past weekend was the first weekend we haven’t gone skiing since Christmas! Howdy is getting into skiing too, and even skied on the blues the last time we went! This is huge since it was only his 3rd time skiing since he learned to ski for the first time last March, and he did so great! I was super impressed with him!
It was -11*F at midway and the base all day the last time we went (MLK day), but we were out there for nearly 5 hours anyway. The last 2 times we’ve gone skiing it hasn’t gotten above zero (the previous time it was -6*F the whole day), but aside from the cold, the weather and conditions were fantastic. It was actually about 10* warmer at the top of the mountain, because there was a cloud layer hanging just above the middle of the mountain.
View from the top:
I’m really enjoying getting back into skiing. Howdy and I bought skis and all our equipment during the off-season, and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. I love all of my stuff, and it’s more than paid for itself in what the rentals would have cost us by now if we hadn’t bought it.
We have such a great time skiing with our friends too, and I am so thankful to have such awesome people here in Alaska with us! 
We’ve also gone tubing on base a couple more times! Again, it’s been cold, but so fun!
…Well, that’s a lot of what we’ve been up to lately. There are still quite a few more things to mention, but that’ll have to be another post. Howdy has a trip coming up, so while I will miss him, it’s always a good thing for my blog posting frequency. 
Hope you all are having a fantastic week – and thanks for bearing with me during my blog laziness!
It’s hard work, but…
…somebody has to guard the presents:
Winter Fun!
We’ve had some really crazy weather so far this winter. We were less than 6″ away from having record snowfall in the month of November, and then as soon as December hit we’ve had several heat waves that seem to roll in every Saturday on 60-100mph winds and melt the snow! It’s pretty strange. BUT – we haven’t let that stop us from enjoying the outdoors!
The first Monday of every month during the ski season, the ski resort here (Alyeska) has “Military Monday” where military members and their families get FREE lift tickets. December 5th was the first one this season, so I took the day off work and headed down there with a couple of friends. The Saturday before was the first crazy heat wave/windstorm, so a lot of the snow in Anchorage had melted and I think everyone (including us) assumed that the mountain would be icy or slushy, or both. We headed down anyway, figuring it was a free lift ticket, so if it wasn’t great, we’d just leave and it wouldn’t be a huge loss… but, it was awesome! The snow at the base was a little crusty, but I definitely wouldn’t call it “icy”, and the snow midway and at the top was great! And since so many people assumed it would be bad, there were probably 75 people on the whole mountain, which was seriously amazing. We did have one run from the top that was pretty windy, but other than that, we couldn’t have asked for better weather!
We were on the mountain until about 3:30ish, and this was from the last run of the day (about midway down the mountain):
The following weekend, Lindsey and I went tubing on base. It was a little more icy that day, but we didn’t mind that since our whole goal was to slide down the hill as fast as possible – and beat all the children to the bottom. Pretty sure we were the only adults sans kids that were tubing that day, but we didn’t mind. :
This past Saturday afternoon, once it stopped snowing/raining, Howdy and I decided to take the dogs on a short winter hike near our house. We haven’t been able to do this much lately because we don’t want their paws to get too cold, and they won’t wear their booties. But since it was nearly 40 degrees (!!) on Saturday afternoon, we were able to get them out and get some much needed exercise.
(by the way – these were all taken between 3:30-4:00pm)
I do have to say, even though it’s been nice getting outside, I’m really ready for winter to stick around. I hate the melting and re-freezing because it makes the roads (and every other flat surface) pretty hazardous. Not to mention killing my plans for outdoor winter activities that require snow, and hoping for a White Christmas!
