Land of extremes!

          I don't know how to dress when it's 20 degrees outside.  You would think, what with all of our winters spent in Wyoming, Montana, Vermont, and Alaska, that this would be second nature.  But one gets used the natural surroundings, the way they are.  And the way they are this winter, is not normal.
          We have little snow to speak of and temperatures since the first week of November have been up and down the thermometer.  After our first snowfall, we had weeks of high pressure and beautiful clear weather.  The temperature fluctuated between -5 and -15 for a looooong time!

Griffin's first grade class took a great outing up into the Eagle River valley.

          Jess opted for surgery on her ankle as it has had a little piece of bone floating around in the joint for several years.  So, under the knife for her and then a bunch of time in a cast. 

Here we got a large group together for some caroling - pushed jess around all night on the kick sled!

She is now doing quite well - out of the cast, walking in an air cast, and doing PT to build strength.  Hopefully on skis by March!

I celebrated the Solstice by running the Willow Winter Solstice Marathon.

I felt prepared, but had no idea it would be as cold as it was.

I escaped with only a small bit of frostbite on the sides of my mouth.  Overall, it was a gorgeous day.

         As we complained about the cold and darkness, the New Year rolled in and temperatures skyrocketed.   In 5 days the temperatures swung 70 degrees and stayed there.  Then it began to rain, and kept raining for several days.  The snow all melted and turned the whole town into a sheet of ice.  Driving was abhorent, walking was nearly impossible.  So we busted out the ice skates and skated on the streets!

          The temperatures are now back down to, uh, normal?   It was -14 this morning at the house.  We are used to this however, and feel the worst of this winter may be behind us.  With such cold and darkness over the last 3 months, we have struggled with feeling like this:

and not wanting to do much of anything.  Couple this with a lack of snow, and many hours are spent inside doing other things, like crafting!  

A family of gnomes has come to live in our house.

But now, at the end of January, we have begun to feel there may be an end to this stunting time of year.  We are experiencing a gradual return of the light and in another month, we will hopefully have some snow and be able to truly enjoy the winter.  Here is a light burning strong in the darkness.

And in this coming year, we will celebrate our time up in Alaska.  

Our jar is starting to be filled!

          

A Lengthy (or not) Update

          There are many activities that, after a long winters nap, are available to those of us living in the far North, once the snow has melted.  Blogging is evidently, not one of them.  Not that summer came knocking the door down last Spring.  It was quite long and drawn out, actually.  And after waiting (painfully at times) through a long mud season, we were ready for a summers worth of adventure.Let's back up a bit and let some pictures do the talking.

Spring hike along the Eagle River, north of Anchorage.  Wanting more access to the mountains - realizing it was months away.

Our neighborhood lake, stocked with trout, was a fun diversion.

Memorial Day camping trip on the Kenai Peninsula.  It was freezing cold and the campground we wanted to stay in was still under feet of snow!  We did find some clear weather though and spent a good 4 days out of Anchorage.

The newest addition to our family - Fern.  We got her in May.  She promptly broke her toe - 6 weeks in a cast at 3 mos. old.

June saw us on Kauai celebrating Jess's 40th birthday with great friends from our Bozeman days.

My German brother Christian and his family visited in mid July, followed by some school friends of Jess's from Florida.

Next up was Dougie and Nan-Nan - Jess's parents, on their first trip to Alaska.  We spent some great time out of Anchorage.

Bears feeding in the Russian River falls.  This was such a treat for Jess's parents to see - all of us really!

We took the kids on their first true backpacking trip in August.  Lots of rain and the first "termination dust" of the season up high in the mountains.

First day of school.  Summer season?  What was that?

Fall chill and colors in the Back 40 behind our house.

I finished my 3rd 100! - the Wasatch 100 with my brother pacing me the last 25 miles.  What a beast!

       A short synopsis of our summer.  There was more that we remember and more that we don't.  But in my mind, that brings us up to 2013 - January 13 to be exact, and it's 40 degrees and raining.  We are still waiting for winter up here, and for the return of the light.  These are the toughest days of the year at this latitude while we struggle through dark days and low energy.  The light will return, and with it, some degree of that "get out there" attitude.  Till then, we have coffee - and beer!