Denali from the sky

I made a short trip to the North Slope this week and although it was cold (-46 degrees F), it was clear. I had a beautiful flight up and a spectacular flight back today. I'm lucky the route of the plane takes us just East of Denali, and I was super fortunate to have a window seat! The pictures don't do it justice. Top is Denali, middle are some of the glaciers pouring off Denali, and bottom is Sultana (Foraker) on the far left and Denali (McKinley) on the far right.


It's been pretty cold in Anchorage the past few days and Dan ran the 5K Frostbite Footrace this morning at sub-zero temps to help kick off Fur Rondy! Yup, it's the wonderful time of the year for the Iditarod (start is March 3rd) and we're looking forward to all the events that are coming up over the next week.

Sunburst

Hooray!!! We finally made it back to Sunburst! It was a great day, even though the snow wasn't too spectacular. The sun even came out to pay us a visit! Dan used his splitboard again but it turned out to be the day for snowshoeing...the cleats on the bottoms of my snowshoes carried me up the mountain really well. Our friend Kyle turned out to be an awesome telemark skier and showed us how to carve turns. And I even got a lesson in snowboarding to make me use both edges of my board - I had 5 consecutive turns before crashing fantastically! We had a great day in the fresh air...if only we could get paid to do this!!

Sun glorious sun!

I am still a Colorado girl at heart...I will never get used to the darkness! Last Saturday was so beautiful. After I drug Dan to the University to go swimming we went around town to enjoy the lightness of day. We're over 8 hours of daylight now, but don't really notice it unless the sun is actually out. This was the first time I really got to see the sun streaming through the windows at our house - el Guapo seemed to enjoy it too!

Laundry Room Home Repairs (planned!)

Wahoo - I got a 'new' laundry room! Well, not really new, but it's no longer a damp dark place in the basement that I hate going to. We painted the sheetrock walls happy yellow, painted the concrete floor with epoxy and added some pretty nice 'looking' cabintery. I say looking because Dan had to do a few modifications to them to make them not fall over - they didn't come with back support! It was a good prep experience for the epoxy floor and now we know how to do it for the garage this summer. Now when I do laundry I'm automatically happy because it such a bright room!

Unfortunately I don't have any 'before' pictures, only the 'after'!

Ice Dam Home Repairs (not planned!)

So a couple weeks ago I woke up on a snowy Monday morning and got ready for work. I came downstairs to do the daily ritual of walking the dog and convincing him to get the paper for me when I realized that the cardboard box in our arctic entryway looked wet. 'That's funny', I thought to myself, 'I don't remember the box being wet last night'. I slowly looked up to the ceiling and had to rub the sleep out of my eyes to fully realize the bubble of warped drywall above my hear that was just waiting to break. So I did what any good wife would do, I woke Dan up to fix it! :) Just kidding!! I did wake him up but I helped to determine what the problem was and stop the leak. What happened is the liquid barrier that is on the roof had a breakdown near the sunlight, and water found a way into the roof and soaked through the insulation and then into the drywall. We were able to pull off all the wet drywall, pull out and dry the insulation, and put heat trace on the roof to give the water a place to drain to other than inside the house. No real damage was seen and we just need to replace the vapor barrier and re-drywall the ceiling.

Ski for Women 2007

My favorite thing about Superbowl Sunday? SKI FOR WOMEN! We had a ton of fun this year...and I was so happy to be back in AK to participate in it again. Ski for Women is a charity ski 'race' that raises money for non-profit organizations that support women's health and development. The 'race' is a fun event, most everyone dressing up in costumes and skiing silly for 4 km. One of our friends Jill even dressed up as a Chinese dragon with a friend - what a great costume!

Everyone must be part of a team or have at least one partner, and my partner this year was Abbey Volf. I'm super excited that she did the race (it was her first one ever!) and even more excited because she had fun - that's what it is all about. Dan and Abbey's husband, Kyle, skied around to cheer us on with cowbells in tow (the race is for women only) - it was great to have them cheering at the finish line too.

Summit Lake Backcountry

A few weeks ago we went backcountry skiing with four other friends near Summit Lake, Alaska. It seemed like a great day - sunny and clear in Anchorage, but as soon as we got to the Kenai it was almost whiteout conditions. I was really excited to get back on my snowboard until I realized I forgot my snow jacket, whoops! Good thing Olivia had an extra one (and I had brought my down jacket, but you know how effective, or not, down is in a really wet environment!). Dan tried out his splitboard for the first time and fell in love with it! Skinning up the mountain looked so effortless so I will have to try out mine next time we go! Neither Dan or I had hiking poles so the trip up the mountain was labored, but thanks to a gift certificate from Mom & Dad we both now have telescoping hiking poles! We are ready for Ski Train in March!