Joe and Rachel Visit

My brother Joey and his girlfriend Rachel bought tickets to come up and visit Alaska 6 months ago.  When we told them to come the first week of April we thought for sure there would be plenty of snow but also hopefully more sun.  It might even be warm enough to pull out the kayaks.  We spent the whole winter sweating it, thinking maybe we'd told them to come too late and there wouldn't be any snow for them to ski.  It was definitely spring skiing, but we got two days of beautiful sun and a fairly empty mountain to ski on.  I think we packed a lot into the week they were here.  I had asked for one day off of work and then finagled my way into getting put on call another day so I only had to work one day while they were here, and then I left on their last day to go on choir tour.  They were really fun to have visit because they wanted to do a lot of things that we like to do anyway, and they wanted to just see how we live up here.  With good weather and that as the requested itinerary, how could we go wrong?

Day 1, Saturday:  Picked them up in the evening after a long travel day.  Although I wouldn't wish it on anyone, I kind of like it when people do the trip up here because it gives them some understanding of the dread that I have every time I get on a plane to go to the east coast.  Drew's sister recently flew home from Ecuador and we were kind of surprised to hear her flight was way shorter than ours was when we fly back to see his family.  They made it home for some pretty sunset time and lots of pictures our the car window of the drive home:

Drew had dinner waiting for us when we got home and we planned out the week, Rachel made a chart and deemed what was nonnegotiable and what wasn't. :)

Sunday, Day 2:  We talked Rachel and Joey into attending the branch with us, if for nothing else than people watching, but then ditched after sacrament meeting to get in our first ski day: 

It was the warmest weather I've ever skied in and being a Sunday, the busiest I'd seen it all year.  We had a good time though.  Joe borrowed Drew's snowboard and Rachel rented demo ski's from the local ski shop.
After a good day of skiing we met up with some friends for a barbecue dinner out on the flats.  It definitely got chilly, a bonfire would have been nice, but the sunset was really pretty and the tide didn't get us.  Everyone took a lot of pictures that night, especially of Wren, the always adorable dog.  It was fun to introduce Joe and Rachel to our closest friends here in AK.

Monday, Day 3: I had to go to work, unfortunately, but they had a beautiful sunny day, and Drew was off so he took them to the Conservation Center to see some Alaska animals:

Yes, that is Snickers in a tree! 

My favorite, the musk ox.

They also stopped and took a quick peek at Portage Lake, which was still frozen over.

They eventually made it through the tunnel and pried the plywood off the windows so they could grab some kayaks for an early season Kittiwake tour.  Looks like they couldn't of had a nicer day:

Tuesday, Day 4: I ended up on call and Joey and Rachel's snowmobile tour didn't sound so cool without a lot of snow so we spent a chill day in Girdwood doing some interneting and checking out the town.  We got out in the afternoon and did some cross country skiing.  It was really icy and tracked out, so it wasn't ideal.  It was Joe's first time, but he was a good sport. 

Wednesday, Day 5: From today on both Drew and I were off from work.  We packed up and headed north, stopping in Anchorage to pack up on food for the night before heading up to Denali State Park.  We rented a cabin on Byer's Lake, and stopped at the south viewpoint for a perfect clear view of Denali (Mt. McKinley).  

We brought snowshoes, but we didn't really need them.  We dragged a sled with all our food and wood for the stove, we each had a backpack, and we cut across the lake for a very short trip to Public Use Cabin #2:

The cabin had a great view of Denali from the window:

We dropped our stuff and went our for a stroll on the lake:

Taking credit for a half melted snowman.

Testing the ice over the stream...

We came home, got the fire going, dinner going, played some cards, read the cabin journal, and took lots of pictures of the mountain, the sunset, and the moon.  We had a perfectly clear night, but unfortunately no northern lights.  We've barely caught them at all this year.

Thursday, Day 6:  We walked back on the trail pretty quick and drove back to Anchorage, stopping at Talkeetna along the way.  We did some souvenir shopping, ate at the roadhouse, and checked out the Denali Brewery Company, the first of several breweries we hit up that day.  Drew and I ended up having a lot of root beer that day. :)

Rich caught up with us for the last two brewery stops, the very last of which was Moose's tooth.  We went crazy, ordering 4 pizzas, 8 flavors.  We finished it off with dessert. 

Friday, Day 7: We got in another day of skiing.  It was a bit cloudier but still nice, and the resort was practically empty.

After skiing we did a potluck dinner with the usual suspects.  Rich hosted us at the bed and breakfast where he lives, which is always a treat.  Afterwards we got a soak in at the hot tub.  Everyone made something delicious to be sure.  

The next day they took it easy and took off for Philly.  All in all we thought it was a good time had by all.  Maybe we can even convince them to check out Alaska again another time!  Hopefully we'll have a real bed and a real room to put them in next time!

Drew's Birthday Weekend

To be fair, I wrote this entire post and then tried to publish it just as the library was closing the other day...and it didn't publish but instead erased the whole thing.  So this is Drew's birthday summary, take 2.  This winter we figured out that most all of our friends have winter birthdays, so we have been moving McKenzie's "Happy Birthday" banner from restaurant to kitchen to kitchen.  We decided being born in the winter has influenced our decision to end up in Alaska.  Anyways, for Drew's birthday he actually made pizza, which sounds pretty lame that he ended up cooking on his own birthday, but Drew's pizza is so good, nobody could do a better job.  McKenzie did make him a super sweet chocolate birthday cake:

The night ended as most of our raucous house parties end, by falling asleep under the electric blanket watching Seinfeld.

The next night Drew and I ate out at Pepe's Turnagain Arm House, which was pretty good, but not our favorite.  Still it was fun to eat at a restaurant we see all the time but have never tried. I had wanted to take a longer getaway for Drew's birthday weekend, but Drew had ski instructor class on Saturday so we decided instead to just spend Sunday night in Eagle River valley at one of the yurts you can rent.  We had thought we'd be snowshoeing or cross country skiing out, but there was barely anything more than a little ice here and there on the trail out to the yurt.  So we just walked.

 We got a fairly late start, but it was less than two miles back into the valley to the Rapids Camp Yurt where we stayed.

 We got there just as it was getting dark.  I totally took charge of making the fire in the wood stove, (which kept the yurt insanely warm) and I even made dinner.  (Don't get too excited, I made rice and tastybites.)  The next morning was sunny and clear and we enjoyed the beautiful view from our yurt before hiking out.

Fancy outhouse!

We drove home through Anchorage and spent the day running errands, eating out for lunch, and even caught the first movie of the day at the movie theater.  We saw American Hustle, which was good.  It was the first time I've been to a movie theater in over a year.  When you don't have a movie theater near where you live, you just don't go that often.  It was a short getaway but even just going to town with Drew and running errands together is a treat.  Here's to another year!

Iditarod Ceremonial Start

 Just as Fur Rondy is wrapping up, the Iditarod gets started.  We bundled up and headed right to the starting line on 4th Avenue for the ceremonial start.  It was snowing...of course...but we managed to get pretty close to the starting line and watched a few of the first teams take off.

 Later we headed farther down to watch them go around a corner.  While we were walking we stopped while a dog team crossed the street and got to be right up near them.  The ceremonial start is a lot of fun.  The mushers are waving and the dogs are so excited to get started they weigh them down more by adding a second sled and letting a person ride in the basket.  The next day they do the restart a little farther outside of Anchorage and that's when the real race gets started.

 I've been reading a lot about the Iditarod and I found out that when they round the corners of downtown streets in Anchorage a lot of times the dogs are going too fast and at least one of the sleds turns over.  We were lucky enough to get to see one flip.  They got going again soon enough.

It was fun to see everyone treating the Iditarod like a football game.  There were lots of people tailgating in the snow.  Some of the mushers even stopped and fed their dogs hot-dogs people were cooking.  It was a lot of fun.  We followed the Iditarod in the newspaper and it was exciting to see that the winner was Dallas Seavey, the youngest musher to ever win the Iditarod.  He's 25 years old and both his dad and his granddad competed this year as well.  His dad is a former winner and his grandfather competed in the very first Iditarod.  It's such an intense race...we felt lucky to actually see it start.  It really is the last great race on earth.

We're expecting...

...but it's not your usual pregnancy!

Both Drew and I actually went pregnant for the race we were in during Fur Rondy.  Drew's baby bump garnered a lot of attention.  I feel like he makes a pretty convincing pregnant waddle, especially with his hands on his stomach and back.

We braved the cold with friends from my work and showed up for the running of the reindeer race.  It's really not much of a race as it consists of running/walking/trudging through a ton of snow for about 2 city blocks.  But it's for charity and you get to run in a costume of your choice.  Everybody is being a little silly, more than a few people are a little drunk, and after you start running they set the reindeer off after you.  For about 10 seconds it's the coolest thing ever.  For the rest of it it's just lots of fun with friends.  

These people thought like us and wore something at least a little warm.  Others were in speedos, fur bikinis, and gladiator outfits.  I don't know how they stayed warm for so long waiting to run the race.  There were also plenty of large animal costumes, sumo wrestlers, and other themed groups.  We saw a head to toe Star Wars group, a bunch of red solo cups, guys encased in nothing but a bail of hay each.  Being as everyone in our group works in or is related to someone who works in Labor and Delivery, we went with pregnant bellies and scrubs.  When it finally came our turn to run, I turned on the video.  I can't say I tried really hard to worry about the recording though.  I was having a little too much fun.  So sorry, but you might get a bit of an idea of what it's like:

We waited at the back of the pack to run with the reindeer.  At first everyone starts running really slow, looking back casually, waiting for the reindeer.  But then they count down from 10 to release the reindeer and you start wondering if this was a good idea. Then all of a sudden you're screaming and booking it as antlers brush by you on their way through the crowd.   

This guy was pretty calm,
but some of the reindeer were really bucking to get after us!

They claimed they were an ice worm,
but I don't think anyone believed them.

It seemed only appropriate to pose for an ironic picture together:
the condom and the pregnant group.

A little reindeer love...

On the way home...

So now that we've run with the reindeer and got the T-shirt, we'd love to watch other people do it live.  This is the 5th time they have done it and they had a record breaking 2,300 people sign up to run it.  It's only a matter of time until someone gets their eye poked out by an antler or worse, but for now we are glad we got to be a part of it!