Curling!

The "rock"

For some reason, there was about 100 hours of Olympic curling broadcasted during the last winter Olympics. At first it was really annoying, but we grew pretty interested in it by the time the Games were over. Little did we know we'd be moving to Alaska where you can actually go curling! The local curling hall had an introductory class back in October and Mario got to go. He found out that curling is quite a bit more difficult than it seems. In fact, there were people falling down all over the place, let alone throwing the “rock” appropriately. He had a lot of fun. Since this was shortly after Josh broke his leg and he wasn't all that entertained watching people curl, he and I went for a little walk and happened to catch this awesome sunset.   

Dad's visit

We were lucky enough to have my dad come visit just a few weeks after Mom came. He only had a few days, so we made sure we had enough planned to give him as much of the Alaskan experience as we could.

Fielding Lake public cabin

C and N

Not sure what the weird face is about, but it's the only one of everyone

Jed and his family took him out to the Chena cabin and hot springs the first night, then we all headed out to Fielding Lake where we found a fun little cabin to stay at. Fielding Lake is near the beginning of the Denali Highway and usually offers great views of the mountains, but it started snowing the day Dad got here and kind of just kept going on and off, so we didn't get the scenery we were looking for. We did get to see some animals, though, like moose, eagles, and muskrats chasing ducks. 

 There was a stretch of highway where Mario and I saw almost 10 bald eagles, but unfortunately Dad and Jed in the car ahead of us missed them. The landscape that we could see was impressive, but I sure wish we could have shown Dad more of the Denali area.

We ventured out the Denali Highway for a few miles in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the mountains, but we had to settle for a fun little hill and some fresh snow to play in. There were a bunch of kettle lakes that we could see, most of which had little beaver lodges in them.

After our Fielding Lake outing, we headed back to Fairbanks to catch a hockey game. Dad used to be the doctor for a hockey team in Minot, North Dakota when we lived there and we thought he would enjoy going to see a game. We watched the University of Alaska Nanooks trounce a team from Nebraska. It was a lot of fun, and we certainly plan to go a few more times this year, but I was somewhat lost as far as some of the rules and really need to study up before we go again. I waited all evening to get this shot of a guy getting checked. Check out the grimace.

We got to celebrate Collin's birthday the next morning before Dad had to leave. It was so nice to get to spend some time with Dad and show him our little corner of the world. We loved having him and are excited for him to come up again just as soon as he can!

Just a quick update on the little bun in the oven. We've had a couple ultrasounds that showed she's growing well and is on track for her due date of December 5^th. I'm about as big as a whale and chasing Josh is a bit of a challenge these days, but he's a good sport about it. I'm pretty sure he has no idea what it means when we tell him about the baby, but when we ask him where the baby is he'll give my belly hugs or kisses. He was pretty excited to see her on the ultrasound, though, but I think that was because it was like watching a movie more than because he was seeing a baby.

December 5^th (the due date) is just less than 5 weeks away and I'm trying to soak up every last minute I still have with just Josh. I'll admit I'm quite uncomfortable but not so uncomfortable that I'm actually ready to have a newborn quite yet, for the stress and sleeplessness but more because I'm not ready to spend less time with my little man. He's my whole life from the time he wakes up until Mario gets home in the evening and I'm not ready to give that up yet, especially since he's been making small but important steps with his speaking and eating lately. He recently tested at a 12-month level in his verbal communication, and the number of foods he was willing to eat was alarmingly low. We start speech therapy next week and have been working on the eating issues, though, and I'm excited to see what he'll be able to do in the next few months.

YaYa's Visit

My mom came to visit at the end of September. It was wonderful to see her and it was also a great excuse to do some fun stuff.

Public use cabin near Chena Hot Springs

Inside the cabin

We got lucky and found one of Alaska's numerous public use cabins the first weekend she was here near Chena Hot Springs. I got photos of the cabin, but unfortunately not of the hot springs. You can take a look here at their website to see just how cool this place is. It was a rainy/snowy and dreary day, so the little hike we tried to take was a very short-lived affair, but it was a perfect day to sit in a huge, hot swimming pool in the snow.

Our short walk in the rain/snow

The first evening Mom spent at our house was the night Josh's leg broke, which put a big dent in our activities for the week, but we still had fun.

The next weekend we went to a different natural hot springs called Manley, which is about three hours into the bush outside of Fairbanks. The town of Manley is pretty much a village and has only one business that rents cabins.  We called the week before to make sure they were still going to be open when we wanted to come as the town basically closes down in the winter. They said they would be, but when we arrived, we found the Manley Roadhouse, which rents the cabins, all closed up. Luckily we were traveling with Jed and Crystal, which is great because Crystal is resourceful and personable and she politely poked around until she found someone who knew someone who knew what was going on and could open up the place for us.

Manley Hot Springs is a privately-owned

Some of the flora at Manley Hot Springs

 natural hot spring and is probably the most unique place I've seen here. The actual spring is up a hill and the owners have piped it down into a large greenhouse where they have built four huge water basins that are all different 

Two of the hot spring basins

temperatures. The greenhouse is completely full of plants, from hibiscus to eggplant. It was a wonderful place. The remnants of the hot spring that aren't piped out for use in the bathing pools flow down the hill as a little stream that is delightfully warm and the kids (and grandma!) had fun putting their feet in the water.

Very cool place

Josh wasn't a fan of pumpkin guts

Cider donuts

We took advantage of having Grandma here to carve pumpkins for the kids, which brought back memories of Halloweens past when Grandma (then just Mom) would make fresh raised donuts from scratch. That put us in the mood for donuts, which Mom obligingly made for us.  They were delicious and I think we all ate ourselves fairly sick. That got me thinking, though, of apple cider donuts, so I found a promising-looking recipe and gave it a whirl. It didn't really work out. They tasted great, but cooked very poorly and either ended up soaked in grease, burned, or doughy. Very sad.

It was a great visit and we were all sad to see her go!

 

I don't know why Josh is compelled to do this with every light that comes into his hands

Denali

It was ridiculously early.

Because the colors were so beautiful the weekend we drove the Denali Highway, we decided to use Mario's day off for Labor Day to go into Denali National Park itself. Last year during our Alaska vacation, we also visited Denali. We took the park bus to the Eielson Visitor's Center about 65 miles into the park. This time, we wanted to go 20 miles past Eielson to Wonder Lake. It was a 12-hour round trip, and we decided to do the same thing we did last time and take the very first bus out into the park. Unfortunately, that bus left the Wilderness Access Center at the park entrance at 5:30 am. We live about 2 ½ hours from the Wilderness Access Center. Being the cheapskates we are, we didn't want to spend money on a hotel near the park entrance, nor did we want to sleep in the car and endure another horrible night like we had just the week before. So we got up at 2 am to drive to Denali. Josh is usually pretty good about going back to sleep when we move him, but this particular night he chose not to go back to sleep. I was pretty sure that meant we were all going to have a very rough day seeing how we were all running on so little sleep, but the day actually started wonderfully around 4am when we noticed a beautiful green ribbon of light dancing in the sky over the tiaga forest we were traveling through: our first experience with aurora borealis, the northern lights. It was gorgeous but fleeting – by the time I got out of the car and got the camera set up, they were gone. They came back a few times, but never for long enough to take a picture of.

Sunrise

We arrived at the park in time to get loaded onto the bus, thankfully. We started into the park about half an hour before sunrise. It was ridiculously early, but we were rewarded with one of the best sunrises I've ever seen. It turned the white peaks a beautiful light pink and slowly brought the stunning landscape to life. We couldn't have timed our visit better; the ground cover was a brilliant red, the spruce was its usual green, and the birch were bright yellow. It was a great trip to Wonder Lake. It was fairly overcast when we started and we were worried we wouldn't be able to see Mt. McKinley at all, which would not be unusual as the mountain is high enough it makes its own weather and is only visible about one of every four days, but the clouds cleared obligingly as we went just like last time.

Dall sheep

Apart from the awesome scenery, we also saw golden eagles, lots of Dall sheep, a wolf, and quite a few moose and bears. Josh was a great sport about sitting on a bus for so long, especially as long as we didn't run out of Pringles, goldfish, or chocolate chip cookies!

The Three Bears

Moose

We finally made it to Wonder Lake and tried to stay warm with the howling wind and skies that were trying to rain on us. Because it was so windy, we didn't get the photos of the mountain reflected in the lake that we were hoping for, but it was worth the trip anyway. The mountain was gorgeous and we had a great time wandering around (this was a few weeks before Josh's leg broke, so he was in fact able to wander) before boarding the bus and beginning the six-hour trip back to the park entrance, and then the 2 ½ hour trip home. 

The view from Wonder Lake

 

Cool dust storm in the valley

What an awesome day!

Another road that makes you want to drive!

We had a week before Mario started work to get our home set up and have some fun. We decided to make a trip to see the tallest peak in North America, which happens to be just down the road from us. In fact, Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in the world if you measure from its base to its peak, but is only the tallest in North America because we measure mountains' elevation from sea level, not base to peak.

The Denali range reflected.

Anyway, we packed up and headed out. It was an unbelievable drive through glacier-carved plains with huge, delightful mountain ranges on all sides. We were fortunate enough to not only have perfect weather, but the fall colors were raging as well. There aren't a whole lot of trees, but the ground cover was a stunning crimson. It was a gorgeous day in every way, apart from the massive swarms of ravenous mosquitoes that would attack us every time we got out of the car to take pictures.

The highway to Valdez

We headed south to our cutoff to take the Denali Highway back through Denali National Park, but when we got there we were having so much fun we decided to keep on driving! We figured we'd probably not get as close to the city of Valdez (as in the Exxon Valdez oil spill) again with the time to go check it out, so on we drove.

Doesn't it make you want to explore?

Valdez is fairly isolated (by any standards except Alaska's) and is the literal end of the road. The highway to Valdez was absolutely stunning as it weaved, climbed, and fell through numerous ranges. There were waterfalls, glaciers, valleys, and just the right amount of fog to make it just a little mysterious. There were also quite a few random dirt roads that left the highway and disappeared to who-knows-where that were very intriguing. Under different circumstances, we would have given our new-to-us SUV a proper welcome to the family. Instead we found a beautiful, secluded campground and tried our best to eat our dinner without inhaling mosquitoes along with the soup. We decided it would be easiest and most comfortable to sleep in the car. We discovered that it was indeed easiest but certainly not comfortable. Our little family is absolutely not the right size for car camping anymore! What a horribly miserable night that was!

At long last, the night ended and we made it the last miles to Valdez. We were quite unimpressed, although in its defense it was a very foggy, rainy morning. Perhaps the fog was hiding some redeeming characteristics, and there are supposedly some wonderful day cruises and hiking to do from the city, but I'm glad we saw it when we did and could check it off the list without making a trip just for Valdez. (note in the picture of me with Josh that I have a bloody rag in my nose - my little darling has a bad habit of giving me very loving headbutts in the face when he gets excited.  He just gave me a wicked bloody nose!)

Kettle lakes with the Denali range in the background

A road like that just makes you want to drive!

We headed back north via the Denali Highway. It's a gravel road that winds 140 miles through some of the most amazing scenery you can find. It's only 140 miles, but it was a solid 4 hours of driving, not that we minded. Josh obligingly fell asleep as we drove, which was great except we were afraid to stop too much or for too long for fear of waking him up prematurely and ruining everyone's day. Our pictures suffered slightly for the sacrifice, but our day itself was awesome. The colors were wonderful, the mountains came out to play for a while, and it was by far the most pleasant 4 hours I've ever spent on a gravel road.

Amazing. 

Birch Hill Rec. Area

"I HAVE A STICK!"

Leaves in the backyard

The fall here in Fairbanks was phenomenal, and that's coming from someone who spent the last 3 years enjoying the best New England has to offer. I admit I miss Boston terribly and often, especially in autumn. I miss picking 40 pounds of fresh apples, of varieties I've never even heard of outside of New England, and finding new, delicious ways to eat them. I miss apple cider donuts and fresh-pressed cider. I miss the fall leaves that stick around for weeks (when you're lucky) and include every shade imaginable between yellow and crimson. I miss the balmy days and chilly nights. I miss road trips to nowhere in particular. That being said, the fall here was really great. It was different, but great. All of the leaves changed at almost exactly the same time, and they all turned the same shade of yellow. There really wasn't any orange or red at all. It only lasted about two weeks, but what a two weeks it was! We were outside every moment possible. Here are a few pics of some of our perfect fall days.

Sunset from our deck

I also dragged my boys to a local park called Creamer's Field for some family pictures while the colors were still nice. I'm pretty happy with the shots I got. A passing runner took pity on me trying to set up my tripod and ordering Mario around and took one decent shot of the three of us.

By far my favorite shot of the day.

I mentioned in my last email that Josh's leg is broken. Here comes the story on that. Josh is hands down the quietest, most reserved two-year-old I've known . . . except for the half an hour before bed every night. Those of you who have witnessed the Bedtime Crazies know that he becomes a completely different little guy. He absolutely loves the Bedtime Crazies. We run around the house, wrestle each other, laugh, scream, tickle, whatever. We have been thoroughly enjoying the Bedtime Crazies for well over six months with nothing but a happy and tired toddler ready for bed to show for it. We were having our usual good time while my mom was visiting a few weeks ago when we caught Josh by the legs, like we have a thousand times, except this time we heard a small pop and he grabbed his ankle . . . the same ankle he hurt on the stairs in Texas a few months ago.

Looks funny, but we got outside!

When he can't go out, bring it in!

When we saw that it wasn't improving like it did last time, we took him to the doctor. Three different doctors and five hours later, my poor little baby had been poked, prodded, and held down forcibly by Mario and then by me for x-rays, to have a cast put on, and to take the first round of antibiotics for an ear infection. He was so tired after screaming so much that he fell asleep on my shoulder before we even left the orthopedist's office.  For the first evening, he would cry and ask me every five minutes if I could please help him take the cast off. It was very sad, but since then he has adjusted really well. Because of the angle of the cast, he can't crawl or walk comfortably, but he can stand up for a little while and can scoot across a room just fine. It's pretty difficult to play outside with him, so we've been inventing new games to play at home (thanks for the bag o' balls, Dad!) and spending lots of time at the library.