Playing in the Snow

Leo and I had an excellent birthday with a sledding adventure at Arctic Valley and a potluck at the yurt. We had enough people packed into the yurt that we probably went over its maximum occupancy. It was a great day! Thanks to everybody who made it so.
Here is a recent picture taken while skiing up just outside the Alpenglow ski area.

If you have never skied here it is a great place to go: family friendly, close to Eagle River and Anchorage, and is volunteer run.
We got the pregnant lady out for a few ski trips. Here we are out by the nature center.

Leo and I enjoyed a couple hours of playing in the snow around the yurt today. It has been snowing all day and we went sledding, skiing, and snow man making. Here is Leo Jumping off of the bottom layer of the snow man.

And, here is the finished skiing snowman.

Leo has been begging to make a snowman since the first snow fall, but it has been too cold and the snow too dry to make that happen. He was pretty excited when he woke up to perfect conditions. Here is another snowman that showed up at our back door.

We wrapped up snow play for the day by roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

The snow is building up on everything. Here is a picture of our railing with trees caked with snow in the background.

Everything includes power lines, and the lights have been flickering on and off every so often today. Being close to the end of the line has it's good points and bad points.

The River is ALMOST Frozen and the Yurt is Decending into Wintery Darkness

Today was our first day of the year that was entirely sub-zero temperatures. So, of course, it was time to get the skis on and go take pictures. Here is a picture taken from one of the bridges off of the lower Albert Loop.

The hoar frost (white flecks on the ice) is amazing on the river before the ice gets covered up with snow. Sections of the river are still not so frozen over. Here is a photo of one of those sections making a nice set of ice rapids.

Be careful out there if you decide to go. There is a lot of overflow going on and a few narrow ice bridges between flowing water to cross. In another week and a little more snow it should be awesome!
Here is the view of the mountains off of the big viewing deck.

Georgie with her ice goatee after a few miles of subzero romping.

Today was possibly the last clear day before we lose the sun completely, so I took a time lapse of the sun flitting behind the mountains. You may remember one from last year withe the yurt in the foreground. This one is from today, is the view off the yurt deck, and goes from 10:00 to 1:00.

Nicki Takes a Baby Up a Mountain and a Snowy Yurt

Nicki had a few days off last week so we dumped Leo at child care and took off hiking. Lazy Mountain near Palmer was the destination and what a beautiful hike it was. Here is Nicki showing off her newest project half way up the mountain.

And here she is at the top looking back towards Eagle River.

Things have been cooling off and darkening around here. It hasn't been above freezing much in the last few weeks and we only have 2 weeks left before the sun disappears for the year. Here is a picture of some fractalish ice on the Eagle River (for all you former SOWers).

Last night we had about 6 inches of snow fall. I couldn't sleep with the sound of the snow sloughing off the roof so I went out and started taking pictures. Here is the yurt at 6 AM.

And a picture of the yurt a few hours later, after sun"rise."

Flowers, Snow, Fake Smiles, and Halloween

After a very warm ans sunny fall, the Anchorage area is finally getting cold and a little snowy. We are down to about 3 1/2 hours of direct sunlight on the yurt, down into the teens at night, and the river is starting to freeze over. However, we have been amazed at the color that is still hanging on. The wild flowers we planted around here are truly the hearty Alaskan variety. Here is one from just a few days ago.

We had our first snow on the yurt recently.

And, you'd have expected that snow to take out the flowers. But, no.

We have still been getting out and about but are really yearning for enough snow to start skiing. On a recent hike to the river, Leo began practicing his father's fake smile.

For Halloween, Leo was a ladybug-butterfly-thing, and we once again went to the zoo and visited mom who was working at the hospital. The poor kid is much more aware of things this year, and some of the skeletons and spiders really freaked him out, but he collected a small fortune in candy and got the obligatory sugar high on the way home. Hear is a photo of this year's pumpkins.

Notice the fourth, tiny one for baby sister. 3 months to go until we meet her!