It Finally Happened

Across the street to one side

So pretty!!

Our Snow Bunnies!!

Yes, it finally happened! Can you believe it, I can't. So we have finally joined my husband in the Artic Abyss. We flew out of California on January 29th, it was a nice 5 hour flight (I'm serious) there was literally no lay over, we left San Fran to Seattle and once our plane landed we literally had maybe 15 min. to get to our next plane. If you have ever been to the Seattle Airport you know how fun that was trying to get myself and 3 kids and two carry-ons one of which being my dog (Holly) up I believe two flights of stairs, on a people mover and down to the correct terminal. The reason I say "I believe" is that it all went so fast that I don't recall what happened only that stairs, a people mover and a lengthy walk was involved. Now include a stupid cell phone with my husband on the other end wanting to know my next move all while I'm trying to keep the peace with my two youngest kids, get our boarding passes ready. We end up being 45 min. early arriving in Fairbanks, I am paranoid that my other dog (Willard) who had to ride in the cargo hold would be freezing by now. I attempt to let Scott know that we have arrived and only get his voice mail. I leave him a message and rush down to find Willard were to my amazement he is pleasantly warm, what a relief!

Scott and I in front of the Ice Museum

So Now we are in Fairbanks, AK we have been greeted by a nice blustery downfall of snow. From the inside of the airport it doesn't look so bad.......Now I step outside, so that is what below zero feels like!? Wow what a refreshing feeling, yea it's cold but it's sooo fresh feeling, so new and clean.

The Kids in a pull out area of the road

We all load our luggage into the truck and pile in. Now the ones of you that know my husband know that we can not just go home, we have to go on a tour of the city. We go by Walmart, Fred Meyer's, we stop at Taco Bell since we didn't have time to eat during our 15 min. lay-over. We drive again by another Fred Meyer's past the Wally again. Now we finally drive on post and get to where we shoud turn to go home, but that doesn't happen we have to go on a tour of the whole post, thankfully it is not very big.

They are every where, look out Holly!!

So finally we get to the house, Awwww it is so warm!! Our first home that is actually warm, without having to bring wood in or fight with the mostly dead heating system. The house is brand new. I will post pictures of it soon!

So the pictures that I am going to show here are pictures that were taken on my birthday. We drove to Chena Hot Springs. It was a beautiful drive, the pictures I took are mostly from the inside of the car, they could be better but I did want to get to our destination before we ran out of daylight. Oh and by the way, it's not as dark as you would think it would be. So the drive is awesome! We get to the Hot Springs and sneak half way into the Ice Museum until they realize we are not with a tour group and politely tell us when the next tour will be. It is just as they show on the tv, the glasses for the appletini's are so pretty - made of pure ice. It was actually warmer in the museum than it was outside, they keep it 20 degrees. I believe on this day the temp outside was -3. In front of the lodge you faintly smell sulfur but as you walk around to the hot springs there is no odor, or was that just because I was an idiot and forgot to layer my clothes that day so I was only thinking about my frozen knees. So the steam is just bellowing off the water, the ducks are quacking and having a merry ole time in there little bath tub. People are exiting the water with nothing but a pair of shorts or a bathing suit.......nothing on their feet. Holly cow are they nuts??? All the whiile waving happily and the sight see'ers (that would be us). So we snapp our pictures ooooh and awww for about 5 min. then we race to the lodge half way to the car just to thaw out. Returning home was even better than the ride to the Hot Springs. The sun was setting and it was just a beautiful sight.

We topped the night off with two rounds (or what ever you call it) of midnight bowling and a late night drive to Wally for a last minute cake. All-in-all it was a pretty terrific day!!

So it has been a month since we arrived here the kids are adjusting to their new schools well. They are making friends and being fairly active when they are not catching up on work that they may have missed moving up so late in the quarter. There are lots of things to do here in the area not to mention on post so I plan to take more pictures and tell more stories as the weeks and months go by. But until then I will drift off!!