Thanksgiving 2016 (and a little after)

We spent Lydia's first Thanksgiving in Anchorage!

Matt's aunt Megan and her family live there and it was so generous of them to host us! We drove down on Thanksgiving morning, and the drive took about 8 hours. After it started to get light (at about 9:30am) it was beautiful!

Reading a book as we drove.
We bought it at a gas station! So random!

Not a bad view for a gas station!

It was snowy and dark most of the way.

But the sun was up by the time we passed Mt. Mckinley (now called Denali)! 

It's pretty unusual to see the mountain when there aren't clouds blocking the view, so we stopped for a pic! It's the tallest mountain in N America and looked HUGE in person. Somehow in the pic it looks tiny though?

It was 1 degree out when we stopped, which was a nice break from the -20 we left in Fairbanks!

When we got to Aunt Megan's we hung out for a few hours before having Thanksgiving dinner. I didn't have my camera out much but here's the best pic I got!  

Lydia got passed around as everyone tried to hold her without her crying (she's going though a 'mommy only' phase) and Rachel was her favorite! (She eventually overcame her fear but it took her a few days to warm up to all the new people). 

The next day was my first time shopping on Black Friday... not because we were looking for deals but because it was the only day we had free to do some shopping (and there's basically none in Fairbanks so this was something to be excited about!) 

L's first Target trip...

Her first time in a mall...

Nordstrom!!!

Here's her reaction to her first mall experience. She was disgusted by the over-consumption of Americans on Black Friday. :) Just kidding.

plus a view of downtown Anchorage!

We stopped at a Chipotle copycat (MISSING MY BURRIO BOWLS SO BAD) and Lyds was conked out from her day of shopping.

... and we went to Cabella's to show her the animals.  We used self control and didn't buy anything during the entire day except food and a little shirt for L.

Matt also found a German store with imported food, so we went so he could stock up. I got my fav German candy. :) 

In the evening we met back up with everyone for a basketball game at the University of Alaska!

We were all impressed when Harold was able to get Lydia to sleep in his arms, despite the loud buzzer, screaming fans, and pounding music.

The next day we took three of Matt's cousins and drove to Seward for the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Lyds had fun sitting with them and I think the feeling was mutual!

Look at that happy little face! ❤️

Seward is 45 minutes south of Anchorage and the wildlife center was worth the trip! Here we are with wolves. 

It just so happened to be 'free day' and  'Thanksgiving for animals' which meant we got to watch handlers feeding all of the animals, for free. Haha. Here's us with a brown bear (Ryan's pointing at it).

...and Ryan trying to pet a moose. 

... and me with another moose. 

Next Matt suggested that since we were only 20 minutes away, why not go to Whittier?? 

Whittier is a tiny town of 500 that's accessible only by boat or by a one-way tunnel highway that reverses direction every half hour to get in or out. And most of the residents all live in one big apartment building. It'd been on his list of must-see places in Ak, so we went. 

We waited for the tunnel into town to open up...

...and then drove through the mountain and into town. It took literally 7 minutes to drive around the whole thing in a circle. Matt's favorite part was this abandoned Army barracks. He made sure I got lots of pictures. 

He was so glad we went to Whittier! I told him I'm picking the next trip. ;) 

On Sunday we went to church with everyone and then made the long drive home. Lydia had a lot less patience for being in the car seat this time so I was very glad when we got back. We picked up Barkley from our friends' house on the way in and it was so fun to see him again! :) 

When we got back it felt like Christmas!

I put up our tiny tree (that Matt got back HERE),

Notice Lydia's salt dough hand print ornament -
it was a Pinterest craft that actually turned out pretty well!

baked Alaskan Christmas cookies,

and we wrote / sent Christmas cards!

We had our ward Christmas party, which was themed as a night in Bethlehem. People dressed up and we paid a tax (canned food to donate) as we entered the city. There was a live nativity, music, and then a big dinner of Mediterranean food.

Thanks for the picture Ashley!

And I went to Aubrey's baby shower which was so, so nice!

Aubrey and I have been neighbor-friends since literally the day I moved here and I'm so sad she'll be leaving soon!! 

I started a new yoga teaching schedule this month, so I went over to The Studio one morning to take a few marketing pics which was a fun way to advertise the new class!

Blooper :) 

And lots of grading as the semester winds down. This was my view driving to UAF - if you zoom in on the sign it says -23°F. 

Lydia and I are still going to Institute class. :)

The group is mostly young moms, and the discussions are SO GOOD and deep that I feel like I'm being let in on secrets of the universe every time I go. ;) It's a great use of a Wednesday morning.

Plus Lydia gets to see other babies!

Holding hands💕

Other church-related things... one night we went to a nativity event that our stake (a group of congregations) put on - it was so well done! 

They also had live music all evening, which we sat in on for a while. Lydia was so good and just quietly watched the performers. I think it was her first concert! 

This was my view coming out of my friend's house after visiting teaching one night. It was 5pm and totally, completely dark. I loved how this tree lit up the snow all around it. It was so beautiful that I had to stop and take a pic even though it was -20° or colder.

All of this has been a good distraction from the cold. 

Last Sunday it was so cold they ended church early! They sent everyone home after sacrament meeting. :) Our church's policy is if it's -30 we just have sacrament meeting, and if it's -40 or lower we only have the sacrament and then everyone goes home. 

Church!

But Matt hasn't let the cold stop him from enjoying the great outdoors! He's been out skiing and training Barkley to pull him and having a great time!

cutie:)

Go Barkley go!

Tough guy - my man of the north!

A video he got while skiing:

And he's been working really late most days (and going in on weekends) to get ahead on everything before our extended Christmas trip. 

There are rules about what you can post about what he does at work, but someone else posted these so they must be ok!

Let's end with another Lydia update!

She just had her 6 month check-up (several days early) and she's all healthy! She's in the 50th percentile for height, so the doctor said it must have been a mistake last time when they said she was in the 99th. Ha!

A brief smile after she screamed through her appointment...

She LOVES her jumper:

and is SO close to crawling!! She'll be mobile any day now!

This video just warms my heart and I must've watched it a hundred times on my phone. Watching her progress is amazing.

She's been log rolling for a few days and seems surprised that she can move around a little bit! She'll flip over, look back at us, and give us a big grin. :) It's so fun to watch! She's also getting closer to sitting up by herself. 

She's a champion sleeper and is back to sleeping 12 hours a night, plus naps!

She's also all about grabbing things these days,

and is starting to enjoy reading more and more! (Although honestly this smile was not about the book, it was because I was smiling at her).

Reading an architecture book with Dad.

Lots of reading... The Book of Mormon all the way through and now the Ensign (conf talks).

It's been nice when we can get a few moments of quiet to cuddle her up, enjoy her babyness, and stay in out of the cold. December is always crazy busy but it's nice to try to slow down and enjoy!