Life Lately! (Iditarod, Mom's Visit, Chena Hot Springs, Still -30)
After traveling in December, January, and February, it's been good to be back home together!
It's been cold - Alaska is still in the depths of winter.
Yes, that's Fahrenheit! But at least we have normal daylight/darkness now. Sunset from our balcony...
Here are highlights from the last month!
Valentine's Day
She had a little grumpy moment... (SO funny with her festive bib and balloon)
Matt had been out all night running a night-vision shooting range, so he actually had the morning off of work! We did a little gift exchange and took Barkley to the dog park. :)
Iditarod
The Iditarod usually starts in Anchorage. Actually, in the 50-something years it's been going on, it's only started in Fairbanks 3 times. Well, one of those times was this year! 😀 We are LUCKY!
It was -20° that day and the starting line was really crowded (we'd have to park far away and take a shuttle), so we drove down a ways and watched the dog teams run past us from there. Lots of other people had the same idea!
We watched 3 or 4 dog teams run by before retreating back to the warm car.
Mom came to visit!!!
Matt found out on a Friday evening that he'd be gone for a week starting on Monday.
I decided to make the most of it by inviting Mom up to spend the week with Lydia and me. :) We had a very chill, enjoyable week!
Activities included eating at my favorite Fairbanks brunch spot,
trips to the adorable toy store in Fairbanks + the North Pole library...
and multiple trips to "the happiest place on earth" - Safeway! (Lydia loves it there - she giggles through each trip!)
And we saw the International Ice Art Competition.
Plus lots of hanging out, eating delicious healthy food and chatting.
I'm so, so, so glad she came. It was really hard to see her go (as usual!)
Nine months old :)
Snowy afternoons at home...
Snowshoeing
One night Matt took us on a family snowshoe. It was quick but fun! We didn't even have to go far - it was 5 minutes from home.
Chena Hot Springs
We got a babysitter and took a day-date to Chena Hot Springs one Saturday. We had breakfast at the lodge and then got into the springs. A stranger in the parking lot handed us a day pass so we got in for free! 💖🙏🏼
And a no-fun evening when she was sick. :(
Cooking
I'll end this post with recent hobby... Something funny happens when you're snowed in from September to March and it's difficult to get to the store/takeout.
You start cooking a lot.
At least, I did. :) And the cold/dark of the winter made me want Indian (which you literally can't get in Fairbanks, even though there are 15 Thai places? Not an exaggeration. Google it.:)
Sooo I've been cooking up a storm. To avoid the storms. The snow storms. :) Ok you get it here's what I've maaaade! :)
Creamy cashew chicken (it took me a while to get the motivation to make Indian at home... I thought it would be hard. It wasn't.)
Butternut squash soup (at least 10x easier than it seems)
Jumbo chocolate chunk cookies (These are amaaaaaze. I tried a few different nut-butter-cookie recipes ((and Mom helped me sample some GF ones when she was here)) and these were the clear winner!)
My fave kale salad (with roasted potatoes and mushrooms and walnuts and rosemary....)
Caprese salad (literally easier than making cereal. Almost. And so good we had it three nights in a row! Also because Matt bought the bulk basil hahaha. I made this w/o a recipe but linked to one I found.)
This spinach onion frittata which Matt loved (I can tell when he loves something if he packs the leftovers for work the next day, and also, this used an ENTIRE BOX of mixed greens. Soo many phytonutrients).
Carrot cake smoothie (after Lydia rejected the carrot purée Mom made her.)
Morning glory breakfast cookies (I did diced dates instead of cranberries and they were perf. PLUS you get veggies by eating cookies yes pleeeeease!)
And more, but I'll end there for now!
It's been cold - Alaska is still in the depths of winter.
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| March in Alaska |
Yes, that's Fahrenheit! But at least we have normal daylight/darkness now. Sunset from our balcony...
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| LOVING the sunshine |
Here are highlights from the last month!
Valentine's Day
Even the sunrise celebrated Lydia's first Valentine's Day... pink and purple and beautiful. 😍
...but her mood was no match for a little of my every-day breakfast smoothie and a power nap!
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| All better :) |
Matt had been out all night running a night-vision shooting range, so he actually had the morning off of work! We did a little gift exchange and took Barkley to the dog park. :)
Lydia got a brand new springtime outfit, a teddy bear from Matt, and the SWEETEST card from my dad.
My dad sent Lydia this ADORABLE Valentine's Day card and a gift, but the gift was STOLEN in the mail when someone ripped open the card. It was returned to my parents, all crumpled and torn, minus the gift... so they put it in a legal envelope and resent it that way. This time, no one ripped into it. :) Nobody wanted to mess with legal documents I guess!! (Can you believe anyone would steal from a baby??)
There was also an FRG fundraiser at Matt's work so Lyds and I helped. (I'm the FRG co-leader right now).
I taught yoga that night and it was one of the biggest classes ever! Valentine's Day 2017 was a success. :)
Iditarod
The Iditarod usually starts in Anchorage. Actually, in the 50-something years it's been going on, it's only started in Fairbanks 3 times. Well, one of those times was this year! 😀 We are LUCKY!
It was -20° that day and the starting line was really crowded (we'd have to park far away and take a shuttle), so we drove down a ways and watched the dog teams run past us from there. Lots of other people had the same idea!
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| I love Lydia's concerned face. Ha! The dogs ran over the frozen river down below. |
Sarah FaceTimed me from Amsterdam to see it, haha.
We watched 3 or 4 dog teams run by before retreating back to the warm car.
The whole thing was really quick since it was so cold, but I'm glad we saw it!
Matt found out on a Friday evening that he'd be gone for a week starting on Monday.
I decided to make the most of it by inviting Mom up to spend the week with Lydia and me. :) We had a very chill, enjoyable week!
Activities included eating at my favorite Fairbanks brunch spot,
trips to the adorable toy store in Fairbanks + the North Pole library...
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| "A Unicorn Named Sparkle" came home with us ;) |
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| Safeway + Grandma = happy Lydia! |
One morning we did a little photo shoot. :) (Mom was helping me figure out and remember outfits for L.)
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| BTS |
And we saw the International Ice Art Competition.
These really were works of art!
The falling snow glittered on its way down past the spotlights. It was beautiful.
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| Mom's fav - "Microbes" |
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| Ice carving tools... good luck getting those through airport security! |
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| Alice in Wonderland |
Plus lots of hanging out, eating delicious healthy food and chatting.
I'm so, so, so glad she came. It was really hard to see her go (as usual!)
Nine months old :)
Lydia just turned 9 months old! She's happy, healthy, and weighs 16 pounds. She loves log-rolling and will roll around endlessly, playing with toys and exploring. It's her substitute for crawling, but she's juuuust starting to do that, too. She has fun sitting up and playing with toys, especially her current favorites: wooden stacking bowls and a wooden 'puzzle.'
Oh and balloons. :)
Snowy afternoons at home...
We always have a stack of library books, and try to switch them out once a week!
She loves taking baths...
She loves taking baths...
Especially now that she has new bath toys from Grandma Heidi! :)
She nurses morning and night, and has formula during the day. She LOVES banana and gets excited (grins and wiggles her arms and legs) when she sees it coming! She's been known to eat an entire banana in a day.
We love her. :)
She still sleeps like a champ, 12 hours a night.
And is learning to feed herself a bottle!
Snowshoeing
One night Matt took us on a family snowshoe. It was quick but fun! We didn't even have to go far - it was 5 minutes from home.
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| Our car off in the distance past Barkley |
Chena Hot Springs
We got a babysitter and took a day-date to Chena Hot Springs one Saturday. We had breakfast at the lodge and then got into the springs. A stranger in the parking lot handed us a day pass so we got in for free! 💖🙏🏼
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| 1hr 20 min of rugged Alaskan beauty |
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| We asked to be seated by the fire, and they started a new one just for us! |
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| Hahahaha I love the tourists |
Work
The semester's half way done and both classes are going well! The students finished their first speech (a milestone) and I've been able to do most of my grading and emailing during nap time and in the evening. I had a babysitter over for live sessions, but other than that I've been able to handle it all myself, giving the students lots of feedback on graded assignments and always responding to emails within 24 hours. I feel like I could be doing a lot more, actually.
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| Home office |
Yoga has been next-level awesome since it's been BRIGHT at 7pm recently (finally!). My teaching was 'in a rut' with all the travel (I honestly wasn't able to focus on it), so I set a goal to make my classes 10x better. That's kind of ambitious but I really felt the need to push myself and freshen them up. I downloaded fun new music, pulled out all my yoga clothes and figured out new outfits to wear, and set a goal to have 10 students... because one day, when it was pitch dark at 7:00 and freezing, I'd had just one student. (So 10 students would be 10x better.) I amped up my personal practice and started doing 15-20 minute classes every morning while Lydia played. It made a huge difference!! We had 14 students this week (way past my goal) and teaching feels FUN again!
As a side note, I teach in the evenings so Matt can be home with Lydia. :)
I'm not sure what to say about Matt's work except that he gets to do some fun stuff, like snow-camping, night-vision-goggle shooting ranges, the winter games, etc., mixed into the normal day-to-day stuff. But he's gone a lot (a week to a month at a time), leaves for work very early, frequently pulls all-nighters on post, barely sleeps some weeks and it sounds like work can be really stressful. On regular work days, he's away from the house 13 hours a day.
Honestly, my work-from home job keeps me from going insane being home alone that long. And not able to go outside (like for walks with Lydia and Barkley) 9 months out of the year because the weather's so bad. It can be really hard for all of us.
Church
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| Helping me teach the 12-13 y/o's Sunday School |
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| Friends |
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| This one's actually from Wednesday Institute class |
And more...
Aurora chasing - you can barely see it behind us.
Lydia got to pet an 8 week old pug at an FRG meeting :)
Matt skiing out the front door - normal Saturday routine (his version of going on a jog).
Spotted a moose! Lydia was tired. :(
Walking at the indoor track one day.
Pretty frosted-over windows in the morning.
Lydia got a toothbrush at my dental appointment. It's pink, sparkly, and has princesses, haha! She loved it!
Waiting to go into her 9 month check-up. All healthy!
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| We call this her Macklemore coat |
Trips to the dog park a few times a week (when it's warm enough!)
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| Bassett in booties |
More fun at Lydia's "happiest place on earth." (Also her high-water, pink corduroy overalls crack me up!!)
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| Petting another puppy :D |
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| The verdict is 'no' on ginger root!! |
And a no-fun evening when she was sick. :(
Ellen's engagement pictures went internationally viral AND showed up on Good Morning America!!
And their save-the-date arrived! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I'll end this post with recent hobby... Something funny happens when you're snowed in from September to March and it's difficult to get to the store/takeout.
You start cooking a lot.
At least, I did. :) And the cold/dark of the winter made me want Indian (which you literally can't get in Fairbanks, even though there are 15 Thai places? Not an exaggeration. Google it.:)
Sooo I've been cooking up a storm. To avoid the storms. The snow storms. :) Ok you get it here's what I've maaaade! :)
Creamy cashew chicken (it took me a while to get the motivation to make Indian at home... I thought it would be hard. It wasn't.)
My fave kale salad (with roasted potatoes and mushrooms and walnuts and rosemary....)
Caprese salad (literally easier than making cereal. Almost. And so good we had it three nights in a row! Also because Matt bought the bulk basil hahaha. I made this w/o a recipe but linked to one I found.)
This spinach onion frittata which Matt loved (I can tell when he loves something if he packs the leftovers for work the next day, and also, this used an ENTIRE BOX of mixed greens. Soo many phytonutrients).
Carrot cake smoothie (after Lydia rejected the carrot purée Mom made her.)
Morning glory breakfast cookies (I did diced dates instead of cranberries and they were perf. PLUS you get veggies by eating cookies yes pleeeeease!)
And more, but I'll end there for now!
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