BRRR....A Very Cold November!

It's been awhile since we have had a Thanksgiving that was well below zero....tonight is supposed to be 35 below! Not quite the outlook I was hoping for as we head towards the holiday! Some friends of ours are currently in Hawaii. Just the other day I was thinking it seemed a little early to be headed to the island, especially since we still have a LONG way to go until spring. But, maybe they knew something about the weather that they didn't share with us? Hmm...

So, what do people do when it's cold outside....

...play outside of course! Check out all the skiing and skating we've been doing this month! As long as there is a thermos of hot chocolate at the end - we can do anything at 40 below :)


[Did I mention the big bonfire on the ice during the skating? That helps too!]


Here are the kids skiing at Birch Hill with Flat Stanley. Stanley is visiting from Texas and will be heading back there tomorrow to Garrett's classroom. He loved skiing but the cold was getting to him - being so flat, he just didn't have the body fat to keep him warm!


Other activities this month include Portfolio Days for Landon at Chinook. These mark the end of the 1st trimester of school and are an opportunity for Landon to share with us what he's been doing all this time at school and it's the official grade for his school.

So, it's an important week and we celebrated tonight with a dinner at nearby restaurant, Silver Gulch [yes, some of you maybe more familiar with the back side of the restaurant which is a microbrewery.] I did not pick the restaurant - Landon did, really.

And, it was fun and one less meal I had to cook since Brad is gone this week (we've been switching solo duties all month between my travels and his). He's enjoying moose survey time out by Kotzebue and enjoying the cold. Today it was 40 below at the cabin they were staying at but they had clear skies and saw a grizzly bear and a wolf...ah, Alaska in the winter.


P.S. Political update. We are no longer a state with a convicted felon as our Senator. The legend, Ted Stevens, LOST the bid for re-election.. After 40 years in the Senate, he will be spending his retirement in jail. Now that is quite the way to end a career... Happy Retirement Uncle Ted!