Operation Santa Claus, St. George Island, AK - The Salvation Army, the Air Force, Tastee Freeze, and KBEAR 104.1, bringing Christmas cheer to remote Alaskan villages.

We spent New Year's Day hiking and snowshoeing around Arctic Valley, near the old Nike Missile Site Summit Area. There is a large star on the mountain side there that is visible from many parts of Anchorage. We wanted to find it.
All three kids have really gotten the hang of skiing this winter. Here is Abbey at the Dyea ski area on Ft. Richardson Army Post.

Uncle Brian and Auntie Mary visited for two weeks in July and August!!
This is Hatcher's Pass, near Palmer, AK

Mike and Amanda Kaczmarek, 10/3/2009. Megan was the Miniature Bride, Zach read a petition, and Abbey passed out "menus."

Jeff standing next to the jaw bone of a bowhead whale is Barrow, AK. The Air Force Band, Northern Lights Brass, was there for a Tribal Outreach tour.

During our trip home for Mike's wedding, we also visited with the Elbe clan at my cousin Jeremy's house in Appleton, WI.

Wolverine Mountain - Chugach Mountain Range, Anchorage, AK

Skyler and Anne Dahlseng, 6/20/09

Arctic Valley Ski Area

Russian River Salmon Fishing

Rock Climbing and Piercings

The girls both love climbing the rock wall at our Community Center on Base. They are really good at it, but I think they have a bit of a muscle to weight ratio advantage over me. I'll keep trying.

After most of a year being too chicken to get her ears pierced, Megan finally decided to go for it. After one of her neighborhood friends got hers done, Megan decided she didn't want to be the only one without earrings, so she marched downstairs one Saturday morning and said, "Let's go get me ears pierced, right now." So we went. She was very brave.

Ice Princess Ball - Father Daughter Dance

Here we are enjoying the Ice Princess Ball, put on by the Armed Services YMCA of Alaska. It was an absolutely terrific event, complete with a real Ice Princess, Horse Drawn Sleigh Rides, Macaroni and Cheese, and of course dancing.

Zach is Double Digits

Zach celebrated his 10th Birthday with a trip to Polar Bowl with two of his friends and some awesome ice cream cake.

Winter Trails Day - Hatcher's Pass, Palmer, AK

Saturday, January 10th, 2009, we all braved the last of our cold snap and enjoyed Hatcher's Pass near Palmer, AK at about -5F. Thank goodness for warming fires and hot chocolate! They had some amazing groomed sledding runs where the only ways to stop ware to fall out of the sled or veer wildly off course. The girls are practicing the former in this picture.

Also as part of "Winter Trails Day," REI had snowshoes available to try. The kids had a great time snowshoing up the mountain, then sliding down on nothing but their nylon snowpants. Great Fun!!

I've been doing a bit of winter biking this year, so when I discovered that they were having a downhill slalom bike race (aptly called the Moose Slide Slalom), I figured "why not" what's the worst that could happen?? It really was a fantastic event, filled with bicycle acrobatics and more than a few "headplants." As the course eroded from a finely groomed run into mostly just a hill of sugar the difficulty level went up considerably. The highlight was not my resounding 10th place finish (out of 14), but rather watching one racer negotiate the course on a unicycle. Check out http://groups.google.com/group/valleytrails/web/mountain-bike-downhill-snow-slalom?hl=en for past and present photos and articles. Only in Alaska!!

Winter in AK

Since there are often misconceptions about Alaska being dark and frigid all winter long, I thought I'd share a little about what it's really like here. These photos were taken on January 4, about 15 days after the shortest day of the year Dec. 21. It was light from about 9:30 until about 4:15, but the sun was always very low in the sky to the south. The farther north you go, the shorter and colder the days get. We are in a bit of a cold snap currently, with daytime temps about -6 or so, but typical winter temps are between 0 and 25. While we can't quite see these Chugach Mountains from our actual house (due to trees), we only need to walk about 1 block and this is the view from a popular sledding hill near our house. Most days it is absolutely beautiful here. Other days we have ice fog, but I guess you take the good with the bad. You may click on the photos to make them larger.

Where else in the world??

This is really quite a job. One week I was inside the Arctic Circle peforming for one of our Operation Santa Claus events, then the next week I am at Andersen AB, Guam playing Christmas shows on and around the base. We left Anchorage with a temp of 6 F and arrived to 86 F twenty four hours later, wow!! In the photo, you can see how we were transported from the air strip to the village school. I was sitting on the rack of the four wheeler that was pulling the sled, sorry, no huskies for us today. I'm pretty sure I had the more comfortable ride. Later, I decided to go and stand ON the arctic ocean. Once in a lifetime. Also pictured are some stowaways that came with me to Guam. They enjoyed the beach very much.

School Pictures

Since most pictures on this blog are with the kids wearing hats and big winter coats, I thought I'd show what they actually look like. Zach is in 4th grade, Abbey in 2nd and Megan in 1st.

Fall Hike in Bicentennial Park - Anchorage

Here is a pre-Halloween hike through part of Bicentennial park in Anchorage. There is one trail in the park that is set-aside as a "no-leash" area for dogs, so we took Lucy to get some exercise. She tends to get cooped up in the house and our small yard, so it's nice for her to get to really run, and she loves the snow! In the background behind Anchorage is Mt. Susitna, also known as the Sleeping Lady.

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

We visited the AWCC in late September. It was quite a cold day to walk around outside, but the animals and scenery were outstanding. Fortunately, the Brown bears made quite a lengthy appearance while we were there. It was very enjoyable to see them from the other side of a very large fence. The drive from Anchorage to Seward is nothing short of spectacular, and the AWCC is located near Portage Glacier, in between Anchorage and Seward.