Happy Winter!!

January has turned out to be a fun fill month!  Winter in Alaska are long and dark, so the locals try to find things to do to keep them busy.  So we have had a lot of fun learning all the new thing to do in the winter.  We went to the winter festival, and had an amazing time!

Benji and Sammy with an ice sculpture at the winter festival

One of the coolest things that they do here is ice sculptures.  they are all over town, and some of them are really detailed and beautiful.  and some of them were just a lot of fun!  this years theme at the winter festival was coal and gold.  Benji and sammy are stand next to a miner.

Timmy in a ice coal cart

Benji in an ice COLD cart

Sammy in a ice coal cart

 You can kinda see behind sammy in the picture above the ice slide that the artist had made.  It was so much slippier than a regular slide!  they kids could really get some speed!  all together the artist had made 3 slides on the top of a snow hill, and beneath it he carved out a tunnel for the kids to crawl through. the boys had so much fun!

Benji and Sammy in the ice tunnel under the slides

Benji in another ice sculpture

Benji and Sammy also got to take a shot at Kick Sleds.  Benji came in 2nd place!!

Go Benji Go!!

Lets go Sammy, lets go!!

Timmy and I got to spend most of our time inside or in the warm car.  it was only about 3 degrees that day.  which, even with a snow suit, is a bit to cold for him.

James just loves Alaska!

snow shoeing lesson

out on the trail snow shoeing

 James got to take Benji and Sam snow shoeing.  Benji LOVED it, but Sammy was disappointed.  he thought James said snow SHOOTING, and he thought that they would be shooting snowballs out of a canon.  poor kid.  I think it was hard for him to keep up on the trail too.

All in all, its been a fun month.  the whole family loves the snow.  well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  although the winter is beautiful and fun, I am ready for a little bit more sun and a little less snow.  To keep me sane James got us some tickets to sunny California to visit his family in march.  I am so excited!  I am ready to soak up some sunshine!!

Hope your winter is as fun as ours!!

Cynthia