Fairbanks

Michael has to visit one of his Marine recruiters up in Fairbanks once a month and since I am currently available all of the time, I went with him to Fairbanks last week. Michael has been up to Fairbanks a few times, but this was my first time going. It was a very long drive from our house, but very pretty. I had all sorts of plans to go sightseeing while he was working, but unfortunately, he needed to use our vehicle for work stuff. This meant I was stuck in the military base hotel the whole time. Boo to that, but it was still nice seeing the city and going out at night!

This was some of the view we saw coming back to Anchorage. It was absolutely amazing and this picture really doesn't do this view any justice whatsoever. Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska...which really doesn't say much! haha! However, everyone was telling me how small Fairbanks was, but I was actually surprised about how large and spread out the city really was. Next time I go up with Michael, I will make sure that I will have the vehicle so I can do some exploring.

Tiki!

A couple of our friends decided that they had enough cold and snow and threw a tiki party a couple of weekends ago! This was a lot of fun! (if you are wondering, one of the party hosts was the same guy that threw the backwoods/redneck party back in September!) We were all dressed in our tiki clothes. I wore a dress with my snow boots to the party! hahaha! Once we were at the party, I put on my flip flops. I can tell that I haven't worn flip flops in so long because the shoes were starting to irritate my toes after awhile. This makes me very sad because I was such an avid flip flop wearer. :(

Me and one of our friends, Jill, tiki'ing it up! :) These friends are awesome because they had all kinds of mixed fruity non-alcoholic drinks for me to drink...once I got my serving, they would add the liquor! hahaha! Thank God for great friends! :)

The Birthday that never ended...

One of my friends, Andie turned 30 on January 31st. We were going to have one big joint birthday party, but most of you know that I want my birthday to be all about me! So we decided to have separate birthday parties. Andie's celebration was this past Saturday. Just when I thought I was done with all of my 30 celebrating, I showed up at Andie's party and they had a few items for me! They had a "30" tiara and some happy birthday beads! Andie and I both got to be the bells of the ball! :) We ate dinner at Andie's and then we went out dancing. Michael and I, originally, weren't going to go out dancing, but we were both feeling good and energetic, so why not?!?!

Amy and me at the dance club. This was my second time in a dance club since I've been pregnant. I danced the first time I went (it was like when I was 6 or 7 weeks), but it was super hard to dance sober. I actually had a GREAT time dancing this time! I really enjoyed it and realize how much I miss shaking my boot-a! It was also pretty cool wearing the tiara and beads in the club because the DJ wished us a happy birthday over the sound system and all kinds of random people wished me happy birthday! However, I do think Andie wanted me to wear my tiara and beads in the club so she wouldn't be the only one wearing a tiara! haha! I did love the attention! Thank you so much, Amy, for buying this stuff for me! It was a great way to end my birthday month! :)

Oh, and I had to show you all my new shoes. A couple of my friends got my some gift cards to a local shoe store up here. I've been really wanting to get a pair of fun Dansko's but have been putting it off since they are so pricey. I got these gift cards on my birthday, but I've been nervous about using them since I've heard your feet grow during pregnancy. However, I wear a 10.5...which they don't make!! So if my feet do grow, maybe they will only grow half an inch and then I would be a solid 11. Then, no more wrong fitting shoes!!! Hallelujah!! Anyways, feast your eyes on my new beautiful shoes...


I was going to get some black ones that look like an oil spill because I could wear those with most things. However, I saw these shoes and fell in love. When I tried them on in the store, I walked around in a circle, snapped my fingers, and told myself (in the mirror) that I looked fierce! Hahaha! I had to forgo the practical and get these! I HEART them so much! Now, mind you, I have nothing that matches them, but that's okay. All my outfits from now on will be picked out to match these beauties! :) The salesman at the store called them tiger print, but I call them snakeskin!! Rarrrrr!!!! You can all be jealous...I know they are beautiful! ;)

I do not heart snowshoes!

On Sunday, Michael and I met Amy to go for a nice hike. We were actually meeting to go snowshoeing, but that didn't last too long for Michael and me. We both really dislike snowshoeing, but our friend, Amy, hasn't been able to do many winter outdoor activities because of ankle issues and she asked us if we would go with snowshoeing with her. We happily said yes since it was Amy. :) We met at a trail that we have hiked in the summer, Potters Creek. This is a really nice trail. The snow along the trail actually turned out to be pretty compacted, so after about 5 minutes, I took off my snowshoes!


Michael ended up taking off his snowshoes too a little later. Amy kept hers on the whole time though! :)

The views were amazing! It was such a gorgeous day and I'm so glad Amy invited us to go! It was also pretty refreshing to be outside in the fresh air! The above photo is of the mud flats splattered with ice! Alaska looks so different every season!

During our hike, we came across a tree that had been decorated for Christmas. I know one of our online outdoor groups does this and they are supposed to go back out and collect all of the ornaments after a few weeks. Maybe whoever decorated this tree hasn't gotten around to undecorating it. You don't want to leave the ornaments out too long because the animals could eat the ornaments. However, this was a pretty nice surprise to come across a decorated tree! :)

Roller derby!

After tubing, I had organized a trip with the Girl Group (my online friend group) to go watch the roller derby! This was awesome! Michael and I went to see the derby movie "Whip It" when it was in theaters and I fell in love with derby then! I'm even more in love with this sport after watching it in person! It was so cool and these girls were hardcore! This league is a flat floor league, though, so it's a little different than the movies.

Everyone I went with wanted to stand in the beer garden, but it was really hard to see in there because of all of the people in that area. Well, since I couldn't drink and really wanted to watch the bout, I left everyone so I could go sit near the floor. As you may be able to tell, I am sitting right next to the court! This is the suicide section! Skaters push and get pushed when going around the court. Sometimes, the girls get pushed so hard that they fall into the crowd! They even had a sign on the floor where I was sitting stating that you were sitting in this area at your own risk! It was awesome!

The theme of this bout was "Black and Blue Hawaii". If you came dressed up in Hawaiian attire or as Elvis, you were entered into a drawing to win tickets to the next bout. Of course, my group got into this! :) We also gave ourselves black eyes (with eye makeup, of course)! This was a real hit and we were actually asked several times if we had been in fights! hahaha!

Michael and me at the bout. He is wearing a Hawaiian shirt under his jacket. :)

A lot of people asked me if I bought my jewelry just for this event...I told them that I used to live at the beach and that is what kind of jewelry we wore! Hahaha! I guess seashell earrings, necklaces, and bracelets do look kind of odd up here in Alaska! Unfortunately, it is way too cold up here, so I had to wear jeans under my grass skirt! Boo to that!

We had several other girls show up for this event, but these were all of the girls that were dressed up! From Left to Right: Amy, me, Jill, Kate, and Kristen. The next bout theme is "Brawl of the Wild". We are totally hoping to wear some animal prints! Rarrr!!! :) We may even have bloody noses, in addition to our black eyes!

Rubber Doughnuts!

On Saturday, a group of us went to the base and went tubing! They have a pretty good set up for this. If you notice the "groomed" hills behind Michael in the picture above, this is the area for tubing. You actually ride in real intertubes to go down these lanes.

The best part of this whole tubing process was riding up the hill! Once you are ready to go back up, you take your tube to the operator, he wraps your tube rope around the master cord that pulls everyone up the hill, and then you just enjoy the ride! This was pretty sweet! This is the best winter activity ever...you get to be outside, do something exhilirating, and be lazy!!! What more could you ask for?!?!?! This photo is Michael all bundled up riding on his tube to the top of the hill.


This is just some of the view that you see riding up the hill! How beautiful! That building is the place where you rent skis, tubes, snowboards, etc. The lake is behind the building and I'm sure if you notice the little red tent on the right side of the lake? This is an ice fishing "shanty". This is also the lake where we were able to ride the dog sled!

The tubing crew! From right to left: Jill, Me, Michael, Linnea, Amy, Bryan, Cory, and random girl walking by! haha! Michael and I were both so glad that we went with a big group. It was so much fun with all of us!

Michael and me all bundled up after our tubing session was over. We had planned on tubing last year when we moved up here, however, we weren't immune to the cold yet and could not even fathom being outside for two hours to ride on a tube! Hahaha! Look at us now!

Mush, Mush!!

Michael, Jill, Kate, and I all went to base this past Monday to go tubing! However, all the snot-nosed little kids bought all the tickets and they were sold out for the session we wanted. This was a huge bummer, but there was also dog sled rides going on this day!! We went down to the frozen lake to check this out. A local dog musher brought some of his dogs out and took people on a 3-5 minute ride around the lake. I really wanted to do this because how many people can actually say they have actually rode on a dog sled pulled by dogs!?!?!! Michael and Jill both really didn't want to ride when we found out that they would only allow one adult (plus the musher) to be pulled at a time. They both felt like the ride would be boring. However, I convinced them all to go! Everyone LOVED it! The ride was so smooth and actually quite fast!

This is the view from inside of the sled. There were only 8 dogs pulling the sled at a time. Normally, for the Iditarod, there are 16! They did swap out the dogs after each ride. The dog handlers also fed and watered the dogs in between rides. The musher owns 40 dogs!

Me on the sled with one of the mushers. These dogs are so obsessed with running that when they are waiting by the truck, they are going nuts waiting for there turn to run! It was quite impressive. The musher said that he had to run his dogs at least 10 miles the other weekend before they would even slow down because they had so much energy!

Michael's turn!

The dogs are also super skinny and wirey. If you remember the pics from my post on the 2009 Iditarod, you will remember seeing these skinny dogs. I just always thought sled dogs were big huskies or malamutes! Little did I know...

So for all of those that still need yet another reason to come up and visit us in the winter, we can take you on a dog sled ride! :)
Mush, mush!!