Projects!

March has come to an end and we are in to sloppy April, knee deep in slush, mud and projects! Yes, spring is coming even here, it just takes a little longer for the snow to disappear. I have a neverending list of things that I would love to get done. Spring cleaning would be fantastic if I could catch up on the regular cleaning jobs from this week. Maybe next week. I'm sure that I will have more time then. The boys have also been on a real projects kick. Stratton built this cardboard robot with Brigg and then got to paint it all by himself in whatever colors he chose- blue and silver glitter. Shocking. He could hardly wait to take it to preschool when it was his turn for show and tell. Dashell could barely contain his envy and disappointment at not getting to participate in the painting. Somehow his little watercolor page was not stacking up to his brother's undertaking.

The boys also decided that they wanted to make jungle puppets, so I had each of them pick which animal they wanted to do. Dashell chose a lion and Stratton chose an elephant. Obviously, they both had to make on of each. They really loved this project...here is Dashell trying out his lion's roar. We heard it day and night for days.

Stratton shows off his creations- he went with a colorful interpretation of animal skins, although he insisted the faces had to be perfect. Trust our selectively obsessive child to insist on a perfect face with a multicolored body.

We also decided to go to the Ice Park at night for family home evening a couple weeks ago, even though it isn't getting dark until past 9 these days, so that we could see everything all lit up. The boys loved it! They lasted for hours, even though it was late. They went down every slide at the park at least 15 times, including Dashell diving down the really big slides on his belly all alone and then hopping up at the bottom insisting to do it again. I think having their Dad there made it that much more fun. It was a great night and definitely the most fun the boys have had in weeks. This is a picture of both Stratton and Dashell heading down the big slide all alone a time or two before going down on their stomachs became the faster and preferred way to go.

Stratton also had to taste out the carnivorous appetites of the ice hippopotamus one more time. He laid in there for quite a while....I'm not sure what he was expecting to happen.

And for those of you who have made it this far, we do have one more projects in the works. We are having a baby in July, and from the looks of things, this arrival does indeed intend to be a bit more of a project than the boys were. Count on a child of ours to make a splash!

More March Fun

March is such a beautiful month in Fairbanks. It is past 8 pm and still light outside! The days are bright and sunny and above zero and there is lots of fun things to do! Not only have we been enjoying the ice park, but the dog races, visiting family, our new dog, snowmachining in the White Mountains and a chance to play with Dad outside when he gets home from work while it is still light!

Dashell, Stratton and me at the Limited North American sprint dog races....this coming weekend will find us at the Open!

Wells and Stratton wrestling during some down time at the dog race. Kerry's whole family has been visiting this spring break week.

Playing with our trucks in the driveway.

Piper trying to "box" Zeus into playing with her. I love this picture of the two of them! Thank goodness they're friends!

Dashell chilling with his favorite icy bear pal.

Ice Park Fun

We have been enjoying the Ice Park this month...we still need to get Brigg there at night to see them all lit up. Just one of the fun things about Fairbanks in March!

Coming down one of the long slide runs with Dashell.

This looks good until you try and get out of a bowl of ice!

Feeding Dashell to the ice hippo.

One of the boys' favorites....of course an ice snow machine is just as great as a real one!

Always good for a laugh

Dashell is quite thrilled that we found some junior sized goggles for him to wear on the snowmachine. In fact, he won't let us take them off. Watch out for this extreme little guy! Lately when it is time to put him to bed, he starts running away screaming, " No! I want to play!" He will stand in his crib crying that he just wants to play for a good 5 minutes before he accepts that playtime is over for the day. I would say that sums up his personality pretty well right now.

I Must Be Crazy!

Meet Zeus. The new addition to our family. He's a year and a half year old Chessie that is absolutely HUGE, easily twice Piper's size. And yes, I agreed to him. And now I have a 90 pound horse glued to my hip quite literally. He shadows me everywhere and Piper has yet to fully drop her prima donna act, so now we have some serious competition going on for attention.

Today I took Dash to a barbershop for his first professional haircut. Below is apicture of the results. He was so funny. We went in and say on the bench to wait and he kept saying "My turn for haircut. My turn!" He was so excited, and then the time came and he lost his nerve. He sat on my lap for the whole thing, perfectly still and avoiding all eye contact with the lady cutting his hair. As she got close to being done, I pointed out the huge mirror that he could see himself in, and then the charm came out again. He sat back up straight and smiled at himself in the mirrior and said, " I'm cute. Handsome." I don't think he'll ever be afflicted with false modesty.

Last weekend Brigg and I took our first overnight trip alone since we had Stratton 4 1/2 years ago. It was fantastic! We went to Anchorage, had dinner at the restaurant where we ate the night before our wedding, went to a temple sesion together...both of us in the same session! and went furniture shopping. Yes, it will have been over a year by the time it arrives, but we will be getting a couch for our living room. We never really missed it until this last month when we all took turns getting a serious bug. Something about a couch is a necessity for sick times. It was a wonderful 24 hour date. I can't even begin to say how glad I am to have family that was willing to help out so we could go. It will be a highlight for months. Now we are on into March, one of my favorite Fairbanks months! Ice sculptures, dog mushing and more! We will try and take more pictures than we have been recently.

Stratton Stories

Stratton has been keeping us thoroughly entertained this last week. He is growing up so quickly, but he still very much his own little man. He has a new joke. Jokes have been a tricky area for him. His two favorite jokes are " Fred Meyers" and " Do you know what dinosaurs are? Extinct!" On the way to preschool yesterday, he debuted his new joke that he had obviously been formulating for some time. He asked me " Mom, what would you say if you saw a horse with antlers?" He had to repeat this question a couple of times because I had no idea what he was trying to say. Finally I said, " I don't know Stratton. What would you say?" Stratton said, " Silly mom! Horses don't have antlers!" At least we are getting warmer. He also came into our room in the middle of the night 2 nights ago crying because he said his bed wouldn't stop shaking. Brigg put him back to bed and was a little short with him, telling him that his bed wasn't shaking and to just go to sleep. I thought it was a strange excuse, even for Stratt, so the next morning I checked and we had had an earthquake right when he woke up. Brigg felt pretty bad about having not believed him and had to go and apologize to him over breakfast for not believing him. I also had my first preschool parent teacher conference for him. He is doing great, but one comment his teacher made is that he will not dance at preschool for love or money. For any of you who have been around Stratton and music, you should know he has some serious moves and dances all the time. On the way home, I asked him why he wouldn't dance at preschool. He told me, " Mom, there isn't enough room for my moves with all those other people." He does have a point. I think he is set on remaining a solo performer. Today, I didn't really have anywhere we needed to go and wanted to stay home and get some work done, but that can be a hard sell for the boys. I talked to Stratton about it this morning and he told me, " Well, I guess it's okay if you will do lots of art projects with me." We had to do some serious negotiating on how many "alot" was. But we have had a great day together painting fish and rainbows and shoveling the snow outside. I'm not sure the dump truck brigade made shoveling the walk go any faster, but they were good company!

The Yukon Quest

  
  I think the Alaskan in me is reasserting itself. I have been thinking about a dog race almost constantly for a few days straight. Most of you are probably completely unaware that the first finishers of the Yukon Quest made it into Fairbanks last night. You may even be trying to remember what exactly the Yukon Quest is. But let me just say, that is the kind of sporting even that has some real drama, even without the stagey music they use for professional sports games on TV. I'll admit that when the Quest started this year, I wasn't following it too closely. How many Quests and Iditarods have I read about and followed in my life? I just didn't feel so invested. Especially when Hugh Neff kept increasing his commanding league. It seemed like there wasn't much of a race going on, just a bunch of guys (and a few women) mushing through the wilderness. But then the mushers crossed the border from Canada into Alaska, and things got much more exciting! Hans Gatt, a former Quest champion who was running in 2nd place, couldn't get his team over American Summit in the severe cold and high winds.  The next musher, Brent Sass, came upon him and hooked his team up to his and made sure he made it over and into the next checkpoint. The next day, Hans Gatt continued on and was crossing the Yukon in the middle of the night when his entire team and himself fell through a patch of overflow up to his neck. Overflow happens when water pushes itself over river ice, and then can refreeze a thin layer over the top, making it almost impossible to differentiate from the solid river ice. He said when he broke through he couldn't feel the bottom, and thought he may have broken through to the actual river until he was able to find some footing. Once again, another musher, Sebastian Schnuelle, came upon him and pulled him and his team out the water. Not only had Gatt been drenched in ice cold water, the outside temperature was around -50 that night and he ended up with severe frostbite on both hands that forced him to scratch at the next checkpoint. Then Hugh Neff,  who had been leading by 10-12 hours over any of the other mushers, attempted to make it over Eagle Summit, the next stage in the race. He too had fallen through overflow on the river, though not nearly as deep as Hans Gatt. He spent 12+ hours trying to make it over the summit with his dogs in the wind and cold, and could not get his team over. He ended up being withdrawn from the race, leaving a race that I had thought was locked up and not particularly exciting, wide open. Last night, Dallas Seavey, a 23 year old rookie, crossd the finish line first just after 11:00 pm, making him the youngest person to ever win the quest. Brigg went to see his first finish of a "big" Alaska dog race, although he had to wait a little longer than anticipated.... after 1,000 miles of rough terrain and terrible weather, the dogs on the leading teams really slowed down the last few miles. Just 1/2 hour later, Sebastian Schnuelle came in second, making it by all accounts a close race. 30 minutes might not sound like a nailbiter, but when you're talking about a 1,000 mile, 10 + day race, that's pretty impressive to be that close at the end.
       None of this has anything to do with our family.  I just felt like some of the stories from this year's Quest were too good not to share. You should really read the stories from the trail. These stories are better than a movie! I think the best part is listening to the mushers who went through these dramatic experiences talking about them- they act like it was no big deal, just another day on the trail, of course they helped their fellow musher. They are so matter of fact about all of it. The even more remarkable thing is that many of the mushers who have just finished, or are still finishing the Quest, will turn around with their dogs and run the Iditarod in 10 days from now. That should make marathoners feel a little wimpy!