I hate mondays

So, today was going great. Reine just got back into town after a long weekend and it was great to see him! I got a high score on my french test and am loving school! There was a light cover of snow on the ground and it had snowed all day. I was headed home to pick up madison and stopped to wait for her bus at the stop and I noticed her bus was more late than usual. I started to worry, after 30 minutes past her normal drop off time, that something might be wrong. A woman pulled up beside me and informed me that if I was waiting for a kid off the bus that I should know the bus was in a ditch up the road.

I panicked!! Raced over to the end of the neighborhood to find the bus and sure enough it was stuck rear end first in a ditch!

I rushed over to get madison off the bus but some idiots "helping" the situation wouldn't let her off.... yeah it was a mystery to me as well. So I waited. Finally I got her off the bus but at that point so many parents had piled in their cars to get their kids too nobody could move. AND on top of all that it was so icy on the roads no one could move without slipping.

We finally got out and found ourselves safely at home. We made some dinner and ran the usual routine. Finished homework and watched I Love You Phillip Morris which is hilarious!!!

So today was full of surprises and stresses, I hate mondays. Lets hope tuesday is less of a stress! : )

I love saturdays.

I love sleeping in. I love sleep. Sleep sleep sleep. : ) I wake up at 6 am every single day and stay up past 12 every single night, saturdays are the only day I get to sleep in. Once I woke up without an alarm clock around 10 I decided to make something special for breakfast.

Cinnamon roll pancakes!! I got the recipe off of recipegirl.com

 Yumm! These pancakes are not healthy! But they are delicious!

You have to add the cream cheese frosting because at this point who are you kidding. Go big or go...to the gym. 

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

After cleaning up after breakfast and cleaning the entire house I finally sat down to finish the painting I started a while ago! This is the finished piece! It already has a home. My friend Sydney in SLO was the first person to ever buy one of my paintings and I knew she would love this one. : )

This is one of the largest pieces I have completed I feel so accomplished! : )

This week I have been super productive. I got all of my assignments and studying done a whole week early, cleaned the whole house, and finished this piece. Yay go me.

Banana bread recipe!

I have made way too many banana loafs but in this case just enough to have the perfect recipe! At least I think so and Reine as well. He eats most of the things I bake. Love him for it! He's the best food critic : )
I've been making so much banana bread because I have so many over ripe bananas! I've been volunteering at the food bank in town and at the end of the day you take a portion of the food they receive. Anything from canned foods, lunch leftovers and produce thats about to go bad...I choose the bananas every time. They are perfect for this!

The ingredients you will need:

4 large very ripe bananas! the darker the better!
2 Large eggs
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup fat free vanilla or plain yogurt
5 Tbs of butter, melted
1 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat or white flour.
1 Tbs of baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp all-spice
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees! or more if needed, my over here really sucks. Thats why I hate new ovens. So I bought an oven thermometer and its helps!

Combine and blend together the butter, eggs, bananas and yogurt. Add sugars and stir until smooth.

Add all remaining dry ingredients. My recommendation is to add spices to the sugar mixture first then add the flour.

Pour batter into a 9 x 15-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a tooth pick can be inserted and taken out without any gooey.

To make muffins with this recipe combine ingredients as directed then coat a muffin pan with cooking spray. Bake for about 25-30 mins depending, instead of the 55 for the loaf.

To add some spice to your end result combine
1/3 cup powdered sugar with either
low fat milk or orange juice. Depending on your preference.

I like the orange juice topping myself. : )

Enjoy!

TGIF : )

Today I woke up as usual to get madison ready for school and to get myself ready for my 8 am abnormal psychology class. After class I went to the college coffee house to study but there internet was down, so I actually had to study instead of "studying" and really stumbling. Which is my new addiction. So I was actually productive today leaving the rest of my weekend to finish a painting I've been working on since....Its embarrassing so I won't mention the time. But its too long!

I had previously deleted my facebook and felt pretty good about it. I didn't have a facebook for about 3 days before MY OWN MOTHER guilted me back into reactivating my facebook so she can send me her weekly updates of her life at the beach. So she can taught me with the allure of a beautiful sunset picture with the title "Wish you were here"! Thanks mom.

It was 24 degrees today and it snowed the other day. And I'm not complaining I love snow, especially the cute fluffy snowflakes that were falling the other day : )

 I was up late last night baking 30 muffins! for madison's class party that she had today. That is something I miss from grade school, end of school (or in madison's case end of the quarter) party. She got to wear pajamas to class and eat junk food all day and not do any homework.....

Well... I do that...
But thats not the point! The teachers encourage it. And this has made me realize I don't wear sweat pants to school enough. Since when did this become so acceptable?! To change my ways I went to the UAF bookstore and bought some sweats! I am school spirited....and on my way to be a lazy student! My parents would be so proud.

The muffins for maddy's school party! So many banana nut muffins! I'll add the recipe soon! : )

Hello, everyone.

And by everyone I mean the five people who read this blog of mine that I haven't paid attention to in months. :P oops!

But I have some good excuses!

I'll briefly cover some of my latest adventures. First would be my Denali trip that my dad, wendy, madison,  Reine and I went on. Denali state park is basically all of southern alaska and is breath taking no matter where you stand. As you can see. : )

We stayed at McClaren lodge for 3 nights. This was our view : ) We had an awesome fishing trip, a wild canoe ride with a crazy unexpected hail storm and constant canoe-redirection! Reine was sweet and manly enough to push us when we got stuck. Got in that freezing glacier water in bare feet! Thats my man : )

Soon after Denali I was headed back home to california. There were many adventures along the way, too many to name but I'll do my best. Some of my favorites include my first summit attempt on shasta with my father, spending fourth of july with friends and family in my home town, Reine's surprise visit to california!!! and our wonderful california road trip that followed.

 Me in avalanche gulch. My dad and I were well on our way up the face when all of a sudden I dropped to the snow with a sharp pain in my left knee. I assumed it was a rock but we found out quick it was melting ice from the top of the gulch. The Gulch is often referred to as "The Bowling Alley" I now know why. A couple small pieces of ice also hit my dad in the shoulder and leg, so we decided it was far enough.

My dad and I in the gulch on our way down! We'll try again next year!!

Another great adventure I had this summer while in california was a state wide road trip with my best friends!

Reine had surprised me in sacramento only 2 days before our trip. It was the greatest surprise I have even gotten! : ) Gabe and emily showed up at the house, we loaded the car with snacks and supplies and headed off to SLO to visit my momma!

We had a great kayak trip while we were there. A must in SLO town.

 The crew geared up for the adventure to the dinosaur caves of pismo beach!

 Reine looking fine in his kayak gear! striking a pose! lol

 Made it through the cave! The tide was low enough that day so we could sit in the huge cavern and enjoy its beauty.

We landed safely and ready for some lunch! Had a great time working the waves, exploring sea caves and .....I can't think of anything else that rhymes with caves or waves but we saw some sea lions!!! lol

The rest of our trip was a success to say the least. We headed down to San diego after SLO to meet with friends. We stopped in SB to meet with Roxy and have some delicious mexican food!

 In san diego we traveled to la Jolla to enjoy the famous beaches and swim in the ocean. Reine had never swam in the ocean before and it was an experience for sure.
 So much fun on this trip and so much mexican food!! YUMM where else can you get awesome mexican food?...besides mexico....not alaska thats for sure!
We headed back up the coast to Santa cruz to visit with Arianna and ethan. We managed to stop off at a beach just before we got to their house just to run around the beach and play in the surf. We needed to get out all that energy from sitting in a car so long! and through LA traffic YUCK!

Me running around : )

We had such fun adventures in Santa cruz. We got to pick strawberries in the fields. so many cute little strawberries. We got so much!! and we put them on Reine's birthday strawberry short cake. Yummers!

After dinner that night we enjoyed the entertainment of the famous Santa Cruz board walk.

 Eating some more delicious snacks! Chocolate dipped cones! yum!
Along the way and during the whole trip we constantly switched seats and took pictures to document our journey. These were some of the pictures, all are my favorite! Thats our california road trip! I'll update you later on the rest of summer and my travels to Boston, New York and Nantucket! Abiento!

 Peace <3

I'll be posting my Whole wheat cinnamon rolls recipe next post!!

First post in a while. Update

So I know I haven't been keeping up with the blog I posted about 5 months ago but its a little difficult to document your every move when you are traveling, studying for finals, doing homework, taking care of a kid and a household. So this is an update.

Not too much has happened....

Haha but the weather has improved by about 400% up here! For a while it was warmer and sunnier here than anywhere in California! I loved telling all my friends in shasta (where it was snowing), that I was out in my bikini getting a "tan" in ALASKA! suckas.

So they weather has been great except for this week. Still warmer than the winter for sure but I bet california is beating us with the sun.

Another cool thing coming up is the summer solstice! Its on June 22. And It is the longest day of the year. The sun sets around 2 am and rises at around 3:30 am. Its crazy to see. It never gets dark here! So its been messing with sleep pattern for sure. Birds are chirping at 1 in the morning!! I have to close my blinds just to get the illusion that it is dark outside. I love it though, Its so rad.

Hanging out with William and his friends one night we stayed up so late we saw the sun set and rise. Pretty cool!
I've been meeting more people everyday thanks to my good friends william and natalie.
The summers here are so beautiful, I can see why people live up here now.

Things madison says. part II

Me: "She looks like paris hilton"
Madie: "Who's paris hilton? Is she that lady who ran for president?"

-

Madie: "Could a wholly mammoth get constipated?"
Me: "I really don't know....I guess they could"
Madie: "Why?"
Me: "....."

-

Madie: "We made planets today in school. Not real ones"
Me: "I didn't even think that was possible but thanks for clearing that up"

-

Madie: " I hate the sun. Its too bright!"
Me: "Then you're in the right place" (alaska)

-

Picking madie up from school
Madie: "This is a school, you don't just come up to it and pick up your kids"
Me: "Really?! what do I do then?"




" I don't like people, but I do like puddles"




"Yum! milk shake burps taste way better than normal burps"




"What kind of bird is a Chicken?"
-I don't know what your question is...





















More to be added I'm sure.

Spring break!!

My friend Anne and I, also madey went to the ice field again to enjoy the finished park and sculptures. The work was amazing! Heres one of my favorite entries.

The detail was beautiful and the jaguar in the middle was so majestic and life like! Good job! We also enjoyed the ice slides with all the kids. So much fun. Check it out!

WEEEEE! LOL
My midterms are over and spring break has finally started. I'm only 11 hours till I leave for hawaii and 24 hours until I get there. Yay!
The sudden earthquake in japan caused a mass tsunami warning along hawaiian coast including waikiki. But my flight hasn't been canceled and I'm good to go.
: )

"home is where you feel the most loved"

Today has been wonderful! I went to my 8 a.m. drawing class, which wasn't the wonderful part. After class my friend Anne and I needed coffee and breakfast desperately so we searched for the new Julia's solstice cafe. After we found this hidden gem we ordered coffee and the house granola. It was all so delicious : )
After I dropped off Anne back at the dorms I went to get my hair did at the Aveda salon in town. Can you say highlights?!
I know, I know. I'm not supposed to dye my hair because its red. Blah blah blah. but maybe I should have listened to everyone, I'm so blonde now! The color not the mental limitations : P (sorry if this offends anyone)
But I like it! Its something new. And she said it makes me seem more tan....YEAH RIGHT. I'm a ginger. I can dye my hair and my tanning capabilities are gonna stay the same. LOL.
After the salon I picked up madey from school and we went shopping for jeans for her since her last pair "mysteriously ripped". I got a new pair of shoes for no special occasion and she now gets to sport her very first pair of straight leg jeans. : )
I made a delicious tomato and red lentil soup for dinner which was only enjoyed by Id, Ego and the super ego of myself : P
And speaking of psychology I have 2 big midterms tomorrow that I'm studying for right now. lame sauce but I know my stuff ; )
I got a text from my friend natalie telling me the northern lights were out and were effortlessly active. I went outside and sure enough: Green beams of lights were flying across the sky. So beautiful.
I woke up madey so she could see them too. We stood outside for a good 15 minutes before freezing. The Northern lights are so beautiful. Imagine this: bright green waves of light like a reflection on water rolling across the sky. Absolutely breathtaking. They peak around Spring and Fall.

Thats all for now. Hawaii in 2 days!! : )

Ice Sculptures!

Fairbanks is among one the most famous cities in alaska (one of the only cities lol) because it has held the World Ice Championship for over 22 years. People from all around the world come to compete in this event and the whole town comes out to see these artists at work. They build intricate arrangements that seem so delicate they could break at any second. And others build sculptures as tall as 30 feet, Slides big enough for anyone to enjoy and a playground made up entirely of ice.

My friend Will and I had sushi tonight and then headed to the ice field. We were not dressed to be outside I'll say that. It was cold. The park is huge and in this weather made it almost impossible to see the whole thing in one night.

Me as an eskimo! Oh! Sorry, a Native : P they get angry if you call them eskimos. lol

Me freezing in the ice sauna. Basically an ice room with wood benches and a stone steamer. The door was furs...how alaskan? lol
The park also has slides made of ice (obviously), 6 rows and 85 feet of fun! although I still haven't gone on them yet but I hope to do that soon! The slides! They're all lit up with flashing lights and its a crazy sight to see.

The categories of ice sculptures include one block and multi block. A single block looks something like this.

Yeah thats a cougar...made out of ice. Crazy huh?! The amount of detail that goes into all these pieces is amazing. Ice sculpting is no joke. A multi block competitor would create something like this.

This was just one of the many spectacular pieces created. The park was filled with full sized Poseidon vessels decked out (PUN!) with human sized greek gods and goddesses. There were mushrooms taller than me that looked cute enough to sit on. Some statues were at least 30 feet tall with detail that was unbelievable. One piece was big enough for a man to fit inside of and start carving to give his art that POP it needed. Very cool!
Another very impressive display of ice sculpting abilities was the ice maze!

 The ice maze was impressive to say the least. With walls that were taller than me, Will and I managed to find our way out. The walls were lit up with colored lights and it felt like a winter wonderland inside!
The World Ice Championships will be going on all week and I hope to enjoy more of them before I leave for hawaii.
6 More days!! : ) Can't wait.

New addition : )

I got my belly button pierced! I had been wanting to get a new addition but hadn't decided what, so the navel it is! Watch the video below to see the whole process. Natalie very sneaky filmed the whole thing and you can kind of see my reaction. Song: Steller by Incubus

Final results!

It was painful for about a minute, now I can hardly tell its there. I love it! : )

Hockey! Fairbanks Vs Anchorage

The UAF game of the year versus Anchorage. The rink was packed and Madey and I sat in the balcony of the student section. The game got started and not even 30 seconds into the first period Anchorage scored on us. The whole first period seemed like a joke, mini fights were breaking out and no one was scoring or skating properly. I had lost hope that we would even score. The second period we finally scored! The score was 1to 1 with seconds left in the 2nd period with a few almost shots. The 3rd period had begun and within minutes the Nanooks scored! The game was becoming more and more exhilarating when the team scored another shot! Then another! and finally with seconds left in the last period 4 to 1 the Nanook scored to end the game at an exciting 5 to 1 against Anchorage.

It was an awesome game to be apart of. The students and the other spectators really make it fun. : )

make it...snow

Me and madison were waiting on the windshield to de-frost and it was taking too long so I pulled out a random card to scrape the ice off with and POOF* we made snow. : )

Wendy is out of town so its just me and madison this week. And poor madison didn't have school monday and tuesday so she had to tag along with me on one of my busiest school days of the week. Thank god i got out of almost all my classes early that day.
Also with Wendy not in town I had to attend a back to school night for madison. I felt like a mom! omg. She showed me around her class room and gave me a tour of her cubby, art drawer and assignments she had completed in class. So that was my first experience with that, I can't remember the last time I even had a back to school night...maybe 7th grade...7 years ago! wow.

Somethings I miss in California:
My family (brandon, sarah, baby sofia, my mom and dad)
My friends. you know who you are ; )
My kitteh Little leo I miss him so much. Does this make me a cat lady?

Little leo as a kitten! so cute. He's much bigger now lol fatty. : )
I also miss:
WARMTH! i'm about ready to thaw out now, can't wait for hawaii! 17 days and counting! : )

Things madison says.

Me: "She looks like paris hilton"
Madie: "Who's paris hilton? Is she that lady who ran for president?"

-

Madie: "Could a wholly mammoth get constipated?"
Me: "I really don't know....I guess they could"
Madie: "Why?"
Me: "....."

-

Madie: "We made planets today in school. Not real ones"
Me: "I didn't even think that was possible but thanks for clearing that up"

-

Madie: " I hate the sun. Its too bright!"
Me: "Then you're in the right place" (alaska)

-

Picking madie up from school
Madie: "This is a school, you don't just come up to it and pick up your kids"
Me: "Really?! what do I do then?"


More to be added I'm sure.

Fun times.

This past weekend, with regard to the load of homework I had to somehow breeze through, was extremely fun. Friday got started with an Ice Dogs hockey game that wasn't as full of fights as i was hoping for. Thats the only reason I go to those games, the UAF team is not allowed to fight due to their fragile scholarships. The Ice digs however are not only allowed to fight but it seems they are encouraged.

Me and Natalie decided to make valentines day cupcakes on saturday but while waiting on an ingredient we decided to go bowling! My first roll was a strike! beginners luck for sure! lol Im not much of a bowler myself.

nice face natalie! lol We did pretty good. A group of friends and her boyfriend Tim bowled with us. After a game we headed back to make those cupcakes! I used my secret carrot cake recipe to make mini cakes with cream cheese frosting that we dyed red for valentines day : )
They turned out perfect despite our ghetto set up of kitchen utensils. which was missing a large mixing bowl and mixing tools...
They were so good.

The Northern lights have been coming out more so hopefully I'll get a good picture of them soon. Also trying to get a picture of a sun dog which is the illusion of 3 suns on the horizon connected by a small rainbow. Pretty cool huh. I just gotta get it on camera!

Headed to hawaii in less than 26 days! : )

you are my sunshine

So today started like any other. It was snowing! : )

 I got up at 6, made breakfast, got the girls to school and work, got ready and headed to the university. I was pulling into a parking space and had to back up slightly to fit. As i'm backing up all of a sudden BAM! I backed into another car like a boss. We were both alright and there was little to no damage to either car. Not how I wanted to start my day. I headed into my Psych life span development class crying and flustered. But by the end of class I was feeling much better though. : )
My Psych building is a replica of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in D.C. and of course the writing lab is on the 8th floor.

Its a fun hike. Oh and a useless fact about this building, its also riot proof as is the FBI building. Not a lot of riots in alaska I assume but I could be wrong. lol
My classes are all great. I look forward to my 3 hour long Modern history class on tuesday nights, its greatly amusing and my professor is one the most eccentric people I have ever met. I've made friends with a girl in this class who reminds me of my dear friend arianna. Her name is natalie and she is into snowboarding, yoga and hiking. Its easy to say, I think we'll get along : ) Coincidentally she is also going to hawaii and Kauai for spring break as well as me. So that should be fun.
Another friend I've been very fortunate to make here is William. Without him I would have been without a friend for far too long and he was nice enough to take me to my first hockey game and the "best burrito place in Fairbanks". So thanks! : )

Another strange thing about alaska, there are these blue, extremely fat crows that seem to waddle just about everywhere. Thats all for now.

Go Nanooks!

Friday was the first UAF hockey game of the season against Ohio state. The game was nothing to nothing until overtime then nanooks scored, winning the game.

Tonight was the second game against Ohio state.  It was immediately an exciting game when the nanooks scored!  The rest of the game held the crowd in absolute trance as the teams got the score up to six to two by the third quarter.  Me, Maddy, William and his friend (i'm horrible with names) all sat in the student section where most of the chanting happens.  Once the other team has a penalty and one player is forced to sit in the penalty box the whole sections shouts "SIT DOWN BITCH" lol UAF won the game.

So far Alaska has been great and the university has been wonderful.  Every day just keeps getting better.

Another beautiful sunrise here in Alaska : )

A day in the life.

So many of you have asked what my daily schedule is and what my fairbanks life is all about. Well heres some little facts about my average day in fairbanks. Some of its normal and some I'll have to get used to.
First, I wake up in the morning around 6:30 to wake up maddy and get her ready for school. I make breakfast, pack her lunch and we head out the door before 8. Her school starts at 8:30 and then I'm off to classes at the University. After I go to my classes I go and pick up maddy at 3:15. Then we head off to the gym where we go to zumba, run, and swim in the pool. After the gym we head home. Maddy does her homework while I make dinner. She goes to sleep at 8:30 and then I do my homework and catch up with my friends.

Some things that are a little different here in alaska:
1. Waking up to pitch black with the moon still hung in the sky.
2. Having to plug in my car whenever I'm turning it off for more than an hour...

Yeah...everyone does this. Otherwise your oil might freeze and your car won't start.
3.Remembering that when I say I'm from california I have to remind everyone I'm not from L.A. Its like a mini europe over here. lol
4. Sunrise at 10:30 in the morning, which I'm rather fond of. : )
5. finally, the fact that walking anywhere, no matter how close, is a huge adventure.

Some cool things
People still ride bikes here, even though the roads are covered in a nice sheet of thick ice. Their bikes are equipped with some hefty tires that are about 5 times bigger than a normal mountain bike tire.
People are  NOT decked out in only carhart and surel, they dress normal and reasonably fashionable. (This I like)
People know how cold it is here. They don't hide the fact and they don't "get use to it".

So I hope that covers everything, leave me a comment if you'd like me to answer any questions you have. Thank you and goodnight! : )

Hockey!

I finally saw my first alaska hockey game. It was the Ice Dogs at the local arena. I went with a friend I met through another good friend in SLO. So William took me to see my first hockey game and it was a blast. The game is so brutal and we both didn't know the rules that well we were just hoping for a good fight. Which we got a lot of! : )

Just before they scored. The alaska Spectators are brutal towards the other team with full chants of "Boo's" and "Go home's". It was exciting. I can't wait to see my first fairbanks university hockey game which should be this upcoming saturday. Go Nanooks!! (polar bears) lol

First day in Fairbanks

Today was jam packed with a busy schedule of stuff I had to do. I woke up today at 10:30 the first time I've been able to sleep in for a while and saw a beautiful sunrise! at 10! I love that I can sleep in and still see the sunrise. 

Got ready then headed to the local coffee shop (I'm blanking on the name but I'm sure I'll refer back to it again) got some coffee and breakfast then I was off to the University to take care of some business. Talk about frustrating though UHG! I made a very long check list and was slowly checking things off, first the financial aid office, then placement tests, more registrar visits and my admissions. After all the not so fun stuff I did some semi-fun stuff like getting groceries for the apartment and some warm socks because I'm a dork and forgot to bring warm socks to alaska! lol
It was minus 19 today and the sunset was gorgeous. The harvest moon was even bigger tonight then it was last night.

Did you know Alaska gains six minutes of day light each day? To put this into perspective you main land folks only gain 15-20 seconds a day. So by May 1st Alaska will have 16 hours of sunlight. So THERE! HA! : )

Finally in Alaska

Woke up at 4:00 a.m. to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight. Sat on a plane for four hours and finally made it to anchorage around 10:00 a.m. alaska time. It was still dark when I landed but the sun finally rose around 10:30. I can sleep in still see the sunrise here : )  The sun was shining and beautiful the whole drive to fairbanks. We drove though Denali state park and the scenery was absolutely majestic.

The drive took about 6 hours and we were advised almost no places along the way were going to be open. We had a full tank of gas but there was no place to eat or....do our business.lol so we started to stop at every post there was. The last one we tried after not eating for almost 9 hours that day had some interesting signs that indicated it was not open.

A paper sign in eastjesusnowhere that told us the place had been closed for some odd time and wouldn't be opening till April! And we weren't about to stick around for 3 months. Another sign that was rather entertaining let us know how people most commonly get around in that area.

So we had to keep driving in hopes we'd soon find a place to eat and rest. Finally about an hour later, two hours from fairbanks we found a post. I don't know if we were just hungry but that was the best food i've ever had. Going there again I probably wouldn't say the same thing....lol
Also along the way we managed to get a pretty good shot of Mount McKinley.

 Thats Mount McKinley. The one towering over the Denali range. Climbers most commonly use this 20 thousand foot peak to train for Mt.Everest. We got out of the car to stretch our legs and take some needed pictures. The temp at that time was only minus 18! A little cold but nothing I can't handle. : )

Oh yeah. Thats right. I'm in high heels. In Alaska. lol dorky pose I know but I just felt like doing something fun : ) Once we had our fun we starting driving again towards fairbanks. The coolest part of this whole road trip was the that we got to see the sun rise and set in a matter of hours. It was one of the longest sunsets I've ever seen and it was one the most beautiful. The moon that night though Oh My God. It was the january harvest moon and it was big! I tried to take a photo but it just doesn't do it justice.

Almost to fairbanks we saw our first alaskan moose! Didn't manage to snag a picture unfortunately. We got to Fairbanks around seven and it was cold! Minus 31! We settled into our temporary home until we can move into our house in march hopefully! Talked to Tony on skype before bed and then passed out! I had been up for a staggering 20 hours. I was pooped! So far thats my Alaskan adventure, more to come! Its minus 33 today with a high of minus 15! yikes.