CHS bachlorette ski

We had a great bachlorette party for rebecca this weekend at chena hot springs - a great ski, drinks in the swanky ice hotel, a soak in the hot springs, a treasure hunt, good aurora.... it was a really fabulous weekend...
rebecca and audrey
stac killer 360 views from the top
go trish!

rebecca's bachlorette party

having an iced martini in the ice hotel
stac in the bear bed, (it only cost $800/night to stay here!!) rebecca is now well equiped for marriage! the treasure hunt... 

more utah photos...

dianne reading the writing on the wall

the ruins at monarch cave, on comb ridge. 

Colorado

great trip to colorado, now nice to be home. here's a few of my favorite photos. not much snow in durango so we went and spent a few days in the desert near bluff, utah. i really really love this sandstone country..
desert varnish artwork...
joe on the edge of comb ridge.
 

Bierstadt Mtn

Kath- here's how i celebrated your bday for you, i hiked my first 14er (in winter)!! Audrey and i drove up Guanella pass from Boulder after the conference, did this hike, then went and stayed with a friend in Frisco. The hike was only 6 miles round trip but the altitude kicked my butt (not surprising i guess since the highest thing around fairbanks is probably ~ 800 ft), so it was one of the hardest hikes i've ever done. but the views were worth it...
 

GO MARTIN!!!

My friend Martin is leaving Saturday on a ridiculously long ultra ultramarathon ski race - 350 miles!! He and Ned (Kristen's husband) are 2 of only 3 skiers this year, the rest are bikers or runners. We'll be tracking his progress here: http://sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=2458. GOOD LUCK!! 

Seward

Just back from a quick trip to Seward and Anchorage for work and a quick visit with friends there. Didn't take many photos only because I was lazy - feels like I've been there a million times now, but it really was gorgeous this weekend. Here's one from the drive, the road to Seward has been closed several times this winter due to avalanches so I was lucky to get through. I'm off to Colorado for 2 weeks this weekend, kindof enjoying this 'unemployed' lifestyle... 

juneau

just back from a great week in juneau. i went for a conference, but since it was my first time in juneau i skipped out on a lot of the meetings to get out and see some of the area. the weather was typical juneau fashion - 6 days of sideways rain/sleet/snow, and 1 day of sun. despite the rain, it was hard to not fall in love with this charming little town.... stacia and tim in front of mendenhall glacier.

 

Caroline and I did one nice hike up into the snow, and got this view of downtown juneau. 

this photo is taken from douglass island, looking back towards juneau. 

this is all part of the tongass national forest. i really love the forests in southeast, huge trees (mainly sitka spruce and hemlock) but there's not much understory so it's really open and mossy underneath. 

 

stacia walking the beach... (note the cool earrings i made for her for christmas) 

it's really official now...

look what showed up in the mail yesterday.... it was very anticlimatic. fortunately stac and laura took me out to coffee to celebrate, otherwise it wasn't very exciting. not sure what to do with this - i'd rather have a job offer right now! 

change of energy round here....

finally!! dea has been discharged, we hope she'll be home next weekend.... Pella finally returned from her 6 day adventure at 40 below.... and yesterday it warmed up to only 15 below and we all felt like we were living in the tropics...

39 below this mornin...

and no signs of a warming trend. here's pella all dressed up ready to go for a short run. i need to borrow stacia's video camera and get some footage of her - she still hasn't quite learned that the jacket is attached, she really tries her darnest to outrun the thing, it's hilarious to watch. she was really playing up her limp after just a short 40 min run the other night, i think she's trying to convince me she needs to go to the hospital, not the vet, but the hospital (in seattle of course).... 

more life @ 30 below...

lessons in appropriate footwear and office yoga techniques...

and yes... stacia is still biking into (or in this case, in) the office despite the cold... actually the bike functions much better than most of our cars at these temps...

life @ 30 below...

Dea - I brought the camera into the office today to take pics of us working to show how boring our lives are without your coffee distractions. but instead i got stacia giving martin a lecture about appropriate footwear at 30 below. ok so even without you here, we rarely get any work done in this office (it's no small miracle i actually finished my thesis)... we're all wondering these days why the hell we live here, because to be perfectly honest - 30 below sucks. but actually it's especially obvious why these days... because when your house burns down on christmas day you are immediately overwhelmed with generous donations - everything from boxers (that didn't even make it to laundry first), to places to live, to extremely generous $ donations.... and when your dog dies tragically while you're away you come home to a house filled with love in the form of a fridge stocked with enough food to last several months... and when your kidney suddenly fails for no good reason you don't have to look far for free airline tickets to the best hospital (not to mention smoke salmon to eat on the flight)... anyhow to put it simply - this community is awesome.

oh yeah i guess there's 3 other reasons why we live here: spring, summer, and fall. 

pella's spot

Dea and Ben - this one is for you... Pella seems to have found her spot, making herself at home here... she's the first dog I've ever known to get in my butterfly chair, but that's her spot - where she's hanging out these days. She is (we both are actually) a little cranky that it's 30 below here, she really doesn't like to even leave the porch. But I did take her to a potluck last night, she was a hit (a spaz) of course. but she would have made both you proud, she didn't get into anybody's food!
but we both are missing you two....