Back to normal...

... both weather-wise and school-wise. After two weeks of below -40 temps, we had a 5-day meltdown, losing most of our snow and converting many roads and walking paths to slick ice. Yesterday, the girls and I took a short walk along our neighborhood mushing trail, and found that there was still enough snow left to ski on! So I made plans to come back with skis today. Then we went to campus in attempt to photograph the ice sculptures before they were ruined by the warm weather. We were too late. :( for example, this is what this fella now looks like:


Sad, huh? A bunch of new sculptures went up over the past week, but none of them were photo-worthy after the warm weather had ruined them. I am especially disappointed in this one set of bears--they are sitting on their haunches, and the carvers had etched outlines of paw pads on their paws! But the paw pads are now gone. :(

And this is what the museum sculpture now looks like:


Now wouldn't that have been a lovely photo, with the sun setting behind it? Oh well.

Last night there were fireworks to celebrate Alaska's 50th anniversary of statehood. What a spectacular show they put on! It was much better than on New Year's eve. They got all those fancy, multi-colored, multi-tiered ones that lit up the sky. And what a perfect evening for fireworks! It was warm and clear, and Venus shone behind the fireworks. Here is a photo by Johnny Wagner of the News Miner:


Imagine my utter delight to wake up this morning to temperatures back below freezing, and almost an inch of snow, with more falling! I immediately scrapped my plan to take a turn around the neighborhood ski trail, and decided to head to our old neighborhood to take the girls for a good, long stretch of fun. I skied out, and we 'jored back. Along the way, we bumped into our former neighbor, who was out with his team of big ol' siberians and malamutes. I forgot the camera, though. :(

But here are the girls after we got back. Are they pooped!


Classes start this Thursday. What a short Winter break!