Same as last year, with Halloween only a few days away, the snow started falling. It hasn't been above freezing since, with the lowest temperatures getting close to 15 below a couple mornings. The Lower 48 was recently in a heat wave, and our friend Phil in San Diego reported 86 degrees while it was about 10 up here. Naturally, we're loving it, spending every weekend outside. Today we went sledding, as we do whenever we can, and we visited nearby Lake Wasilla. The cracks and bubbles in the ice were at least 8 inches down, and we had the whole lake to ourselves to slide, slip and throw snow around.
Speaking of Halloween, Malcolm was Spiderman and Chloe went as a tiger this year. We drove over to the Senior Complex, a collection of apartment buildings for "pioneers", as they're called in Alaska. Each building decorated differently, and kids were out in the 20-degree weather running between them, collecting candy along the way. Malcolm and Chloe had a blast, and so did the seniors, too. Malcolm thought "the old people" were very cool. We also visited a haunted barn this year, which some family puts together on their farm. A lot of locals showed up, and as we've noticed is the trend around here, many of the teenagers were outside milling about just in t-shirts. One girl was sitting before a bonfire with bare feet. It was about 15 degrees and breezy that night.
We had a couple birthdays, too. Malcolm turned 5 on November 3rd, and Brandon marched stoicly toward middle-age by turning 33 on the 7th. Malcolm's party had a dinosaur theme, hence the awesome dino masks Stephanie made, one of which you see Chloe modeling. Scary stuff. Brandon had to bring some of the kids in from sledding during the party, when mama moose and her two babies showed up in front of the yard. The photo's a little grainy, but you get the idea.
So, while you're all strolling along the beach enjoying the warm weather, we'll be slipping on the ice of the frozen marsh below our house, avoiding moose, sledding till we're pink-cheeked and sipping hot chocolate at the end of the day. We miss you all and hope you're enjoying the season as much as we are. Take care!
