The Fuhr Five: The Most Festive Week in Alaska

Now that we have two kids, time is FLYING by. I am not sure where the weeks are going, but I am now a full month behind on updating this blog. And I'm behind because it has been an exciting time for us! I'll start where I left off a full month ago, at Fur Rondy and the Iditarod! The most festive time in Alaska all year.

Fur Rondy is a week long celebration full of all kinds of arctic events including dog sled races, fur auctions, ice carving contests, snowball fights and more. It leads right into Iditarod weekend, which is the biggest sporting event in the state.

We started off the festivities by going to the parade downtown. This was Ethan's first parade (and Kelsey's too, but she slept through it and didn't really see it!) and he LOVED it. When big trucks are your obsession, there really isn't a better place than a parade. He had a great time getting excited as each big truck rolled by, especially when they honked their horns.

Then we caught the world championship short course dog sled races. We met up with a bunch of friends and tailgated right next to the trail. It was fun to be right up close as the dogs ran by. The mushers would wave and shout to the kids. We are used to tailgating at football games in the L48, so I thought it was hilarious that people tailgate for dog sled races up here. It was a lot of fun though! Ethan's favorite part was putting snow in his hot chocolate to cool it off.

Nana and Poppy came into town in the middle of the week to join us in the festivities...and to spend time with the kiddos. It was so fun getting to show them the wintery side of Alaska. We spent a few days playing around the house and making trips downtown to participate in the events:

One afternoon was spent looking at snow sculptures and a train show,

and then we checked out the ice sculpture competition.

One of my Mom's favorite parts was riding in the dog sled around the park!

Ethan thought it was pretty cool to watch the dogs run in front of us.

I think the outside carnival in frigid temps is one of the funniest things about Alaska. Who wants to ride a ferris wheel in this weather??

At the end of the week we hit the streets at the Running of the Reindeer - like Running of the Bulls, but with Reindeer. Reindeer Mom went over to put some intimidation into the real reindeer...but not sure who intimidated who...

Poppy, our camera man, joined in on the run!

With just one nick to my mom, we survived the reindeer cruising by us!

When not downtown, we relaxed at home and played with the babies,

and playdoh,

and posed for more pictures (check out her cute boots!!)

and more pictures.

Nana and Poppy even tried out the cross country skis for a bit!

Who would have thought a girl from the deserts of New Mexico and a little guy from a cattle ranch in New Mexico would turn into nordic skiers. :)

One day we got out of town and attempted to walk across a frozen lake to see a glacier, but since we have had so much snow this year, it was too high for us to walk the long distance across the lake.

So we just played in the snow instead. I love how Ethan had to take a break from burying Dad to eat some snow. Gotta keep the energy up.

The day was so gray, when we looked across the lake there were times when we couldn't see the difference between the snowy mountains, the snowy lake and the gray sky.

And then came the best part of the week - the start of the Iditarod! The first day of the race is really just a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage, to show off the teams and build excitement.

It was fun to see the excitement in the dogs and feel the energy for the race!

The next day we drove out to the valley to watch the actual race start. We were lucky to get such a gorgeous, sunny day for the event. It was a great way to send the racers off on their two to three week journeys.

The race started on a frozen lake, with areas blocked off for the athletes to prepare, areas for the spectators and of course the race track. Most of the lake was completely frozen, but as Nana and I went to get a closer look at the dogs, we found some very soft spots in the lake!

We spent the afternoon cheering on the teams as they raced by.

Ethan got into the fun by cheering the teams.

Kelsey got into the action by waking up to eat. :)

My girl Aliy Zirkle and her dogs led most of the entire race but passed on the second to last day and came in second. It was a lot of fun keeping track of the race this year since we felt like we knew the teams.

Aaron didn't get to join us for the restart of the Iditarod in Willow because he was busy racing himself. He stayed in town to compete in the Tour of Anchorage, doing a 40k (25 miles!) skate ski.

This was actually the second time he skied 25 miles around town in just two weeks. Considering that he had to balance ski time this season between work, a toddler, a new born, as well as having to take the whole month of January off because the negative temps made the snow too slow to ski on, I am so impressed he was able to knock out two marathons in two weeks!

Two nights after my parents left town, the northern lights came out strong to cap off the festive week. It was truly a magical moment standing in our living room watching them dance across the sky. We also headed out of the city one night to see the show. It was beautiful!