Thawing out in Hawaii

Oh, Hawaii is just so, so nice.  We were lucky enough to get to travel to Maui to escape the cold and snow for a bit this winter.  It was a wonderful week full of water, sand and warmth (and a little bit of sickness).

Gigi and Grandpa met us down there, needing an escape from the cold and snow in Calgary.

Aaron almost didn't want to go on the trip because of the long flight to get there with two young kids, but he worried for nothing because our kids were great on the flights.  They both charmed everyone around us with their cuteness...and that they were one of the few kids on the plane not crying.

We spent the week playing in the ocean and the sand, snorkeling, swimming in the pool, running on the grass, watching the whales and exploring the island.  It was wonderful.

The condo we stayed in was perfect for our family - close to the ocean, with lots of green grass to run and play in.  It also had a view of a road so we could watch the buses go by as well as plenty of birds to chase - true paradise for Ethan.  

Kelsey enjoyed getting out of layers and layers of clothes and letting the air touch her skin...but not the sun.  She spent most of her time on the beach sleeping in a little tent, out of the sun to protect her pasty white skin.

Ethan came down with a virus on the second day of the trip so we spent a few days moving slower and letting the little man rest up.  He was such a trooper, still playing in the sand and ocean when he wasn't 100%. 

One of the days Ethan wasn't feeling well we spent touring the island - hiking to waterfalls and pools,

checking out the spectacular views,

tasting the flavors of the island,

and sleeping on the curvy roads.

The rest of the week was spent on the beach or at the pool.  The beaches of Maui were perfect for us - the sand was silky soft to play in, with patches of lava rocks to climb around.  

And the sun was so warm, perfect for an afternoon nap.

Winter is a great time to visit Maui because of the number of whales surrounding the island - almost anytime we looked out over the ocean we saw whales breathing or breaching.  

On the trip, Kelsey took her first dip in the pool, 

and the ocean.  Both were too cold for her to really take a swim in, but she couldn't visit Hawaii without at least dipping in the water.

Best of all, we got to spend a lot of time with Gigi and Grandpa:

Looking for birds

Checking out tidepools

Snuggling while sick

Hanging out in the morning

Relaxing in the evening

Enjoying drinks on a lanai

Daddy and babes:

Playing in the ocean

Playing in the sand

Waiting for the waves

Running from the waves!

Chatting...

and laughing

Playing in the pool

Enjoying the sunset

Mommy:

Playing in the ocean

Chilling in the shade

Sightseeing  

and watching whales

Loving the grass

The kiddos:

One last picture of us soaking up the last minutes of warmth before we got on the plane to head home.

Pictures of Maui:

Kelsey, Two Months

Our little girl has turned two months old!  She is our happy, wiggly little sweetheart.

At her wellness check up this week, Kelsey weighed in at the 90-95th percentile for her age and measured above the 95th percentile in height.  And she is healthy in every way.

At two months, Kelsey still chatters and smiles during all of her awake times, but mostly sleeps her days away.  

In the last two weeks, she has found her hands.  It's so funny to watch a baby figure out that the waving object in front of her is part of her.  She can't control them all the time yet, but if she wants to grab something, she does.

Kelsey loves to try and sit and up and stand (with help of course).  When she's sitting in her bouncer, she  rolls her head forward, grunts and tries to get to a sitting position.  When she's on our laps, she grabs our thumbs, rolls her head forward to get her weight moving and gets her legs under her to stand.  She is very proud of herself when she does it!

Kelsey loves to be swaddled.  She needs to be TIGHTLY wrapped in the evenings to help her feel comfortable.  It is amazing how well this works to put this girl to sleep.  We think it is so funny to look at her all wrapped up and wiggling her legs, looking like a caterpillar.  

Kelsey had a huge first this month - she went on her first vacation!  To Hawaii!  What a lucky girl to get to spend her first vacation in the sun on the beach.  Coming from Alaska, I think she found it kind of hot at times (tight swaddling on the beach can be a bit awkward...), but it was fun to be outside with her so much during the day.

She went on her first airplane ride to get there.  Of course, she was an angel on the flight and charmed everyone around us.  Here she is cooing with the lady that sat next to us on the 6 hour flight.  

Kelsey also took her first dip in a swimming pool this month as well as her first 'swim' in the ocean. 

We are so in love with this silly little girl!

A Brutal Arctic Winter

Aaron and I love winter in Alaska.  We both love getting outside in the snow and playing - cross country skiing, downhill skiing, sledding.  I love how pretty everything is covered in snow.  We love the snow so much, we don't even mind the cold temps of a normal Anchorage winter.  

This winter however, has not been a normal Alaskan winter.  It has been a bizarre, intense, record setting winter.  We have set records on the amount of snow fall we have gotten so far this season as well as for how cold it has been.  For records to be set in the arctic, this means A LOT of snow and some extremely cold days!

Picture stolen from Leland Reed

Each month of the season so far has just been weird:  November was freakishly cold for being so early in the winter and brought more snow than anyone could remember for that time of year, December came with Chinook winds blowing in bursts of warm days followed by cold days of heavy snowfall, and January was the coldest January in recorded history.  During the entire month of January, we spent all but a few days below zero.  And not just a little below zero, 15-20 degrees below zero.  Amazingly though, the first few days of February have warmed up dramatically, with more snowfall.

Like I said earlier, I don't mind cold weather.  In fact, I think the perfect winter day here is around 20-25 degrees above zero.  I don't even mind when the temps dip down below zero for a few days, it gives us a chance to cozy up inside and relax.  And we expect January here to be cold, spending up to a week at a time well below zero most years.  But we do not expect to spend the whole month that way.  And turns out, we do not enjoy the whole month being that way.  A month of not getting to play outside up here is a long, long month.

Another picture stolen from Leland, looking across the frozen inlet

To sum up our winter so far - every day the temps are above zero, it snows and is cloudy; when the snow stops and the clouds leave, the temps drop to frigid levels.  

We have gotten more snow this winter so far than any other year on record.  Just today, we had another blizzard dump another foot of snow on us.  At our house we are well over 100 inches for the year, with more falling as I type this.  

Picture stolen from Franky Lopez

In addition to the intense weather, the aurora borealis has been putting on better shows this winter than they have seen in decades.  And the clear, cold nights we have been having are perfect for viewing them.  We spent most of one night in January in our car above the city watching the green flares dance across the sky.

Since the temps were so cold, too cold to take the kiddos outside, we have spent a lot of time inside.  By the end of January, everyone in town was going a little stir crazy after being cooped up so long.  It's a good thing Ethan is so in love with his train set he got for Christmas, we have been playing with it a lot.

Ethan is in love with trucks just as much as he is with trains these days.  If he's not playing with his train set, he's probably at the window looking for the snow plows and dump trucks that have been spending a lot of time in the neighborhood clearing streets.  He can sit for an hour at a time watching the trucks work outside our house.

All the snow we've gotten this winter has made for an incredible downhill ski season.  We spent one weekend of the cold snap down in Girdwood, the little ski town down the road from us, skiing during the day and relaxing in the hot tub each night (hot tubs at -15 degrees are a little chilly to get out of!).  

Ethan joined in on the fun and took his first run down the slopes.  He loved cruising down the bunny hill on his skis with Dad. Although, since it was negative 6 degrees that day, we had to bundle him up so much you can't actually see his face to tell the excitement.  Aaron said he giggled the whole way down every time.  And the giggles would get louder the faster Aaron went.  

Video of E's first downhill ski:

More pictures of our epic winter:

Sunset over Alyeska ski resort, clouds filling the valley below

Snow berms creating tunnels out of the streets and sidewalks

Aaron and Ethan making a snow fort out of the backyard swing set

E and I sledding

Snow in our front yard is as high as our F 150