January Notes....

All is well here, 29 below on this chilly mellow Friday evening. We are enjoying our first weekend since getting back from our trip to Az.The trip was great... really busy, and not especially relaxing, but nice for the boys to spend all that time with Grandma and for us to reconnect with the desert. I spent about 5 afternoons out hiking, and Amy and I had a wonderful 2 days down south at a B&B for our 10th anniversary, hiking and relaxing in the hot-springs. Nice.

Now it's actually good to be back to Bethel and our negative 20's. Came home to some Caribou meat on the porch, a gift from a friend.Next week is a big dog-sled race, and the teams are often out in the back getting ready. Things are quiet and slow-paced, just the way we like it :) We're looking forward to the Kuskokwim 300 Dogsled Race next week, hope to volunteer. And Cami, (pronounced 'Chami') a native dance event, will be here soon as well.

On a very sad note, our neighbors next door in our Apt. have experienced some trouble just last weekend. The dad and step-daughter (12) went 90 miles out on the snowmachine to hunt Caribou... and the sled went into some open water. They ended up being outside in 25 below overnight, and weren't rescued until 15 hours later while walking the wrong direction..... Some serious hypothermia and frost-bite, they were medevac'ed to Anchorage, where they are recovering. Our prayers go out to the young girl.....