Pre-Halloween party at Stacia's

Getting ready for Halloween tomorrow and Stacia and her friend Trish are throwing the party of the night. I big bonfire out at her friend Trish's cabin, of course costumes! Here we are getting ready.....
Stacia is wearing her Ms. Crude Oil crown complete with Raven's on the oil tower. Drinking some theraflu, hoping her cold will be gone for the big party.
Heike and I working on our dance moves in Stacia's cabin.

Ben is going too and he is in costume at the book store today....I don't know if he will let me get any pictures!

Ben with the number one...

Well last night I tried to cut Ben's hair. Turns out I am not so good at cutting hair, so then we had to do a number one with clippers! Here he is sporting the new do and cooking a fine dinner with tomato caper salsa.

Skiing yesterday afternoon on our road....

We had some fun skate skiing out to the mailbox after work yesterday. Jeans are the in look for skate skiing this year.



Kind of hard to tell from this picture, but I cut my hair short again....

Our Advisor Bill Simpson dinner party!!

after the weekend....

The walk to class today was great. 19F and this cool ice layer on the trees with tons of fog. From the car to the building I pass the cross-country ski trails and see Ben skate skiing this morning.


This weekend was ruff. I had the flu and it was terrible. Pella and Sky together were alot to handle feeling so crappy, Sky took a tour of the local Fred Meyer Grocery store as she jumped out of the car. Ben was off work Sunday though and took control and all is well. I feel great today, so glad to be over that flu!
Sky and Pella wrestle mania in the living room

i SKIED today!

i got out on the skate skies this morning. Birch Hill Nordic Center started grooming trails this weekend. 17 degrees, hazy orange sunrise, fresh groomed trails, 12k of skiing without another soul in sight, and the familiar feeling of the burn in my legs and shoulders. felt so good to get out, and leave all of the weekly crap out on the trail. winter is going to be fantastic..


this is me sprinting into the chutes of the new complex....alone, but i won.

ben

Our New Neighbors Drive Pella Crazy!

Tour de Moose Mountain with Stacia and Friends

Stacia and I finally got out together to ride and it was a blast! She showed me this great loop, with an intense climb, downhill and single track. Here are a few photos. Also, the family of moose visited this morning....the pics are too dark though and I am going to have Ben take a look at them. More snow today, but not as much as CO, just colder.


Stacia's pals Simon and Ben

Here I am showing off my mtn. bike skill.

One of the great things about these trails, we rarely see anybody. We did however see one large dog team practicing, that was a cluster.
Ben is doing this same ride today with more snow, it should be interesting! Thanks Stacia for showing us the trails!

aurora borealis

so, the beauty of bundeling up to go outside to use the 'bathroom' when it's 20 degress? sometimes you are met head-on with striking views...



the aurora was in raging form tonight. we have yet to see it quite as active, but it will only becoem stronger over the coming months. the light moves around much more than i had thought- i belived it was just a slow constant burn, but infact the light dances around constantly making it much more difficlut to capture. this image was taken from our front deck. inspiring.

edit: dea's scientific analysis...the ionosphere is in an electrically charged layer 80-400km above sea level. molecules absorb x-ray and ultraviolet radiation from the sun and ionize. These gases become exicted and when they fall back to a lower state they emit visible light as aurora... also free veggies from a local co-op farm and good wine wraps up this evening!

yep, what she said.

ben

anniversary in Seward!

dea and i got home tonight from a short, but excellent, trip to Seward. i hadn't been to the Kenai Peninsula yet, and i was blown away by the South Central part of Alaska. to keep it short...glaciers, resurection bay, limitless trails, snow, the tide, wild life, anchorage (a city!), sailboats, fog, sunshine..all packed into a very short time, but an excellent trip. it's good to be home, but i'm already looking forward to getting down there again. i'll post some images form Exit Glacier later, but for now some images from the last 48 hours:


dea and i at Exit Glacier- this glacier is part of the massive Harding Icefield (a certain trip to come).


me getting intimate with the ice.


the view across resurection Bay from the warf...


..and from the front porch of our cabin.


dea enjoying some wine, as she watched a storm come in while i made our anniversary dinner.


enjoying my morning coffee, and not looking forward to leaving our cabin.

till next time.

ben