December 2022, Part 2

 Again, these pictures are all out of order. But, here we go with lots of Christmas Break fun!

{rock climbing on base}

{black light mini golf on base}

I randomly saw on social media that our mall downtown was offering free ice skating & rentals the day after Christmas, so we decided to make a whole day of it! We went to Barnes & Noble for the kids to spend Christmas gift cards, out to lunch, and ice skating--the kids' very first time! We also checked out a touristy spot called Alaska Wildberry & walked around the mall a bit. It was a fun afternoon!

On Friday the 23rd, they closed Derek's hospital early for the holiday and we had planned to meet Derek for lunch & bowling on base. This happened to be the day of our "ground blizzard," and sooo many things ended up closing due to the conditions and/or losing power. So we pivoted and went to the movie theater {our first time in Alaska!} to see Puss in Boots. 

{Brady's clay Christmas tree after it had been in the kiln}

{I forgot to get a photo of the final products, but we painted gingerbread man ornaments at the Arts & Crafts Center on base on the first day of Christmas Break}

The picture below {taken from my bedroom window} may not be that interesting to most, but this was crazy to us! The 4 feet of snow we had was piled on the side of roads for a couple of weeks before the "snow removal" began. We have never before lived in a place where the snow didn't melt within days, so this was a fascinating process to watch. The first thing to note from the picture is the snow piled up on the roof outside my window, ha! Plows initially came through our street and moved the snowbanks on the side of the road to the middle of the road to make a "snow median." Then a massive snowblower would ride alongside a dumptruck to blow all of the snow into the truck to be hauled away to who knows where. They would have 5-6 dump trucks in a row waiting to be filled. This went on for about a week in our neighborhood. It was crazy!

{while eating lunch, Brady shaped his piece of cheese into the shape of Alaska}

{putting together his new Lego set he got for Christmas}

{I woke up to the sound of these two playing chess together yesterday morning, and this is what I woke up to today...nothing better!}

And these last few pictures are from today's neighborhood hike down to Eagle River, which is now completely frozen. The kids had fun walking/sliding across the river and breaking off chunks of ice on top of the snow. 

We have thoroughly been enjoying the girls' break from school & having Derek home so much!