Alaska

The Colorado Chorltons had a sweet visit to the great white North over the holidays. Kai, Katie, and I spent over a week in Fairbanks, AK with the Roth clan. We celebrated the holidays and the 50th wedding anniversary of Bob and Mardee. 50 years! That is a long haul. All of the kids, husbands, and wives were together for a short span on Christmas day. That was the only day of overlap, but there were plenty of days to hang with whoever remained.

We took Kai swimming for the first time on this trip. He didn't care too much for the cool water in the local pool, but liked the pool at Chena hot springs pretty well. We saw a seven week-old going under water with his dad, so we decided to try it. We weren't quite as good as the other kid, but we survived and didn't seem to ruin the experience for Kai. The springs felt good, as did the pool for the adults.

I pretty much ate more sugar than I have since junior high school when I would eat peanut butter, confectionate sugar, and chocolate chip sandwiches washed down with pudding. We didn't get much vigorous exercise until the final three days when we rented xc gear. That was sweet. We rallied out in the cold - one day with Kai in a sled, and knocked out some miles in the beautiful, snow-covered forests surrounding Fairbanks.

The town of Fairbanks is more or less a giant strip mall, not much different than towns anywhere else in the U.S., however, during this trip there was a lot of fresh snow and no wind. The trees stayed coated in snow, as did the roads, and it was very beautiful. Tempewratures probably averaged around -4 F. We got up as high as the mid teens and down to -20. We skied in -14. Sunrise happened around 10 am and set around 3 pm, so there was a lot of darkness. We spent a lot of time playing cards and games. Loads of time with Bill, Beth, and the kids.

I got a better understanding for the University this time around having skied trails around the campus, visiting the museum during fireworks on New Years Eve, and working out in the gym. It is a unique place with the cold and proximity to the roof of the world. Loads of research going on. It was cool to see the academic crowds versus the fatties that mull around Fred Meyers (the local version of Wal-Mart). Loads of skiers and even some bikers and runners, taking advantage of the trail networks. Snowmobiles (snow machines to Alaskans) rally along on trails along the side of the roads and down the rivers.



Family dynamics played a pretty big role in the visit. Five brothers, Mom, Dad, Katie, husbands, wives, and kids all make for some convoluted decision making. When one person takes control some others seem to swirl in a strange state of disagreement or resentment. Ad one person who is either a child or acting like one and things get pretty crazy. Overall, though, decisions were made and everything went really well. It was cool spending time with Andy and Jean and their seven-month-old Elle. We shared a mini-van and lots of time together. When they left we spent most of our time with Bill, Beth, Mardee, Sarah, Lynn, and their boyfriends, both named Luke.

So, it was a cold, dark, snowy, and altogether very nice trip. Kai took well to travelling. He seemed to have grown up a bit while we were there. He rolled over, held his head up, and seems to have grown bigger as well. Of course, after a long day of travel, he fell apart as soon as we hit the basin of the Gunnison Valley. He didn't sleep well last night, but we managed to get him through. The feeling of coming home to our home was very positive. I felt so happy to be in our place, taking nothing from the travels, just being home is a blessing.