enjoying the snow...it's meling fast!!

 tomorrow may be a mess out there..but today...i enjoyed the snow.  made it through a bunch of pics...the smaller camera so today is a blend of several events over the past few weeks.

 grabbed the food coloring and decided it would be fun to walk Rovers Run and stop and make little polka dot snowmen along the way.  of course, they were melting by the time i looped around, but it was still fun.

 took snaps of them...my little creations in the woods.

 ran into a few friends out there so stopped to chat.  they were biking on the fat tire bikes...they seem to be totally loving winter biking now.

 also ran into a few moose.  mama and her baby. they were initially split on either side of the trail.  i waited and eventually mama moved to the same side of the trail the baby was on...but still a bit too close.

 sunsets on the way home from the restart

 a biker came along and i figured she'd pass the moose no problem, but she was actually a bit nervous.  Blossom and i decided to risk it and watch her.  she watched us  but we were able to pass. the biker then got brave and passed as well.  as she passed us she thanked me for being so brave.

 mostly, i think i can read these moose fairly well, but there is always that element of risk...and they are rather large animals.

 she and i have met before. she's the one that i hadn't noticed as i was looking at the baby and then she jumped up rather close to me..in a stance ready to charge with ears way back.  eventually she had turned away from me and lay back down...

 stopped with Blossom on the way to Fairbanks and we walked the lakes i'd been on to watch the restart

 she quite enjoyed all the smells and even was gifted some moose sausage i think.

 not nearly as many snow machines out there this day...actually a nice walk..i'd do that again.  flat, goes on for miles.  just do have to watch for snow machines.  it is their trail ultimately i think.

 where we chilled..our notes remained.

 just noticed a rookie from Norway won rookie of the year at the banquet.  Geir...his friend had been out there and gotten one of our group to write a note for this musher and they all cheered as he cruised by.

 these are views from the road on the way to Fairbanks...pretty and nice clear roads.

 got my ACLS done today.  all those scenario's...most of them i think i have screwed it up but i passed all but one the first time.  so tomorrow i'll have to go to work and do the check off. was going to try and see about doing one of those other mandatory classes but i think i'll be good with this for the week.  maybe i can get those in on my 2 days off.

 also made it to the pool.  always feel it after my mile swim.  anytime i go to just swim now i do the mile swim.  yesterday i combined my swim with other workouts...rowing and elliptical so i just did 25 laps (50 lengths).  trekking in the snow for two days is also a work out.

 sure i've burned a few calories this weekend.

 the big mountain (Denali) attempted to come out. you can see the base on the right of photo

 didn't fully appear either direction for me this trek.

 there is a raffle to guess what date/time the ice will go out in Nenana every year.  i always think i'll buy some raffle tickets and never do.

 sometimes it seems that life is this little internal battle of accepting yourself for who you are.  it's so easy to compare yourself to the lives of others and see all the things you haven't done or haven't seen or haven't accomplished.  i think overall we are often way to critical of ourselves.

 i know i am.  i am a constant disappointment to my inner critic.  i have the highest expectations of myself..higher than i can ever meet.  why do we do this to ourselves?

 sunset driving over the mountains to fairbanks..so pretty

 a few on the road to Chena..mostly i used the rebel so those pics will turn up here eventually.

 and these are from the drive home.

 got confirmed for Hallo Bay for July 8-11 spot.  i know one friend is planning on joining  should be fun seeing the grizzly bears out there. the setting is supposedly beautiful.

 summer gets booked up so fast..so many places i still want to see in this amazing place. we can't all see every amazing place on this earth so i am happy there are documentaries, internet sites...so many ways we get to see the beauty of this earth without actually getting on a plane ourselves.  i know it would still be better first hand, but that is a lot of time and money.  we can't all go everywhere, and probably we shouldn't.  planes are huge fuel sucks.  those long flights are not all that appealing to me either.

 the rest of these are from a walk around Lake Hood with Blossom.  it was a lovely day...

 mostly it was me trying to find a place to walk without ice.  that hasn't been an issue the past 2 days..it's been heavenly...winter the way winter is supposed to be here.

 was just letting Blossom outside and it is pretty impressive how fast the snow on the back deck has melted back.  we got i'd say 8-10 inches here, but it looks like just 2-3 inches left out there.

 i should have gotten out sledding..so much snow to play in.  no way to do all the winter activities we love in one day.

 they did actually groom the trails at Campbell Airstrip so there were skiers out there, along with skijorers and bikers.  seems everyone was all happy and out enjoying the snow.  i suppose those who weren't happy about the snow were home sulking.  it could snow in July and i'd be smiling about it.

 planes, planes, planes, everywhere planes!!

 i was 1 minute short of my 8 hour sleep last night according to my fit bit.  no way to make that up.  not sure how to convince the fit bit i'm sleeping.

 always enjoy coming out to Lake Hood and watching the planes.  seems no matter if people hate being in planes, we all love watching them.  they fascinate us.  even though humans have been flying for over 100 years, it's still a thing of awe.  people hop on planes and travel the globe all the time. i get nervous up there in the sky, but i still do love how fast and efficiently we do all travel about in these modern times.

 my first flight ever i was 19  or 20 and terrified.  travel by air was still not as common as it is now.  it was expensive and we were a large family.  as a family we never flew anywhere. my parents...my young childhood i have no memories of them flying anywhere.  later in our lives/their lives they flew a bit but we drove places.  one brother got the mumps on Catalina Island so he got to bring a float plane back, i'm sure that was his first flight.

 Blossom found this small patch of snow and had to take a moment. you can imagine how excited she's been these past 2 days.

 over the moon!  space travel for the general public is not a remote possibility anymore...it's spoken of and we are getting closer to it being possible. don't see myself hopping on a flight to Mars anytime though. i'm already nervous about flights over 5-6 hours long... i'd never get enough vacation time to plan a trek to Mars.

 my first flight was to Hawaii.  probably should have tried a short hop to San Francisco or Vegas first. it was a pretty uneventful flight except that it was extremely eventful for me...being that it was my first.  what was your first flight and how old were you?  memories.  :-)

grateful for:  A.  passing all my ACLS scenario's and the test  B.  snow..again, snow!! C. polka dot snowmen.  always make me smile!!