Ian's back and we've been dog sledding!

For those of you who don't know, Ian returned from the Philippines on Friday which was two days early! We had a wonderful weekend involving dog sledding. We drove up to Trapper Creek yesterday (about 120 miles north) to go mushing with Francine again. We went with her last year when Andrea came up. We had a fantastic time, although my sled tipped over once and threw me off. I landed hard, but I'm ok. It's amazing how fast those dogs can run!

Ian had a good time in the Philippines and from what I can tell the experience was rewarding. He leaves for Iraq in the first or second week of next month. I wish I had him home longer, but at least he'll only be gone 7 months.

oops that was me, not Sam. He was signed on my computer.

Chilling in NY with Sam tonight.  I've been very busy with school and without a functional camera for several months now.  I will be done with my third year required rotations on April 21st, very exciting.  I will hopefully be able to tell everyone soon what I will be doing with my life.  Sam is most likely going to be accepted at Dartmouth for his PhD program, so we may end up in NH after I graduate.  That's all the news for now.  Its March, a great month for Birthdays of course....I will be 27 this year, wow!

PS - promise to get back on the ball with pics after I get my camera fixed.

Update from Alaska

I'm not sure if anybody still looks at the blog, but I'll continue to post anyway. The annual "Fur Rendezvous" started in Anchorage this weekend and I have uploaded a couple pictures of some of the events. These are of the Reindeer races (skijourning), "running of the reindeer" and the World Championship Sled Dog race day 2. It's loads of fun.

An update on Ian: his platoon has been ahead of schedule building the school in the Philippines. They are pretty much done, but he still stays until the 9th. He is now officially Captain Stroud and his promotion ceremony will be in the Philippines on the 3rd.

Trip to Homer, AK

Ian and I went to Homer this weekend and here are some photos from the trip. He leaves for the Philippines tomorrow and returns on March 9.

The Eagles of Eagle River

I thought y'all might like to see what we get to enjoy driving home in the winter. Just for some news: Ian leaves for the Philippines in about a week. His platoon is building a school and will be gone for a little over a month. He spends much of March at home in Alaska, but will then be off to Iraq in April. Thankfully, he's not doing a full deployment and should only be gone 4-7 months. I will give more information as I have it.
MV

Better Aurora picture

I managed to get this picture last night around midnight. Just thought I would share.

A Christmas picture

Just wanted to show our latest Christmas portrait and to say many thanks for all the cards and gifts we received! I was afraid that we would feel a little lonely for our first Christmas away from family, but we had a great Christmas and felt very loved! We wish everyone a Happy New Year!!!

Northern Lights

I wanted to do another quick addition to put up my first picture of the northern lights. Sorry things are so out of focus. It was 3am, -1 degree F, pitch black (moon had set), and I couldn't really tell if things were in focus or not when I took the picture. This was a very minimal display, but I was happy to get the picture.

Christmas is coming to Alaska

We went out to the woods of Ft. Richardson yesterday to find and cut down our Christmas tree and we thought we would share some pictures of what we found. Merry Christmas to everyone!