January Thaw

We've had a January Thaw the last few days, with temps as high as +50F yesterday. Set a record yesterday - nearly twenty degrees warmer than the old record. The snow is gone, mostly...but the ice on some of the roads never fully melted. We had school yesterday, although Anchorage schools remained closed (first time ever that they closed 3 straight days for weather). They probably should have closed ours too becuase I came upon a school bus in the ditch near our subdivision on the way home - no one hurt, thankfully. Today was a beautiful day in the upper 30s so we headed out on a hike through the hayflats, making a complete circle and coming up the bluff by our house. The second and third pics above show us standing on the National Historic Iditarod Trail down on the flats with our house visible on the bluff in the background on the second pic. It was great to get out and see the beautiful land that we are blessed to live in. Alaska always seemed like this far away place...sometimes I forget that I am actually living there. The hayflats are filled with ice and it was interesting to hike on them when the ice is several feet thick above ground level. The boys did an awesome job on the hike, although I think Landon and Mommy are worn out. The eagles are building a second nest several lots down. With all the snow from our yard gone, we were amazed to see GREEN GRASS despite the fact that it was -30 two weeks ago! We know that the snow will move back in before long. The ice on the flats allowed us to hike along the nearby Iditarod National Historic Trail for the first time. The race takes place next month, but it doesn't run along this route anymore due mainly to reduced levels of snowfall here over the last decade. This year it will start in Willow, a town up the road a little bit. I am sure we will have more snow by then but we are going to enjoy the sunshine and green grass until it returns.