As Spring breakup season nears, and the snow starts to melt away, we've been out and about a little more each week. From snowshoeing.....
To cross-country skiing...
With friends...
Traversing snowmachine trails....
Across the flats....
Hiking on the roads...
And off the roads....
Except for me, of course. I've been slowly building strength to the foot and leg, and not doing too much in the way of outdoor activities. Nine weeks since the surgery, and I finally started walking without assistance this week, for which I am very thankful.
Eagles have returned to the neighborhood, to re-build their nest.
Springing forward an hour has brought us more evening daylight, and more time to view the sunset...
And brought the evening "glow" back to the Hay Flats.
But cost us by pushing the sunrise further into the morning, making it harder to catch during the work week.
Jolene coached her high school's Science Bowl team at the State competition 3 weeks ago, and they won State. She will be taking the team to D.C. in April to compete at Nationals.
She also was one of the coaches of the high school's Science Olympiad team, who competed at State this past weekend, and they won State in that competition as well. Her team will travel to Cornell University at the end of May to compete at Nationals.
Grayson competed at the middle school level in this year's Science Olympiad. He had to build a glider for one of his competitions.
He and his team partner, Lilly, built several versions of the glider, and named each of them. The one I helped him build might have had too much glue, and earned the name "Lumpy".
....and earned them a third place finish at State.
The competition was held at the University of Alaska in Anchorage.
Third place at the State finals. As 6th graders, he and Lilly were competing against 6th, 7th and 8th graders, and did well. Lilly's older sister, Lucy, was the first place winner for the competition.
I volunteered to judge the middle school "Battery Buggy" competition. I might have been a little rusty getting started, but got the hang of it eventually.
In art class, Grayson made a fired clay bobble-head Dino.
Not too far off from the real thing, eh??
Next he'll have to make one of Heidi. She finds ways to stay camouflaged in this wintry landscape.
This time of year the moose are everywhere.
They're plenty hungry, and ready for Spring to arrive.
Nine moose cross the flats in this photo.
The experimental farm closed some of their research labs, and offered some supplies to local teachers. Jolene took advantage of the opportunity and got this photo of lots of flasks for the taking.
After the Science Olympiad, we ate at a "new-to-us" restaurant with good friends. Great food and great company, and I liked the reminder to remove your ice cleats on the front door of the restaurant.
Landon is till working through rehab for his torn hamstring from last year's football season. Even after cross-country and skiing competitively this year, he's still having trouble getting the leg back to full strength. So last month he started with a new physical therapist, who has many high-tech gadgets to evaluate how he's doing. He seems to enjoy it, and has already seen more improvement than all of last year. Overall, Jolene and the boys have stayed very busy this winter, and I've spent most of it slowly nursing a reconstructed ankle, and we're all looking forward to seeing the snow and ice disappear during the upcoming break-up season.
