Long time coming, I know, but hey, some of us actually have responsibilities, duties to perform.  We can't be out playing all the time.

I promised some photos, etc., of our trip to Fairbanks for the Ice Festival.  We flew up to Fairbanks with a couple of the other office couples and had a great time together.  We left on Friday afternoon and came back after attending church with some of the missionaries on Sunday.  While we were there we stayed in a really nice Bed & Breakfast called the Moose Manor.

On Saturday we went to the Ice Sculpture Contest after a late, leisurely breakfast.  The best way to experience the Contest is to go during the day, take what pictures you can, and then return after dark to get pictures of the sculptures all lit up.  Unfortunately, it is not easy to get good pictures of everything unless you have some awesome photo equipment and more skill than I have.  So I have posted some of the best ones and you'll just have to use your imagination.

This is the pond where they harvest the big blocks of ice, purportedly the best in the world for sculpting.
Our young missionaries get to help with this every year.

This prehistoric fish is about 6-7 feet tall and 10-12 feet long.  Like most of the sculptures, it is incredibly detailed.
Check those teeth!

This sculpture is about 6 feet high.  The dandelion head is a ball with all the seeds individually carved in place.

Sister Taylor next to a gymnast(?)

This is part of a sculpture of a dragon and a sea monster fighting each other.  That fire coming out of his mouth is actually connected to the sea monster.  Look how intricate the texture is on his skin and wings.

This Monkey God is on a life-size elephant.

One of my favorites.  A fairy or angel chained to the earth.  Probably about 12 feet high.

One of the largest sculptures.  This thing is massive, somewhere in the neighborhood of two stories high.  You can see where they have joined numerous blocks together.  The Buddha was carved separately and put into place with a crane.

All of these sculptures are placed around the edge of a large area where they have numerous ice sculptures that are designed as an ice playground for kids and adults alike.  There are mazes, igloos, slides, and the like with a Warming Hut where you can get in out of the cold for a bit and get some hot chocolate and food.

While warming in the hut we met this girl.  She consented to our taking a picture of her hat.  Only in Alaska!  Yes, it's the real thing.  On the screen behind her they were showing videos of the actual work on the sculptures.  Pretty neat stuff!

One of the things not available in the Warming Hut were restrooms.  But they did, indeed, have outdoor restrooms and each had a little heater in it.

Our Mission Secretary, Sister Mayhue.

Our Vehicle Coordinator, Elder Weston, in one of several race cars they had lined up there.

Ssiter Taylor in one of the open mazes.  You can see a couple of the smaller ice slides in the background.  Check the videos for the big one.

A maze you had to crawl through unless you were really little.

This little ice-block basket kinda thing was just laying around for anyone to use.  

We saw several families and tourists twirling their kids and friends.

After checking everything out in the daylight, we split up for the afternoon, the sisters going to the museum at the local university and the elders going to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. Guess where we got pictures!

The Auto Museum was really awesome!  They had 70 automobiles, all American, all pre-WWII, starting in 1898.  All but three of the cars were ready to be driven off the floor, including the oldest.  They had the cars all arranged more or less chronologically and had period clothing arranged among them on mannequins.  The sisters were sorry they didn't come.  Here are a few of the pictures I took.

Check that Grill!!!

1911 Ford Cab Depot Hack.  

Any self-respecting auto museum has to have a Stanley Steamer.

Like that top?  Don't know exactly how well it'd do in the wind... or the rain... or even the sunshine.

Gotta love a 1936 Cord with rumble seat

One of my favorites - a Hupmobile!

Three-wheeler.  Steer it with that rudder, kinda like a boat.

One of the three that didn't run, a 1910 Hudson.  This one is for my friend Dennis.
He used to own a Hudson, just not quite like this one.

1917 Ford Model T Snow Flyer.  This is Alaska!

All of these vehicles were not for touching, of course.  All but this one.  They had the period clothing for men and women and you could take your picture in the car.  This is Elder Weston (Vehicle Coordinator) and Elder Mayhue (Housing Coordinator) on their way to do vehicle and apartment inspections.  Left a couple of days ago.  Should be there in a week or two.

Okay, then after dinner and a little downtime we went back to the Ice Festival.  A few photos of the lighted sculptures.

It was COLD!!

If you can't tell, the seahorse's body is hollow.

The prehistoric fish from a different angle and lights.

A little "Beauty and the Beast."  The rose was inside that solid ice dome.

The little girl's dandelion with lights.

You didn't expect me to pass this up, did you?  That cello was only about 10 feet high.  Note the music.

Cinderella.  Sorry you can't see all the detail that went into this sculpture.  It was pretty incredible

Another dragon.

Well, that's it for the Ice Festival.  It was a great weekend.  We even got to see some northern lights while we were there, but they were pretty minimal.  That may have been our last opportunity to see some.  Heck of a thing to go to Alaska and not see the northern lights.

It's spring here.  The snow is gone (except for an occasional gravel-covered pile in some parking lot) and the trees are starting to bud out.  The days are getting longer really fast.  It's getting hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

The other day we walked around a small lake here in the city and took some photos of birds.  These are Red-necked Grebes.

Raucous bunch, aren't they?

That's it for now.  We love you all and are beginning to look forward to the day when we get to see you again and give you great big hugs.

All of sudden there's a lot to share.  I'll probably have to cover things in a couple of different posts.  For the moment, however ---

The first of the month we had the opportunity to have our daughter, Candice, come and stay a few days.  Her visit happened to coincide with the Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod and the last few days of the Fur Rondy so we were able to do a couple of fun things while she was here.

We started on Friday with a trip to Girdwood and the Alyeska Ski Resort.  They are located about 20 miles south of us up the Turnagain Arm.  Our plan was to ride the ski tram up to the top, have dinner there, and then come home to our apartment.  On the way, the skies were quite overcast and we were afraid that we weren't going to be able to see anything but clouds from the tram.  As you can see by the pictures, though, the sights were incredible! The food, on the other hand, was very expensive but only so-so.

Riding up the tram, still under the clouds.  The water in the distance is the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.  Girdwood and the resort are hidden in the trees between here and the Arm.

Same angle from above the clouds.  Still in the tram.

In the tram, looking back down the hill.

Sea of clouds surrounded by mountains.

Looking out over some of the ski runs toward the Arm and sundown.

The "Roundhouse."  A museum and part of the complex at the top of the mountain.

Catching the last rays of the sun on the tips of the mountains across the valley.

The restaurant we ate in.  I thought it appropriate that the Seven Glaciers Restaurant had a "Caution. Icy Conditions" sign out front.

Sister Taylor's salad.  That's lobster and bacon on butter lettuce.

Elder Taylor's dinner.  Rock Fish on pureed potatoes with a few pieces of grilled Brussell Sprouts and pieces of bacon.

Sister Taylor and Candice both had one of these.  Rice, shrimp, scallop, reindeer sausage.

Desert - Baked Alaska, of course!

Mother and daughter.

Elder & Sister Taylor

When we got back to ground level, we experienced one of those cool things about Alaska (and other places I'm sure).  The moisture in the air around you turns into ice and floats to the ground.  When the lights are just right it looks really cool!  I hope you can see it in this video.  I know the videos don't come out too good on the blog.

The next day, Saturday, we went to the Iditarod Ceremonial Start.  The real race starts up near Willow, about an hour north of Anchorage, but every year they have a ceremonial start (often referred to by locals at the "false start") in downtown Anchorage.  The last couple of years we've been a little low on snow so they build up a lane down the middle of the street and the dogs run on that.  On some of the cross streets they let the cars through between dogsleds and volunteers fix the snow afterward.  Most of those volunteers are the young missionaries from the Anchorage Alaska Mission.  Candice and Sister Taylor and I ended up making a donut run, delivering donuts to all the missionaries as they worked at each intersection.

One of the teams running down the street.  The person riding in the sled is called an "Iditarider."  They bid on-line (big bucks!) for the privilege of riding in one of the sleds during the ceremonial start.

Elder Bailey (left) is from Utah.  Shoveling snow is probably nothing new to him.  Elder Na'a (right) is from Samoa!?

The elder with the shovel is Elder Fawson.  He started his mission in Samoa, caught some tropical bug, had to go home to recuperate, and then ended up in Alaska!  He admitted to being just a little bit cold.

Scarfing down donuts while waiting for the cars to go through so they could break up and shovel some more snow.

Later In the afternoon we went downtown to one of the Fur Rondy (rendezvous) events called, "The Running of the Reindeer."  Similar to the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain but only in that four legged animals are involved.  

First they cordon off several blocks of one of the downtown streets, making sure that there is plenty of snow on the roadway.  Then hundreds of participants, quite a number of them partially to mostly drunk and wearing zany costumes of all descriptions, are let loose from one end of the street.  After they get part way down the street, a half-dozen reindeer are let loose behind them.  After those reindeer run through the crowd of runners, then a second wave of reindeer are released.  Once everyone gets to the other end of the street, then the reindeer are taken back to the starting point and another heat of runners are set on their merry way.  And believe me, "merry" is the appropriate word.  The whole thing is quite fun.

And, Yes, Virginia, there are people injured every year in the running of the reindeer.  It just happens that they are injured by one another, not the reindeer.  The reindeer are pretty mellow and agile animals.

I think I've told you this before, but do you know what the difference is between caribou and reindeer?  Reindeer can fly!  ;-)  (Reindeer are simply domesticated Caribou.)

Don't look terribly large and ferocious, do they?

This is the Fur Rondy, remember?  These guys were selling animal pelts at the fur auction that is held every day.

One of the other events during the Fur Rondy (held before Candice got here, unfortunately) was the Blanket Toss.  A big Native Alaskan guy ramrodded the whole thing, allowing tourists and visitors to help toss the blanket and to be tossed.  It was pretty cool.  The object is to land on your feet and remain standing.  The "blanket" is a bunch of Caribou hides sewn together with a large cable around the edge to hold onto.

That's about all I have time for today.  More to follow on the trip to Fairbanks and the International Ice Sculpture Contest and Festival.

Holy Cow!  Didn't realize that it has been almost a month since we last posted anything.  We have been really busy dealing with sick/injured missionaries, the mission finances, iPads, etc., and haven't had a chance to do much else, including write on the blog.

We did have the chance to go with all the other senior missionaries and the mission presidency and their wives to the local college's girls gymnastics match.  It was the University of Alaska - Anchorage Seawolves vs. the BYU Cougars.  One of our senior couples is assigned to CES and teaches Institute at the college.  One of their students was participating as a member of the Seawolves team, so we went to support her specifically and the BYU team in general.  We had a great time and saw some pretty awesome gymnasts.  One of the BYU girls was the daughter of former Olympic gymnast Peter Vidmar.  Some of you older folks may remember that name.  He was a gold medalist in the 1984 Summer Olympics.  And, he is now serving as mission president of the Australia Melbourne Mission!

One of the BYU girls on the uneven bars.  Not sure who it is.  

Looks like Emily Vidmar, but it also looks like two or three of the others, too.

After the match, having seen the phalanx of black and white badges in the audience (there were 12 of us sitting in a group), several members of the team came over and thanked us for coming and supporting them.

Oh... in case you were wondering, BYU won the match.


If you look back through the posts, you will see that winter arrived in November and we were pretty excited about all the snow and ice.  Well, that has been about it.  It has been cold enough that some of the snow and most of the ice has remained, but nothing new has been added.  This winter has been milder than last year and the year before.  Since we only have to hike back and forth to the office from the parking lot, and we have a 4x4 vehicle to get back and forth, we have really been disappointed.

As we have reported earlier, though, the Alaskans can still find ways to enjoy what winter they've got.  Here are a couple of shots of a small lake here in town where they have groomed the ice into a couple of areas to play hockey and a speed-skating loop.  They even have lights permanently installed to make it so you can skate at night.

Gotta start your hockey training young!

But last night while we were sleeping we got about an inch of snow.  It was very pretty and pristine out there on the way to church this morning.  Then it rained/freezing rain/sleeted all day and the snow was pretty well gone off the roads.  This afternoon, however, it looked like we might finally get the Alaskan winter we have been hoping for.  The snow really came down for a little while, with the wind blowing like crazy.

The wind was really swirling the snow around all these apartment buildings and all the windows on the south side of our apartment were covered in snow for awhile.

This is looking out the living room window after the worst (best) of it was over.  Of course I didn't think to take any pictures/videos during the best part. 

This is looking out the back bedroom window (north side)

The bad news is that it has been 30-35 degrees all day and the roads are almost clear again.

Oh well....