Alaskan Mom's Life

Spiderman Ready to Ski

With his spiderman mask, my son is ready to ski and heads out the door ahead of us, which is a good thing, since he’s the slowest skier of us all.

Daughter Ready to Ski

My 13-year old daughter, who is almost as tall as her mother at 5′8″, now wears all my ski gear and I have to make do with the second-rate stuff. But here she is, ready to go! Her and I were the next ones out the door. We don’t wait for the man of the family with the camera, because he’s the one who can really ski, so he’ll catch up after he helps us all out the door!

Mom ready to ski

The temperature is a balmy 25 F in this part of Alaska today, so I’m wearing sweats, 2 pairs of socks (so the boots fit better), a sweatshirt, a vest, a scarf, gloves and a headband (that’s why my hair’s so flat).

Before moving to Alaska, I never believed you could be outside in sub-freezing temperatures without a coat! And get hot!  But cross-country skiing works up a lot of body heat.

So we ski across the lake to a small hill to practice downhill on cross-country skis; this  takes some practice.

Mom forges the way

We skied across a lake. I grew up in central Washington state. We had snow every year, but our lakes didn’t freeze. Skiing, walking, snowmachining or – gasp – driving – across a lake was quite a nerve-wracking experience for me at first. My husband assures me there’s at least two feet of ice on the lake and that that’s plenty.

I’ve even driven the ice road.  On Big Lake.  It’s plowed and even has direction signs. And you’re driving across a very big lake. For miles. So cool.

Miss Long Legs wipes out

After building confidence on the gentler slope, the kids decide to follow Mom down the steeper slope.

Spiderman wipes out

Well, this isn’t going quite so good. I made it down the first time! I even made it down the second time! Ha! And they’ve been downhill skiing lots more times than me.

Well, the 3rd time was not the charm.

Mom wipes out

ice pack for hot face

I’m even caught in the alders.

Now explain this to me.  Long legs comes in from our skiing excursion and her face is so hot, she instructs her brother to bring her an ice pack, which she then proceeds to rub over her hot cheeks to cool down.  Those are pink cheeks, I must admit, but…  only an Alaskan kid, I tell you.  The look on her face says she thought it was weird that her mom would take a picture of her doing this.  But, you see, she was born and raised in Alaska, and nothing here is weird to her. Except her mom, maybe. But I was not born and raised here. And lots of things are weird.  I knew you’d understand.