Top Ten Ways You Know Your An Alaskan Mom...

10. It's OK to "go out" in hip-waders or Carharts.

9. You have a headlamp or flashlight in your purse all winter.

8. The back up wipes you keep in the car are frozen solid.

7. When it's 28 degrees out and you think it's a warm day.

6. Your child's school bag contains more snowgear than books.

5. To quickly chill a dish you set it out on the porch not in the fridge.

4. When your kids ask for salmon, moose or caribou for dinner.

3. You drive over 150 miles for groceries.

2. When you you wake up to a moose licking your car (seriously, it happens).

1. If you take your kids to the bus stop on a snowmachine or dogsled.

Not sure what Letterman would think of my top 10 list, maybe I should send it to him... ;0)

*I never did forward this to Dave... It's a repeat post from 2008 but still relevant today and could easily represent moms in several states besides Alaska.

family

me, my grandma & aunt last summer. July 2011

Andy on skis

he misses it... there is a lot of x-country but not much downhill around here.

Friends

These are Jaxon's buddies London and Theo sledding with him. We have known these families since we moved here six and half years ago. There's Hawken hiking up the trail again in front of the big boys (he's in the red and black coat) following me and our orange sled. Several trips up this hill is a pretty good work out.

Winter fun

One of the perks to a 40 acre back yard, as Jaxon's 8 year old classmate whose yard it is pointed out to me, is being able to have your own ski/sledding hill. So true... Inviting your friend's over to play on it with you is just another perk I guess. Lucky for us! One of these photos looks up the hill with Hawken waiting for Andy to ski down, the other is down the hill and Hawken is leading the pack.

The sledding hill

Jaxon was the king of backwards sledding today. Seems to think he invented it :0) That's him on the hill to the right of Hawken and I hiking up the trail to the side. We only go almost half way up this hill, it's huge. Andy was going to the top to ski down. Lots of friends showed up, it was fun...

Hawken sledding backwards

Some friends have an epic sledding hill. This was our second weekend in a row out there. I didn't have my camera with me last week and this time Andy came too with his skis. Fun in the snow! Must have been good Hawk had a huge smile on his face at the bottom... He started going by himself today, that's him coming down at warp speed, he's getting so big and loves to follow the big boys around.

Hawken on the sled hill...

Luna

Yes she is pretty and yes she knows it... Her puppies from last year are also really good looking dogs, they are just over a year old now. Several stayed local and a good friend of mine in Wasilla also got one, so I get to see them all the time. They always remember my voice since I was their primary caregiver other than Luna, 3 of them look just like her. And all the people that got them rave about how smart they are. I even get photos of the one female who went to Florida (don't worry she is spoiled and has a pool).

Koda & Coco

These two are buddies and often we wake up in the morning to find them cuddling... True story!

moose butt...

OK, last of the moose shots. This is the same little guy. After he licked the cars for awhile Luna ran him off.

Moose Licks

As any good Alaskan knows, moose like to lick the salt off of cars. Last week we had these two twin moose in our yard all day. The mama moose was across the street,browsing and napping. These guys are yearlings and will be ditched by mom this spring/summer. One of them needed a salt fix and hung out licking our cars for quite some time. We kind of had to scare him off with the dog because Jaxon was being dropped off from ski club by a friend any minute.