Entertainment in Bethel

Bethel, Alaska is not known for being an entertainment destination, but just recently we had one of the biggest and most entertaining events that Bethel has to offer, the Kuskokwim 300. It is a 300 mile race that begins and ends here in Bethel which draws some of the biggest names in the sport of mushing. This year’s racers included Lance Mackey (four consecutive wins in the Iditarod 2007-2010), Josh Baker (last year’s Iditarod champion), Martin Buser (also a four time Iditarod champion), and local legend Mike Williams Sr. (finished 14 Iditarod races). The winner of the race ended up being Rohn Buser who was the second youngest to ever win the race at 22 years of age. These are just some of the many racers who were competing in this year’s race. Rox and I ventured out on to the river to watch the racers take off and then enjoyed the fireworks that followed, and I must say, the race lived up to my expectations. It made me want to be a dog sled racer and race in the K300. Maybe next year! Kiah will be my lead dog. This was truly an exciting weekend and we had great fun!

Holiday Traditions

The holiday season passed by quickly and crazily. It felt like several months crammed into just a few weeks' time. Somehow we managed to get in all of our holiday traditions, with fun new things along the way. It's a little late for an update, but it feels like we are just now getting back into routine after the crazy but fun holiday season.

Our Christmas Cookie Baking Marathon is a staple of the holiday season, tiring as it is.

After a whole day of making a mess in the kitchen, we completed the feat. The cookies didn't look so pretty once we got to Illinois and Michigan, but they sure looked nice fresh out of the oven!

On our way back to the Midwest to celebrate the holidays, we had a day to spend in Anchorage. Enjoying a rare Starbucks date, we had a strange request from a guy who noticed us playing around with our camera: take a picture of him with his shirt off and email it to someone. Turns out, he is an up and coming UFC fighter who was heading to Russia for his first big UFC fight. The head person needed a picture of each fighter before the fight. It was very awkward taking this picture in a public Starbucks shop, but it's a funny memory.

Graduation for my Master's program fell during the holiday season, so I was fortunate enough to take part in that as a way to celebrate being DONE forever! I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue my education and accomplish its completion.

Of course, we had some play during our time off down south. Keegen enjoyed driving some new machines.

We bought Keegen a local fox fur from Bethel for Christmas, which still looks like a living animal in this picture.

Liam is a growing, sweet boy.

A very curious and pensive little guy too.

We came home to Bethel with lots of supplies and goodies in tow to get us through the next couple of months, which we purchased on our way through Anchorage. Even Kiah got some presents from the spoil.

We also bought our stocking stuffers for each other while we were in Anchorage. It's our yearly tradition to go to Target or Walmart, split up for a half hour or so, and pick out stocking stuffers. It's fun to do it at the same time because we always end up running into each other in the store and have to quickly rush away so the other person doesn't see what's in our bin. Aaron did pretty good this year for me.

We ended our Christmas season at home after a busy two weeks of travel by watching the movie Elf with homemade German pancakes, a Christmas tradition we started in Zambia three years ago that we brought to Chicago and now Alaska.

It was so great to spend the holiday season with our families down in the lower 48. It's just as good to be back home in Bethel and being able to continue our holiday traditions here too.

New Year's Resolution

We decided our New Year's Resolution this year is to pay off our student debt by January 1, 2013. It may be a lofty goal, but we think we can do it. Plus, we don't have too much to the point where it is daunting. It's just enough to be a challenge but not too much to be unrealistic. Perfect.

We're not really resolution people, but this one seemed like a worthy one. We just don't want to be those people who are 40 that are still paying of their own student debt amongst millions of other payments, as the interest doubles the initial loan in a matter of years. So on to the journey of being debt free! (at least for a little while again)