A Beautiful Sight...

OH WE'RE HAPPY TONIGHT.... WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND. Since before Halloween the flakes have been fluttering and Alaska has transitioned from its muddy grey brown late autumnal drear, to its sparking white winter glory. 

Gotta fit those down jackets under your costume! (The colorful one is Miss Indigo)

Someone is pleased as punch!

The first snow person of the season!

We're into the darkest 3 months of the year up here - so let there be light!

And let there be gear! (Gran not only hopped off her extremely long flight to AK and immediately hit a ski swap with us, but managed to gift us a sweet bench too! Thanks, Mom!!)

SKI PORN. Just the name always makes me giggle, but I think at this point you know what I'm talking about...  a movie featuring big mountains, bold skiers and boarders, and happening sound tracks designed to get us all inspired, amped, pumped, psyched, stoked and what-have-you for the snow riding season to come. 

Well this year we noticed a theme: Girls. From the film festivals winners to the official features shown at friends houses to the home-made goodness crafted by folks like ourselves, pretty faces ruled the silver screen! (Pretty Faces is a reference to Lyndey Dyer's all female ski production featuring kick-butt athletes from all over - check out the trailer.) Considering that 2/3 of Team Leslie are ladies, it was fun to have that twist. And more than fun was seeing Indigo hit the slopes for the first time this year having watched so many people who "looked like her" doing what they love in style; she was determined!

To give Big Mountain Mama Indigo full credit: It's her first day out, we're off piste in the backcountry, she's wearing skinny x-country touring skis, the conditions are crusty Styrofoam crap, and it's 4 degrees out. AND she got up smiling! Go girls!!

AURORA. Each year that we've been up here we've managed to catch glimpses of the spectacle known as the northern lights... Sometimes a green glow, sometimes a curtain, sometimes a ray, and always beautiful. But this fall has been remarkable - we fall asleep to the aurora; find it again when we go out to start the frosty car or head to school; and a few times we've been stopped in our tracks, unable to drive home, instead veering to the nearest field away from light pollution to just gape in wonder. Swirls, circles, bursts, pinks and reds... the sort of thing that everyone is talking about the next day in the checkout line at the grocery store with a unique common Aurora vernacular:

 "Yup! Just about 9:30PM, out grabbing my water bottle from the car so it wouldn't freeze... did ya see that 'hook' sort of shape to the East?"

"Wife and I were out on account of our dogs howling - we saw it. Danced a little and almost closed up at one point, that 'hook."

In fact, the gaping in wonder has been so spontaneous and focused, that we have not gone home to grab cameras and document. Luckily for me, others have!

So apparently everyone and anyone can check in with the Alaska Aurora Cam to get the current (real time) or the latest (last night) aurora activity - even you! And J likes to check in with the folks at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Geophysical Institute for their super science-savvy forecasts, like this one for tonight:

Without nerding out, you can see that some folks in Canada might be getting a show right now, but in AK, not so much. However we've had a few evenings that show us completely covered in red which = go outside now!!!

So there you have it. As in past years, November finds AK both cold and dark, but also sporty and festive. Our house has lights up around the door - white or colored depending on who gets to them first (I'm the classic white gal; J likes color; Indigo likes the seizure-inducing flash back and forth). And we are happily awaiting more of the white stuff, the bright stuff, and the holiday season - Cheers!