More Ice Art - WOW!!!!!

The World Ice Art Championship finished up this past weekend here in Fairbanks, but before it did we headed back over to the ice park to take a peak at the multi-block creations. All I can say is AMAZING!!!!!!

You judge for yourself. This is just a sample of the sculptures that were there.

This is what they start with! For the multi-block, they have several of these.

I think the one above is a single block sculpture, but the rest are all multi-block.

Again, AMAZING!!!!!

Encounters With the Animals of Alaska

As some of you may have guessed by the lack of pictures, we missed all the mushers coming in from the Yukon Quest, which ended up here in Fairbanks about 3 weeks ago. A lot of them came in at not so family friendly hours of the day. Although, Jerry and the kids had an opportunity to see the last two ladies come in and they missed them because Daddy had a hard time getting the kids ready and out the door in time.

Anyway, Noah and Paige and I decided that we wanted to see some sled dogs, so we headed out to a local race area and caught the start and finish of some trail races. We caught a good majority of the four-dog teams. I am pretty sure that the trail they were running is about 12 miles, but don't quote me on that. They seeed to start a new team every 3 minutes or so and I'm going to guess that they just compare times in the end then. It was a bit chilly that day, but we had a good time seeing the dogs.

Here are some pics of the dogs/teams we saw starting and finishing the race.

This past weekend, we only had to look out our kitchen window to have an encounter with some of the local wild life. We were on our way out of the house to Noah's indoor soccer game and Jerry spotted a momma and baby moose out the kitchen window. He snapped a few shots from off our deck, but then they headed off to the wooded area at the end of the block. So, as we left the neighborhood we swung by and snapped a few more pics of them enjoying a morning meal.

So, enjoy some of the pics of the moose and Noah at his soccer game.

Amazing Ice

Well, each year the city of Fairbanks hosts the Ice Art Championships. There are a couple different categories, but basically people take large blocks of ice and do amazing things with them. We went to check it out about a week or so ago and were able to see the completed single block sculptures. They started with an 8'x5'x3' block of ice, and this is what they created. Pretty Amazing!

The Crocodile Hunter

DNA (Double Helix)

Aside from the amazing sculptures created by the contestants, there is also a fun "Ice Park" for the kids to enjoy. All of the mazes and slides and things are made out of ice. The kids had a good time! (All the kids!)

Go Speed Racer

Stuck in a "bowl" of ice!

Daddy & Paige having fun!

Look at those slides!

Noah & his friend, Ava.

Paige is our little bundled pink baby!