Long weekend!

Last Wednesday was our (hopefully) monthly girl's night. A little over a year ago, I met four other women who were stationed at Ft. WW.  They were there for me through J's deployment to offer virtual hugs, advice, and conversation. I didn't actually meet them until much later. I'm so glad I met these women because they are a lot of fun and it makes being away from my friends more bearable.

This past weekend was a four day weekend. That's one thing I love about the army-extra days off frequently. Jordan and I planned on going to Valdez or even just Anchorage for the weekend, but our plans fell through when we hit a snow storm and had to turn around. We had already driven well over three hours so it was disappointing to have to turn around and head back to Fairbanks. It's pretty depressing to have to watch the temp drop from five degrees above zero back down to twenty five below. If nothing else, though, we had a beautiful drive and some quality time together.

 Because we couldn't leave town, we decided to drive out to Chena again just to get out of the house for awhile. Boy, was it cold! The wind was blowing there (There's not much wind in Fairbanks) and it made negative 30 feel even colder. Jordan's friend Josh accompanied us into the hot springs for the first time. We all looked pretty silly with our hair and eyelashes frozen. It didn't take long at all- five minutes outside and we all looked like ice sculptures! It's a neat experience to have the bottom half of my body really toasty yet my head is freezing. The texture of my hair was cool and I couldn't stop playing with it. When we got inside to thaw out, it still felt mushy for awhile until I found a hair dryer to melt away the remaining ice.