Secret Saint Nicholas

When we first arrived back home, Quinn was sad to see there was no snow on the ground. He had been constantly watching our local ski area's webcams, waiting and hoping for the skiing he would do this winter.

Though there wasn't any snow, we quickly busied ourselves with unpacking our two huge suitcases from our travels and it was finally time to start decorating for Christmas!

When we first moved into the barn, there were icicle style christmas lights on it from ten years prior! 

Because of the painful memories Quinn had of taking them down, we hadn't yet put lights of our own up. 

This was the year to change that!

Quinn did a wonderful job putting lights up, and we'll be sure to take them down once the season is over (because leaving your Christmas lights up ALL YEAR ROUND is a huge no-no).

While on tour, I had plenty of time to dream up Christmasy things to do while home. Maybe I day dreamed a little too much...because I've kept Quinn pretty busy with all the ideas I've had.

My first idea came from the old tales of Saint Nicholas when he would come to good children and fill their clogs or slippers with treats. Saint Nicholas day fell on the first Sunday we were back in town, December 6th. And Quinn and I were prepared to spread some Christmas cheer in Saint Nicholas' honor...

We woke up extra early on Sunday morning, thinking that Abigail and Melissa (who were the only ones home) would still be fast asleep. Imagine our surprise when, as we were sneaking up to their front door, Abby opens it and wishes us a good morning! 

There we stood. 

Our arms filled with treats and surprises for her. 

Ooops!

Needless to say we quickly tried to hide everything and asked her to go back inside and we would come get her in a bit.

She was rather confused (and I'm sure surprised by the bags of slippers and candy in our hands), but she was kind and left us to our now not-so-secret work.

Together, Quinn and I set out the slippers we had picked out for each person and filled them with candy canes, oranges, nuts, caramels  and pomegranates.

Abigail and Laura got the most exciting pairs of slippers, with Abby getting puppy dog ones and Laura getting pink piggies! 

We set a little note from Saint Nicholas in front of each pair of slippers. All that was left now was to go get the good children (or in this case, good mom and sister). 

I think they were a little bit surprised!

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Mom and Abby were so excited to find a pair of slippers from Saint Nicholas just for them by the front door. And I was so happy that Quinn and I had gotten up early and surprised them. 

As we later found out, they were just about to leave for the early service at their church (something Quinn and I had not taken into account).

Even though Abigail caught us in the act of our secret plans, she still said that she was very surprised. 

And really, that's what we had hoped for...

Little did they know that I had other things in mind for more secret Christmas things!

Sledless Sledding

A week or so ago, I had just gotten up out of bed to find sunshine streaming through our windows. The day was already lovely, and we had a morning of practicing out in the sun to look forward to. Quinn and I were just sitting down to eat some cereal, when he got a phone call. Paul and Abigail had went for an early hike up Eaglecrest not long before, and they had run into a friend of theirs...

The whole ski area (normally very quiet during the summer months) seemed a buzz with people! Upon asking, Paul and Abby learned that Lands End, the clothing line, was doing it's winter photo shoot up on top of the mountain! 

Long story short, someone was not feeling well. No one from the Lands End party could be spared to go all the way into town to get medicine, and so Paul called Quinn asking if he could run up some cold medicine from the house to help someone out for a free ride up the mountain on the chair lift!

Well of course Quinn and I both jumped at the chance to ride up the chair lift during the summer (something that is very unheard of!), so we quickly got the medicine and up the mountain we drove!

After a short wait (and a very thankful man who was NOT feeling well) we were on the chair lift and whisked away! Not being a skier, I had never rode the chair lift - in summer or winter - but Quinn and Abigail had never heard of anyone ever being able to go up it during the summer. It was a real treat!

Quinn had a lot of fun pointing out all his favorite ski spots to me. He couldn't believe how different the mountain looked with hardly any snow on it!

Once up at the top, the view was beautiful, and the lodge was packed full of models, makeup and hair stylists, and racks and rows of clothes and shoes for the photo shoot. We had a lot of fun hanging around and watching the photographers take photos. We didn't want to be in their way though, and since Paul and Abby had wanted to HIKE the mountain (and hadn't yet) we hiked a bit farther from the chair lift to the very tip top - where two summers ago we filmed parts of our Alaska Odyssey DVD. 

Abigail wasn't satisfied with the hike though. 

The snow was soft from the warm sunshine, and the slopes were steep. 

She wanted to go sledding!

Well. We hadn't exactly planned ahead. 

No sleds were to be found, but we made do:

As you can see, we had lots of fun.

Our pants and shorts were totally soaked through and freezing cold, but thankfully the warm sun on our backs helped warm us up on the hike back down the mountain.

It was certainly a day and an experience we wont be forgetting anytime soon. And we look forward to seeing our beloved Eaglecrest in the winter catalog of Lands End!

Our Guide to Juneau - Eaglecrest

We're doing a short little series on our favorite places here in Juneau! So many times up at the tram, we are asked where the locals go, or where the prettiest spots are. 

Well, here are your questions answered! Our favorite places to go to, and the places we think you've just gotta see while you're here!

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As many of you know, this last winter wasn't really a winter by Juneau standards. There was hardly any snow, which greatly affected our local and much loved ski area, Eaglecrest. 

Quinn and Abigail both had gotten season passes, sadly they didn't get to use them.


But Eaglecrest is a wonderful place to go all year-round! Although the skiing and snowboarding draws many people in the winter, the rest of the year locals come from all over Juneau to hike and enjoy the lovely scenery.

A few days ago Quinn and I decided to hike up the mountains with our friend Jacob.

Jacob and Quinn have been friends for probably forever, and they shared stories with me as we hiked about all the trouble they got into as children (and teenagers) on and off the slopes of Eaglecrest.

The sun was shining beautifully, making our hike even more enjoyable. The trail to climb up into the mountains is actually more of an access road for the ski area, so that vehicles can get up to the top to work on the buildings and ski lifts.

Two summers ago we got permission to drive our own big truck up the mountains, but that was for our Alaska Odyssey show movie! 


We may have wished part way up that we could have taken the truck...but where would the fun be in that?

At one of the first ski lifts we passed, the boys decided to show off their strength by climbing around. 

It's easy to tell that these two are best friends, isn't it?

The higher we climbed, 
the more snow we saw. 

Because of the warm winter we had, snow was much higher on the mountains than it was supposed to be. Quinn even said that had the winter been normal, we wouldn't have been able to hike at all, there would have been too much snow. 

At first the snow wasn't that bad...

But it quickly got quite deep, and soon we were a line of hikers, trying not to fall over in the thick snow.

The day was warm, and Quinn had worn shorts. 

Yes, he may have regretted it later.

The cold didn't bother us for long though, we grew hot from hiking, and soon the cold mountain breezes blowing from the peaks were welcomed.

We slowly climbed higher and higher, the snow getting deeper and deeper. 

The sun has been forecasted all this next week, so by next weekend a lot of this snow will be melted away (making this hike a lot easier!).

As we got near the top, we could see tracks from desperate skiers who had hiked up to get some skiing in, even though the ski area was long closed.



And when we finally reached the top, it was hard to believe how much snow we had been walking on!

(It was also a bit hard to get down)

The views were stunning, and well worth the hard hike through the snow:

At the top we rested and soaked up the sunshine.

Jacob also did some flips off of the ski lift into the snow. Causing him to get pretty cold, and causing us to get colder just watching him!

We built a mini snowman before hiking back down, but we hoped to have a bit more fun...

We had brought trash bags for sledding!


The plan was for us to just sled all the way back down the mountain, but unfortunately the snow wasn't soft enough (the sun had set, causing the top layer of snow to harden into ice). That didn't stop us from trying though!

Well...maybe next time.

We had a great time hiking, and (when there's a bit more snow melted) we hope any of you who are coming to Juneau will put this hike on your list of things to do. The views are amazing, and the trail (though steep) is easy and well maintained. We'll be doing this trail again very soon, maybe we'll see some of you along the way!

The Winter that Wasn't

   While the lower 48 has been terrorized with snow, here in Juneau, winter seems to have forgotten about us! This winter has been the first that the band has stayed home instead of going on tour. This meant one, exciting thing: skiing!

   But it's hard to ski when there's only a few inches of snow on the ground, as Quinn sadly found out...

   Abby and Quinn both bought season passes to our own local ski area, Eagle Crest (which is right down the road from the house), yet so far, Quinn has only gone skiing once, and Abby not at all!

   That was, of course, before Eagle Crest had to shut it's doors because of no snow. This Christmas, there wasn't even any snow on the ground when we got our tree (or any on Christmas day, for that matter)!

   Never in the history of Juneau has there ever been such a lack of snow. It isn't just Juneau though, ski areas all down the West Coast are also lacking in the snow department.

   This doesn't help us feel any better though...

Don't worry Quinn, winter will be here again before you know it. We do live in Alaska.