February in rural Alaska

Yesterday it was 21 degrees outside.

And the sun was shining.

 As soon as Wyatt woke up from his nap, we bundled up and headed out.

The twins were overjoyed that they could play and not have to wear scarves.

 I was overjoyed to feel the sun on my face.

Most of February has been too cold to get outside.
Twenty one degrees felt like a Godsend.

 We were able to stay out for almost an hour.

 Angel (our neighbors dog) was happy to have company.

The boys love to collect these little pine cones. 

I always find them in their coat pockets later.

 You can see the effects of the wind around the house. 

This "Wind Mountain" outside Susan & Leah's house is one of them.

 Jack climbed immediately to the top...

  jumped off...

 and proceeded to bump his way down on his bum, giggling all the while.

 Then he started climbing back up again...

 and fell before reaching the top.

 Once he started going down, that was it!  He went all the way down.

 Look at those happy boys,

and those clear skies!!!

When the weather warms up construction workers come to Marshall to work on various projects.  They leave their vehicles behind over winter, and here you can see two of them completely buried in snow.

Wyatt walked around for some of our time outside. 

While toddling awkwardly in the snow he says to himself,
"Keep going... Keep going... Keep going..."

It's so cute!

Once he tires of walking in the snow, he says to me, "Pick up!"

I happily oblige, even though he weighs a ton!

 Once I had him up on my hip, he kept asking me to sing to him.  So I stood in the sunshine, singing to my baby, watching my big boys bump down Wind Mountain.  It was a beautiful hour!

... And I had to add this one from this morning just because it is so cute.

Happy Friday!!!