So Saturday was a fun day. While town was getting hit with a massive snow storm we had beautiful blue skies up the highway. So while Jenny and Holly slept in Zach went and shoveled the roof, and the kids watched Ice Age on the laptop. So Zach spent some time shoveling the roof, giving everyone else time to wake up and get dressed to go play outside. Fox was the first out the door and wanted to spend time with hist dad. So he tried forever to climb up when finally Jenny came out to pee and gave Fox a lift up.

Not long after Joie was out and ready to play. And of course she wanted to get up there with everyone else. So she made some attempts to climb up and by the time she was ready to call it good, Holly was out and dressed. So Holly gave her a lift up. Then Holly came up and by then Jenny was out and ready to go. So Jenny filmed Holly jumping off the roof. Next Joie was going to jump off the roof and her and Zach fell off the roof. Fox was then left up there alone and he ended up jumping down to Zach.

After we had fun falling off the roof we headed up to the pass to sled down the Haines Highway. As we got up to the top of Marinka Hill there was a big bull moose sitting off down the hill. We stopped up there and took some family pictures. Then Zach took a run down off the hill side onto the highway. Next Jenny and Holly got ready. Zach drove a half mile down the highway to wait for them. Then they took off! Went 50ft and turned into the snow bank on the side of the road. Again and again and again. They had trouble getting the sterring down. But it was funny to watch and they had a good time.

When they caught up to Zach he hopped in and gave it a go. He was able to make a straight line to the bottom of the hill. So they loaded up the sled and gave it another shot. This time Zach and Holly went. It was a little bit harder to steer with two peoples, but they made it to the bottom in about 4-5 attempts. Then the got in the car and headed for 33 mile.  But they got down the road a few miles and found a new better spot. So Jenny and Zach gave it a try. They had troubles coordinating so Holly gave it a try with Zach. This time they were able to go about a mile or so before they got to the bottom of the hill. Hitting speeds of up to 35 mph. By then it was time to get something to eat.

Along the way we stopped to pick up the gun so Holly could crack a couple shots. On the straight stretch Holly got to shoot 3 rounds... Another Canadian turned. She liked it. After that we all had 33 Milers, at 33 Mile Roadhouse. Holly said it was the best burger she's ever bought. They are good. Yummm... After that we hiked back up to the cabin and hung out by the fire once more before calling it a day.

So we woke up and hiked down to the car. The trail was packed quite well after  we all hiked up it and Jenny pulled the full sled up the night before. Then before everyone left Zach shoveled it smooth. There were still spots on the side where you'd punch through thigh deep. But all in all it was an easy hike down. When we got to the bottom of the hill Fox ran to catch the sled and was hanging off the back as Holly pulled the sled dragging Fox behind him, eventually a boot fell off and he was being dragged bootless. But it was warm at about 20F so he had a good time. We pilled in the car and headed into town.

Along the way there were still a few eagle hanging out in the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. We caught a emergency broadcast over the radio for a winter storm waring that was in effect. Holly that that was pretty cool. We called Paul from Mountain Flying Service and met him at his hanger. We dropped off some aviation motor oil and talked a little bit with him. We told the kids not to run around and of course as Fox wasn't listening he eventually got clothes-lined by the tail of one of the planes in the hanger. It was then we thought we should probably take off.

Zach headed to the newspaper to catch up with Tom Morphet and Krista Kielsmeier, while everyone else wandered the gift shops for deals. After a couple hours it was dark and we thought it best to head home. Then Morphet told us he thought the Klondike was still open. So we headed over there and sure enough Steve was handing out free pizzas. He even made a special pizza for Holly without any cheese on it. It was great being back home. There're a lot of great people there. They still had Behind Sapphires custom Pizza box from when they played the SE Alaska State Fair.

After hanging out there for about an hour we headed over to the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the library. Lots of goodies donated by the community and the tree all done up nice. Mayor Scott got to light the tree. We sung a song with everyone there and then as we were heading out we ran into Holly Parnell and got to catch up with her. We drove back out the highway and hiked in to a warm cabin stayed up a little and then went fast to sleep.

Thursday Jenny went to bed at 2 a.m. after packing and getting everything ready to go. Zach woke up at 3 a.m. loaded the car and then at 5 we all got up and headed to Haines. We filled up the car and gas cans at Fred Meyer for about $3.50 a gallon till everything was full at $120. By now it was 6 a.m. Then got on our way. Everyone slept as Zach drove through the dark listening to the radio. Till about an hour outside Tok he couldn't even find an AM station. Soon after Joie woke up and sat quietly in her car seat. We filled up at Tok with prices around $3.90 a gallon. By this point there was light on the horizon and Fox woke up. Before crossing the Tok river we saw a moose and Holly started to stay awake. Soon after we were dodging ptarmagin on the highway and not long after that we were keeping an eye open for Caribou running along and sometimes down the highway. By the time we crossed through the border Jenny had woken up.

The kids and Zach were having a great time with the frost heaves. Jenny by this point had given up trying to sleep. Shortly before hitting Destruction Bay Jenny made sandwhiches and then proceeded to go back to sleep. She moved to the back so that Holly could have a better view from the front. The windows in back were frosting over. Joie was enjoying making snow off the window with the frost scraper.

Between Haines Junction and the border we saw a porcupine. We got through the border at 5 p.m. and made it to our driveway just as it got dark, in time to find that the driveway had a 5ft high 10ft deep burm of snow. Zach started shoveling. 2 hours later we were half way up the hill. Jenny and Holly put snow shoes on and were about to hike up. Then decided that the snow was too deep to cut a trail in. The kids were anxious to get home so Zach through Fox on his shoulders and cut the trail to the cabin. Zach and Fox got inside and started working on a fire.

By the time the girls got up everyone was pretty tired and cold. It was 10:30 by the time the cabin was warm enough. For the first two hours everyone huttled around the fire staying warm. Jenny loaded up the sled and packed some food and blankets and by midnight everyone was fed, warm, and in bed ready to fall asleep.