I knew in December 2024 as I wrote last year’s Year in Review that this 2025 review might be written from somewhere in Alaska. I “knew” it, but I don’t know that I believed it per say…but…here we are…somehow, despite all the chaos and stress to get from where we were in January 2025 to where we are now…we did it (and dare I say…we’re thriving on our new adventure)!

When I first sat down to work on this review I couldn’t even recall life before AK…January 2025 seems like it was years ago! But…when you’re someone with 140k photos on your phone it only takes a bit of scrolling through the photo roll to bring back memories of those months that feel a bit lost in all the craziness!

JANUARY 2025

We kicked off 2025 with my mom in Virginia. We rang in the New Year but then quickly headed to bed so we could be out the door early in the morning to complete the First Day Hike at First Landing State Park with Jip. Then we got back home and took the Aussies for a beach walk and finished the day with smores and wine in the backyard. Pretty perfect way to start the year if you ask me!

In January we set off to complete a few tasks (see previous January 2025 post) including completing a 1000 piece puzzle which my mom and I (with Merida’s “help”) tackled those first few days of the year while she was still in town and moving out of my 2nd storage unit. That consumed much of my weekend time unfortunately but we still had time for a few Pup dates and we even had a little snowfall that lasted just long enough that everyone got to run around in the slightly more than a dusting. This was also the first month that Cadel and Jip were able to go for a walk together which now seems so insignificant but in the moment it was such a HUGE step forward. I also changed my hours at work in January to be 4 x 9 hour days and then Friday I worked a half day. It wasn’t necessarily my choice to change hours but we made the most of my having the afternoon off on Fridays (and certainly I now miss that with my new job and schedule).

FEBRUARY 2025

Another whirlwind month of projects and going through all our bins and buckets and downsizing while also fitting in interviews (on a 4 hour time difference) and making big choices as to the future (while also keeping it widely a secret). My mom was back in Virginia to celebrate Valentine’s Day and of course all ended up quite spoiled…because why not?

Valentine’s Day 2025 also is important because it is the day Tock left the kennel she was at and headed to Wiseman, AK to reside with our friends Mollie and Sean at Arctic Hive until I arrived. Tock’s previous kennel (which she moved to in April 2024) was happy to keep her until I arrived, but reports from them indicated that she wasn’t necessarily thriving there, so we thought maybe a change of scenery and being reunited with some of her teammates who were wintering at the Arctic Hive would be the right move. Mollie and Sean were looking for a few more dogs to help with their upcoming guest mushing experiences and I was worried that they were taking a gamble on bringing her there when the reports I had been receiving was that she wasn’t pulling, but they believed she’d be fine and I felt such relief to know she was going somewhere I would have regular updates on her. Our friends Danielle and Jenda were able to come by and see her as she loaded up in a vehicle to hitch a ride to Wiseman. It about made my heart burst to learn within days of her arrival that she was already so loved by her temporary family and the biggest cheerleader and ever ready to GOOOO! Forever thankful to the Busby’s for taking a chance on her and giving her a bit softer place for her to wait for me, surrounded by old friends and familiarity.

February also brought FEAR. One morning later in the month I was petting Jip’s belly before bed and felt a lump on her abdomen. Upon inspection it was a hard, red lump very closely associated with one of her nipples and I just knew. I was able to get her an appointment the next evening along with Sydney who was going for a laser treatment on an open cyst. The fine needle aspiration caused the lump to bleed and I knew. The vet ended up calling me back the next day to say the sample indicated high inflammation cells but that in order to firmly make a diagnosis we’d have to do a biopsy. Her recommendation was to remove the lump completely rather than do a small biopsy and then wait for results and lose precious time if it ended up being something concerning. She wasn’t hugely worried, but I knew. Jip had surgery literally the next day. During a snow storm. Which seemed quite fitting. I got let out of work early due to the weather but sat at Starbucks next door to the vet clinic waiting for the word that I could pick her up. I laughed when the secretary texted me and told me I could come get her now (rather than the 2 hours later she had previously told me) because she was stressing them out as she had come out of sedation fast and was very animated in letting them know she wanted to be home with her Mom. Recovery was as good as it could be for a husky who was on major movement restrictions but we managed, though I was super bummed she had to miss out on the major snow event that closed down VA for 2 days. The Aussies made up for it by enjoying it enough for all of them!

The remainder of the month was spent using gift cards in earnest from the Pup’s date wallets knowing that where we were heading…they’d soon be useless. The dogs surely didn’t mind all their special date days!

MARCH 2025

March started with a whirlwind trip to Alaska for my working interview with what would become my new clinic. This trip so happened to also fall on my birthday and what’s more…it also happened to fall on the Iditarod restart which was happening in Fairbanks secondary to low (no) snow in Anchorage. The clinic was closed for the morning to allow their employees to go see the start so I was able to visit with and assist Riley and the Dark Horse Racing dogs get off on the trail. What an honor and amazing opportunity!

The working interview was multi-faceted. I started my trip with a social meet up at a brewery with some of the employees and their families and then a walk with the owner and speech therapist at a local nature preserve. The next day I had dinner at the owner’s house with her family and finally on the 4th I went into the clinic and saw patients all day alongside their other therapists. I ended the trip with dinner with a few of the employees and a trip to the ice carving contest park before heading off to the airport for a red-eye back to VA. The whole process was long and stressful BUT it served its purpose. It lets them know if they feel like I fit in and let me get a good taste of what working there would be like.

I didn’t leave knowing if I had gotten the job but…I did leave knowing I would move to Alaska no doubt and sent a text message while boarding one of my planes to the Busby’s who happened to have a small dry cabin off the market for repairs after being vandalized while on the market in the Fall but still available for purchase, that started the process of me checking “home” off to long checklist of things to figure out before moving. You see, while on my whirlwind trip to AK I was also able to look at a few houses with Danielle as my driver and a (cruddy) realtor. None of the houses we looked at really checked all my must have boxes. These houses would have been pushing my budget and had so many unknowns for me budget wise such as cost of electricity or heating on these larger homes. Plus, while dry cabins are challenging…they’re also so simple. You can turn off the lights, lock the doors and leave for months any month of the year if need be and have 0 worries, whereas houses with plumbing, the water is ALWAYS a worry and concern and leaving for an extended period (or even just a day or two) you have to heat the place and worry that the heat has gone out and your house is freezing up. The cabin the Busby’s had available had spiked my interest back months earlier when I had just been browsing listings and at that time I didn’t know it belonged to them. When I had restarted my search in more earnest, it wasn’t listed so I assumed it had gotten purchased. It just seemed like everything was falling into place in serendipitous ways and when we drove over to see the property (couldn’t go inside due to the repairs) we saw three moose walking down the driveway and somehow that too felt…like some sort of sign. Sitting on the plane on the tarmac I just decided…do it…tell them you want to buy that property.

I got back home (with challenges that involved needing to rent a car in Philadelphia and drive the rest of the way and my mom later going to retrieve my bag from Norfolk when it arrived 26 hours later) and immediately got a call from the veterinarian with the results of the testing on the mass removed during Jip’s surgery…cancer. She had already consulted with an oncology veterinarian who felt that the margins were good and that we had likely acted fast enough but additional testing could rule out the spread…of course I made that appointment immediately as well. Thankfully, the results of the scans were all promising and indicated no presence of cancer.

The month continued with warmer weather, beach walks and then Cadel’s birthday and Saint Patrick’s day (one and the same around here). Cadel turned the big 1-2 which as always…continues to shock me. So thankful that he is still so young in mind, body and spirit! His celebrations spanned a few days as his Abuela wasn’t going to be in town during his actual birthday so an early birthday celebration with an egg hunt (everyone’s favorite) and continued celebrations on the 17th for Big Boy!

Rounded out the month with more dates for the pups, gardening and preparing to announce our move to all our friends and family (oh yeah, I was offered the job and signed a contract immediately thereafter)!

APRIL 2025

After announcing our move to the “world” the hustle was truly on. Moved completely out of the storage facility by renting a truck and bringing everything from the remaining unit to VA and emptying it into the downstairs of the beach house…all by myself. Not a simple feat but…had to get it done so that we could participate in the community yard sale and try to make some $$ off all our furniture and “stuff.” We got rained out during our first attempt but rallied to get it all back outside the next day and thankfully sold a solid amount of stuff (all the big stuff at least)!

Unfortunately, right before Easter Jip fell quite ill. I picked her up from Cosmo’s where she had thrown up twice right before I picked her up and she wasn’t quite herself. I got her home and she proceeded to throw up multiple times in close succession and was just lethargic and absolutely not herself. We loaded up and headed to the urgent care vet facility. They were able to give her a shot to cut her nausea and we did X-rays and bloodwork but everything came back fine. They sent us home with some probiotics and prescribed a bland diet/prescription foods and I felt okay because she wasn’t throwing up any more. The next day she went to Cosmo’s and stayed in private care, unfortunately, her photo with the Easter Bunny shows exactly how poorly she was still feeling so I picked her up and took her to our normal vet who prescribed another medication to reduce diarrhea which had begun that morning. It took several days for Jip to begin eating again (canned prescription food, rice, boiled chicken) but man we celebrated when she did! Her bout with whatever that ailment was was the poorest I’ve ever experienced a dog feeling and it was certainly scary at the time.

We came out on the otherside of this with Jip somehow suddenly fully accepted by Cadel…I don’t know what happened…the night I brought her home from urgent care I decided we should all sleep together so I could keep any eye on her (and Sydney was starting to have a hard time settling on the nights she didn’t sleep with me) and from that moment on they’ve been completely fine together. Silver lining and best possible side effect to her illness!

Easter was celebrated with a sunrise beach service and egg hunts and treats for all!

Rounded out the month again with more beach walks, sweet strawberries, packing and preparations for the big move.

MAY 2025

Jip may look carefree there but…I promise you the start of the month was nothing of the such for me hah! The Uboxes that I was using to move all my possessions from VA to AK were set to arrive on May 1st and leave no later than May 12th. My mom was coming down for one weekend during that time and man…we worked our tails off. My mom is such a God send. Whenever I’m paralyzed by stress of inability to make decisions or get started on tasks she just takes charge and powers us forward. We got the first box loaded up so perfectly and pretty quickly. But in order to do that, we first had to go through a bunch of bins that were hard for me to purge from…Christmas decorations, work materials and dog/cat supplies. She helped me make hard decisions and moved us along. After packing the first Ubox we realized we would have so much extra space in the second one so we hustled to make some purchases and also emptied out the chest freezer to be able to pack it as well! I had to do the final touches on the packing of the Uboxes but it was such a relief and…”oh shit this is really happening” moment to watch on the ring camera as the truck came to take the boxes away.

With everything but what would fit in the vehicle with us on the trip left we found ourselves with more time to just get out and enjoy our rapidly dwindling time in Virginia. I continued to work but now had no materials (WEIRD feeling) and was transitioning to mostly completing evaluations. We had a freak oil situation in the backyard where oil from the neighbors yard (assumed that the neighbor who routinely changed his truck’s oil on the sand, was just dumping the oil into the sand directly and that the heavy rains we experienced caused it to come to the surface and push through the fence and into the yard), but other than that…May was pretty lovely filled with walks, fun in the yard and sprinkler time!

CHKD had their annual Norfolk Tides game for employees which I went to along with some co-workers; we ended up being rained out but…not before using the $20 voucher for a tasty drink and snacks and spending a few hours with co-workers outside the office!

The month ended with the pool opening much to Cadel and Sydney’s delight, warm weather, strawberries ripening in our planters and plentiful beach walks soaking it all in while we have it!

For the first time ever, I participated in the Memorial Day parade on Sandbridge with Jip in tow dressed to the nines! We didn’t win the best dressed dog contest but literally EVERYONE knew we should have hah…she was so proud of herself strutting down the street (for over 1.5 miles!) wearing sunnies and all her holiday garb!

And to end the month on the best note possible, Sydney had her annual echocardiogram and her results were actually IMPROVED upon last year’s findings! The Vet said that while it wasn’t statistically impossible it is statistically improbable and that while he wants her to continue on the vetmedin regimen he doesn’t think she needs additional follow ups with annual imaging and doesn’t believe she’ll ultimately die from her heart disease given the rate (or lack of) progression. Great news because while I know there are some great veterinarians in AK, it’s one less thing to try to figure out and one less type of practice to establish care at as soon as we arrive.

JUNE 2025

This month…whew…90 mph from start to finish! The highlights included Sydney’s 14th (WTF) birthday on the 17th filled with donuts for breakfast, a beach walk in the evening and a special dinner and a few gifts to celebrate the milestone.

We soaked up lots of water time whether in the pool, sprinkler, puddles or beach and started the slew of sad goodbyes to our favorite places and people. Oh…and I bought a house. Essentially sight unseen but full of trust and belief, we closed on the property finally this month!

At the end of the month the whole crew (sans Merida) and I made a turn and burn trip to NY for an amazing going away party that my mom organized. Our favorite dog walker actually drove Sydney and Cadel to my office so I could load them up, pick up Jip and then head northward!

The party in NY was so lovely and it was such a blessing to be able to see so many of my friends that have become like family before leaving for Alaska. The party was bittersweet too…because it implied that I won’t see these people again for quite a while and that’s the biggest downside no doubt to moving. My work is pretty liberal with time off including the entire week between Christmas and New Years and the entire week of 4th of July so I’m hopeful once I figure out dog care (another major downside to moving is having to re-figure that out) I can make the trip back to NY or VA at least 1x a year!

We drove back to Virginia following the party in our new van, Manley which I had also purchased sight unseen with the help of my mom and brother whom had to deal with all the actual dealership interactions since the vehicle was located there in NY despite trying to purchase one in VA but…AWD isn’t as common a feature on vehicles sold at the beach it seemed.

As soon as we got back to Virgina we were staring down our last few days but I was so thankful that Kaleigh, Grey and toddler Everitt were able to make the trek from MD to VA to meet me for a few hours at a brewery and then the two of us were able to catch dinner. I hadn’t seen them since I went to Alaska the first time (which was FAR FAR too long) but the thought that we wouldn’t see each other again before I took off was weighing on me heavily. Our visit was short but good for the soul! Glad we made it happen!

And then the mad dash to our departure date began with Sydney and Jip and then Merida and Cadel going to the vet to get their travel paperwork completed (necessary for admittance into AK from Canada) and tying up loose ends at work.

Our last few days were spent packing the odds and ends left behind, figuring out how to make everything fit in the van in the best way possible and soaking in a bunch of lasts..honestly it was a pretty emotional week or two here leading up to our departure…change is hard but I don’t give them a choice in the matter. They’ve moved a half dozen plus times with me over the years and always have adapted so beautifully to our lives in each chapter but…this is a big change and their lives and access to the people and places they’ve always known will change dramatically and I guess there is a bit of guilt in that for me.

JULY 2025

A few hard goodbyes, the beach, the house that while not ours was “home” for a while and Cosmo’s Corner. Jip had a bon voyage party at Cosmo’s and let me tell you…there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us as I picked her up on her final day. They were such a HUGE blessing and Jip was so loved there that it was truly one of the saddest things we had to say goodbye to in leaving Virginia.

We set out on our drive immediately after my final day of work in the wee hours of the morning on July 3rd. The road trip, was a bit insane because we pushed the timeline and somehow made the massive voyage from Virginia Beach to Fairbanks in 4.5 days arriving on July 7th. We chronicled the drive in some videos I posted on social media but here are some highlights of our journey which despite being completed at light speed still allowed for plenty of adventure too including several hikes, lots of wildlife spotting, some photo stops and massive amounts of snack consumption. We left the painted rocks that were completed at the going away party at each of our pit stops!

We pulled into the property and fell in love immediately. I had some fears that the space would feel too small upon arrival but…it’s absolutely perfect! Without the Uboxes being there yet (as we arrived a bit ahead of schedule) the first few days were minimal in what we could actually do other than rest and relax after the fast paced drive and all the aches and pains of days spent in the driver’s seat. And then the Uboxes arrived and back to work we trudged unpacking and organizing between rain storms!

Tock flew into town from Wiseman with Mollie just 2 days after we arrived, July 9th and I picked her up at the airport as Mollie had to rush from there to an event. Jip and Tock reunited on the deck and it was OBVIOUS they knew each other immediately. The first night there was a little reservation from Jip but within a day or two they were thick as thieves and soon you wouldn’t ever imagine they had spent years apart. Even Cadel handled the new addition far better than I expected but to be fair…he probably truly felt like he was seeing double for a while.

It was time for my mom to fly home sooner than I liked but I am so grateful for all the help she provided while here! We were able to start adventuring and learning our new home since most of the heavy lifting and hard work was done. Everyone got plentiful hikes and adventures in those two or so weeks before I started work, we spent countless hours sitting on our beautiful front porch and just soaking up the absolutely gorgeous weather. The mosquitos while at times lived up to their reputation while on hikes, seemed to have zero interest in our front porch and it was just everything I dreamed of to be able to sit on a rocking chair on my front porch with dogs all around me and write and dream. The two weeks off to get settled were so lovely and it was amazing to see how quickly we truly became a pack of 6 compared to how difficult it was to integrate Jip into the crew. We were all sleeping in the bedroom together from the very first night my Mom flew home!

But all good things must come to an end in order to make room for new chapters and more good things to happen and on 7/31/25 I started work at Hands on Therapy in Fairbanks.

AUGUST 2025

We quickly fell into our new routine of crack of dawn (but in full daylight) walks/runs for the dogs and full days of work for me and evenings of play and then front porch sitting. August weather continued to be lovely (compared to VA humidity for sure) and our summer schedule includes 3 day weekends each week which allowed for lots of hiking and adventures for me and the pups.

Everyone seemed to adjust to our new digs and surroundings so well and it really just was such a sigh of relief to see everyone so happy and so easily adapting to these changes. This month continued with projects with the help of new friend, John who helped me install my Starlink and then my composting toilet. Big projects that I wouldn’t have been able to complete on my own!

Later in the month my fence panels became available so again with John’s help we picked them up and then decided to set some of them up in the “driveway” space since I was having some issues with neighbor dogs coming over and causing issues with Cadel and Sydney which caused me a lot of stress. In a half day hustle we got a little yard assembled there which I quickly fell in love with and decided would stay there permanently and I would just have to purchase more panels for my bigger dog yard plans.

On August 14th the twins celebrated their 9th birthday (don’t remind me…makes me want to cry to think they’re both 9 already)! The Petty’s spoiled them crazy with a beautiful and delicious cake and a giant gift basket filled with all their favorite things plus they also got gifts from their Grammy/Gram and me of course. To say they’re spoiled it an understatement but in this case spoiled is just another word for loved.

The days seemed to fly by but at the same time felt less rushed somehow than life previously. We made lots of time for hiking and just spending time outside and just enjoying the nice temperatures and slowly fading daylight hours. Every day was a reminder of how lucky we are to live somewhere this beautiful (and then I would think…but winter is when Alaska really shows off)

And by the end of the month at our monthly meeting I already knew that my “win” for the month was that after just one single month at the clinic I felt more welcomed, appreciated and like I was not just a co-worker but a friend than I have ever felt anywhere else I’ve worked.

SEPTEMBER 2025

The mornings got darker and the light vests came out. The temperatures dropped a bit and the girls wanted to RUN (which made our mornings a bit frustrating but also effectively got me in a bit better shape, quickly). I had ordered a fat tire bike back in August as it became clear that the girls were no longer tolerating my foot pace or distance abilities but we had a good 5-6 week weight for it’s arrival. It thankfully came in mid month and we were able to try it out over several September weekends logging some 7-8 mile runs on some cross country trails before the snow started flying. The twins and I were in heaven getting to go faster and further together!

Sydney and Cadel both found themselves in donuts for a period due to Sydney having several cysts rupture (we also met our new vet for the first time as a result) and Cadel hurt his foot on the gravel in the yard while playing. Fortunately both were on the mend quickly.

This month work changed back to the Fall/Winter/Spring schedule which is five days a week and a three day weekend during the last week of the month. The change was nice in that the days are shorter but between all the to do list items mounting with the coming of colder weather the loss of the three day weekend was hard to adapt to. Nonetheless, projects got completed: I got the lot for the bigger dog yard cleared and ground cloth picked up and arranged for gravel to be delivered (which my neighbor hauled and then to my utter shock also spread and leveled!!), hung lights on the small dog yard, purchased and got the oil tank for the smaller cabin on the property delivered and set in place, went to a dog house building day at another local kennel and got two new dog houses for the other yard for my day long efforts and got the house and property ready for winter which was knocking, loudly with freezing temps and our first snowfall! Despite the busy hustle hustle on weekends, we still found plenty of time for fun and time spent together outside.

On the 17th Merida celebrated her 9th birthday. She too was spoiled by gifts and treats from her Meowma, myself and the Petty’s and while she is in fact a cat and didn’t love being forced to look at her presents, enjoyed her day and has thoroughly loved the gifts she received. I can’t wait for the spring/summer as I hope to be able to get her outside a bit whether in a catio or on a leash but for now she is happily enjoying the warmer spots in the cabin and the completely lazy cat life spent napping 22 hours a day.

And to end the month…Lady A showed up for the first time..visible right from our front porch!

OCTOBER 2025

This month flew by as they all seem to but with the temperatures rapidly declining and the snow beginning to stay around the urgency to get things done increased and weekends were largely spent on projects. I was fortunate to have several friends come over for a fence raising day where we got all the panels for the large dog yard up and then on my own later in the month I was able to put up lighting around the yard. While I didn’t NEED that yard to be finished as we’d been using and could have continued to use the Busby’s yard just a bit further down the driveway at their town residence…it is such a nice blessing to have the dogs close to home, with lights on them in the dark hours and be able to quickly access them before and after work. I am so happy with how it came out and the dogs all love the big yard.

We participated in Paws4Potter virtual challenge again and that kept us walking daily despite the cooler temps and darker mornings and evenings. We didn’t get quite as many miles as I had hoped because…there just wasn’t enough hours in the days sometimes but we’re already looking forward to next years event! Sydney and Cadel experienced their first moose encounter and fortunately were pretty calm and collected about it. I went to my first hockey game (Ice Dogs) and picked up our sled to borrow for the winter. The month started very dreary and wet but ended cold and snowy and we got our first taste of snowy adventures to come as our first snowfall that would last until spring time fell.

At work we hosted a trunk or treat event and Jip and Tock got to join for the event which was super fun and while it was quite chilly by the end of the night, it was so fun to provide this event for our families and the community. We celebrated later in the month, with the whole gang participating in our SNACK PACK costume theme this year!

Mom visited the very end of the month into November for a week and unfortunately it was quite cold and we had fresh snow which was beautiful obviously but made the trails difficult to utilize.

NOVEMBER 2025

Mom’s visit continued with some snowy walks after work and a weekend filled with some fun events including a visit to LARS (Large Animal Research Site at UAF) where we got to see Musk Ox and Caribou up close and personal and then a trip to see the Fairbanks Symphony perform the soundtrack to Jurassic Park while the movie played–Phenomenal! We also did a little bit of shopping and had several dinners out with friends while she was in town. Her visit seemed to be over as soon as it started for me since I had to work the whole week she was here but I’m glad that on her next visit I’ll have the entire time off so hopefully we can do a few more things and see a bit more of each other than this time…though the dogs and cat surely enjoyed her visit thoroughly and all the time they got to spend with her at home (Jip even got to do some baking with Grammy which we all know is one of her favorite things)!

The month continued with a few small snow accumulations which made some of the trails a bit…roughly accessible by bike. We got to explore a bit more that way but really needed another 8-12 inches at that point to truly be able to enjoy the trails from our yard on the bike. The dogs are loving the snow and bit cooler temperatures and boy does the new yard and lights look good covered in snow and draped in moonlight!

We were lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving multiple ways and days. First at work before the long weekend we had a delicious Friendsgiving type lunch and then on Thanksgiving day we woke up at 4am to watch the Macy’s Day Parade live and chat with family back home. We did a run, baked some pies and then Jip and Tock went with me to the Petty’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. The next day we spent the day cooking, cleaning and decorating to host a small Friendsgiving at home for some friends who otherwise didn’t have a big thanksgiving celebration. It was lovely and such a nice night and gave me the confidence that the dogs and I can in fact host small gatherings in our small little cabin. Sydney and Cadel were rockstars throughout the evening and loved all the company!

What else this month? The temps dipped to below 0, the northern lights lit up the sky red, and we completed our first morning run under the visible lights, the dogs got cozy in all ways and places, we had a wine tasting evening at a co-workers house and then we also had our work Christmas party as one of our PTs is going on sabbatical for 3+ months and we wanted to make sure to celebrate before she left, we received an abundance of blessings in the form of fish and meat from our friends Vickie and the Petty family and I spent an entire day processing and chopping the meat/fish for snacks and meals. The twins and I can’t even express how thankful we are for those gifts! I also went to a skijoring clinic and now am excited to give that a whirl as well!

DECEMBER 2025

And now December. I can’t lie and say it’s been the most festive of seasons…the month just literally flew by and I can’t believe it’s already Christmas week. I think the fact that it’s been an unusually cold December (like other than 2 days…when it poured down snow on us it hasn’t been above -5 as a daytime high), work has been busy and I’ve struggled to keep on top of my paperwork, trying to navigate the whole shopping and preparing for Christmas in a place where mail and shipping just doesn’t work as fast and just millions of good intentions of things I wanted to do but just not enough hours in the day…it’s just passed us by. Not in a bad way…but also…I hope we can do better in future Decembers. Our cabins are both beautifully decorated and cozy and that is more than enough to make the season still warm and bright in my mind anyways without all the running around and trying to fit a million activities and events into the schedule.

We had a little scare one day when I got the notification, hours after the fact, that my Toyo (heater) in the main cabin had stopped working. I rushed home now at 5pm when the temperatures outside were -28 and the inside temperature had plunged to 40 and set to work trying all the things to try and troubleshoot the problem. Bad news is I don’t know which of the many things I tried worked, but good news is that one of them did and I quickly was able to get the Toyo back working with just some reassurance that I was doing the right things from friends via messenger and I am all the more assured in my ability to handle situations like that in the future. We also as a result got to test out the propane stove for the first time and that worked beautifully and helped get the house back up to temperature quickly.

But otherwise the month has just been filled with busy stuff and a few fun extras mixed in…the first Thursday-Sunday of the month I had a CEU class all day/each day. It also happened to be the start of this deep freeze we’ve been stuck in so I was happy to not have to leave the house and to be able to stay inside with the dogs for four days straight (though we did get out on runs twice during that stint in the evenings as my class started at 6am AK time each day). I’m glad I took the class, but the timing could have been better–I feel like I lost a lot of time during an already short holiday season by having the class when it was. Despite being home and “just” on the computer all day, the class didn’t really allow for me to utilize the time for anything “extra” so I truly did lose a weekend.

Then we had a photo appointment for Merida to get her picture with Whitney taken like all the dogs have which I’m so thankful to have gotten done, but took a good chunk of a weekend day and couldn’t capitalize on it and get some errands done while she was in the car since it was again…-30 and she was quite vocal about her displeasure at that as it was hah. We (me and the OG pups) spent a lovely and fun evening at the Petty’s house making gingerbread houses and eating delicious soups. We had to finish setting up the hobby cabin and getting her ready to use more efficiently this holiday season, continue to get runs in as often as we could and we even had a visit from Santa!

This weekend, I unfortunately felt pretty crummy on Saturday, which was likely just my body’s way of screaming from the rafters that I NEEDED a day of actual rest for once…but Lord knows I am my mother’s child and a day of rest mentally kills me to have to take. My to do list for the weekend had been a mile long so it killed me to have to ignore it to relax and rest a bit. BUT as is often the case…it was well worth it because I woke up today, the Solstice, feeling fine and fully ready to go tackle our first bikejoring event, the Solstice 20 Relay. It was -36 at the start and finish which certainly makes you feel alive but I was dressed well and I actually ended up being too warm! Mind blowing that that is even possible at such frigid temperatures. Our team got 3rd overall, largely in thanks to our partner who along with his two dogs laid down a blazing fast split! We learned some things and had a great day but…it was a day….and by the time we got home I was ready to sit on the couch and ignore all those lingering to do list tasks. So…the last few days into Christmas will probably be long and a bit chaotic to make it to Christmas morning feeling “ready” but….maybe next year we’ll be better prepared, better organized and December will look a bit different…fingers crossed at least!

LOOKING TO 2026

And so that brings us to 2026…how we got here so fast…no telling, but here we go again…welcoming in a new year. I’m hopeful for a quiet year of continuing to grow our community here in Fairbanks and the surrounding areas as well as figuring out how to leave and feel okay with leaving the pups to be able to travel for classes or to visit friends/family. I’m excited for the rest of winter as daylight starts to flood back to us over the next weeks/months but also looking forward to a full summer to explore with the pack and Manley the van which will allow us to travel and camp if we so desire. I plan to sign up for the 3 local triathlons for the spring/summer…they’re all sprint/olympic distances which should be a nice easy and no stress reentry into that world after my hiatus. I have a few projects I’d love to tackle this summer as money and time allow and I’m hopeful to have at least a friend of two here to visit this summer.

I don’t fully know what I want 2026 to look like for us yet but I’m hopeful that with some quieter time in the weeks ahead and less to juggle, I’ll be able to think a bit more on that and start to make a dream plan for the upcoming year. One thing I know for sure is I want to get back to the things I was implementing before life went haywire in 2025 with all the pre-move chaos…making a monthly goal list rather than a year long resolution and attempting to dedicate a bit more time to writing, crafting, creating.

I hope everyone is ending 2025 feeling like your living the life you’ve dreamed of and if not, I hope you’re brave enough to take a leap of faith and see where you find yourself in 365 days–it’s quite crazy how much can change in such a short period if you just jump!

Live Wild. Run Free, friends! Life is just out there waiting to be lived!