Northern Lights

Weather Report

High +22 Low -5
Sunrise this morning 6:30 a.m. Sunset 7:26 p.m. for a total of 12 hours and 50 min of daylight. It seems to be increasing fast at 6-7 minutes a day.

Hi, It is spring on the top of the world. Spring Alaska style that is.

When it is +20 I still wear my thermals but have only a sweater on and am very comfortable for in and out of the car. We still dress up very warmly for our security job at Ice Alaska, however. . The other thing that is so strange here is that it has not been above +22 this week and the snow is melting. Like spring in Utah there is a lot of dirty snow around which they are hauling off by the truck loads. They don't put salt down on the roads so it is easier on the car but they put little rocks and we are wondering what they will do with all the rocks on the road now that the snow is melting. We actually saw grass on the median the other day and everyone was talking about spring. Someone saw the pussy willows budding out, we haven't but Spring is definitely on its way. Everyone says when it really starts it will only take a week and it is here. Will let you know when that happens.

Just when Burt had decided we would never see the Northern Lights we saw them! It was a splendid night. We had just gotten out of the shower with wet hair when the Elders called about 10:45. No question about it we just grabbed out coats and headed for the hills. We were very cold at 0 degrees and when we got home decided it was because of our wet hair.

It is hard to remember well enough to compare Northern Lights of 30 years ago but these were close to the best I have seen. It is hard to describe the show they put on as they dance and swirl and change colors all across the sky. I wasn't sure that we were going to see them change colors and then it happened and we could see the reds and yellows. When they dance and change colors they are moving so fast that Burt couldn't get a good picture. We like the mostly green ones that you will see from the pictures but believe me the pictures just don't do them justice. As I watched them I kept thinking of peoples thousands of years ago, seeing the lights for the first time, how scary that would be. It was an exciting night.

We spoke about Family History in the second ward last week and I finally got sweet revenge on Burt. I spoke first and left him short of time. We will be talking about the Savior in the 1st ward in two weeks and he is insisting on going first to get even. We are probably the only couple we know who fights over getting their equal share of time.

I think I have told you before that the Christmas lights are on all year long, I guess. With almost 13 hours of daylight they haven't turned them off yet. We went to the Stake Presidents house for dinner last Tuesday and I noticed that we were greeted with the usual Christmas lights every where but also with two Halloween scarecrows on the walk going in. Inside the tables were covered with Easter decorations. I loved it! Just leave all the decorations up all year long and think of the time you would save putting up and taking down.

Thanks for your responses. I love you all so much! Thanks for caring, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma