The Search for Miss Direction: Lodge Cookie and Marshmallow Igloos

Our Alaskan adventure continued today with two different projects. This morning, Mikayla and I, along with an assist from our wonderful friends Tess and Alexis set out to try our hand at making some Alaska Lodge Cookies. The recipe comes from a lodge open to visitors in Lake Creek, Alaska called the Wilderness Place Lodge. They were a very hearty cookie that contain pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. The girls did an amazing "Kid Kitchen" job of helping mix up and drop the cookies. And of course, two beautiful princesses had to come and give a taste test. They received an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Tonight we've been busy crafting away! While we learned (thank to Carl and Monica and the book they sent us!) that all Alaskans do NOT live in igloos, we thought they were special enough to include in our Alaskan discussion. With an assist from wiki how, if you're really curious and want to make an authentic igloo (in case you're ever in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness and you feel the need to) here's the instructions on how to build an actual igloo. Or you could make do like we did and use the next best thing to snow and ice - marshmallows! The kiddos constructed some adorable igloos tonight that you'll have to see below to believe.

In other news (because not everything around here is Alaska related!) the Bean and I had to run downtown today for stamps (gotta mail those postcards!) and while there took the time to check out the new outdoor ice rink. We found out it's only open Thursday through Sunday and is not monitored at all. There is also no way to get skates if you don't have your own, so if I want to take the kiddos it looks like I'm going to have to be tracking down a pair for myself. It does look fun, though and Kayla says we should go tomorrow. I told her there may be a few other things on the calendar that take precedence tomorrow, but hopefully soon ;-)

Speaking of tomorrow, everyone's in school, I get to host my first PTA Board meeting and who knows what else we might tackle. We've promised the kiddos at some point to let them watch a little bit of "Deadliest Catch" (one of my faves!) to show them what crab fishing is all about and Grant has also suggested "Gold Rush" to show them how they currently mine for gold in Alaska. Might be a good night for that here! So until then...

Alaska Fun Fact of the Day: In 1915 the record high temperature in Alaska was 100 degrees Farhenheist at Fort Yukon; the record low temperature was -80 degrees Fahrenheit at Prospect Creek Camp in 1971.

Second Fun Fact: We learned from the letters from Carl and Monica that the Wal-Mart in Fairbaks where Monica works in the pharmacy department is the 2nd largest in the world!