What a strange season of life we’re in right now! I’ve been hopelessly absent here for a number of reasons, but the main one is simply that summers here are short – and they’re meant to be lived outside, nonstop, all the time. And we have. We’ve been soaking up every ounce of summer that we can, and we’ve loved it lately. We’re having a veritable heat wave again this week with temps reaching the mid-80s, and we’re embracing every bit of summer loving in Alaska that we can because, yes, winter is coming.
Summer Loving in Alaska
They tell you that winters are long and summers are short in Fairbanks, but they don’t tell you just how short these summers are. In Korea, we had four proper seasons. In New Hampshire, I was used to a proper and distinct spring, summer, fall, and winter. Here? Winter is about 7.5 months long, fall is about a week, summer is about 3.5 months, and spring is kind of a mix between all the seasons all at once.
But when it’s actually summer here, it’s glorious. We’ve had an amazing respite from wildfires lately, so the air has been clean, and the long days have been so nice. I start work early in the morning, and we’re outside from the time the kids wake up, all the way until they go to bed (besides sports, of course). We’ve also been lucky to acquire some fantastic new neighbors, so the kids have been in absolute heaven.
Our Favorite Parts of Summer Thus Far
If you’ve followed our little blog for some time, you likely know that we’re almost always busy. We always have an adventure on deck, and we’re always planning some sort of adventure yet to come. Well, we took a massive step back this past year in terms of that – in large part because Fairbanks is really out there, and life out here is expensive.
Our favorite parts of summer loving in Alaska thus far, however, include lots of local adventures, like fishing around Fort Wainwright, the Midnight Sun Festival and Midnight Sun Baseball Game, and our neighborhood block party we had just this past weekend. Thought we haven’t traveled nearly as much as the past few years, we’re grateful for this time to sort of really soak up all the Fairbanks has to offer.
Recent Life Updates
After our first winter in Alaska, we knew we had to make some changes heading into our next winter, so one of our biggest life updates is that all three kiddos will be heading back to public school next month. While I don’t know whether it’ll be a long-term thing, we decided it was best for all of us. Winters are long and isolating, and we think this will be great for the kids – especially Mieke – who really struggled after leaving her Korean school. They’re all really excited, so we’re hopeful this will make for a fun new challenge this year!
And finally, onto our biggest news…we will be moving again next summer, July 2025. After a doozy of a year, which included the dismantling of the UAS program my husband was assigned to here at Fort Wainwright, we received a curtailment to ensure he is able to PCS somewhere and work hands-on within his MOS. Our original orders were through July 2026, so we’ll move a whole year sooner, and this will likely be our last move as active duty. Wild, right? So, Ryan will enter the marketplace this fall, and, as always, the countdown is on. We’re excited to see what’s next!