The Skinner Family Digest: Whirlwind trip North

Before Christmas, the "Oberg" brood took a quick trip up to Fairbanks, North Pole, and Chena. My parents, Scott, Heather and the boys, and our family all went up for a weekend of fun! We drove up because we knew we'd stay a little longer than everyone else to spend a couple days with Lizzie, Alan, and their boys. They flew in first thing Saturday morning, we went to breakfast, then drove out to see Santa's House in North Pole. Unfortunately, Santa took a day off (seriously though, what kind of Santa AT THE NORTH POLE takes a day off the Saturday before Christmas?!), but the kids got to check out his house, the gift shop, and his reindeer. Right next door to Santa's House was a kid's ice park, complete with igloos, slides, sculptures, "ice bowls", etc. The kiddos had a BLAST there! Koda felt sick about halfway through, though and ended up spending part of the afternoon with his head laying on a table in the "warmup" room. Poor thing! The adults had fun on the slides and the maze as well. BUT....probably the best time we had was spinning the boys around in the ice bowls until they walked loopy! Too fun! We had lunch at Pagoda, which is basically THE BEST asian food in the state, as well as about the ONLY good place in North Pole! I pretty much make George take me every trip up North.

After gorging ourselves, we drove to Chena Hot Springs, where we all checked into our hotel rooms, got dressed in our swimsuits, and hit the pool! The indoor pool is like lukewarm bathwater, and the kids (with the exception of a sick Koda man) loved it. They were also allowed in the outdoor hot tub, which was fun for the adults as well, as we could pelt them with snow :) My mom, George, and Scott took turns terrorizing the boys by snatching them out of the hot tub and rolling them in snow before they could escape and jump back in the hot tub! Kids weren't allowed in the outdoor rock pool, which really was a bummer. The natural rock pool really is the best feature of Chena. My dad, Scott, George, and I had one heck of a snowball fight in it (we pretended we didn't notice the "this is a place for relaxation, please be quiet" sign....there was nobody else in the pool-oit was fair game!). The water, in some places, was literally TOO hot. Anyone who knows me, knows that I like my baths so hot I look like a lobster when I get out, so.....suffice it to say that the springs where the water comes INTO the pool is really, really hot! We had a decent dinner at the restaurant there, and then got the kids to bed before we put a few bedside stands together to play cards. We woke up, had breakfast, and hopped back into the pool for just a couple hours before we had to pack up our rooms and check out.

My parents, Scott, Heather, and the boys (including Koda-he had to head down to Kodiak for Christmas this year) flew out that afternoon. We stayed a couple extra days and hung out with Lizzie, Alan, and the boys before driving back home.