Kreider Khronicles

Happy Winter Solstice! The shortest day of the year and here we are sitting in an airport making our way back to the east coast to celebrate Christmas with family. A lot has happened since I last wrote about our lives. This year hasn’t been easy for us, lots of adventure and heartache. But we continue to make it through by leaning into God and each other to find the strength to carry on. Now to catch you up on our life in the last 4ish months.

The last weekend of July was the Tanana Valley State Fair. Now for all you PA folks, this is not your typical state fair. There is so many food stands that you won’t go hungry but what we all think of a fair is lacking. Walked into the livestock barn and was disappointed. There was maybe 2 dairy cows, several sheep and a couple small pigs. Not what we are use to from the many farmshows in PA to the state farmshow every year. But we can say that we went to the State Fair.

August started out strong with another camping trip with some friends. This time we went about 2 hours south of Fairbanks near the coal mines. It was a very fun short weekend. But man did it get chilly at night. I ended up not being able to sleep in my sleeping bag due to being too cold. So once Benjamin noticed that I was shivering he had me climb into his sleeping bag with him. He has a burrito bag so it was very tight. But at least I was a little bit warmer. Come morning we all ate breakfast and then went Fourwheeling to check out the coal mine trails. Got to enjoy the breathtaking views of Alaska from a new view point.

Some of you may know that we unexpectedly lost Benjamin’s grandpa Kreider the middle of August right before his parent’s were to come out to visit. We instead flew back to PA as quickly as we could. Losing grandpa has been very hard to process and grieve through. He was a very important man in a lot of people’s lives and continues to be missed greatly. We will always remember the man he was and the impact he has had on our lives. Upon return to Alaska from PA life kinda began to slow down for us which was much appreciated.

Over labor day weekend, Benjamin and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary a little early. We drove down to Anchorage to spend the long weekend there. We did see my Uncle Andy, Aunt Becky and their one son Jonas for a lunch in Palmer. They had been up the week prior to do some fishing in Soldotna. It was nice to hear about their experience and to just get to catch up on all that has happened in our lives since the last time we saw them. That Sunday we drove to Whittier Alaska, which we both highly recommend. You can only get to it by a train tunnel that is open each direction for 15 minutes every half hour. But if the train comes through you have to wait a little longer. The town on Whittier is at the head of the passage canal, It is very much a fishing town. The boat yard is a massive. The entire town all lives in one building, it has the hospital, grocery store, church and post office inside with the residents. In Whittier there is a glacier that you can hike too. But don’t be fooled by the hike, it may only be 3/4 of a mile but in the 3/4 mile there is an 800 plus elevation gain. But the view from the top is gorgeous. Would totally do it again if we go back. On our way back to Fairbanks on Monday, we drove through Hatchers Pass. Which is another passageway that I would recommend traveling through. The fall colors really popped as your drove through. Right before getting to the road for Hatchers Pass there is the remains of a gold mine town. We stopped, explored and learned the history of the town from when it was booming. Then we saw the iconic red cabins that are most associated with Hatchers Pass. Hatchers Pass is only open for specific periods of time in the summer due to how dangerous the road can be.

The rest of September was pretty chill. We celebrated our friend Nicoles birthday once we got back from Anchorage. We also chased the fall colors around Fairbanks, trying to capture the beauty of fall up here. It is some of the beautiful yellow leaves with the occasional orange. Very few reds. All our friends up here kept telling us how lucky we were to experience such a long and beautiful fall. Last year they said they had snow by September. Luckily for us the snow held off till October when we got our first dusting.

By mid-October we got our first good snowfall. Which was a wet snow, again kinda rare up here. So my coworkers and boss went outside during lunch to build a snowman because what better things can 20 something year olds do during lunch. And that is when the snow plowing started for Benjamin and the day work came to an end. Near the end of October we said our goodbyes to Cade and Nicole as they moved out of the state. Life hasn’t been the same without them around. We no longer can go over anytime to just hangout with them or go northern light chasing. The northern lights were very visible in October. The way they paint the sky is like nothing you can imagine on your own. The different colors that come through at different times. Sometimes green, blue and purple.

November is when life really started to slow down for most people in Alaska. Which to some might sound crazy but for us it has been amazing. We have been able to sit back, relax and enjoy the time we have. The days get shorter and shorter. It is usually still dark when leaving for work and dark when going home. It took some getting use too but wasn’t as bad as I thought. We helped our friend Trevor propose to his fiance Taylor. Which was a total surprise for here and a very hard secret for me to keep. Thanksgiving was spent at Matt and Meagans house, where several friends gathered with their family. I was kept busy with reading to the children or holding malamute puppies. Then it was small business Saturday, I went out with a bunch of other women living in or near Fairbanks going to several small businesses via bus that our Friend Lizzie scheduled.

Now it is December, the end of the year. We have roughly a total of 4 hours of daylight if we are lucky. Some days the haze from everyones wood stoves hangs too low to allow the light through. But the daylight isn’t true daylight. It is more like a constant sunrise to sunset. It is usually incredibly beautiful with the mountains in the background and the sun just creeping past them. Most of my days are spent at work and Benjamin works at night. We have roughly a total of 2 1/2 feet of snow on the ground. So he has been very busy at night plowing several locations. As his boss says, your wife is gonna soon know you as a stranger she loves. Most weekends are now spent at our friends Chris house hanging out in the new shop he built. All around the woodstove talking and figuring out what the next adventure is.

But the closer we got to leaving for PA the colder it got. The last several days have been around 40 below zero, so obviously it ins’t going to snow. Which I have enjoyed having Benjamin home in the evenings and getting scared at 3am when he crawls into bed. The 40 below is a different feeling but isn’t as bad as anticipated. Still not use to my nose hairs freezing as soon as you walk out the door or our front door being frozen shut with ice on the inside. The cold is a dry cold and not a wet cold that gets into your bones. But also don’t want to be out in it for long periods of time because it is very hard to breath. The shop dog when he goes out to use the bathroom ends up in a cockroach position before making it back inside because his paws get too cold. The truck is always plugged in now with the hope it will start up in the morning. So far it has started every morning even if it didn’t want too. With the weather being colder the sky at night is clearer except during the day. The last two days the ice fog has been bad. Basically the warm air has nowhere to go too so it hangs around at fog level making it hard to see in front of you. If the snow didn’t make peoples driving interesting the ice fog did for sure.

Now we are off to PA to enjoy Christmas with our families. Lots of festivities to be at and Christmas cheer to pass around. And hopefully no sickness since it is about an 80 degree swing from what we left Alaska with (42 below zero). We will head back to Alaska right before the new year. I want to say I will be better about sharing our lives in Alaska but sometimes emotions take over and wanting to share gets hard. I will try my best to keep you all informed about the exciting moments of our lives as they happen. Till next time, Love the Kreiders.