Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday Jenny!

For my birthday I really wanted to cross country ski into Barber cabin. It's on the Kenai river and followed the river for a ways. The water was a blue turquoise and I knew we would be back there in the summer to do some combat fishing for the salmon that run through there like crazy. Drew and Jennifer let us borrow some of their backpacking equipment and Drew made all the food for us that night (beef straganoff and smores for dinner and then bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and oatmeal for breakfast). We knew we invited them for a reason. :) The trip in was 4.2 miles on skis and the trip out was a couple miles more because we detoured and hit the Resurrection waterfalls. Aaron was so sweet and carried most of our stuff so I only had to carry our toiletries, our clothes, and our sleeping pads. My pack was really light so it was an easy ride both ways. It was super fun!

Starting out

I had to take my skies off and walk a bit because there were so many dips and holes and turns and my knee was killing me. The trail was pretty tracked out for a bit and very slippery. I did not want to fall again and have to have surgery on my knee again. Our cabin was at the other edge of the lake, so we had to cross the lake to get there. I was so nervous because when we first got on there was a watery hole right next to us, but I didn't have to worry. As Aaron later found out the ice was more than a foot and a half deep.

Barber Cabin

We got the wood stove going just as the sun was setting. It was so cozy!

Sunset

Sadie had a blast playing in the snow.

We kept our eyes out for the Northern Lights, but we were too far south to pick them up.

The sky was amazingly clear and the stars were so bright and beautiful.

It is amazing to be miles and miles away from any other light source. Gorgeous!

The next morning we wanted to go ice fishing so Drew and Aaron took turns with an ice pick and an ax trying to get through the ice. They got down about a foot and a half before they gave up and we played around instead. Aaron made some snow angels and Sadie gave him a halo.

Their ice fishing hole

Showing off the mountains

Packed up and ready to leave our little cabin

There were about four different pieces of Ressurection Falls. This is one of them.

         

Kenai River

My favorite part about camping is coming home and taking a hot shower and brushing your teeth and feeling all clean again. After we were all cleaned up we met up at Jack Sprats and had some dinner. Wendy and Nathan from our branch joined us too. They sang Happy Birthday and we ate some delicious food!

Jennifer, Drew, Aaron, me, Wendy, and Nathan

Aaron and I both had the 14oz ribeye steak with potatoes and greens. YUM! It was so tender and delicious  Jack Sprats is my new favorite restaurant. It was a fabulous birthday!