Winter Break 2025 - Part III: New Years

While Josh was working in Alaska, Theo and I were at home with my parents. They stay with us over New Years and left on Saturday, January 4th to head back to Ohio.

[Theo loves Puppy and cuddles with him every night. He will take Puppy's foot or ear and rub it on his face. It's so sweet!]

Over winter break we watched a lot of football! The Chargers and Packers are going to the Playoffs and BYU won their bowl game! YAY!

We made the long trek to Peoria to pick up Theo's new wheelchair from NuMotion. It's a Zippie with molded seats and I think it will be great for Theo! It will replace his Leckey Mygo activity chair and his Convaid Cruiser since it's a combo of them. I am going to give away the Leckey Mygo, but we'll keep the Convaid since it's really easy to travel with.

I spent some time trying to figure out how to transport Theo and all of his things to school on Monday. The Convaid had a large basket underneath it, but the Zippie has nothing.

I bought a small net and my dad attached it to the frame. It's not very big, but maybe we can put Theo's shoes or iPad there 🤷‍♀️

I was able to find a family in Chicago who needed a activity chair for their son. So I drove the Leckey Mygo to them. I hope it helps!

[Theo got this cool light from his PT. It will sync up to music and change colors]

[New Years plans!]

[We got some snow!]

After my parents left I started putting all the Christmas decorations away. It was sad to pack up our Harry Potter village, but we'll get it back out in 11 months!

[I really hope we can see the cherry blossom's in Japan!]

[Yep!]

[So funny!]

[🤣🤣]

[Sweet boy doing some tummy time!]

Thanks to mom and dad for staying with us and helping me with Theo! Have fun in South Carolina and Florida!

I hope everyone had a great New Years! Here's to a great 2025!

Winter Break 2025 - Part II: Josh to Alaska

On December 26th I took Josh to the airport so he could catch his flight to Anchorage, AK. We are so sad he will be leaving us for six weeks, but I'm really glad he was here to celebrate Christmas with us!

It was a seven hour flight to Anchorage and he got there and checked into his hotel without any issues.

[Keeping an eye on him!]

The next day he went shopping for a few last minute things (apparently a lot of guys are sick at the man camp) and then he caught his flight to Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope.

Josh got to see one more sunrise in Anchorage before his plane left. The sun won't rise up there until January 17th!

[Flying over the high mountains of the Alaska Range]

After a two hour flight, Josh landed on the North Slope and it was COLD!

[Those are ambient temperatures, not wind chill]

[-45 wind chill! Good thing his clothes go down to -80!]

[Tiny airport at Purdhoe Bay]

After landing they loaded up into buses and headed two hours west. The driver had to stay between the lights on the slippery ice roads! 

Josh is literally at the top of the world! It's pretty wild! There's a little lake close to his camp that looks like a giant's footprint. Are they helping to build the pipeline?! 

Josh will be living in a man camp. He shares a room with a guy who is on the day shift so they rarely in the room at the same time.

[I bought Josh a light box that should help him cope during the Polar Nights]

There are laundry facilities, 

a hangout room,

and a large mess hall with plenty of food!

[Learning the local language]

[The sun still gets close to the horizon during the day, but it won't break the horizon until January 17th]

Josh got settled in and then went out for the night shift with his buddy, Lucas. Nothing like -54 wind chill to welcome you to the North Slope.

He did get to see the Northern Lights though, so I'm sure it's worth it!

[Josh has his own truck]

You can't have your skin exposed for too long or else you'll get frostbite!

Do you think he can get a picture like this?!

There was a solar storm on New Years Eve and that put on quite a show for the guys up there!

Josh said that there are arctic foxes everywhere, but they are hard to get photos of. His roommate caught this one on video:

They are cute, but they have rabies so it's best to keep your distance! Josh is also in Polar Bear territory, but most of them are tracked and there are sensors in the area that will alert the guys if anything is approaching. It would be cool to see a Polar Bear, but only if it's really far away!

So far Josh has been able to call us every night before Theo goes to bed. We miss him so much and we are so grateful that he is willing to do whatever he can to provide for our family!