Today was Winter Trails Day here in Alaska and around the country. We spent it at the Hatcher Pass Recreation Area managed by the State of Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation.
There were lots of opportunities to try out different winter sports like skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, skijoring (skiing with your dog), and ski skating. There were also Search and Rescue demos and avalanche safety presentations.
But we weren't able to get going early enough to catch those.
The temperatures were in the negative numbers. But we managed to stay warm enough thanks to multiple layers and some hand and feet heating devices.
Tess & Donald to the right start up the sled hill at Hatcher Pass. Some other folks are snowshoeing and skiing on the trails nearby.
Winter sunlight over Hatcher Pass Lodge at the Upper Mountain sledding area.
Alicia May had a super time sledding!
Donald flies down the hill from above.
Tess makes her way down the hill toward the tiny cars in the parking lot below.
We all took turns sledding. I found that if you want your hood packed with snow, all you need to do is attempt to avoid hitting a boulder by putting your boot heels into the snow alongside your hurtling sled. You will instantly be plastered by a frigid coating of snow.
You see in Stephen's picture, he's doing very well at keeping his boots well above the rapidly passing snowy slope. His main problem was a sled with a tendency to spin him around backwards.
After a couple of hours of sledding and cross-country skiing, we headed for the Chowder House just outside Hatcher Pass. We'd seen the place on the way up to the Pass and planned to stop in later to warm ourselves up from the inside out. We were not disappointed. We had corn chowder and smoked salmon chowder. Warm and yummy! Then we polished it off with awesome brownie sundaes and peach pie a la mode! The walls of the restaurant were lined with maps of all sorts. That's my kind of place!
Go Sissy Go! 
Here are a few additional photos from Alicia May's 3rd birthday. Little Bit really enjoyed wearing the party hat as you can see from the look on her face.
After we celebrated with cake, ice cream and gifts at the house, we ventured to Chuck E. Cheese in Anchorage for lots of games and little kiddie rides. We'd been carting around about 200 tokens in the back of the van left over from a previous visit where the crowds proved too much for my over-stressed psyche. So we left abruptly with a large stash of unspent tokens! 
This time we used many (but not all!) of the tokens and won/bought a giant Chuck E. ball for the birthday girl.
