Hello Alaska!

So as most of you know, my little brother Cody goes to university in Alaska. He received a scholarship to the University of Fairbanks to play hockey and attend school for 4 years. And guess what?! This is his last year!!! I honestly can't believe it!!! I can't believe my 'baby' brother has been gone for 4 years already AND that he will have a degree at the end of the year! WHERE DOES TIME GO!? 

Every fall the university holds a 'Parents and Family Weekend' for people to go up to Alaska and experience what its like to live up there and play hockey. My parents have gone every year, but Damian and I have only made the trip once, in Cody's sophomore year! But since this is his LAST year and we know we will most likely never have a reason to go back to Alaska...we decided to make the trip up for his very last 'Family Weekend'!! And I am SOOO glad we did!!!

Travelling to Alaska is ffffar from easy!! It makes for a VERY long day/night seeing how flights to Alaska aren't exactly in 'demand'!! Ha! And there is no such thing as a direct flight to Alaska...so we always have to go through Seattle! 

Enjoying our time in the Seattle airport late Thursday night...

On Friday we attended the 'Game Day Luncheon'. It is a lunch time press conference where we listened to both coaches talk about the weekend series, and a few of the players. After the luncheon we headed over to the Carlson Center to get a tour of the teams brand new locker room! And HOLY MOLY is it ever nice!!! This past summer they did a complete 4 million dollar overhaul of the Nanook's dressing room.

 It is beautiful!! And I know my brother is VERY glad he gets to experience the new locker room for at least one season!!! 

Cody's locker! And his very insightful quote on the inside of his cubby! Ha! 

SOOOOO PROUD of Cody and all of the awards he has received over the last few years!!

After the tour and a little bit of down time, it was GAME TIME! The boys played North Michigan while we were there! And ended up splitting the weekend with a WIN on Friday night, and a loss on Saturday night! 

Setting up the polar bear for them to skate through...

Cody taking the opening face off! GO CODY GO!!

Some random sign..."KING KUNYK"?! Ha...He wishes!! ;) 

It was a great game, especially because we WON! 

On Saturday we headed to one of my favourite places in Alaska!!! 

North Pole, Alaska!!

A very magical place!!! Where Santa Clause lives, of course! 

We visited the reindeer and did some shopping! 

Sitting on Santa's chair!

Santa was on a break ha!

I LOVE this place!!!

After our visit to North Pole, Alaska we headed back to Fairbanks for a dinner get together with all of the families in attendance for the weekend. After dinner, we all headed back to the Carlson Center for game 2 of the weekend!

Warm Ups!

And unfortunately we lost on Saturday...

These are our SAD faces ha ha...

And the bottom picture is of our AMAZING friends Terry and Kevin!! They opened up their home to us for this trip and were the best hosts EVER!! We are SO lucky to have them in our lives!!

BUT we still managed to get some nice pictures with our favourite player!! 

Sssssigh....I remember when I was the tallest...

Sunday morning we were offered a VERY neat opportunity!! One of the local players Dads' owns an airline in Alaska! And he asked us if we would be interest in taking a flight over Fairbanks for a few hours! Ummm YES!!! The plane was just a 6 seater, so just me and my parents went, along with another players Dad and sister. 

This was our itty bitty plane!

The INCREDIBLE VIEW!!!!

It was truly a once in a lifetime experience!! Although I won't lie...I thought I was gonna be sick more than once...ha ha...I don't exactly do all that well with motion, and when your in a tiny plane in the mountains you feel EVERYTHING!!! 

While we were flying this is what the boys were doing at Cody's condo! Homework and watching football! Then I showed up and made them pizza bites. They were pretty pumped about that!!!

We even got to watch Cody record a presentation for his communications class! We got to be his 'audience' with questions and everything! Ha! 

Early Monday morning we packed up and began the long trip home! It was a WONDERFUL weekend in Alaska and I am SOOO glad we went for one last trip!! We have met so many amazing people through Cody`s team and it will be very odd when he is no longer a `Nanook`at the end of the year!! 

GOOD LUCK this season Cody!!!

Oh and...

Perhaps the next place you play could be a little warmer... ;)

xoxo

Kels