My kids wake up at 6am. They head over to our bed sometime around 5:30 or 5:45 and then we snuggle for the last half hour or 15 minutes before our morning begins at six o’clock. Jacob’s most favorite thing in the world is to get to play with Daddy’s iPhone before he heads off to work. So while he gets his thrills playing Angry Birds and Natalie sits at the dining room crafting something out of our art supplies or coloring, I sloooooowly wake up, head over to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a slice of toast with something deliciously sweet. I know, I know, probably not the healthiest way to start my day. But it’s a tradition from my youth that’s been tough to break. A slice of bread with Dutch hagelslag sprinkles or brown sugar or nutella. It all sounds so decadent as I type this. Ha! Perhaps that would be the easiest place for me to start shedding the pounds. Can’t say I haven’t thought about it.

This morning I reinstated the rule that before Jacob gets any iPhone app time, that he needs to play through his piano playlist. That means about 20 pieces of music. Let me tell you what a glorious way that is to start off my morning. I love love love love it! 🙂 He plays so beautifully. The sound of piano notes floating through the stillness of our home is one sure way to make this mama heart smile.

Well today even before heading to the lure of Angry Birds, he actually wanted to check the online GPS tracker. He’s hooked (just as I am). He wants to know if Lance Mackey or Aliy Zurkel is in the lead!!! The whole notion of a race and there being a winner has captivated his attention. He loves to move the dog markers on our dining room wall. Just wait until I have him start analyzing Lance and Aliy’s en-route times vs. rest times at the check points. One of the mushers said it’s like a big game of chess- trying to decide what your moves will be. Jacob was intrigued by that- so I’m curious to see if he’ll be able to figure out some of their strategy by looking at their times.

One thing we found out this morning is that Anna Barrington no longer has 16 dogs. Big shocking news to us! At Skwetna she checked in with 16 dogs but checked out with 15. She left one behind at the check point for some reason. We’re really eager to find out why.

And talking about dogs……Natalie continues to be fascinated by Dee Dee’s team of dogs that all wear flourscent pink booties and harnesses. It’s quite the spectacular colorful contrast to the landscape that is blanketed in bright white snow. We listened to DeeDee explain that her 2-year old dog is the youngest on her team and has been a bit nervous. He’s just learning how this race thing works and seems to be picking it up pretty fast. Dee Dee has such a sweet voice and beautiful countenance as she works at caring for her dogs and being interviewed at the checkpoints.

Lance and DeeDee have passed Rohn and are on their way to Nikolai.

The Barrington sisters and Trent are approaching Rohn.