Yurt in the Yukon

We failed to get a post up covering the first week of December, so we'll fill you in briefly on what went on. The week was busy with school and work, but mostly filled with celebrating our friends new baby! Our friends Ben and Camille had their first child, and we quickly fell in love with their beautiful baby girl. We helped them out with dinner a few times and just tried to spend as much time as we could with their little family.

Following our week of baby celebration for our friends came a week of anniversary celebration for us! Can you believe we've already been married for a full year?! The last year has just flown by, and yet we feel like we've been together forever (which really is a great thing, since we are blessed to be together forever). There's a saying that goes, "the first year of marriage is the hardest," and if there's any truth at all in that statement then Chris and I are going to have the easiest marriage ever. We've loved every moment of the first year, every new thing we've learned about each other, and every adventure we've shared. We are continually in awe at how much more we love each other now than we did a year ago, a month ago, a week ago, or a day ago. Right when we think it's not possible to have any more love, it increases, and it's ever coming more clear what it means to have Christ-like love. We've tried to center our marriage around the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we have definitely seen the blessings from it.

To celebrate the best year of our lives we went on a trip to Whitehorse, Canada. With the help of a ferry and a rental car we were able to stay in the most magical location - an original Mongolian yurt on some private land outside of town. We spent a long weekend snowshoeing, walking around town, swimming in hot springs, talking in Canadian accents using the word "eh" as frequently as possible, and warming up by the wood burning stove in our little orange yurt. It was perfect. So perfect, that I can't adequately describe it with words, so instead here are some pictures and a video that Chris made of our trip.

It was a beautiful sunny day on the ferry to Skagway

It was COLD. Or maybe we were just wimps.

The yurt overlooked a secluded lake 

The inside

Our host informed us that the yurt was actually made in Mongolia, and we were impressed with the intricate hand painting on the supports and door. The owner ran some power cords out to the yurt for lighting and built a weather-proof roof over the top. Mongolian tradition is to step over the threshold with your right foot without touching the door frame.

Don't worry, there was a full bathroom inside our host's home we could
use when we felt the need for running water.

We hoped to be able to take advantage of the secluded location away from light pollution to enjoy the northern lights, but every night the clouds moved in.

Our host let us borrow snowshoes and we trekked around the frozen lake below.
This friendly dog decided to join us, and his confidence was comforting when we would hear cracking and moving of the ice beneath us. 

My hair and Chris's beard got frosty from our breath as we hiked.

Our ferry back to Juneau was late at night, so we threw our sleeping bags
on lawn chairs in the heated solarium and snoozed.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

The Old Married Couple,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

P.S. Yes, I, did win the dance off we had while driving around Canada. And though the video may not adequately show it Chris did participate, he just didn't have moves quite as smooth as I did.