2025 Photographic Retrospective

 As the clock ticks down to the final moments of 2025, I just want to take a moment and thank all of you for reading. I started this blog 20 years ago or so (if we're counting GreatestJournal and LiveJournal days) and it's been an evolution to get to what it is now. This blog has always been just a place where I can ramble on about one interest or another for me, but that I have so many following along now is mindblowing. I'm humbled. It also gives me a huge bout of impostor syndrome most days, but your encouragement keeps me from pulling the plug! (Well, that, and I just can't help but continue to ramble about the sport of dog mushing.)

I always have great intentions for this space on the web but life keeps getting in the way. Maybe someday I can make it into what I envision. In 2026 I hope to be able to hit all of the race rosters on time with previews and of course the daily Iditarod updates. We'll see what I am able to accomplish.

With that, let's take a look at a few photos from 2025 to close out this very strange year.

2025 started out so magically hopeful with the Aurora dancing over much of Alaska. Being able to slide down my driveway to catch a couple of shots of it over my house with the Christmas lights on made for a couple of lovely shots. It was cold and I was dealing with a lot of traffic coming and going so I couldn't get the angles I wanted - plus I was bone tired - so I didn't quite as many as I'd hoped. Still, the lights gave us all hope and wonder to enter the new year, and I think it lulled us into a false sense of we've got this.

I really thought 2025 would give me more time to follow around my "favorite" teen athletes as well as keep up with blogging and what have you, but things didn't really work out like we'd planned. I managed to catch just one basketball game for Brett this year, hoping to rectify that this coming year (though I've already missed a few). I've enjoyed watching the Sturman Brothers find their passions and grow within them. 

March was, as it always is, all about the dogs with the Iditarod front and center. Dad had to have knee surgery and his recovery overlapped the start this year so I had to drive myself up and back. A last minute change of plans for the race had the restart happening in Fairbanks so I decided to fly up to catch my first Fairbanks start. My cousin drove over from Tok and we spent a couple of days together getting into all sorts of trouble... I mean fun. We stayed at Pikes and walked down the river to catch the teams leaving - though before that Quince Mountain got us into the staging area which was a highlight for my cousin who had never been to Iditarod (I know wild to think, I have to believe she just has a bad memory of early childhood adventures). It wasn't even cold that day up in Fairbanks, I was in just my hoodie as I got overheated wearing my winter gear by the time Quince at team ran by.

One of the very lowest of lowlights was the City of Kenai's ridiculous decision to kill off all of the beavers in the gully behind my house. They said it was because they were causing flooding in my subdivision as well as another subdivision. Truth is the city engeniers/planners are morons and don't understand that backfilling a bog that's fed by an underground spring is going to cause flooding. Beavers understand this and they don't just dam things up and flood out everything, I watched this particular family for 4 years build and then let loose the dam to keep the gully from overflowing. I'm still so upset about it all of these months later. They brought me such joy and for them to die the way they did, and for really nothing is just... stupid.

The youngest Sturman finished out his middle school year with some impressive accomplishments in Track. One of the meets they ran in a hailstorm. It was wild! He and his relay team ended up coming in with top times and were (obviously) very proud of themselves. I think everyone knows Gage has a special place in my heart, and he's always so good to come up without prompting to thank me for coming (all three boys have always been so appreciative... or at least gracious in letting their mom have me follow them around with the camera).

An immature bald eagle decided that my backyard would be the perfect place to chill - actually I had three of them at one point - not sure if they're still around. Haven't seen them since the gully froze over. Will be interesting to see if they return in 2026.

Colby finished his final baseball season in 2025. This kid is the only reason I willingly watched baseball for the last 10ish years. I watched his team take home their fourth consecutive state title, battling their rival school (that just happens to be the school I attended back in the day, so... I had divided loyalties). This was the first year that the State Baseball Championships were held in Kenai and I hope it is not the last. What a blast! The downside was I managed to lose one of my photo cards somewhere in or around the fields.

The eagle battled the beavers until the City got rid of the beavers. It was an amazing display of nature, though, and was exciting to witness.

In June I drove over to Seward to pay my respects, and say goodbye, to one of my favorite people. Dan Seavey passed away in 2025, the patriarch of the "legendary" mushing family, I have known him since working for Dallas back in 2007. He was so caring, friendly, and could tell some stories! He introduced himself as Bappa, and I always looked forward when he would visit the show - and later, after I stopped working for the family, I loved running into him at Iditarod or other mushing functions. He was always giving me a hard time about my dislike of coffee, my Dr. Pepper obsession (he said it was bad for me), and of course being "too active" on social media (he wasn't and isn't wrong). It was a gloomy drive as it was quite rainy, but the sun was shining as I made my way into the town Dan had called home for 60 years. I sat with Jeff and Joan Schultz at the service, chatted with several mushers I knew, gave my love to the family - and then walked the first mile or so of the Historic Iditarod Trail after the memorial. Dan worked hard to preserve the history of the trail system - one of the many reasons he became involved in Joe Redington's crazy scheme all those years ago - and it felt fitting to honor him in that small way.

The final Saturday of June is always one of my favorite days of the year as it's the Iditarod Picnic up in Wasilla. Like the last few, it was hot and humid, and tons of fun. I brought along something like 8 dozen sled dog and dog sled cookies and offered it to mushers, volunteers, and fans. Mark Nordman made sure everyone knew about them, which was so fun to watch, and watching Marilyn Mapes poll the mushers whether they eat the dog cookie head or tail first was a hoot. I got to chat with Jeff Schultz about several topics, took a few pics, and spent time connecting with friends I only see twice a year at most. IditaFamily is the best and I hope it continues for decades to come.

Delaney turned sixteen in August so her mother made her do a photoshoot. We drove up to Dave's Creek as both Kassy and I have always wanted to do a photoshoot with the kid there. We looked everywhere for fireweed but it had mostly bloomed out by the time we got our acts together to get the pics done. Delaney was a trooper, we put her in an ice cold creek, had her in her ballet shoes (I call them toe shoes but I'm told that's wrong?) on pointe, and hiked her up a mountain. The pics turned out amazingly, and I'm still angry at her mother for making us old by giving us a now DRIVING AGE teenager. WHAT THE HECK?!

I got to take another trip to Seward in the Fall to take pictures of the final weekend of tours for the season at Seavey's Ididaride. The tour runs trails around Dan and Shirley Seavey's homestead and it doesn't take long to understand why they chose to put down roots here. It's always stunning, but it outdid itself on the day I was there. The dogs did their job and looked good doing it, too!

I mean, how can you not love Seward when it looks like this? (Yeah, I know, it's a rare day when there's blue sky in the Rainforest known as Seward. Still...)

Gage had his first leading role in "The Girl Next Door" and his mom got me in for dress rehearsal so I could get all the photos I wanted. I was secretly hoping it'd get my foot in the door with Triumverate to be able to take photos of their productions, and I did hear positive feedback with the photos taken of Gage's play. It was a super sweet play written by the theatre company's founder, and it was so well acted by the kids! It's amazing to see how far all of these actors have come since their early days when they were learning lines before they could read!

I've been so busy I have yet to even really get started editing photos from my trip to Walt Disney World back in November! It was the first time being back since 2013 and Oh My Word! I already want to go back (it'll have to wait a few years, though, because I'm headed back to Disneyland in 2026 with Erin and Wess and their son James!!) A lot of the parks were under renovation as they try to reinvision parts of themselves so they can better compete with Universal, so we're hoping to get back there in 2027 or 28 to take it all in.

Remember how I said I wanted to get my foot in the door for the Theatre's photographer. It's not official that I'm the exclusive photog, but I did get invited back to take pics of their production of White Christmas. We have some amazing talent in our community, and it's always fun when our State Representative Justin Rufferidge joins a cast. Mind boggling a politician, even a local one, can sing that well! LOL I'm not a fan of White Christmas (at least not the movie, love the song) but the stage production was pretty great, and I loved seeing it go from dress rehearsal to opening night! 

I have so many more photos I could share, and stories I could tell, but it's already 2026 on the East Coast so I will wrap this up and wish us all a wonderful New Year!