I must admit that when we were moving here I had no idea what it would be like. While the kids and I were making our descent into Anchorage for the very first time, I was looking out the window looking for ice bergs even though it was August.
I know I don't know all about Alaska life but I will tell you what we have experienced.
In Alaska it does get cold. That means when you go to the grocery store you don't turn your car off. You leave the heat blasting and your car on. You can go to any store and find a parking lot full of running cars that are most likely unlocked. Most businesses even have plug ins for people to plug in their vehicle. This is not for electric cars. This is for engine block heaters and oil pan heater. At -40 your engine could lock up and your oil turn to sludge.
Yes, we do get temperatures around -40 when we have cold snaps but they don't seem to last too long. This is our weather for this week. 
Anything above zero is warming up! Here in Fairbanks we don't get crazy wind and our cold is a dry cold so anything above 0 is a nice day.
Lately we have experienced sun dogs. I know you are thinking what the heck in a sun dog. I looked it up and this is what Wikipedia had to say about it. A sun dog is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun. This is what it looked like on Saturday.
Pretty amazing!
Another misconception about life in Alaska is that we spend all winter in pitch darkness. This is not true at all. December is our darkest month with daylight from about 10-3. We have a long dawn and dusk. With all the snow what little light there is, is reflected so it is not that dark at all. Also, we have the northern lights to brighten things up. 
Another thing about Fairbanks that people (who don't live here) have told me is how high things are. I was told milk was like $6 a gallon and so was gas. This is far from the truth. Just this weekend we paid $2.28 for our milk at SAMs club. The normal milk price seems to be $3.39 at Walmart. Gas prices are currently $3.46 a gallon. Our produce is what tends to be a little higher. If you buy what's in season and what is grown local then you tend to not spend as much. And yes, there is stuff grown in Alaska like carrots and potatoes.
Alaska has some of the most fertile ground. Combine that with almost 24 hours of sunlight in the summer and you are looking at some of the best growing conditions!
And yes, we do get lots of sunshine come summer. All the sunshine melts the snow super quick and the summer gets started right away.
Last but not least, we do not have 9 months of winter. It's more like 5 months of winter, 1 month of spring, 4 months of summer and 2 months of Fall. This does vary depending on where you live in Alaska, but this is how it is where we live. After all, Alaska is 1/3 the size of the whole Unites States. Summers in Fairbanks can reach 90 degrees.
We love our Alaska life! It's a pretty amazing place to live.
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