Snow and Halloween

We got our first snow about a week ago and woke up yesterday to more. It's still coming down slowly today but not really amounting to much. Total I'd say we have about 3 inches or so and I hear it will stay white till spring...

Owen was Mr. Fix-It for Halloween this year. His choice. I have to say I think he was super cute. We went to 2 parties and think we're going to sit out the trick or treating door to door again this year. He's got enough candy for us to eat some without him noticing and that's plenty! I made his tail and ears out of felt and sewed the ears to his hat and sewed a mitten clip to the tail so it attaches to whatever pants he wears. Ken was Chuck Norris and Owen called him that for hours after watching him get ready and put on the wig. "Hey Chuck!"

Last coatless days...

So the last days of fall were pretty fun...we got to rake leaves in our yard and jump in the piles. And rake leaves and jump in the piles. And rake...well, I think you can guess what comes next. It seems the only color here is yellow...not may reds or oranges. Then suddenly the leaves were all gone and it was 32 degrees out. Perfect weather for making cinnamon rolls! Our friend Cassie came over and we spent (no kidding here) all afternoon...oh wait, I mean, Ken spent all afternoon making them for me from scratch. I just pulled out the camera at the end and got the beautiful pictures after hours of work. They were delicious and were gone within 24 hours.

Moose! Moose! We finally saw a moose!

Ken, Owen, our friend Cassie and I all went to the Eagle River Nature Center again on Friday and we saw a MOOSE! A HUGE one! It was a bull and had an impressive rack on his head. As he walked, he got close enough for us to hear his grunting (or whatever the official term for those noises were). He walked through the water and headed uphill - the same direction as the trail :) We never saw him later and wondered how far he actually was. There was another couple at the viewing deck and they had been watching a bear when we got there...thankfully we never saw the bear. Today I think we'll go buy that bear spray and bear bells we've been talking about...

It was beautiful out...then someone told us it might snow Monday!

Fall already

So this morning at about 10ish I looked at the temp. in the car as we were out driving and it wasn't even 50 degrees. Also, every mountain of any height has what is called termination dust on it, which is the first snow that "terminates" summer and officially starts fall. I can't deny it anymore...fall is here and it's Sept 21st. I wear my uggs daily, need at least a fleece to go outside and have to close the windows at night. Today we took an adventure to Eagle River Nature center. I have some photos but hopefully will also post more since our friend Cassie came with and got some good shots also.

Dipnetting

This was our first official adventure.
I don't actually have any pictures of dipnetting but this is on the way back. Every Alaskan resident (and you are a resident after living here a year) gets the privilege of using a net that could scoop up a car and wading out into a river to catch your fish for your family. Something like 20 fish/person. We were invited to watch as some friends caught salmon so we drive out for the day to the Kenai River. It's about 3 hours south of us and beautiful. No one caught anything while we were there but the drive was worth it as well as seeing those HUGE nets. Think goldfish net and then increase it a lot - I'm talking easily 5 ft. across with 10 ft. poles.

The official temp. for Eagle River, AK right now (7:53 am) is 46 and feels like 44. The heat just came on and I am wearing my Uggs and sweats right out of bed. Owen is watching Busytown Mysteries and Ken is sleeping.

These are a few pictures of our rental inside (which is pretty nice) and outside (which needed lots of work). Thankfully, our backyard no longer looks quite like this and I am happy to say if much safer to be in. The screens are in the windows, the spare windows? are in the shed and Papa Ed got rid of the ramp and built us a great sturdy, non rickety, no nails sticking out step.

Owen just crawled into my lap so I think my time for blogging right now is done...more soon!

ALASKA!

ALASKA! FINALLY!

So here are some random photos to get this blog started again...crazy red/orange poisonous mushrooms, Owen with Nana and Ken in the background, our living room with boxes and the view from our bedroom window. Time for me to go to bed...more sooner than later (now that I figured out our blog address and password!).