Such is life...

...now that we have experienced our first building shaking, heart pounding, life flashing before your eyes earthquake. One afternoon a 4.9 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter 10 miles from downtown Anchorage hit.  I slightly freaked out and may or may not have shouted while sitting at my desk "WHAT DO I DO??".  Yep. That was cool.  Check out the Alaska earthquake of 1964 and you'll know why I freaked.  And you know we've grown accustomed when a bigger one hits at 7am on a Saturday morning making our entire house shake and Matt just mumbles "don't worry...it's an earthquake" and rolls over and goes back to sleep.  Right. Comforting.

...now that we have officially turned on the heat.  I noticed it was 89 today in Houston.  At least I made it towards the end of September.   We officially have tried out our fireplace and ordered a TON of wood...I'm looking forward to them nightly. :)

Like my stuffed turkey already out for Thanksgiving?

...now that we own our own skis. Thank you last season's clearance items and $6 ski boots from Goodwill.  I won't know the difference, but I sure enjoyed saving some money! 

....and especially now that I own my own ice skates!  Again, thank you Goodwill hand-me-downs (that have never been used).  Anchorage fire department fills the outdoor basketball courts with water so they'll freeze over and make little ice skating rinks that anybody can use.  I'm excited.

...now that we've encountered our first photograph-able moose and I have gotten my own pictures.  Yep, just chilling at the end our street on our way to work.  I rolled down the window and they posed for me.

...and now even worse, we had our first bear poop outside our backdoor! Now I'm that completely paranoid lady anytime I let Mocha outside - especially when it's dark.  But understandably so.  I feel no shame about it.

...now that life is a little different these days...

Really Target?

I have mentioned that things are little more pricey up here.  Something about the distance and shipping costs. Anyways..

Case in point when I went to Target the other day and bought myself a new wallet. 

I noticed that there were little stickers on all their price tags.  I had a suspicion, but I wanted to think positively (because to be honest, I really liked the wallet and you can talk yourself into anything when it's necessary)... 

...but I get home to discover this...

It was marked up!...and they were not even subtle about it!  Geez.  Very disappointing.

(Obviously not too upsetting, b/c I opted to swallow the $2 for the sake of my cute new purchase.  I'll just have to keep that in mind when I continue to shop there...I don't think I can commit to a 3-5 year hiatus from Target any time soon.)

Camping with the bears

So we didn't actually see any bears, but last weekend our church group hosted a camp out at Eklutna Lake.  I have been anti-tent camping since arriving due to the single nylon sheet separating me from the giant, hungry bears while sleeping.  But wanting to be social and continue to get plugged into this great state, I set my fear aside and packed up the car. 

It couldn't have been a more beautiful weekend.  We headed out Friday after work with the sun shining and the trees all fall-like and yellow in a beautiful 68 degree weather. 

We experienced our first camp fire in Alaska and made s'mores (yum!) the first night.  After we got all snuggled in our tent (including Mocha), I put on about 5 layers of clothes, feet warmers, 2 pads underneath me to keep the cold ground from encroaching on my warmth and bundled up in my 15 below sleeping bag I had from my mountain-guiding days.  When I woke up in the middle of the night sweating, I figured I had over done it just a little.  It also made me feel bad a little when the others all complained about being freezing throughout the night.  I guess it pays to be over prepared!

We enjoyed a feast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon and coffee over a nice campfire in the morning which included a devotional about creation (very appropriate in our surroundings).  It was refreshing and we enjoyed getting to know some other young married couples who live in Anchorage. 

We had to cut the weekend short and head back to continue working on our bathroom remodel (more to come on that later...our bedroom is a disaster zone at the moment)...or might I say watch college football - whichever one you want to believe as the truth. 

However, while we were out there and it being so beautiful (remember sunshine has not been a frequent visitor lately) we wanted to hike Thunderbird Falls that everyone was doing later that afternoon.  So we loaded our car and headed to the trail head.  We heard it was about a 2 mile hike to this beautiful waterfall.  The time crunch allowed for a nice little jog/workout, which was much needed following a grand breakfast buffet.  We enjoyed the falls about long enough to take this picture:

 and head back - I think our "hike" took us about 30 min.  Next time we'll probably stop to smell the roses a little more. :)

Thank you Technology

Alaska is far away.  It keeps us from attending important functions - friend's weddings, baby showers, birthday parties...and our annual fantasy football draft party.  At times it's hard, though we knew moving would force us to sacrifice being apart of many of these things...but not today.

I mean serious matters demand serious business. 

So thankfully we live in a day and age when distance does not distract from joining in on the fun times - even if they are in Oklahoma.

It wouldn't be complete without the draft spreadsheet via a 62" TV screen either.

This is what happens when you get married.

More Firsts

The cool thing about a brand new place is that everything seems so exciting. You don't take for granted all the unique aspects of that location that would be easy to do if you have lived there forever.  Thankfully, we are not bored by the little things yet and this week had it's exciting moments. :)

Alaska State Fair

Now by no means does this compare to the Texas State Fair (though I sadly have to admit I've never actually been), but I'm learning when it's the best you got - make the most of it!

So we headed to Palmer, Alaska (yes, that's where Sarah Palin is from) about an hour away.  We got to eat some yummy, fried fair food...

...Matt checked out the big trackers (it brought joy to him b/c it reminded him of home - though he didn't want to take this picture because it wasn't a John Deere)...

...saw some farm animals, including the prize winning 800 pound pig...

...and don't forget about the 800 pound cabbage...

Yep, that's real.  Kinda ridiculous, if you ask me.  Due to the endless daylight up here, these vegetables grow gigantic during the summer. 

And, of course there is the 609 pound pumpkin...but it only got 2nd place.

And last but not least there are the 8 pound cucumbers.

I think they could actually feed the entire town of Palmer if they weren't such prized possessions.


Then later this week we had another first:

Our Visitor

One morning as I am getting my morning coffee together before work, Mocha starts going crazy outside.  I look out and what do I see?

We had our first moose in our backyard!  Ok - so I didn't actually get a picture of it. Nor was it laying down or sunny outside (we are losing 5 and 1/2 minutes of daylight a day at this point...tear...), but please enjoy this cool photo I found.  My first instinct was that it was a horse...but then I remembered I wasn't in Texas anymore, and I felt rather dumb. 

Of course I scream at Matt who was upstairs barely awake and he comes running down because he thinks I'm getting attacked - which might have killed the coolness of the moment - but nevertheless, I was really excited.   I'm sure there will be many more to come and maybe I'll get my own picture next time.

Plus, I'm glad it was a moose and not the bear that frequents our streets our postman and neighbor have mentioned. 

Just another day in Alaska, right? :)

I love the sunshine & McHugh Peak

Recently I read an article about how Anchorage has beat the record for the most rain EVER in one summer.  It also explained how it has been the 10th coldest summer on record.  This explains a lot to me.  Being that I knew no different, I was trying to take it with stride - bundling up each morning and drinking lots of hot tea - making the most of it.  I never realized how much I enjoyed the sunshine...until I never got to see it. 

Praise the Lord, though, the rain went away and the sun came out the last 3 days.  It was such a rare event, Matt and I both got off work early on Thursday and Friday to get outside and enjoy the weather.  I could just stand in the sun and soak it in for hours (which I did when Matt and I dragged our little table and chairs to the big lawn for lunch where the sun was shining). 

We also went to enjoy the mountains...because hiking in sunshine is so much more enjoyable than in the rain!

Thursday, when we both got off about 2:30, we hiked Flattop - one we had done before but knew it was a good 3 hour hike since I had to work the next day. The parking lot at the trailhead was packed.  I mean cars were everywhere fighting over spots.  It reminded me of a shopping mall on black Friday. Each man for himself. (Can you tell I'm going through shopping withdrawals?) 

But it was beautiful.

Mocha is getting really good at this hiking thing. Though her bad hip wears her out towards the end.  We forced her to the top this time around.  The summit is so steep, Matt had to literally pick her up and I had to pull her collar to help her get up a few spots.  My overprotective side kinda freaked out a few times, as well did Mocha.  But the views from the top were worth it (as always). 

Then Saturday we decided to do a peak climb.  McHugh Peak.  I think this qualifies as my favorite hike yet.  It was very challenging (basically hiking straight up about 4,000 feet), but the views were incredible!  We hiked along a ridgeline - with the valley one one side and Anchorage on the other.  A thick fog rolled through on our way up. There were several times we couldn't see anything within 20 feet around us, kinda eerie with nobody else around, but every once in awhile the fog would clear and we could see...yes, there is still another peak to climb over...

Enjoying the short-lived view of the other side when the fog cleared a bit

Enjoying the small accomplishments of reaching a ridge

It was intense, but when we reached the top, God blessed us, and the skies cleared and we could see for miles and miles.  It is one of the higher peaks around and which was obvious as the sights. 

We were all tired once we reached the car...well almost reached the car.  About 50 feet from the trailhead and our vehicle, Mocha decided she was too tired to contine and laid down. 

We could not get her to get up and come for the life of us!  I ended up hiking back up and having to carry her 70lb body a part of the way down before she realized that the car and a ride home was awaiting her tired self.

As challenging as it was, this hike ranks in the top of what we've experienced up here. I think this is one that we'll have to do again when company comes calling.  Get prepared. :)

The Map

Once again, I had a brilliant idea...which I'm learning my ideas rarely turn out well...to bring a little personalized decor to our new home.  My idea came from this popular blog that I often read.  It consisted of hanging a map and putting pins in each place you have been.  I thought it was a great idea, because one thing that Matt and I desired to do when we got married was to travel together.  I thought this would be a great way to document it!

The map that I got the idea off of was only of the United States, but I didn't want to limit ourselves (especially since we currently live in Alaska which is not exactly on a map of the lower 48...and if so, it tends to be just off the coast of Arizona) so I decided to invest in a world map. 

Now, this seemed to be a fairly simple, cheap project.  I found a really cool map online for $12 and ordered it.  I was excited because it was big (48"x36" to be exact), but not until it came in did I realize how big.  But no biggie, I was going to mount it on cork board tiles, such as these:

anyways.  So the bigger the better because I could add boards as needed.

Well, we decided mounting them straight to the wall would not exactly make this piece of art relocate-able (yes, I think I just made up my own word) in a few years...so we headed to Home Depot and purchased a large piece of particle board to glue them to.  After much debate and a few hours later, we had cut up the cork board squares to the appropriate size and mounted them to the particle board.  After even more discussion, we discovered a way to mount the particle board to the wall by the stairs. 

So many, many hours later it resulted in this:

Ta-da!  We were so proud of our creative abilities and excitedly put our pins into the map.  We got to enjoy if for about 3 hours.

Then we went to sleep and awoke to this:

Ok, so we needed better glue to mount the squares to the particle board.  That I can work on.

But, then we went to work that day... 

...and came home to this...

Clearly this project wasn't working!

My quick, cheap project had already taken like 10x's as much time and money as I had planned on investing in it and it kept falling apart!

We let it sit there for several days...defeating us each time we went up and down the stairs...until we randomly went to Michael's one day.  Just as we walked in the door, it was like a light was shining from above onto this:

A large framed cork board.  Matt kindly asked if I had even attempted to find one in the first place...and I had, but in my defense they were very expensive online.  But this one was cheaper (about $25) than the cork board tiles we had already purchased and glued together.  It was a bittersweet discovery.

We purchased it and brought it home...and surprise - the map we already had was too big.  I should have expected that much.

So, back to ebay I went and found a smaller version for about the same price and waited for it to ship. 

About a month later, we finally got our new map mounted on the wall.  We weren't as excited the next time around as we marked all the places - via color-coded pins - we have a) traveled to together, b) lived together, c) individually traveled to since high school.  Though I do think it looks rather nice - even after all that.

Hopefully, as time passes we will fill up the map...and laugh at how it started.

But for now, we have an extra world map if anyone is looking for one. :)