Off the Radar!

Greetings from Eagle River, AK, where we are presently losing about 5 minutes of daylight every day.  All this, of course, is working up to the famous Alaskan winter days where the sun is only out for about 5-6 hours.  Right now, we still have about 12 hours of daylight per day so it's not so bad.  Fall is in full swing and it is really cool to see leaves in all the colors I saw on TV and in magazines all my years living in Arizona and Texas.  It's also really chilly which is a novelty for now.

Sorry if we've been a little out of touch for the last week or so.  My mom, dad and Grandmother are in town for a visit and we've chained them down to work.  No, really.  My dad (Buzz) and Clayton built a storage room in the crawl space in our dungeon/basement.  I turned my dining room into a sweat shop where I've indentured my mom (Billie) and grandmother (Helen) to making drapes.  The good news is the house is looking fabulous.  The bad news is that they've seen none of AK.  We're leaving the house in our prison van today as a reward for their good behavior and productivity.

Thanks, too, for all the birthday well-wishes.  I wasn't counting on having a good b-day this year, our first in AK.  However, it ended up being a really good day thanks in no small part to many emails and phone messages as well as a fun lunch w/new squadron wives and kids.  Oh, and I got a really fun bag from my hubby which always improves these situations :)  

Photos to follow from our time away from the compound this morning.   

Pictures for my Nephews

Apparently, my nephews look at this blog pretty often and are way too often disappointed that there aren't new pictures.... well, Eli, Davis, TJ, Parker, Logan and Grayson, these are for you. Your Alaska Uncle, Aunt and Cousins love you all and miss you so much!  Tell your mommies and daddies to bring you up here to visit!

Walking Home

Sometimes we walk to school to get Kara.  Today was a beautiful (meaning some sun and no rain) afternoon so Clay and I walked about 1 mile to Kara's school.  We see lots of fun things along the way.  Imagine stopping every 100 ft to let a 3 yr old in and out of a wagon.. it takes a while :)

Here are some of our favorite sights along the way...

This is my favorite view coming up the hill toward our house..  you can see the reddish on the mountain which is really the changing leaves.

Clay-Clay as Bono.

Kara smiling.. but she was really feeling grouchy.  The smile disappeared once the picture was taken.

Wild raspberries (or something else, but they look and taste like raspberries and we haven't been sick yet!)

No Kidding...

So you'll have to forgive me for the less than perfect quality of the pictures.. but these two were in our front yard on Tuesday evening.  A lot of people on our street have recently put in their yards and the moose were thoroughly enjoying the new trees and shrubs.  It's funny because our neighbor (whose trees were noshed) told us how he bought trees that moose didn't like to eat!!  I think Clayton is already planning his "moose cage" to go around our trees when we put some in next summer.  It's crazy to see these guys up close and in our yard!!  We were told that it is pretty rare to see a male and female together as well..  Ah, Alaska.  Moose in the yard, bears in the yard (we've been told but have not seen her for ourselves), and a governor cum VP candidate.  I bet you think it doesn't get any better than this?  Well you're wrong!!!  The best news is that Target is opening in about a month.  Sweet contentment :)  

Prince William Sound/Whittier

Today we went to Whittier and took a boat tour of Prince William Sound. Whittier is about 60 miles from Anchorage so it is a manageable day trip.  I'm having some issues posting the pics so bear with me and the disorganization.  We had a really good time but, in the end, decided that 6 hour boat cruises with 2 smallish children really wasn't a good use or our time or money (I think the people near us probably felt like it wasn't a good use of their time and money either!!).  Clay refused to wear his coat (rain, wind, low 50s) outside and much preferred rolling around on the cabin floor to anything else :)   Kara liked looking for animals but was disappointed to not see any whales..  We did see a black bear, sea otters, many birds and salmon.  The big blue glacier is Surprise Glacier and it was amazing.  Truly, the pictures do it no justice.

Book your tickets today, kids.. this place is for real.

First Day of School

Here is Kara on her first day of kindergarten!  It was hard for me to believe she was already ready for school.  She had a good day... was a little teary when it was time to be left in the room but I think that was mostly due to the other crying (both parents and kids!!!) going on at the time.  I didn't expect to be emotional about school but I kind of was.  Anyway, she had a great day and had lots of stories to tell afterwards.  She was EXHAUSTED last night so even though school doesn't start until 9:00am, we're going to have to have a much earlier bedtime (darn).

I'm throwing in a pic of our new kitchen even though it's dirty.  

I'm on my way... home sweet home (sing with me!)

Well, it actually happened.  We closed on our house this afternoon.  Never fear, it was not without its fair share of drama and even a surprise at closing.  Fortunately, it all got worked out.. the banks got their respective monies to the title company and we got keys (and a big fat mortgage!!!).   We'll enter the internet dead zone for a while until we get phone and internet service, hopefully sooner than later.  

If you're interested in our physical address, I can get that to you when we're back online.  For now, I still have my cell phone but Clayton doesn't have his (not that he ever answered it anyway!).

The movers are supposed to bring our stuff tomorrow so it's going to be a big, long day for everyone.  We went to Kara's school tonight and met her teacher, saw the classroom.  We get to have a one-on-one meeting w/Mrs F on Thursday where Kara will get a tour of her school and then she starts on the 26th!  UGH!  So much to do, so little time (I sound like Willie Wonka but feel like an Oompa Loompa!!)

Thanks to everyone who's been so encouraging during the last few weeks.  It's been a long haul. I did think of one thing I would miss not living in TLF: my walking route.  It was pretty.  C'est la vie :)