It's SNOWING...finally

This morning we finally woke up to snow.  I guess that it has snowed about 3 inches so far and we are supposed to get more over the next few days.  This weekend will mark a month that we've been here and this is the first real snowfall that we've seen.  The other snow we saw was beautiful, but it only lasted about 30 minutes.  We are going to try and take advantage of it this weekend and take the kids snowskiing.  I'm going to just watch for 2 reasons...1)  I don't want to break anything and 2)  I certainly do not want to look as foolish as my husband did coming down the hill!  HAHA!!  Joshua did not want to go last time and he regreted it, so he is going to try it this time.  On a different note...I was driving home from Anchorage by myself the other day.  The car was quiet and I was literally surrounded by the mountains.  It is just a beauty that you could never explain and one that pictures could never do justice to.  As cars flew by me, I was reminded of how we take for granted the beauty that God has blessed us with in His creation.  I also became fully aware of WHY people love Alaska so much.  One thing that we've noticed since being here is that the people are a lot more laid back.  As a whole, they don't seem to care what you drive or wear and we have found everyone to be extremely friendly.  The people of AK like to "play"and enjoy the outdoors...all you have to do is look around at all of the trucks pulling snowmachines.  I do miss SC, though!  I also miss Jeff and been very much reminded that he is my best friend...has been since we were 17 years old.  Moving on...  today is Ansley's 8th birthday, so we will be celebrating with her today.  I think that they are going snow tubing again for her party.  The kids loved snowtubing!  Well, gotta go play in the snow.  Hope that everyone is doing well at home.

WIND....

Not much to talk about here in Alaska this week.  We are in our third day of WIND...75 mile wind gusts to be exact.  It is terrible when it's windy here in "the valley".  Wasilla is a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains.  When the wind gets caught up in those mountains, however, it is terrible.  Joshua and I went to Wal Mart last night.  We could feel the car rocking all the way there and back.  It was even scary at times!   At Wal Mart, buggies were rolling everywhere and people were chasing their goods as they were blown all over the parking lot...not fun!  The boys DID have a good time at Scouts on Monday.  They are looking forward to starting on a "climbing" patch this month and going indoor rock climbing with the troop.  The leaders were very welcoming to us.  Reagan is going to do a cheer and tumble class with Ansley while she's here...they were excited when they got home...tumbling everywhere and yelling to the top of their lungs.  Anyone who knows Reagan, knows that she is...well...LOUD!  They are all at the Alaska Club right now swimming...indoors, of course.  I stayed here to put Andrew to bed.  We are all missing Jeff, but looking forward to the wind going away so that we can do somemore sight seeing.  Hoping the kids can go snow skiing again on Sunday.  Hating that Jeff will miss it this time.  I know how much he loved it...NOT!  Still no snowfall, but glad that our friends and family in SC were able to see some.  The pictures looked very pretty.  Until I write again, take care!

Ben's Birthday

Yesterday (7th), Ben celebrated his 12th birthday.  Last Wednesday, everyone went to Chuck E Cheese before we took Jeff to the airport.  Jeff wanted to do something special with all of the kids before he went home.  Because of that, we didn't do anything special last night for Ben.  This morning we got up and took all of the kids snowdog sledding.  They thought that was cool, because it is something that not many people can say they have ever done before.  It was COLD today...still no snowfall.  We also watched people ice fish on the lake for a few minutes.  After that, I took the kids to see Yogi Bear.  That was a really cute movie.  We all enjoyed it!  Ben has been wanting to go to Outback for a long time, so that's how we ended the day.  I cannot believe that we have had him for 12 years.  We love him very much and are proud that he is our son.  The boys will be attending Scouts for the first time on Monday night.  Other than that and school, there's not a lot scheduled for next week.  Things will be slowing down some and will pick back up in a few weeks.  Hope that everyone enjoys the BIG SNOW coming to SC!!

Sunday Jan. 2, 2011

We had a good first Sunday of the New Year.  We went to church at "Church on the Rock" this morning.  The people were friendly, the sermon was good, and all of the kids enjoyed it, so that will be where we attend while we are in AK.  After church, we went to lunch at a very good Italian restaurant.  THEN, came the important stuff (haha)...we went looking for the Palin house...and we found it!  Jeff took some pics. and when we ran out of batteries on the camera, we went to buy some more.  As we were turning back onto her road, we saw Todd Palin turning down the drive in front of us.  We barely missed seeing him.  They live down a long drive with a gate, so we didn't have an opportunity to see anyone else.  I know that the kids and I will see them at the Iron Dog and Iditerod, but I was hoping that Jeff would be able to meet them.  Oh well, it was still fun.  After that, we road into Anchorage and spent a couple of hours snow tubing at the Air Force Base.  It was a lot of fun...even with the FOX standing above us watching.  Andrew LOVED it, too.  He is such a little daredevil.  We started out sledding with him, but that hill was beside some woods.  He didn't like that, because he said "The bears will hear me, they will stop sleeping, and they will come out of the woods".  Something to think about!  When we got home, my mom had made a moose roast.  It was good.  All of the kids liked it, but Andrew LOVED it.  He has enjoyed everything we've done and has been soooo good.   They all love it here, but I know that it hasn't been nearly as cold as it could be.  It's worked out good for us, because we've been able to do a lot without freezing or having trouble getting places.  I just have to wonder, is this the calm before the storm??  Guess we'll see.  I'm not looking forward to Jeff leaving today, but I know that the kids are going to continue to get experiences that they could never get at home.  We are looking forward to Scouts starting next Monday night.  I hope that they meet many new friends and have a lot of fun.  Everyone help take care of Jeff when he gets back to SC!  Have a great Monday.

Heat Wave, Sarah, and Jeff going home...

Well, we didn't make it snow tubing yesterday.  The place was closed for New Year's Day.  We are planning to go today.  Yesterday, it hit a warm 45 degrees here.  We went into Anchorage last night to eat dinner with Chrissie and Daniel.  Across the street from the restaurant was an ice skating area with ice sculptures.  They were MELTING...in January...in Alaska!!  They were still beautiful.  I will post pics. later.  It's amazing to me that people can do that with ice!  Another thing on Jeff's list today is to try and find Sarah Palin.  He leaves tomorrow night for home and hasn't seen her yet.  The rest of us will surely see the Palins when we go to watch the Iditerod in March...THAT will make Jeff very angry!  HAHA!!  So, here we go on our search for "Where in Wasilla is Sarah Palin?"  On a LIGHTER note (just kidding)...we will be taking Jeff to the airport tomorrow (Monday) night about midnight.  His plane leaves at 2 am and he is scheduled to land in Atlanta at 5 pm on Tuesday.  Then, he has about a two hour drive home.  Please pray for him to stay safe as he travels home.  Also, pray for us as we stay behind to see more of Alaska.  It's going to coninue to be a great adventure, but we will miss Jeff!

snowmachining

On Thursday, we didn't really do anything.  I spent most of my day posting pictures on Facebook and the rest playing video games with the kids.  Yesterday, New Year's Eve, we all went into Palmer and went snowmachining.  If you saw the pictures, you saw how beautiful the scenery was and I'm sure that you could tell that we all had a blast!  Jeff and I love Palmer.  It reminds us of the movie "Funny Farm" with Chevy Chase.  If I were going to live here, that would be the place for me!  My sister thinks that it's too far away from things.  Wasilla is about the size of Greenwood and is growing like crazy.  They have a Target, Wal Mart, and are even getting a brand new movie theatre.  Palmer, on the other hand, has a few small stores but it is centered around the "Beaut".  I would put my house right at the bottom of the mountain!!  It's only about 10-15 minutes from Wasilla.  The weather here has been crazy.  Yesterday it got up to 35 degrees, which probably feels like our 50 at home.  We had a warm rain in the morning, so a lot of the snow on the ground is gone.  The mountains are still vey pretty, but everything else is slush.  I believe that this is very rare for January in AK.  We enjoyed bringing in the New Year with fireworks last night.  I realized that we had 4 more hours in 2010 than people at home.  I'm not sure if that was good or bad, considering the crazy year that we just left behind...hoping that 2011 is better!  Today we are hoping to go snow tubing on the base in Anchorage.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate for us to do that.  It's looking a little windy and the wind is NOT nice in Alaska!  Jeff only has 2 more days with us and then he heads back home.  That's going to be hard, but we're hoping to see and do a few more things before we leave.  The kids are having a lot of fun!  Hope that you are enjoying the pictures and that you have a great start to 2011!