Weekend

I am so ready for the weekend!!  This is Gabe's first week back to work after being off for THREE WEEKS!!!!  Grayson and I have been spoiled having him around and Gabe's Mom for two weeks.  I finally decided to stop looking for a job and be a stay at home Mom for good.  I got offered a job and started looking at daycare and decided I just couldn't leave Grayson with strangers.  I really could use some family up here!  So I apologize early if my blog starts to take on a baby feel.  I will try not to let it.

Because our camera takes such high quality pictures I have to "dumb" them down before I can post any and its hard for me to sit in front of the computer for that long.  This weekend I can do it because, I have heard this and am very sad, that it might be SNOWING!!!!!  I'm not ready for snow yet, even though I got some cool new snow boots.  It's not even October!!  The first frost was here the first part of this month.  I think next year I am going to visit somewhere warm, make that HOT!!!  Maybe Texas.  Hmmm.  I guess I will have to see what the temp is like then.

This weekend I am going to attempt to make and can green tomato salsa with all my tomatoes that never ripened.  Tomatoes don't grow too well in Alaska unless you have a greenhouse.  Cucumbers and corn don't do so well either.  My squash, carrots, and zucchini did outstanding.  Promise I will post pics sometime soon.

I have to go to the grocery store and figure out how to keep Grayson warm sine it is 36 degrees outside!!!  I can still get away with not wearing a coat.  I may die if I go back South and it is over 90.  We have had a fire every night for the past week!!  Its been in the 20s at night!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Fall or Winter

This morning the temp was 36!!  Fall where have you gone???  Winter will soon be here.  Tomorrow morning's low is supposed to be in the 20s!!  I didn't get a real summer and now after only a month of fall, winter is here.  I don't think I am ready for this.  We have started building a fire at night because it is so cold!  Poor Grayson's hands are frozen all the time.  I think it is so cold in the house he needs a hat but Gabe says he is fine.
 
The locals up here called the past two weeks an Indian Summer.  I thought Indian Summers were Hot.  This one has barely been warm.  I shouldn't wear pants and long sleeves during any kind of summer.  I'm ready to move back down South and deal with 90 degree weather and humidity!! 

Most of the trees have lost all their leaves and as I'm looking out my window I'm thinking it looks really cold outside.  I'm trying to paint some plastic pots so I can bring my outside plants in.  I don't really know how they will turn out but I do know I don't want to go outside in this cold!!  I have to get to work. 

Hope y'all have a good week and will post pictures later!!

Denali National Park

For the first two weeks in September Gabe's Mom came to visit!!  We did lots of hiking and visiting some of the touristy spots in Fairbanks and North Pole.  I will blog about those later.  The most exciting thing we did was go to Denali National Park.  It was a cold, wet day.  The clouds were so low we couldn't see Mt. McKinley.  We were sad but all the wildlife we saw made up for that.  It was a great day!!

We took a shuttle bus and could get off wherever we wanted to.  Of course with it raining we didn't get do that.  Grayson didn't need to be in the rain.  Plus, I didn't want to run up on a grizzly bear!!  There is a road that only the park buses and professional photographers get to drive on.  Our bus went to mile 53 and turned around.  There was a gift shop at mile 53!!  Got to make that money!!  Here are some of the pictures of one of the most beautiful places I have seen in Alaska!

Bears!!!!

The colors are just amazing!!!

Can you find the lynx?

That road was steep and two buses had to pass each other on it!!!  i was holding my breath and I refused to look out the window on the side closest to the edge!

The little Dall sheep watching our bus go by!

Midnight sun

The weekend before Grayson was born, Fairbanks celebrates the midnight sun!!  I was too big to participate in all the activities but did go to some of them.  They have a baseball game on the summer soltice day which we did not get to go.  Gabe ran in the 5K with some of our friends.  Alot of people dress up for the run and so did they.  They dressed up as the cast of Toy Story!!  Very funny. 

We also went to the street festival.  It was very different from most street festivals I have been to.  They had three streets blocked off and bands were playing on each street.  Some were really good and some were really bad!!  We had a good time because it got my mind off of the contractions and what was coming.  We went at 9:30 pm so all the pictures are after that.  This includes the run too.  It started at 10pm.  The sun never set these days.  It was pretty awesome.

news!

Since my last post I have had a baby!!!  Since I now have found some time to blog I will try and post new ones until I catch up.  Today's post is going to be mostly of our hikes and scenery here in Alaska.  It really is a beautiful state.  Hope you enjoy!!

Saturday

Today I finally got to see the sun for a few hours.  I know it has rained every day for over a week.   I like the rain but its been cold this week too.  The high temperature this weekend has only been it the 60s.  I need my sun and some heat!!  I don't know if I could handle the 90+ degrees that are all over the south but something in the 80s and I would be really happy.

Yesterday we decided to go to the Fairbanks Folk Festival.  It was interesting.  Some of the acts were one man shows and some only played instruments and no singers.  One set was gospel and the next was POLKA!!!  The polka was the best I heard the whole time we were there.  I'm no singer and I don't want to talk bad about people but someone should have told some of the singers they are better at playing their instrument and writing songs than singing.  We only stayed a few hours because it started raining.  

The people that were watching the bands were unique.  Some were hippies with no shoes and dreads while others had on three inch heeled boots with lots of make-up.  I guess every town has different types of people living there but I didn't expect to see hippies in Alaska.  I've seen them in the grocery stores with no shoes on and I just can't help but wondering how they can do it.  It's really trashy up here.  I wonder how much stuff they get stuck in the feet and if they were shoes during the winter.  I guess they have to or they would get frost bite and lose their feet.  I wonder if there are hippies like that down in Mississippi.  I don't remember seeing any when I lived there, except a few at MSU.  I'll have to look next time I'm home.

Last night we went to watch indoor arena football.  Let me tell you.  Fairbanks people love their football team.  Most of the people there had some sort of grizzly (the name of the team) outfit on.  There were wigs, face paint, jerseys, and shirts.  Even the little kids were dressed up.  We had a good time.  This is the third type of sporting event we have been to and I've noticed these people do not show respect to the visiting team.  They boo them all the time.  It's kinda of funny and weird.  Some times it borders on being very disrespectful.  I wonder if the Fairbanks teams are treated that way when they go to other places.  Any way, we had a good time but didn't stay until the end.  I just couldn't sit in the seats any longer.  I bet this baby is going to be a huge sports fan.

Anyway, its 10:42 pm and the sun still has a few hours before it sets and I need to go to bed.  Hope you all have a good week!!

New Posts

The next month or so I probably won't get to post often since we will have a new addition to the family.  This will be the last one for a while.

It has been raining for a day and I realized how much I miss those summer afternoon thunderstorms.  I did see lightning a few days ago.  Gabe and I were wondering if they had thunderstorms up here and I guess the answer is YES!!  Lightning has even started some of the forest fires around here.  I've never lived somewhere that that was a problem.  It's kinda of scary.  Good thing its raining.

My garden is starting to take off.  I have a little bitty tomato on one plant and a tiny broccoli!  I'm so excited.  My jalapenos are growing super fast.  They have about six small ones on them.  The corn is not doing so well.  I don't think it gets hot enough here for them.  I could be wrong.

We haven't seen many moose lately.  I guess they are hiding with their babies.  Anyway, hope you all have a good weekend!!