Dog Update

Here's a photo taken of the two pups on a car ride. They really can be sweet and angelic sometimes! ;)

When we came home from Portland and picked up the pooches from the kennel, this is what they looked like. They had put the bandanas on them. They looked so cute and I think they actually liked wearing them because they didn't try to take them off for over two weeks!

Now, onto our severe seperation anxiety pooch. She can not stand being in the kennel for any length of time! She has destroyed two dog kennels now! The plastic one that we had to buy to fly them up here has now hit the bucket. She tore the inside of the door up with her teeth and peed all over the metal door so that it won't turn to open or close now. We were latching the door shut with part of the leash that was working for awhile. Then she figured out how to stick her paws in between the door and kennel itself which was tearing up her legs. Then, we came home the other night and she had broken out of the kennel period! She had somehow got her whole body in between the door and kennel. In the process of doing this, she tore up her face (see photo above). This actually looks a lot better than it did when it first happened. For the health and sanity of Freedom, we have decided to start leaving her loose in the house. She doesn't tear stuff up when you let her loose. Bracken will destroy stuff if left alone. Now, we've moved Bracken's kennel into the house and he stays in there while we're gone. Freedom is allowed to run loose. This seems to be working well as of now. Freedom is doing a lot better and she has done a lot better. I feel really bad about locking Bracken up, but he is destructive if left out. :(

Christmas Decorating

We went and got our tree this weekend. We were going to drive to the National Forest and chop it down. However, if we did that, then we would have to let the tree sit in the garage for a few days to defrost. Michael had to leave town soon so we wanted to get it up before he left. We went to the mill and feed store and got a really nice douglas fir. I didn't think it was too expensive compared to what we paid last year.

This is our tree with all of our decorations! :) It does look like it's crooked, but that top limb leans to the side. I think it just gives it character!

The tree with our COLORED lights! Whoop whoop!

The outside of our house with lights! Colored lights rule! :) I didn't end up doing the whole house, just over the garage and front door. Next year, it will be more intense...I promise!

We got this fresh wreath when we got our tree! I love the smell of fresh pines! :)

Bye John!

One of the first friends we made up here in Alaska moved today. He is in the Air Force and has orders for Korea and then Germany. This is John, our bartender friend that used to live right down the road from us until we moved out in town. He was a lot of fun and it is sad to see him go. However, we plan on visiting him in Germany in 2011! Oktoberfest here we come!

This is most of our Air Force gang. Tressa, her new hubby, John, Michael, Matty, some new guy, and Mike (the dj) at the Kashim Club (the base bar that we walked to all the time when we lived on base). Cheers to you, John! We'll miss you!

Thanksgiving 2009

We were invited to two Thanksgiving meals this year! The first one was with one of the online friend groups we are in. The man hosting it allowed 120 people to come! Of course, this was a drop in meal from 11 AM-9 PM, so there wasn't 120 people there at one time! We went around noon. It was so nice! Everyone brought something good to eat! We made pumpkin muffins and heart attack mac-n-cheese! We met a lot of nice people and saw some familiar faces! This was so nice and a neat way to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Our next meal was at 5 PM at our friend, Jill's house. We met her through the girl group. She is from Canada, so she hasn't done a real Thanksgiving dinner at her house before. She did an AMAZING job for not being an American! :) She made the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes! Yum, yum!!

This is Jill, our lovely host.


Michael and I before dinner.

Michael cooking the field peas! We brought homemade beer bread, and fresh veggies from Michael's grandpa's NC garden! The field peas and corn were delicious! We also brought some canned green sweet peas just in case there were no other veggies at dinner. This was the first time I ate green peas. I really liked them! Yes, another green veggie to add to my list!! Whoop, whoop!!!

After dinner, we all decided to go sledding instead of going into a turkey coma at the house. We had so much fun!! We were in a lot of pain while walking up the hill after going down, but it was totally worth it! We sledded for about an hour or so and then decided to do a train with all of us holding onto each other as we went down the hill before we called it quits. This was a blast! We ended up doing the train for another 30-40 minutes after our "quitting" time! haha!

Michael walking back up the hill. This was his first real time going sledding! :) He loved it!
The sled he is holding is our new tobogan...which is funny to say because we use that term for the snow hat on your head! And Jill, the one from Canada, calls a snow hat a toke!

Snowshoeing again!

So, we had the second Marine Corps ball last night and Michael got pretty tore up. But we still got up and went snowshoeing! :) We both weren't not feeling it at all! Michael was really hungover and I was super tired. This snowshoeing was a little harder than our first trip out! By the end, I just wanted to cry because I did not want to be out there one more minute! Michael and I also were both super over dressed which did not help. We were both sweating up a storm. We went about 2 miles and then turned around. By the end, we snowshoed right around 4 miles! That's not too bad seeing our "conditions"! The rest of the group we were with went a little further than us before they turned around, but we were so slow that we really didn't see them the whole day! haha! Liz did wait for us though! :) When we turned around, she went and caught up with the group. Kris left when we did because she had a rough night too. ;)

Michael snowshoeing and carrying all of our extra gear! We were so ill prepared.

Marine Corps Ball, Take Two!

The reserve unit stationed up here in Anchorage was having their ball. We weren't going to go since we already went to one this year, however, this ball would have people that live in Alaska attending! This was the ball for us to go to! It was held at the Hilton hotel in downtown Anchorage. This ball was really nice and the people acted like Marines should act during the ceremony. We knew a lot of people at this ball and actually had a really good time! We were both so glad that we went!

Michael had to drive the H3 to the ball. It looks real pretty, but according to Michael, the blindspots are a bitch in this thing! haha!

Us at the ball. It was absolutely freezing in the room, so I had to wear my coat. Luckily, it matched my dress! boo-yah! :)

After the ball, we went barhopping with a bunch of people. I texted my lady friends and some of them met us out in town! This is Liz and Kris. They each have a shot of tequila, while I have a shot of water! They didn't want me to feel left out! Awww, what great friends I have. :)

Us at McGinley's Bar! Michael got pretty trashed! We didn't get home until 230 AM! The worst part of this whole situation was that we had to get up in the morning to go snowshoeing! Will it happen?

And our newest winter activity...

Snowshoeing! We went out with the girl group on a Sunday afternoon to try out this new sport. We really liked it! It was a lot of fun and a great workout! You actually have to pick up your feet when you walk! Hahaha! Luckily, most of the people in this group had never been or only been once or twice. After we finished snowshoeing, we ate and and played some board games. It was a lot of fun and we were really glad we went! Michael and I had just rented our snowshoes, but we are going to buy our own since we really liked it!

Me at the beginning!

This was at the end of our walk. Michael is the best hubby in the world and carried my snowshoes and poles! Awww! :)

And we have snow!

The night we got back to Anchorage from Portland (November 8), the Anchorage area finally got its first real snow! FINALLY!!! When it snows, that means it's not extremely cold! Snow is good! We were having some really cold weather up until this point.

Our house covered in snow!

Our new fence!

The back porch and yard

Portland, Oregon

The weekend after I got home from NC, Michael and I flew to Portland for his Marine Corps Ball. I also had to do some training to become a family readiness volunteer. This program is set up to get helpful info to marine wives. I have avoided this program like the plague up until this point. It used to be a gossip ring with several catty ladies. However, the Marine Corps realized this and revamped the whole program. The training was pretty good and I've already sent some info out to my two wives! haha! I've met most of the marine wives in Alaska now and they all seem pretty nice.

These were two of the lovely ladies that sold their souls to the devil too! Heehee...just kidding! Danielle (above) lives in Vancouver, WA and April (below) lives in Anchorage. We are all now family readiness volunteers!

We had a lot of free time in Portland which was super nice. We were supposed to hang out with April and Amy, but unfortunately, they had moved to southern California by the time we got to Portland. Michael and I explored downtown Portland with all of our free time. It's a really cool city.

It rains A LOT in Portland! We were walking around the city all morning and stopped to have lunch. Of course, it is a monsoon outside when we were ready to go! I was too cheap to get a taxi and Michael had to get back to to hotel for his training, so we ran throught the rain to get to a store to buy an umbrella! Hahaha! The line was full of umbrella buyers! Running through the city with an umbrella in the rain was actually a lot of fun and one of my best memories from this trip! :)

Here is a picture of us all dolled up at the ball! The ball was nice, but super small (especially compared to the previous balls we've been to). Also, there was a very different atmosphere at this recruiter's ball compared to the fleet's ball. People just didn't seem to take this as seriously. Michael and I were both very bothered and disgusted by the actions of some of the Marines. I told Michael that I would be fine with him going back to the fleet now. I don't want him to become a career recruiter and turn into one of the disrespectful people we saw at this ball.

North Carolina

Okay, so since almost all of you that read this blog were with me while I was in NC, I am not going to blog about this trip! It was awesome! I completed all 39.3 miles of the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Charlotte! We had a great Halloween party! And it was awesome to see everyone! Hopefully, we'll get to go back to NC soon!

Denali Road Lottery Trip

Every year, the state of Alaska has a lottery for the chance to drive through Denali National Park. This a pretty big deal because people are only allowed to drive 13 miles into the park. If you want to go any further, you have to take a bus or hike. This park is freaking massive! They do have a road that goes 86 miles into the park. If your name is drawn, you can bring one vehicle and drive all 86 miles of the road for the day you were drawn. The weekend is the last weekend of September right before everything shuts down up there because of the winter. My friend Amy won!!! She invited me to go with her!! I was so excited. There were 5 of us packed up into her car and we made the trip! The picture above is Mt. Denali (or Mt. McKinley, depending on who you talk to...they are changing the name from McKinley to Denali. If you are a local, you call it Denali). We saw this when we were still a couple of hours from the park!

During our drive, we were stopped by this grey wolf strutting his stuff in the middle of the road! It was amazing! He did not even care that we were there! I took this picture from my seat inside of the car! How crazy is that?!?!

This was a male grizzly bear!!! I had no zoom going on in this photo! He was racing (I like to use the term "charging"...it sounds so much cooler and exciting) towards our vehicle! Amy got nervous once he got super close to our car...so she moved up a little. I wanted the bear to hit the car window. I say that now, but I'm sure if that really happened, I may have shit myself.

Only 30% of the people that visit the park actually get to see the mountain because it's usually cloudy. We got to see it!! We're part of the 30% club! This was at the visitor's center deep within the park. I really like this photo because of the American flag in front of the mountain.

Me and the mighty mighty mountain!! :)

Me and my Denali posse at the end of the road in the park! Thank you so much for inviting me Amy! This was a trip of a lifetime!

Fall Equinox

Since our seasons, besides winter, are so short, people really like to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes. The adventurers group, one of the online groups we belong to, had a Fall equinox party on the beach up here. We had to walk 2 miles from the parking lot to get here, and I don't think I would have ever found it on my own! Once you got off the main trail, you had to take a hidden little trail to get there! But once you got through all of this, it was totally worth it! It was absolutely amazing! This picture was taken as the sun was setting. These are some of my girlfriends up here. This is also the night that some of our AK friends found out we were pregnant. You know how they found out? I wasn't drinking!! Damn my alcoholic tendencies!!!

You know you're from NC when...

Our friend had his birthday party a couple of months ago. We had so much fun at our 80's housewarming party, that Brandon thought we should have a theme party for his party too! His theme was trash/backwoods/redneck! This was actually quite funny!

This was my costume. We are really pregnant at this point in time, but only a few weeks. However, we thought it would be funny to dress like I was big pregnant! (don't worry, I only drank water...the beer bottles were for effect!) This guy in the picture is one of our buddies, Justin. He talked EXACTLY like Hank from King of the Hill. It was hilarious! Oh, and we all had to have trashy names. My name was Elly Mae IHumpe! Hahaha! The "bump's" name was Oops!

Here's a group photo of some of us. The guy in the yellow shirt is the birthday boy. The sad part about this whole theme...Michael and I didn't even have to go shopping for our clothes! We already owned everything! So sad.