They grow 'em bigger up here in Alaska...

Our fair crew: Michael, me, Kris, and Nick! Michael had to work at the fair a few days because the Marines had a booth set up. This night we were able to steal him and he could hang out with us doing fair stuff! :) Also, this fair was actually kind of small. I thought it would be a little bigger, but I guess in a state that only has a population of 400,00, the fair is not going to be that huge!

Us trying out one of the few alchohol tents! ;)


Kris and I petting the baby chicks. I must say that NC State does a much better job in this department! Holla to all of my poultry peeps! :) Hahahaha!


This goat was tired of her hay and wanted some variety in her diet...or maybe she was annoyed with her sign!

This is Ms. Piggy. She weighs 950 lbs.

This was an award winning fungus. I took this picture for Roy because I know he likes mushrooms!

A giant rutebaga

The award winning pumpkin

The record breaking cabbage

Another rutebaga

Captain Phil from "The Deadliest Catch"

Giant watermelon

Now that's a big cabbage!

Award winning zucchini

Housewarming Party

You all know us, and you know that we love some parties! So, of course, we had to have a housewarming party and what better way to celebrate than to have an 80's themed party! Whoop whoop!! We had such a great time and I think every party should be themed! Here are some of the best pics from the party. I really hope that our new neighbors do not think that we always dress like this! hahaha!

Michael and me at our party! Michael is supposed to be Chet from "Weird Science", but he got annoyed with the flannel sleeves and ripped them off. So does that make him an 80's redneck? hahaha!

Two of the girls I work with at the moment, Renae and Katie.

All of the girls at the party.

This guy is totally straight! I love him and am so glad he's our friend!

New House

We bought a HOUSE!! We have decided to move off of base and buy a house. We sold the house in NC and we were not liking the townhouse situation we were living on base, so we found a house and bought it! It is about 30 minutes north of Anchorage and we LOVE it!! 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. It's got a tiny bit of land, so maybe, we'll have a moose in our yard this year! :) Future guests, PLAN ON VISITING BEFORE NOVEMBER 2011!! We have a bedroom and a bathroom for you!! ;) (I'm trying to send suggestive phrases to your brain...is it working???)

The front of our new house!

Our ginormous deck!

Fireplace in our living room! Love the rock!

Doors in the living room that lead to our backyard! We love this house!

Our kitchen and part of our dining room

New Friends

We've made a lot of good friends up here! We love Alaska! It is such a transient community that it's actually a lot easier to make friends than I originally thought. You can go to a lot of parties and random people will start talking to you left and right, just because everyone up here seems to have been in your same shoes at one point or another. (why didn't I meet these people when I was in my search for girl friends?!?!!?) One of our friends turned 45 this year! Who can believe that we actually hang out with a 45 year old!?!?! hahaha! He is great guy and I am so glad that he is in our lives! Here are some pics of his birthday party celebration.

Dave, the only guy in the picture, is the 45 year old Birthday boy!! heehee!! He's so much fun! He and I actually sang karaoke one night! It was great and you would all be so proud! Kelly, the girl in the orange in the background, is another awesome girl in the girl group! Andie, the one with the tongue, is a girl we met through Amy (girl in front). I love Andie!! She is so much fun and I'm glad we have become friends!

The girls of the night!

A few of us camera playing at the table! Nick, the guy in the white hat, is our adopted brother. He's in the Air Force, from Mississippi, and a great guy. He stays at our house most weekends.

Alpenglow and Alyeska

One of the several girl hikes I have gone on. This is at Alpenglow/Arctic Valley. We had a lot of forest fires up here in Alaska at this time, so it was actually pretty smokey. This view was still incredible!

A pretty meadow on the Alpenglow hike.

This is Fireweed! It is everywhere up here!

There is a very well-known skiing mountain/resort up here called Aleyska. Aleyska is the Native Alaskan word for "Alaska". I've never skiied at this resort...maybe because I am a big scaredy cat when it comes to downhill skiing! However, during the summer, you can hike Aleyska. This was pretty cool, but as you can imagine, it must be a pain to climb up if it's built to ski down! I went hiking with my online girl hiking group. We made it to the top and were rewarded with a award winning view of the seven glaciers in the area, great drinks, and an awesome feeling of accomplishment! I sure do hate climbing mountains, but I do like the feeling you get afterwards! :)

Me half way up Alyeska.

Pretty waterfall on the trail.

The girls that I hiked with on Alyeska and the glaciers in background.

Our beautiful Raspberry Chocolate Mojitos up at the bar on top of the mountain! This was the best motivation to get to the top of a mountain!

We were able to ride the tram down the mountain! This was awesome because a lot of times, going down the mountain hurts much worse than going up!! Damn getting old!

Koehn Visit

Okay, before I forget...we got a new cat! It is a girl, she is declawed in the front, spayed, microchipped, and does not pee on the walls!! Michael actually picked her out! We've had three different names for her, but the one that has finally stuck has been Riesling! :)

My parents came to visit for 18 days in July. We took them to a First Tap (a local brewing company's introduction of the new beer of the month and an outdoor concert) where they got to meet a lot of my new friends! We went camping in Denali National Park over the Fourth of July. They took our car and went sightseeing and visiting in other parts of the state. We went halibut fishing in Seward. It was a great trip! We were so sad to see them leave! We really miss our families...and friends!!

Mom, Dad, and me at Denali National Park

A female moose

Caribou

My dorky parents! hahaha! Just kidding, Mom and Dad! Love you!

A lynx...now we saw most of these animals on our own, not on the wildlife tour! hahaha! Who wants to hire us for their wildlife tour?

We went to see Michael at work one day. He was all dressed up! Gotta love a man in uniform! :)

Dad and me at the overlook up at Flattop

Mom and Dad took our car and went touring in Homer. They LOVED it and plan on moving there someday! ;) This is a picture of them at their favorite B&B and a glacier in the background.

We all went fishing out of Seward. This is Michael reeling in his big one!

Michael's halibut and Jimmy, our boat captain!

Mom and Dad with Michael's Halibut! ;)

I really don't know why Michael and I insist on a night of heavy drinking before these fishing/wildlife cruise trips! This is one of the many naps we took on the boat!

A lot of the fish we caught among the Marines, Hodge, and Koehn fishing trips!!!! Fish for a year! Whoop, whoop!

June 09

During the month of June, we pretty much spent a lot of quality time together in between Michael's super busy work schedule. He was, luckily, able to take off some time during his parent's visit...however, he made up for it during June. Gotta love recruiting duty! I was finally able to get Michael up on Flattop (this is the most popular hike in Anchorage...maybe Alaska since halfof the state's population lives in this city). We were ready to go to the top, but Bracken was a little out of shape! We had to stop because he wouldn't drink any water and was about to have a heat stroke! Maybe next time, we'll get to the top!

Michael and the pups at our stopping point. I'm not sure if Bracken's tongue could stick out any further!

Me with the dogs...yes, I know, this is a very bad look for me. I, obviously, did not look at a mirror before I left the house today. I was just thinking about ways to keep my hair out of my face!

I would have to say that these are my two Alaskan Best Friends. I hang out with these two ladies most weekends and a lot of weekdays. And just so everyone knows...I met them online!! hahahaha!

Amy and me on the walk to our next bar!

This is June...it is 1132 PM and it is still light!!!! During the end of June, it wouldn't get dark until after 130 AM! So weird!