When It Snows in Alaska, It Snows!

Yesterday everything was all clear, but when I woke up this morning, there was more SNOW! Everyone told us that it wasn't spring time until May, but I was hoping we would be lucky.
Since the snow is just about over, I thought I would let the kids play in it at least once during the season. I personally don't care to be outside in the cold, but it was actually a lot of fun.
Maihi and Allison enjoyed shoveling (or spooning) snow into their Halloween buckets. At first we just stayed on the walkway under the overhang, but we were having so much fun we decided to make a snow man, too.
Afterward we came inside, drank hot chocolate, and introduced some friends to the "Tim Tam Challenge." :) We're pretty excited that they sell Tim Tams at a local grocery store up here. We used to have to wait for Bryan's parents to bring some when they flew in from New Zealand.

The Alaskan Landscape, Pyra's Farm

One of the photos Bryan got of the sublime landscape of the Yukon on the Alaskan Highway. I think it was about 10:30 or 11:00pm, just about sunset.
More wildlife in Canada... (I'm glad they're not this big in real life.)

A couple of weeks after coming to Anchorage, Bryan had the opportunity to go ice-climbing with the Scouts (see first post of this blog). Here is yet another gorgeous photo that takes my breath away every time that I see it.

These next two are photos of Bryan taking the family to "Pyra's Farm," a U-Pick type of garden about an hour away from Anchorage. I was told it used to be a Church welfare farm. The mountains in the background are the same ones that I see here every day. The scenery makes me feel like I'm living on the back of a postcard.

We really enjoyed our visit and hope to go again this summer - though we still have plenty of rhubarb and zucchini in our freezer. We picked quite a lot of it - the kids were so cute it was hard not to.

Edmonton

This was one of my favorite stops through Canada at the Edmonton Mall. This is one of the largest shopping centers in the world, with *the* largest indoor waterpark (seen below), a golf course, an ice scating rink, tons of restaurants, a water show with sea lions, and even a theme park. Isn't it gorgeous?

Funny seeing so many pale people in swimming suits all in one place.


This was an awesome pirate ship they had there, too. They had so many fun things to do here that it should be a definite stopping point for anyone going through. I loved it, and the kids really enjoyed it, too.
(Come on, Mom - you know you wanna drive through here to come see me.)

Sign Post Forest and Reaching Anchorage

Here was a fun little stop along the Alaskan Highway. People from all over the world come and leave their liscence plates or signs (or someone even left a toilet seat), as memory of their passing through. It was a huge area, with lots to see and look at.

I thought this was fitting. :)

Here's when we finally reached the border:

I think I hadn't showered for four days in this next photo, taken in the stake center parking lot next to the Anchorage Temple on Sunday morning after we first got there. Thankfully one of the members saw us on her way to church and invited me to her home nearby to take a shower before Sacrament Meeting. I was soooo happy and grateful, you have no idea. I'm sure the people sitting next to me were, too. :)

I got to fill in the final destination on our trip log:

Anchorage, Alaska 8/9/09.

It took us nine days to get there.

Backtracking... Wildlife through Canada

I thought I ought to finally post some of the pictures I've got here... Here is a sampling of some of the wildlife we saw on our way to Alaska. It has been pretty awesome and amazing to see these creatures so close-up and just in the wild!

Here are some of the animals we saw: a fox, some carribbou (reindeer), and Bryan even found a bear. There were tons and tons of deer and dahl sheep (mountain goats), but I don't think we got any good pictures of them... It really was crazy, though. Most of the time the animals would just be right in the middle of the road and you'd have to wait for them to get out of your way.

And here's a bonus for you: a genuine Red-clad Canadian Mounty. I'll bet you thought they were only characters in fairy tales and story books. Yet here one is - walking the street in Canada.

(I was pretty astonished, myself).

Happy Valentine's Day!

So while Bryan was at school studying last night, I was just watching the kids running around the house and looking so cute. I'm amazed at how grown up they look to me already - especially Allison. There's something about her eyes and dark curly hair that just captures me. That gal is already a knock-out.

Sorry I don't really know how to crop/alter images. The display screen for our camera broke in a nasty fall :( so I guess I had better learn how to do that eventually...

Ice Climbing the Matanuska Glacier

"The most memorable part of this journey was when I woke up in the middle of the night after having barfed in my mouth."

-Bryan

So here is a picture of Bryan when he went on a trip with the scouts this summer right after we got here to Alaska. He's wearing some crampons (those spikey things on his feet) which he used to kick his way up the ice cliffs. pretty crazy...

Isn't Alaska just gorgeous? brrr... looking at these pictures makes me cold, though...