Ice Ice Baby!

Yesterday we woke up to a little surprise. I was the first one awake (which is normal for the weekends) and when I went to let Happy out to potty, i realized that it was snowing!!! I sat on the coach sipping my hot chocolate watching the snow out the window for quite some time. Lance was  next to wake up. I couldn't wait to see his face. I asked him what was on the deck outside. He looked out the window and said "sawdust!". He kept staring and then he realized that more was coming down. He then yelled "mom, its snowing!!"  The snow quickly tapered off and it wasn't long till the sun was out.
We decided to do some more exploring. We hadn't traveled very far North of Wasilla so we decided go North. A friend had told me about a glacier. At first, it didn't really interest me. I was thinking, "wow, a block of ice". We researched it a bit and decided we should check it out.
The drive up to Glacier Valley was beautiful!!! They had gotten more snow than us and it was just breathtaking! That is one thing I have found with Alaska, you can't go anywhere without being in Awe of God's awesome creation!! It is gorgeous here!
When we got to the glacier I couldn't believe how awesome it was. This thing was huge and even had a blue tint to it. Matanuska Glacier is 27 miles long by 4 miles wide, and is the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States. I am so glad we decided to go to the glacier. It is so much more than a block of ice. We even walked out on it. We are definielty enjoying all the awesome sights that Alaska has to offer.

Last night we were pretty wore out from that days adventures so we decided to make it a movie night. It just so happened that The Little Mermaid came in the mail that day. We gave the kids their baths, put on their pj's, all got a bowl of ice cream and enjoyed hanging out watching the movie! The Little Mermaid was a huge hit, especially with Lexie!

Wold's Photo Arts

Tonight we had family pictures taken by Nancy with Wold's Photo Arts. Peter's Creek Park was the perfect spot. It is so beautiful there, especially with all the beautiful colors of fall. Nancy gave us a sneak peak and I am just dieing to see more!!

Creeping

I think its so neat how we can see winter creeping down the Mountains toward us. Winter will be here before we know it, Ready or not

Lance & Gymnastics

I had been looking for things for the kids to do this winter. We don't want to stay cooped up inside all winter. The kids get so full of energy when they don't get to burn any off. I found out about this gymnastics place, so i called and got Lance signed up. The first day was just a trial run to see if he would like it. Well, Lance didn't just like it, he LOVED it!! It was so cute to watch him do all the differnet things. I have no idea what any of it is called but I loved watching Lance and all the other kids his age. They were so stinking funny!!! Lexie wanted to do it too, but she is still a bit young. She would cry, "I want to jump!" It won't be long and she will be able to do it too!
I think its safe to say that gymnastics will be part of our regular schedule!!

Gone Fishing

One thing that Andrew and I couldn't wait to do once moving to Alaska was to go fishing. Andrew and I both love fishing! Well, Lance does too but we thought he was still kind of small to go out on a fishing boat. We booked the baby sitter for that day and waited for the day to come. We left super early in the morning and headed down to Homer. It was cold but we were bundled up pretty good. On the way out we seen quite a few Otters. I couldn't believe how big they were. I was really hoping we would get to see some Orcas or hump backs.
We made out way out in the boat to where we would be fishing. Rite off the bat Our friend caught a pretty good size king salmon and then Andrew caught a big one. We knew it was going to be a good day!
We never were able to get the salmon to bite again so after a while we gave up and started working on the halibut. We ended up catching quite a few. You are only allowed to keep two per person a day so we threw back several in hopes of landing a great big one. I caught one flounder and 5 halibut. On my 5th halibut I was ready to throw in the towel. My arms were killing me. It felt like I had a whale on the end of my line. I decided to keep the 5th one and rest.

I am not sure how many Andrew ended up catching but he was getting pretty wore down too. We each caught our limit of two each so we were pretty happy. We ended up with some pretty big fish fillets.
After asking several people how they cooked fillets we narrowed it down to two ways we thought would be good for us. I pan fried mine and Andrew baked his wrapped in tinfoil. Both ways were awesome! Halibut is such a yummy fish. Salmon, on the other hand, is not my favorite. We will have to experiment with some different ways to cook it.

Best buddies

Lance and Lexie are only 19 months apart in age. I thought it would be so hard having them so close in age. Well, it turns out, it is great! They are such good buddies and play so well together! I know they will have rough patches growing up, but they will always have each other.

Wedding Bells

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Justin Hoffma!! Sept 8,2012!

My sister, Sarah, has finally found the perfect man for her. We all love Justin! He is such a great guy and we couldn't be happier for her. Here are a few pictures from the wedding day!

SEMO

The kids and I have spent the last two weeks back in Southeast Missouri visiting friends and family, and helping my sister get ready for her big day! We went and picked out pumkins with mama Jordan. The kids loved helping mom make pumpkin pie.

Papa missed his little buddies. I got this great picture of dad painting Lexie's fingernails!

Andrew sent us a couple [pictures of what he was working on up in Fairbanks. Here is one of the smaller machines.

 

The week leading up to the wedding was pretty busy, but we still made time for fun! I love getting a pedicure so I was in Heaven.

We Had a great time in Missouri but are ready to get back, see daddy, and enjoy Alaska Living!