Thanksgiving Day

This is how the day started.... I woke up late and I had to hurry to get the turkey and everything going. Notice I am still in my pj's! Somehow, it all came together.

One of the most important parts of the meal, wine of course!

After a big meal everyone decided to lounge around. We played games and relaxed.

Matt and Zaden (a friend's little boy) relaxing in front of the fire.

Zaden was such a good baby!

Leslie (Zaden's mom) intent on beating Matt at a game of chess. I think they called a draw in the end.

Rosemary and Franz in Alaska

My very pregnant sister Rosemary (she is 7 months pregnant) and her husband Franz are here visiting us for Thanksgiving week. It has been great having them around. Franz even tried skiing for the first time, and Rosemary has been keeping quite active as well. The pictures are in reverse order of events, but they give you an idea of what we have been up to while they have been here. We have been having fun with them here and it was great having family here for our first Thanksgiving in Girdwood.

Julie making a mess baking for Thansgiving.

Franz's first skiing experience.

Matt coming in for a landing with a storm brewing behind him.

Franz almost got to go for a plane ride, but then a snow storm decided to move in.

Franz and Rosmary along Winner Creek Trail

Max's Mountain

Checking out Virgin Creek

Steller Jays at our bird feeder.

Julie shoveling the driveway while Matt is taking pictures through the garage door :-)

The Great One

Just another trip home from work...

Flying to and from work can actually be exciting. Flying home yesterday was one of those times. We flew past (not really above) Mt. McKinley (Denali) at appox. 25,000 feet and here are some pictures of it. Weather often hides the mountain, but not this time. It amazes me every time I see it!

Fall In Alaska

Fall was short lived this year. Fortunately, I was able to get a few pictures before the snow came (It snowed about a foot at our place, just before Matt left for the Slope on Oct. 7th). These pictures were taken on a drive to and from Anchorage one evening, a few days before Matt and I headed back to work on the North Slope.

Turnagain Arm InletAcross the Inlet
On the drive into Anchorage.
Potter Marsh (The Swans Waiting to Fly South)
Potter Marsh


I am sure the swans will be gone by the time we get home from the North Slope. Soon it will be time to get back to ski patrolling!

Rebecca in Alaska

My youngest sister Rebecca got a taste of Alaska when she came up for a visit at the end of August. It was nice having her around since Matt was gone on a moose hunt for a good part of her stay. Unfortunately we don't have any fresh moose meat in our freezer, but it was quite the adventure for him and his friend Ron from what I've been told.

Here are some pictures of some of our "sister" adventures.

2 day old piglets at the State Fair. They are so cute when they are young, and so ugly when they gr0w up.

Rebecca Testing the Water

The Bore Tide Along Turnagain Arm
It was a really good one that day!

This bear a the Wildlife Conservation Center was a lot of fun to watch! At the base of Byron Glacier
Rebecca standing at the base of Byron Glacier
Getting ready to take off for Rebecca's first time up in a small airplane.

Sisters

We picked wild blueberries and wild strawberries to eat. We also made some wild blueberry jam. Yummy!!

The Hidden Waterfall

If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can see Matt sitting at the base of the waterfall!
Matt and I, being as crazy as we are, did a 2.5 mile hike out to a waterfall. Now you may not think that sounds crazy, but when you consider it took us 6 hours to get there, you know there has to be a story behind it.

It is likely we have taken steps in places where no other human probably has. The devil's club and fern were as tall, or in some cases twice as tall as us. We were armed with large loppers and a smaller set of garden clippers. We were also armed with a rifle and bear spray just in case we came across a bear.

We took turns lopping away at the thick undergrowth, devils club, alders, and fern (Matt did a lot more than I did), while the other carried the rifle and called out every so often to let bears know we were in the area. Our path that we created was more apparent by the time we made our way back to our house (it only took 1.5 hours to get back thankfully). It was still rough going as it is obviously not an established trail. I have a new respect for anyone who has ever cleared forest and woodlands to build or settle. I can only imagine how the first settlers managed.

The prize at the end of our trail breaking efforts was an amazing waterfall! We knew it was there because we had seen it from the air when flying over. I must say though, that we had attempted to make our way there one time previously, and did not make it out there that time. Then after flying over it again, we finally got our chance to attempt it again. This time we trudged on until we made it. I did not even take my camera out of my backpack until we got to the waterfall because of the difficulty of our non-trail.

It is amazing what can be so close to civilization and yet so difficult to get to. My guess is that there are many who will never see this waterfall and many in our own community who do not even know it exists. Persistence can really pay off sometimes :-)

Yes, that is avalanche debris that we are standing on.

It has actually created snow bridges across the creek.

North Slope Wildlife

More Fun on the North Slope

A woman I met up here is an avid photographer. We went out the other night and she let me use her standby camera (not bad for a standby....) We were lucky enough to find a den of foxes. There were 7 young ones and the mamma. They were so cute and playful!!! I had so much fun taking pictures and just watching them play.

The North Slope also has all kinds of birds and water fowl. They are fun to watch as they train their young.
A caribou checking out some new construction. I wonder if it was up to his standards.