home is where the heart is...

So I can't tell you an exact day or even week, but over time the roads become a fluid motion to me. Saturday mornings you wake up and drive down to your favorite breakfast spot and you know the sever. You meet up with friends for cookouts and hiking trips in the mountains... And then one day your driving down the street, you pull up to your house and it feels like home when you walk inside. You pour yourself a glass of ice tea and sit outside in the sun. You think to yourself everything just feels right.

...Alaska has become home.

It wasn't an easy journey. We arrived here with no house, car, or any of our stuff. I feel asleep my first night no knowing how to make this new place home. I had never lived/driven in snow. I didn't even know one person besides Josh in the whole entire state. It was dark and cold. Alaska seemed so unknown and scary, nothing was the same.

We couldn't have done any of this without the help of our friends and family, and their prayers. Last night Josh and I sat in our backyard by the fire pit and just thought how lucky we are.

It is like when you cook Thanksgiving dinner, it takes so much work, time, help from others, and you aren't sure how it is all going to come together. But then before you know it, your sitting at the dinner table with everyone with a fantastic meal. Moving here in the middle of an Alaska winter is like cooking that meal. But we worked hard, and adapted. And FINALLY here we are... sitting in the sun taking it all in...

...home is where the heart is. That doesn't mean that it is going to be easy, but you'll get there soon.

Color by Numbers

Alaska is kind of like a bad color by numbers coloring book. As a kid you have a whole book full of blank pages with unseen pictures and little numbers on the inside. Each number is assigned to a color that will lead you to a beautiful picture.

But this book (Alaska) was on sale, and doesn't use any bright-fun colors. You keep following the numbers but all you get is white... white... brown... brown... white... white. But you don't want to make up your own colors because that's not what society has taught you. Well I stuck it out and followed the number code of coloring with just white and brown for 6 and half months...

And finally...a color 3 pops up. I have only ever colored in 1 and 2 (white and brown). I look over to the side of the page to find out what 3 stands for...YELLOW. Oh man this is gonna be awesome! ...okay so its only about a one inch circle, but I see lots of other colors in my future.

Bad Ali

So officially I am a bad blogger, because I haven't really updated you guys on ANYTHING that is going on, and we have a lot happening. Ill try to put some photos and stories up for you guys but for right now I will just give you the NEWS!

So the second we landed in Anchorage and were picking up our luggage from baggage claim we were being told that the job that Josh was trained to do (working on F-15...yayy I am getting really good at 'air force talk') was being removed from this base... and we were told that all the F-15 planes would be gone by October 2010.

We really had no idea what would happen, and figured that Japan would capture us after all. BUT as of last Friday Josh found out that he was transferring over to the 22 raptors (spell?) and we would remain in Anchorage for the rest of his 'duty' (which as of now is 30 months). SO that really worked out perfect because I finally got everything in order for school, and I will be able to finish at University of Alaska Anchorage....WHICH I started this week!

So lots going on and I am at school from 7am-6pm! But I will try to continue to update you guys as much as possible becuase so much is going on with not only us but Alaska as well, NO MORE SNOW!

Hot Rod

So the Honda Fleet is expanding, and another classic is welcomed into our family.

Introducing our new Honda Accord 93', with only 268,000 miles we are excited for the journey ahead. We are now a two car family, and it really happened at the perfect time because next week I start my summer classes and we weren't sure how Josh was going to be getting home from work each day. We are so excited and thankful, special shout out to my dad for helping us out!!

Alaska is our playground!

Yesterday we went to Eagle River State Park, which is about a 45 min drive from our house. There are all kinds of trails out there but we decided to do a 3 mile where you walk at the base of the mountains, and pass through lakes and rivers.

It was 50 degrees, sunny, and warm. About half of the trail still had snow and ice on it, and the rest was muddy. So most of it is brown and looks dead but that just means that we are getting closer to summer. WE even found out that Kingston loves water, and by the end of the day was a dirty, wet, muddy dog.

We were so lucky right away we saw a moose drinking water and eating. When there is no one around you besides mountains and wildlife it is amazing and I can't explain the feeling. Come visit us here in Alaska and you might start to understand how small we really are. We found out this week that only 1% of Alaska actually has people.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to all our Mommies! We love you and all you have done for us!! xoxo enjoy your Sunday!!

An Afternoon in Elmendorf

These photos are from two weeks ago here on base about a mile and half down the road. It was really one of the first days that there wasn't snow on the ground and it was warm enough to take a small hike with Kingston.

HAPPY NURSE APPRECIATION WEEK!

To all those fine men/women who have held me down when it was time to get a shot, who...who...wait a second I never went to the doctors for anything...so I take that back, it should be more like Happy Ali Appreciation week For Never Coming into the Doctor's and Making the wait Longer just TO complain about a cough DAY!

:) Just Kidding! Special Shout out to my mommy as well as Sandra and Tressa (you all show that slave labor still exists in America, don't worry help is coming...but not right now so get back to work!)

Thank you for all you have done, and for taking care of us all!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub ...there's a Kingston in the Tub

Since the snow has melted there have been a lot more out door activities going on this week, which means that I am bringing my bear-finder Kingston with me.

So last night we finally decided to wash off all that moose poo that Kingston decided to rub on his body through out the week. ( I use to only have to worry about bunny poo...)

...I don't think he liked the fact that he smelled like vanilla bean, and right after he ran outside to clame his manhood back. Here in the last 'frontier' our dogs are real manly dogs, and they smell like poo all year long.

Another Day Living the Dream

So much has happened this week/weekend since I posted last! I don't know if I should blog about Kingston going 'green', finding out bears climb trees...and then seeing one in a tree, stepping on moose poo, or the fact that there is NO SNOW on the ground.

Basically we had a lot going on, trying to deal with our 'teenager' (Kingston) who now went from loving toys/ropes/stuffie to tearing them all up and not playing with them anymore. Now he is only interested in 'Eco-friendly', this includes rocks,pebbles,or bones. He is also helping the grass grow outside by pooping everywhere, and gets mad when he finds you picking it up later on.

Kingston is not the only animal in our lives now a days. This week I took him with me on some trails here on base that run along the side of the river. It was mid 50's and it felt so good to get out and not have to put on snow boots. I stepped on multiple piles of moose poo, and figured this was all I had to look out for.

Later on in the week I went to my friend Carrie's house and she had shown me some photos that people had taken of bear spotted on base. It wasn't the fact that there were big black bears spotted on base that startled me...but the fact that they were in trees! (Rule #45, don't climb trees to escape bears...looks like I am going to have to find a new escape plan). So later on I am driving with Josh in the car when I decided to look out my window, and what do I see...A BEAR IN A TREE! I really have Carrie to thank because I don't think I would have looked up if it wasn't for a few days earlier I found out that they can climb. (No bear photo SORRY)

I will upload some hiking photos later!