Ruining dinner

I've got to say that living in Alaska definitely has it's perks. One being that on any given day we can see bald eagles. Or moose. Or bears. (Bears I could do without, unless they are behind a fence)

The fam and I went down to Seward to the aquarium and saw this rotund mammal:

(long video)

It was huge. I don't know if the video gives it justice...but my gosh:) It was pretty neat seeing it do all it's tricks. Granted it had to, to get fed :)

On the way back we saw this:

This eagle was just standing on the side of the road! In the wild! We pulled over like the apocalypse was happening and it was totally acceptable...why?, because we live in Alaska! We were all trying to figure out why it was just standing there.

And this is what it was trying to fly off with:

yummmmmmmy

I'll remember next time

So... another neat thing about living in "the last frontier"...eagles. And I spotted my very first one since being here. Actually I didn't spot it. Some other kids pinpointed the built-in telescope and binoculars to the bald eagle sitting in a tree. Boy was that bird sitting far...far...far away!

And the doofus I am forgot the zoom lense! Who does that? Oh well. Better luck next time. For now I've got this tiny speck, that you need a magnifying glass to see, as proof it was there.

This was down at Potter's Marsh. It was quicker to get to than it seemed the first time I drove by. It's a nice little boardwalk that is double stroller friendly. woo-hoo! The kids enjoyed themselves and sassy pants got to run ahead of us and scope out things. Of course we might have had better luck seeing wildlife if he wasn't wearing his cowboy boots and stomping like a herd of water buffalo! But who am I to want to see wildlife closer than a mile away! Unless you count fish.

Fact: salmon are silver when in the ocean and turn colors 

when they come up river to spawn

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It was a gorgeous afternoon none the less. Feel free to right click away on the panorama if you would like.

Take a ride with me

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Lions and Tigers and BEARS oh my!!!!

 Alaska is known for it's bears. Dying by one was not a preferred way of death for me. See this post. So since I have realized the danger of this state that I live in...it's kind of amazing that I dared take my exercise outside...on trails. I think the fact that we are almost smack dab in the middle of the city, has given me a false sense of security when it comes to any danger. Of the animal kind that is. So imagine my surprise(and almost failed bowel control) when my friend and I were walking next to a baseball field and she says "there's a bear over there".

WHAT?!?!

Yes, there was indeed a black bear no more than 200 yards away!!!! HOLY MOLY!!!! I'm just glad that there was a big dumpster full of trash, that wouldn't put up a fight, between us and her! I don't believe I have ever looked behind my shoulder so much in my life. 

Needless to say that we bought a can of bear spray that night in preparation for the next mornings run. 

You can check it out here.

finding a niche?

Another week down here in the ginormous state of Alaska:) Our weekends seem to be filled with the most excitement...respectably. Although I did take on the biggest loser workout dvd after naps on Friday. I did really well not getting frustrated at my 5 year old's attempts to workout right under my feet:) Instead I was able to see the big picture of him and his sister finding it awesome to jump around and punch the air. I thought to myself "self, this is the example you need to be setting for your kids. The 'fun' it can be to get off your butt and move around". Seeing little Miss C try to do jumping jacks was adorable, and seeing B be just about as coordinated as I am was awesome:) I'm not sure how much of an athletic career that boy has...lol.

Saturday has turned into laundry day around here. So we threw that in the wash, and waited the half hour to throw it in the dryer. Money is tight, as you're aware, so to pinch a penny Matt divided the loads in two to wash it...same as last week. It was a tight two loads as we had more towels and some of his work clothes to be cleaned. And to dry...he put it all in the same load, and fearing it wouldn't dry forcing us to spend more, he put it on high heat. Well, we went and did our errands and when we got home he went to check and asked me "what is your prediction if they are dry or not"? I said "i'm going to say 70%". He came back and said they weren't really even close so he ran it again...on high heat. Well, laundry finished and this is what we had...

A new sweater vest for B!! hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!I told him today I feel like we are back in our newly-wed days, seeing as we are completely alone, and broke. Only difference is the three kids:) lol...isn't life funnay!

A couple other cool things that happened while we were out and about...we saw a moose! In the middle of Anchorage. Well...right next to the on ramp to New Seward highway. It was crazy! I'm really excited at the amount of wildlife we have seen in such a short time. Way neat in my book:) And, you ready?...there is a Kid to kid here!!!!! Yahoo!!! So now I can bring all of baby C's clothes, that he is fast-ly growing out of, there and get different clothes...for cheaper. The weekends keep making this place better:)

AND...we stay in the house all week. Literally. Matt takes the car to work and up until now, and even still, I haven't been wanting to venture on my own. So the poor kids entertain themselves with the toys we brought and with the free tv we found. So B finally asked to go outside. And Matt, being the sweet guy he is, obliged. B wanted to know what he could use for a sled...I said a plastic bag. Good idea, not so good execution. So his Dada, being the brains that he is:), came in and grabbed our laundry basket! Score!

Needless to say it has been a good weekend. I plan on making it a family event next weekend to go sledding. We shall see how well Miss C likes it:) Any bets on what she'll do? lol. I signed up to have the Missionaries for dinner...a thing that hasn't been done since...ever for us. I'm looking forward to the Spirit they are going to bring. Women's conference is this month. I'm going to try and go to that at our Stake also. -whew-...long winded today:) Till then,
Meg

p.s you can see our house pics HERE