Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Winter Wonderland

Well, well, well. Thanksgiving is almost upon us!

In the past, I have always been adamant that Christmas is not to be celebrated until AFTER Thanksgiving. There is still a part of me that feels that way, but it's been "looking a lot like Christmas" (at least to me) for nearly two months now! Now that we have snow to top it all, and I can no longer resist the urge to listen to Christmas carols and enjoying the happy glow of Christmas lights.


Home, sweet home!
















27 weeks!






We've really been enjoying our "new" house. I suppose it makes us feel more like a "real" family to have a real house. We love curling up on our couch in the evenings to watch a movie or just talk. It's such a luxury to have the washer and dryer in the house and to have a mirror and a sink in the same place, not to mention that we finally have room to store all our groceries! We have space to dedicate to getting ready for baby now, as well as a guest bedroom! *hint hint*

Friday, November 8, 2013

October

Fall has always seemed like the shortest season of them all. In Alaska, it feels even shorter…or maybe it's longer. I haven't quite figured it out yet.




 Back in Georgia, I always knew when fall began by the turning of the leaves, and I defined the commencement of winter by the bare silhouettes of the treetops. Temperature had little to do with anything (much less the dates on the calendar!). But here, the leaves hardly had a chance to turn before they fell and we have since spent weeks in 40ish-degree weather; there is no way I can dub this an "Alaskan winter".


In other news (because I'm sure you're already wondering where I was with paved roads!), Jonathan and I took our monthly trip into Anchorage for grocery shopping/doctor's appointment and made a day-trip up to Fairbanks. It makes me chuckle at how much fun I think it is to sit in a car and drive on a paved road. 


We witnessed a spectacular sunrise!
We also drove through a spot in the mountains where bad weather likes to hang out. It certainly was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! :)


I was determined to see a bear on the way back and kept my eyes well-peeled. At one point I was sure I'd seen one and Jonathan turned the car around for me. When we found the spot again, we couldn't quite tell what we were looking at so I zoomed in with my camera and snapped a picture. Can you spot my "bear"?


Even after we saw the picture, we couldn't figure out what that lump was, until I zoomed it in even closer on my camera's playback. Do you see it now?


My "bear" was the barely visible head of a moose! I suppose I will have to brush up on my "identifying Alaskan wildlife at a glance" skills. ;)

Oh, and one more little piece of news.

It's a boy!


*BIG, HUGE SMILE*

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

One Summer and One Mountain - Conquered!

We did it! We survived the Alaskan summer!

Haha, big deal, right? The temperature never rose above 80 degrees, right? But no, it isn't the "heat" we feel so triumphant about leaving behind us, it is the "busy season". Life is taking on a more relaxed pace, one we are thoroughly enjoying.

Yesterday was my last day of "full/part-time work" (Don't bother trying to figure that one out.) From now on I will only be working one or two days a week. This is something we are both super-excited about. Jonathan is as ready for a less-stressed-out wife as I am to be one. Bring on the baking and scrubbing and relaxing cups of hot drinks, not to mention baby-planning!

A note here to say that, though I am excited to be scaling back on work, I am very grateful for the time I spent learning about the mysterious world and language of aviation. I don't think I ever crammed as much knowledge into my head over such a short time as I did this summer! Before last May, my world was completely devoid of anything to do with manifests, passenger lists, billing sheets, freight logs or Hobbs time. Now I can understand so much more of what Jonathan talks to me about! LOL.

So, Jonathan and I are enjoying a lot more time together now. We're living it up. We don't skip dinner just to fall into bed sooner and we're not too worn out to do fun things on the weekend....like conquer Tanalian Mountain!

Yup, I told you we'd do it someday and well....at least one of us has now! Jonathan went up with a few friends a few weeks ago and brought me back some amazing pictures which I will now share with you. :)












Conquered! :)

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Autumn Leisure :)

Fall is suddenly HERE! After living all my life in one of the states that usually see fall last, I am now living in the state that sees it first! It's a strange feeling watching everyone excitedly anticipating the changing of the season down in the lower 48 while I find myself suddenly surrounded by it, without warning.





Jonathan and I had most of a weekend off together last week. We spent Saturday doing little chores around the house that we'd been meaning to do for weeks. We hadn't had the time to properly organize our house since our grocery run; it felt really good to do that! We also had fun putting together our cheap, little Walmart bookshelf. 




Slowly, finally, we're making our little place look like a home instead of just a parking-spot. Only just in time to leave though, since, as of November 1st, we are moving into a house! Hooray!!! We are super-excited that we'll soon have space to get ready for our littlest Wright, coming in February.  :)

Back to our weekend, on Sunday we were able to go for a hike with a newly-engaged couple here in Port Alsworth. :) Adam and Amy are lots of fun and really adorable together. ;)



We didn't make it all the way up the mountain....the pregnant woman in the group was wheezing and moving at a snail's pace when it started getting steep. *wink* 

Jonathan and I stopped at a beautiful view and chilled together (literally) while Amy and Adam hiked a little further up. It was pretty wonderful.

 We watched the planes coming into land...below us.





We didn't make it to the top but we're still a long ways from home. You can barely see Port Alsworth there, across the bay.

Tanalian Mountain, we'll conquer you someday!


Thursday, September 12, 2013

An Alaskan "Vacation"

We read a list on Facebook titled "You know you're an Alaskan when... "While we haven't been in Alaska long enough to relate to all of them, we definitely agree with  number 2) "Vacation" means going to Anchorage for the weekend."

I never would have imagined calling a shopping/doctor's appointment trip a vacation, but that's how exciting eating out, riding in our own car, and grocery shopping are to us now. :P

We had a wonderful time in town, and it was really good for us to take a step back from work for a few days and enjoy being together, doing whatever we felt like (as long as it came from our to-do list).

We ended up flying into Anchorage at different times. I went in first and helped out in the office until Jonathan arrived a few hours later. It was kind of a scuzzy day weather-wise but I still got to see some amazing landmarks on the flight in.
The village of Nondalton. It's only a ten-minute flight from Port A. but I'd never seen it before. It looks pretty small and lonely out in the middle of nowhere!



Port Alsworth is somewhere THAT direction. :)



 Getting up above the clouds.


 Mount Iliamna (so I'm told). You can see the small plume of smoke coming out of the top. It's an old volcano.

Glaciers surrounding Mt. Iliamna

A glacier "river"


Mt. Redoubt, a more recently active volcano. Too bad it wasn't very good weather for pictures. :/


Our first order of business when Jonathan finally arrived was lunch! We made a bee-line for Wendy's, where I realized I was biting into my first burger and fries in over four months! They were gooooood.

We spent the rest of Saturday running various errands and talking each others' ears off. :) While I was scouring the racks of a few thrift stores for maternity clothes (which I didn't find), Jonathan found a just-our-size chest freezer for an exceptional price! We bought it and the freezer shipped out almost immediately and was ready and waiting for us when we came home loaded with groceries. It is a huge blessing!

Sunday was the BIG day. We spent four hours in Costco and another hour or two in Walmart, but found a lot of good deals on things we needed, like warm socks!

We're learning how to shop more like Alaskans all the time, buying in bulk and choosing items that will stay fresh longer or are freezable. This time we made the switch from powdered milk (yuck) to boxed milk (hmm...). Shelf milk isn't completely new to me, I had it during my visits to Moscow but, while I'll take it over powdered milk, I still much prefer fresh milk.


Some of the things we miss in Port Alsworth are fresh fruit and vegetables. When we're shopping for a month or longer, we have to buy more frozen produce instead of fresh. We eat salads, fruit and some fresh veggies for a week or two after a trip into town, but after that anything left over has gone bad, so frozen is a much more practical, if not tastier, option for us.

By Sunday evening we had (almost) all of our shopping done and were ready to celebrate with our friends, Steve and Heather (and Kayden!) Routh, at Olive Garden! Olive Garden has been my favorite restaurant for years; I'm sure I could eat their salad dressing with a spoon. It was amazing.

Monday morning we found our last few grocery items and still had time to kill before my appointment so we had a date at Barnes and Noble - just like we did when we were dating! :)

Finally, the time came for my appointment! The doctor says everything looks great, my surgery is completely behind me pregnancy-wise, and we got to "see" our baby wiggling around for a few minutes! *happiness*

Coming back home was a lot more fun (minus the extra-bumpy flight) this time than the last. For one, I'm not recovering from surgery (score!) and for two, we have a house and freezer packed with yummy food!





Life is good.


Thursday, September 5, 2013

(No Title)

I spend lots of time marveling at (read: attempting to process) all that has happened in the past year and especially in the last few months. Our lives are so very different that it often feels like we're living in a foreign country already! Looking at past pictures from home sometimes makes me feel like I'm staring at different people in a different world. I won't lie. It's difficult. But I am clinging to the hope and certain knowledge that this is exactly where God wants us, that He is with us in every moment, and that...
 "There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind (C.S.Lewis)".

In other news, it's been a while since I posted any pictures, mostly because I've been working too much to get out and take any. :) But the other night Jonathan got off early enough for us to take a walk after dinner and look what we spotted! (Unfortunately I hadn't brought my telephoto lens.)


Someone was asking for more pictures of "around town". This request stumped me a little bit. Besides the mountains and the lake, there's not much to be seen except airplanes, hangars and houses. :) Here's my attempt:

This is the (W)rec building. ;) They're in the process of giving it a winter coat of insulation and turning the storage rooms into a new apartment. This means lots of banging in our building. :)

Among the other improvements to the building, our porch was torn down and a new, insulated entryway was added. I briefly considered sticking a couch in it and calling it a living room, but decided it would be too cold. (jk) Still a very exciting addition!



The Farmhouse has a garden to be envied.
 
 Look at those beautiful rows!


Here is the field Jonathan plays Ultimate Frisbee on. Not a bad view, is it?

 And finally! This is where I spend 2 mornings and three afternoons a week. A lot of action happens in that tiny corner!!

My view.  :)