July 2017 (the non-gardening post)

On a drive home from Anchorage, we saw this double rainbow...

...and this sneak peak of Mt. Drum.

The biggest thing that happened in July was that Flat Stanley came to visit us to learn about Alaska!

our backyard

Mt. Drum & fireweed

Mt. Drum

The Copper River with the Wrangell Mountains in the background

 We live very near the largest National Park, so we went to the visitor center...

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Flat Stanley learned all about fishwheels.

He liked this cache that was near the fishwheel too.

Inside the Visitor's Center is this relief map of the park.  Stan is pointing out Glennallen, our nearerst town.
As you can see, we are very close to the mountains!

He also learned about our volcanoes!

Mt. Drum, as taken from Wrangell St. Elias National Park

We were going to go on a nature walk, but I was wearing the wrong shoes...

Plus, Flat Stanley was hungry!  At least there was a sign warning not to eat the berries!

This sign was from 2016,, but we felt it would just be safer to head out.
Thank you Wrangell St. Elias National Park!

Next stop was the Klutina River.  A much better color than the Copper River.

Later in the month we stopped at the Matanuska Glacier.

Again, Stan learned a little something there...

This is the view in the opposite direction from the glacier.  Do you see the rainbow?

There was a day when Flat Stanley stayed home and Jeff & I went to Valdez...

It was the day we photographed the Little Kitty Quilt, the Farm Fun Barn Quilt, and the Big Bear + Little Bear Quilt.

Worthington Glacier

Worthington Glacier

Horsetail Falls

a view from the Valdez Civic Center

January 2017

So, um, I was trying to decide if I was going to continue blogging, and I thought, maybe if I just commit to one post a month, then if I want to look back on what I did when, it'll all be right here.  Not sure if anyone follows or checks in, so I'm just worried about doing this for me at this point.  Most pics go on Instagram at this time anyway.  Feel free to follow me there if you want to see more pictures of Alaska, quilting, gardening, and general everyday life...

Kiaj sent this new Packer sweatshirt for Christmas - I love it!  I'm sure this sweatshirt is why the Pack went as far as they did in the playoffs...

January 1 view looking out one of the bedroom windows...  What a beautiful day!

Mandatory Mt. Drum shot:

1-6-2017
10:32AM

 It's always cold out when I go for my winter dental appointment...

1-10-2017

Jeff said "The Death Star is over Mt. Drum" one day...

1-7-2017
3:03PM
Photo credits:  Jeff

The biggest excitement of the month was the Copper Basin 300.  This year the start was at the traditional location - downtown Glennallen - which means the teams raced right in front of the phone company.  I'm definitely going to enter a picture into the contest for the front page of the phone book!

I love when the doggies all have matching booties!

Jeff's favorite mushers are the twins from Seeing Double Dogsled Racing...
One one of the twins raced this year.

September 2016

For #FallbackFriday, I thought I would share a little bit about our September...

Road trip to Anchorage with Mt. Drum behind us.

Fall colors arrive in September to our neck of the woods.
Once we crossed the mountains over towards Palmer, everything was still green.

Mom & Dad sent us this early Anniversary present that they made!  I love it - it's made of maps of where we've lived!

I had a Daiquiri Ice for the first time in decades.
Downside - I didn't like it...

 

We went to the Lantern Fest in Palmer.  Worst decision in a while.

So, the Lantern Fest.  If you live somewhere that is in the 50s at the time of year when the sun is setting around 9PM, maybe not a good idea.  Turns out the Lantern Fest was expensive, unorganized, cold, rainy, windy, and ended up getting shut down due to fire hazard.  I wish I hadn't spent the money.  I should have said "Oh, honey, the night of the Lantern Fest I want to go to eat that the restaurant near the event!" and we could have seen how lame it was without spending the money.  Sad.

Alaska now has a Krispy Kreme!  Woo hoo!

I got started sewing on a gift, and I'm still not finished!!!

Best Nine

I've seen a lot of #2016BestNine on Instagram lately.  And I decided I had to jump on the bandwagon.

What's funny is that if I run it again (using https://2016bestnine.com/), this #2016BestNine compilation will be on it...

And while I was at it, I decided to make my 2015 Best Nine:

Have you found your 2016 Best Nine?

March 2016

My poor phone.  I dropped it a couple of times yesterday, and it's very much in need of doctoring.  I'll take it to the phone company on Monday (I have insurance on it), and in the meantime, I've FINALLY downloaded all those pics that I've been meaning to.  Going all the way back to March...

Margaritas in Anchorage

Iditarod Ceremonial Start - Anchorage

Matanuska Glacier

Mt. Drum

Mt Drum

we finally got a deep snowfall that Jeff "had" to move...

3-21-2016 7:31 AM - looking East from our house - see the top of Mt. Drum

Jeff started researching how to set up the camera to photograph the Northern Lights

pay no attention to how blurry the photos are...

I finished a quilt!