G & T Do the Alaska State Fair

Saturday Tyler and I went to the Alaska State Fair. Although you have the usual food stands and rides, there were some interesting things at this fair. The first being this gang of creepy cabbage fairies ... who knew?! Then there were lots of store fronts selling various things, although this isn't too strange it was just a little different. We toured the super size vegetables, the petting zoo, fairgrounds, and then watched a lumberjack show with our friends. Fortunately the weather turned out to be beautiful! Warm, 66, and sunny! :)

The cabbage gang.

A 323 lb. pumpkin and an overgrown cabbage in the background...

The white thing is a puffer mushroom ... yikes... with a watermelon!

Mrs. Van Zandt is Back in the Classroom!

Today, I accepted a 4th grade teaching position and I could not be more excited. I am teaching at a school on post -- four minutes down the road -- and I have a wonderful teaching partner. Currently I have 35 students, but the principal is in the process of hiring another 4th grade teacher to make my numbers go down. I can't wait to meet my class on Monday! :)

My new school:

Our House

The past few weeks have been absolutely beautiful here in Alaska. Last Friday I spent a few hours weeding and watering the yard for what quite possibly will be the last time this summer. :( In case you don't know this about me, Ginna, I LOVE to weed; I know, who likes to weed?! Fortunately, the house that we moved into was well landscaped and well kept by the previous tenants, which has made it quite fun for me to continue with. Next spring/summer I believe I am going to plant a few more things and enjoy experimenting with what I hope will be a green thumb.

The front of our house!

Bella laid on the porch in the sun while I pulled weeds. This picture is staged because I didn't have my camera while weeding, but you get the idea!

I LOVE that we finally have a flagpole!!! (Thanks, Doc for helping us hang it!) Give us another week or two and the Wake flag will be flying high for football season! :)

Our back porch. We just got patio furniture and an orange umbrella! Pretty soon we'll have to put the table and umbrella away for the winter, but we are going to get a firepit. I cannot wait to make pillows for the chairs and then our outdoor furniture will be complete.

One view from our front porch. You can see that one of the pictured neighbors is moving out, the Denali truck. We actually have four families that moved out Friday/are moving out this week so we'll get new neighbors soon! :)

Moose ... again.

Sorry to bore you with more moose pictures, but I just loaded pictures off of Tyler's camera and found more pictures of our backyard moose. These pictures are a bit more up close which show his size and how close he was to our house.

Another Moose!

I was walking with a friend and Bella this afternoon and a moose just walked out, crossed the street (stopped traffic I might add), and strolled into a park. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, but these creatures really don't care if you're around or not or if there is oncoming traffic. It was really cool.

It's a moose! :)

I guess we're true Alaskans now because we have had a moose in our backyard. We were sitting down for dinner and Tyler started pointing, yelling, and running for the camera; yes, although we're "Alaskans" we still have tourist behaviors sometimes, too. This moose appeared in our backyard, walked directly beside our house, across the street, and into our neighbor's yard for dinner.

Across the street, finding a meal.

Munching on the plants that this family planted the weekend before ... pretty unfortunate.

Always checking things out.

Moving on.

See ya.

On to Wasilla and Palmer!

On Monday of the Van Zandt's trip we went to Wasilla and Palmer, to us locals "The Valley," and had a fabulous time exploring those two small towns. It was very sunny and pretty warm on this day which was really great. We stopped by Lake Wasil and there were TONS of children swimming and lots of people lying out. It was a bit comical how joyous the occasion and yet the water was still quite chilly for us from NC!

We stopped by Sarah's (Palin, that is) old stompin' ground. Dede was in heaven!

I thought this pup's eyes were beautiful! He is a sled dog that has run in the Iditarod. When we stopped by the Iditarod Headquarters we actually met the son of the man who started the "Last Great Race."

In Palmer we stopped by a reindeer farm. I was really amazed at how the antlers on all the reindeer were so different ... almost like their fingerprint; I shouldn't be surprised, but I was because the racks were all so different! We touched the antlers of an elk (not pictured here) and they were velvety, very unexpected.

These are reindeer hooves ... click, click, click!! They were just so strange and unique to me. The reindeer do actually click when they walk because of a tendon in the back of their leg.

Tooling Around Town

During the Van Zandt's visit we spent the weekend around Fort Richardson. Friday night we went to our favorite restaurant, Glacier Brewhouse, downtown. Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market and an Irish festival downtown and then had friends over for dinner that night. Sunday we went to church, Piccolinio's (another favorite restaurant), then blueberry picking!! We had Pizza night, I know the KVZ clan can appreciate that, and then our weekend was over. Although we still had two days to play, unfortunately Tyler's vacation officially ended and it was back to work for him.

Trying on silly hats. Dede searched high and low for these bear hats and we finally found them! :)

Climbing up skyline to go berry picking!

Hannah showing off the berries; what a beautiful day!

Cruise Continued...

These pictures round out our trip to Seward. There are more pictures of the wildlife, but Tyler's camera is dead and that is where the pictures are; stay tuned.

Our favorite flags.

Tyler and I ... how sweet.

Sophie bundled up on the cruise ... yes it was cold enough for layers, hats, layers, gloves, layers, long pants, socks, and boats.

The glacier. Imagine a carolina blue rock ... I know, ugh carolina, just go with me ... except the blue is even bluer as if it is crystallized, like a clear blue. We sat in the little cove and the captain turned the boat off so we could hear the glacier creak and crack. It was startling how cold it was around the glacier, how blue it was, and the sounds that this thing made. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience! :)

On the way back to Seward this humback whale put on quite the show for us. Tyler has some great pictures, but as stated before they are currently locked in a dead camera. When they are retrieved they will be here ASAP.

We're Back in Action!! :)

Hi friends! So sorry for the delayed updates, but I have been trying to get my computer to stay connected to the internet for longer than 3 minutes at a time. Last night I finally fixed it ... I hope I didn't just jinx it ... and now we are officially back in action. As you can imagine we have lots of pictures to share so the updates might flow rather rapidly over the next few days; be sure to review all the pictures because we've done quite a few fun things! :)

These pictures our from our glacier cruise in Seward. The day after picking up the Van Zandts we traveled to Seward where we went on a glacier cruise. On the cruise we saw sea otters, puffins, killer whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and sea lions. Although it was quite dreary on the cruise, the conditions were optimal for seeing wildlife. I do not have room to post wildlife pictures on this post, but I will do that next.

The port of Seward, AK. This was the only day that we could see the mountain tops across the port and by the time we got back from our cruise the fog completely covered the mountain tops.

Kids don't float -- who knew?! These signs with attached red life jackets (modeled by Sophie) were everywhere along the water.
Part of the Van Zandt clan in front of the harbor.
Doc and Mama Dede in front of the glacier.
Hannah and I tried on lots of hats over the week.

Catching Our Breath!

We're still here, but boy have we been busy. After our short trip to Chicago the Van Zandt family arrived and we have been playing around Alaska for the last week. I have lots of pictures to share, but have yet to upload them to my computer .... I promise to do that tonight or tomorrow!! Although we have enjoyed our summer trips and visitors, it will be nice to have a sense of routine again instead of the touch-and-go we've had for the past few weeks. We loved having visitors and might have another this weekend ... unsure as of now ... but y'all are welcome anytime!!