Hiking, Horseback riding, and Home

Well, the moose nuggets are finally starting to feel settled here in Anchorage. It is somewhat hard to feel settled with winter coming soon - and with no clue how to live with the snow! The more I see studded tires, snow boots, and snow blowers, the more nervous I become. Just pray that Mike doesn't deploy during this first winter. David and I might never figure out how to leave the house!

Although this is the rainy season in Anchorage, we did have a beautiful, clear night last Friday. We decided to take advantage of the weather and hike a 'mountain' that is only a 10 minute drive from our house. Along this hike, Mike and I got separated (he took the steep, short path, I chose the longer, more flat path), so we didn't get many pictures, as it took us about 45 worried minutes to reconnect! We saw this family of Mom and twins on the way to the trailhead:


This was the view from the halfway point. This is the view overlooking Anchorage and the Cook Inlet at sunset.


It was an amazingly beautiful hike, and we feel so fortunate to have these opportunities right out our back door!

Speaking of our back door, here is a picture of our house!


As you might be able to tell, we have almost NO landscaping in our yard. Trees are very slow to grow here, so most people have shrubs and hanging baskets - we don't even have that yet. But, we do have this one, tiny, pitiful, little tree.


Those of you who have lived near us or visited us know that we do not enjoy raking our leaves. In fact, we usually just let them blow into our neighbor's yard for their raking pleasure. So, this might work out well for us, even if not aesthetically pleasing! Also, if we did have trees, we might not have this amazing view from our back yard:


The above picture was the view approximately two weeks ago, and this is the view today! I'm sure you'll notice the colors in the trees and the SNOW! This week the snow has been moving further and further down the mountains. It's beautiful really, David said yesterday that it looked like a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.


Last Saturday, David and I began horseback riding lessons. It's something we've wanted to do for a while, and we saw that the Air Base offered riding lessons at the stables. One more reason we love the Air Force: we get a two hour lesson for a GREAT price! Here is a picture of David and his assigned horse, Casper.


We spent lots of time learning to groom Casper and put on the saddle and bridle. We also practiced leading the horses, and at the end, David got to ride for a few minutes.


Casper is a great teaching horse, and our teacher, Ms Tammy is awesome with David! Speaking of DAVID, he is running for student council treasurer at Kasuun Elementary! He turned in a campaign poster on Wednesday, and today was his SPEECH. We are so excited that he wanted to participate in the elections. Here is his picture dressed for his speech.


Notice how dark it was at 8:20 this morning! Keep checking up on us - our animals are 'moving' to Anchorage this weekend via Continental. We are all so excited and can't believe it's finally happening. Our whole moose family will be under one roof! We can't wait to be together so we can make our own memories. Hehehe...