Alaskan Thanksgiving and our new family member!

THIS IS OUR PUPPYYYYYYYYY!!!! We have been patiently waiting for the right conditions to get a puppy. We now have a large, fenced-in yard and are settled in our jobs, which means a lot more time at home. We have also debated which breed is the best for us and decided on a Golden Retriever! We talked to a couple breeders here in Alaska--where purebred pups are either $1000 or close to it, plus we had our doubts with the breeders. SOOOOOO, we found a breeder in Iowa with puppies that will be exactly 8 weeks when we are home for Christmas! Jeanette and Kevin went to check them out for us and it all feels right. Now we are deciding on a name and getting travel plans arranged for bringing back a pup! Our lil guy has already met "grandma and grandpa!"... thanks again Jeanette and Kevin.

For Thanksgiving last year, our friends had us over for the whole turkey meal deal--- since neither of us have family up here it worked out really well and we had a great time. We decided to do it again this year, at our house. Adam was in charge of the turkey- he did a great job. I forgot to take a picture of it all, but it was your traditional turkey meal! We had a beautiful snow that morning and took full advantage by going sledding and skiing!The boys trying to sled--- unfortunately, the snow was too sticky for our blow up sleds. (they work really well on powdery snow!.... riiiiiiiight Jacobs and Harris family!??!?!!) We are saving them for another time.

We did hit up a ski trail, which turned into a big snowball fight! :)

This is random...... Angel is a great helper--she was helping me with the last blog. This is our chair, she sits with me whenever I am working on school stuff or on the computer! :)

This is the ice rink in our culdesac.... we had a huge, nasty ice storm. School was out for 2 days!


Speaking of horrible driving conditions, this is the video I forgot to post awhile ago. It's from our Denali trip with Grandma and Jeanette. This the the narrow/scary road we drove along the sides of mountains. You can see some tire tracks in the video which show how close some vehicles get to the edge! eeessh!

Adam had to work on Friday, so I went snowboarding with Shawn (.... he's a teacher too (same school)) and a couple other friends. The ski resort had 11 inches of fresh powder and it was blue sky all day! Absolutely gorgeous. Towards the end of the day, the ice was starting to sneak through and it got kinda rough, but it was still a blast! The picture I took of the mountain/valley is on Adam's camera, I'll have to upload it later.

Adam and Shawn went hunting today.... only cows...again. But they still had fun. Adam accidently hit the back window of the truck with his treckin stick and SHATTERED the window! I thought he was teasing, but he definitely pulled up with a shattered back window! ...kinda funny. Especially since I had just talked to our insurance company about replacing the front window. HA! ... the thing is, in Alaska, they do not put down sand or salt--- but gravel. So you can imagine, little pieces of gravel constantly fly up and hit the windshield-- it is extremely common to see chipped/cracked windshields up here. SO... I have my first Alaska-cracked windshield, I believe we will wait until the end of winter to get it fixed(the front windshield that is). And FYI... we had 4-5 chips on each vehicle mended last spring from last winter's gravel. Insurance companies will come out for free and use their special stuff to prevent chips from cracking and therefore prevent having to replace an entire windshield.

We are putting up Christmas decorations and lights, we are even more excited this year since we have our house! :)

My family had Thanksgiving today, so we got to skype with everyone after the meal. Kane was talking like crazy and the girls were sillier than ever! It made Adam and I that much more homesick, but we had a great time and it was hard to say goodbye.

Please continue to keep the Robertson family and my brother Adam in your thoughts and prayers. The Robertsons celebrated Sue's life today with family and friends. Adam is feeling better, but is still having tests taken to figure out what is going on.

Take care and know that Adam and I are thankful for each and every one of you! :)