Christmas in September

Here is an advent calendar we made on Super Saturday. It's all made of paper and is glued to a brown paper grocery sack. Inside are little red tags with christmas activities glued to them. But you could use any paper and any theme and tuck just about anything inside the little pockets. They would be so cute for Halloween countdown, birthdays, or Valentines Day.

It's Official! It's Fall!

I took this picture this morning after looking out my window to check the weather. It's quite beautiful here in Eagle River this fall. And I think we've been blessed with an extra month of nice weather. Actually, I understand it's quite nice in most parts of AK right now. However, our mountain is more welcoming of the winter than we are.

Our back yard, covered with leaves, again. Dick has raked twice already. Kenai lake in Cooper Landing. I went there last week for two days to quilt with some friends. She has a beautiful place on the lake. I want to live there. This is her front yard beach. A perfect kayaking spot. Or bonfire spot. Or kissing spot. Whatever.

Believe it or not, this tiny little space, about the size of my bedroom, has some wonderful fabric finds. Right in Cooper Landing. Who knew? The six of us sure made her day! And we met some of the locals, come to find out, you have to be a certified card carrying tree hugger to live there. I'm okay with that. Where do I sign up?

I will be visiting the area again soon, I hope. It was a great way to celebrate fall. The drive back home to Anchorage was breathtaking. Now if I can just get out on my neighborhood trails and get some of these ripe red currants that are just begging to be picked, my fall with be complete. One more bike ride would be great too! And maybe a hike? Am I asking too much?

The Last of the Pretty Flowers

We were at the temple last week with a couple from our ward. The flowers were so pretty we couldn't resist a photo.Gabby under the porch last week.

I cannot remember the name of these plants, but they are dahlia's and they grew so good this summer. We have to dig them up because they are tubers and keep them in the crawl space until next year. We shall see how that goes.

These are the largest blooms I've ever seen.

All the leaves are changing colors so we need to get some photos before it gets too windy and wet. Stay tuned!

The 2009 Alaska State Fair

If you weren't there, you missed out. This years winning cabbage broke the world record. It weighed in excess of 125 pounds. That's a lot of cole slaw! It was also actually very pretty. A new event this year was the snake tent. I kept thinking about David and Ethan. These snakes were huge, venemous, and amazing. There was also a show, but it was crowded and we couldn't see anything.

Grandma with the prize cabbage and the prize pumpkin, I think the pumpkin weighed about 82 pounds. The rutabegga was also a record breaker put the thing was so ugly I didn't take a picture. It's just to the left of the cabbage.

The pumpkin.

This pig was amazing, she's 17 months old, weighs 950 lbs. and is pregnant (overdue) with 8-12 little ones. She didn't want to move around much and it was so crowded that I couldn't get a decent picture. But she was a hoss!

It was a gorgeous day, and we ate more than we should've, but I'd saved my points all day for this this and it was worth it.