Update from Alaska

I'm not sure if anybody still looks at the blog, but I'll continue to post anyway. The annual "Fur Rendezvous" started in Anchorage this weekend and I have uploaded a couple pictures of some of the events. These are of the Reindeer races (skijourning), "running of the reindeer" and the World Championship Sled Dog race day 2. It's loads of fun.

An update on Ian: his platoon has been ahead of schedule building the school in the Philippines. They are pretty much done, but he still stays until the 9th. He is now officially Captain Stroud and his promotion ceremony will be in the Philippines on the 3rd.

Trip to Homer, AK

Ian and I went to Homer this weekend and here are some photos from the trip. He leaves for the Philippines tomorrow and returns on March 9.

The Eagles of Eagle River

I thought y'all might like to see what we get to enjoy driving home in the winter. Just for some news: Ian leaves for the Philippines in about a week. His platoon is building a school and will be gone for a little over a month. He spends much of March at home in Alaska, but will then be off to Iraq in April. Thankfully, he's not doing a full deployment and should only be gone 4-7 months. I will give more information as I have it.
MV

Better Aurora picture

I managed to get this picture last night around midnight. Just thought I would share.

A Christmas picture

Just wanted to show our latest Christmas portrait and to say many thanks for all the cards and gifts we received! I was afraid that we would feel a little lonely for our first Christmas away from family, but we had a great Christmas and felt very loved! We wish everyone a Happy New Year!!!

Northern Lights

I wanted to do another quick addition to put up my first picture of the northern lights. Sorry things are so out of focus. It was 3am, -1 degree F, pitch black (moon had set), and I couldn't really tell if things were in focus or not when I took the picture. This was a very minimal display, but I was happy to get the picture.

Christmas is coming to Alaska

We went out to the woods of Ft. Richardson yesterday to find and cut down our Christmas tree and we thought we would share some pictures of what we found. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Trip home

I wanted to share some pictures from my trip home in October. Sam, Colin, Meg, and I all came home for our cousin Marcie Plummer's wedding. I loved being home. We visited Devil's lake and it was just beautiful. We spent Sunday over at grandpa and grandma's and played some boche ball. As you can see it was fairly warm for October.

Then I was happy to see Colin and Meg again in NYC a few weekends back. We all met up with Kate, Nick, and Knowl for some dinner. I was so much fun and I wish we could do it more often.

I am working hard on my internal medicine rotation now and am looking forward to my Christmas vacation!

Happenings of September/October

Hi everybody. Although I am sure everyone knows that Rob and Mary came to visit, I thought I would put up a couple of pictures from their trip in September. One is of Halibut Cove Lagoon, where we spent a few nights in a cabin in Kachemak Bay State Park and the other is of the two of them with the Matanuska Glacier behind them. After they left my foster sister Deborah (matron of honor at my wedding) came to visit and we went on a cruise in Seward where we saw loads of orcas and then flew to Fairbanks. We took the Alaska Railroad back. Right after Deborah left, I flew to Alabama to be matron of honor in my best friend's wedding. Meanwhile Ian is hoping to get a job in Fairbanks working for a 1 star general. He'll be flying up on Tuesday to meet the people. We're both doing well. Hope all is well with everyone else!

Denali National Park

Ian and I just went to Denali National Park this past weekend and we couldn't have timed it better. The fall colors were at their peak. We are going to have to go back next year because one day in the park is just not enough. We took the shuttle bus 86 miles into the park to Wonder Lake. We saw eight grizzly bears, four of which were very close to the bus. We saw a gyrfalcon, a red fox, several snowshoe hares, two golden eagles, five moose, and countless dall sheep. Ian captured some footage of the closest bears so as soon as he gets that edited I'll put it up. It was simply a stunning weekend.

By the way, if anyone wants to see more Denali pictures go to:
www.flickr.com/photos/missmerv