Horses, Birthdays, Bob Dylan and Emery

Here are a few more photos from the day we saw the horses, since I have no new pictures to post.

I walked to work and back one sunny day last week, but forgot to take my camera. It was beautiful on the way to the office and pretty chilly on the way home but I was happy to be out in the fresh air bopping along to my ipod. I figured it might also help me get past this weight loss plateau I have hit. I enjoyed it so much that I planned to do it again the next day with camera in hand but, alas, it was rainy and cold and I was wimpy. I have adapted pretty well to Alaska (compare photos of me in a big ole heavy jacket the first year to photos of me in a hoodie nowadays--same temp!) but I am still not crazy about walking very far in the cold and rain. Definitely not the Alaska gal that some of my friends are. I admire them but don't really want to change my ways.

I had a happy birthday today, though it is hard for me to believe that I am actually 57 years old. Where did the time go?! I know some don't put much stock in birthdays but I always like making a big deal out of them. It doesn't have to be fancy but I guess I like a little bit of attention on my day. haha Rich started out the morning with a sweet card, I loved having phone calls from my girls, Aidan, my mom and Rich's sister, emails from friends, and lots of Facebook posts sending wishes. My friend Donna took me to lunch and I cheated on my diet without too much remorse. *But please note, no cake or ice cream. I am waiting till vacation and then I will indulge a little.* I ordered a new bathing suit and I haven't tried it on yet--if it doesn't fit, I am gonna be annoyed. As mentioned previously, we have tickets to see U2 in Philly and we are considering that and our vacation our birthday presents (Rich is next, on the 21st).

Working at a radio/TV station has its perks, too. I was given my own little radio bday shout-out and Daniel played many of my favorite tunes. Nothing like small island life to make you feel really special! Our evening fun was a trip to the grocery store to do our Senior Discount Monday shopping. :)

I spent part of the weekend downloading a bunch of Bob Dylan tunes. And when I say part of the weekend, I am not kidding. Our internet is so slow that it literally takes many hours to download several songs. We were reading Rolling Stone's latest edition (or the most recent one available out here, which is probably not really the latest), listing Dylan's top 70 songs on the occasion of his 70th birthday (speaking of birthdays!) For some reason, we did not have many in our itunes library and I had completely forgotten how much I loved some of them. We've had a Bobfest at the house ever since. I rediscovered my once favorite album, Desire, and songs like One More Cup of Coffee, Isis, Sara, and Mozambique. How could I have forgotten those? It seems like a lifetime ago that I was driving around Waco, Texas with the 8-track blaring!

And here's a link to an article about the Relay for Life in Amarillo. Emery is featured. :) Have a good week, everyone.

It Must be Spring--the Pass is Finally Open!

First off, I lied about my hubby having to work all weekend so you can ignore some of my previous whining. He went in for a couple of hours this morning and was able to take the rest of the day off. In fact, I was still half asleep when he said, "I'll be back before you're up." Yeah, right, I thought. He always gets there and ends up staying way longer than he anticipated. But I woke up a little later to the smell of coffee brewing and dragged myself out of the bed.

Oh, and he'd already finished planting most of the rest of our flowers (which I did start the other day) before I got up.

We haven't had too many days off together lately so decided to take a drive over the pass, which we'd heard had just been cleared by the roads crew. We did end up buying the little Toyota truck I mentioned awhile back so we wanted to take it up in the hills. But first, a stop off to see if we could find the wild horses, and sure enough, there they were, right on the beach.


This guy was really friendly and liked to be petted. Unfortunately, we did not plan ahead and bring any apples or carrots but they were all very busy with the grass and plants anyway.





We saw 7 horses today. I know a couple have died in the last few years and I think some are off in another group but this little herd seems to stick together.


It was pretty chilly but we took a bunch of photos (way more than these but I don't want to bore you to death) and a couple of short videos that I will see if I can post later.

Then we took off to drive up and over the pass and back into town. It's still snowy up top.

It's a beautiful sight anywhere you look. We were happy to see some little green spots popping out. I can't wait till the tundra is emerald colored and the wildflowers are everywhere!

Aidan's Excellent Aleutian Adventure

We drove out to Summer Bay and around toward Morris Cove but realized we had no gas so turned back!   We saw some sea otters and lots of birds.

After getting some gas, we drove up Ballyhoo and checked out all of the WWII remains.  Aidan was pretty fascinated with the "fallen down buildings."   

Wow, we are up in the clouds!

Looking out of one of the bunkers.

You can see a lot from way up here!

Aidan's been helping with chores, shucking some corn for dinner and vacuuming the living room.   
We have a great Aquatics Center with a HUGE slide!

We enjoyed our time in the pool.

Yesterday, we headed back to Morris Cove and found the wild horses.  Aidan saw them when he was about 4 years old but he was a little frightened then  and  didn't want to get too close.

This time he had lots of fun feeding them carrots.

We also tried to drive around the pass but encountered some snow that we were a little leery of trying to get around.  We decided not to take any chances but hoping it will be gone before long.

Our days have been very full and we are having so much fun!   I have to say that I am not having any trouble sleeping at night.   :)