Doing a Little Catch Up.

As you know, I haven't been very diligent in keeping up-to-date with how we are doing. So, the next few posts are over the past month or so, but all posted today. First of all, we are ecstatic about the fact that we finally caught a break on airline ticket prices and we are coming home for Thanksgiving. It will be so nice to spend time with our families again. I am sure that Jaycie will remember you all as we have been away for only five months. I will have to pull out a family picture and help her memory before we come down for our visit.

My job is going well. I have been given some hefty projects and am happy to be getting busy. The first few months have been orienting myself with the various departments and staff members. I hope to be getting more duties soon (I don't want to stagnate). I guess I am still young and wanting to prove myself (maybe I should know better?).

Shannon is doing great as well. She has become good friends with some of our neighbors and had some chances to do some fun stuff with some other moms in the area (hiking, swimming, museum trips, etc.). We have also been able to have some interesting date nights. The hospital sponsors the symphony here in Anchorage, so we got free tickets to see the cultural symphony. It started as a traditional symphony, then incorporated some local cultural performers at the end. We saw native american dancers, hawaiian dancers, eskimo dancers, etc. all dance to their native music. It was pretty awesome. Tomorrow night we are going to a Boy Scouts of America silent and live auction dinner (usually a pretty posh event, also sponsored by the hospital). Maybe Sarah will be there?

I have still been doing some hiking/hunting, it is a little tougher now that the morning mountain temps are in the teens. I have mostly been looking for grouse and snowshoe hares. I haven't had a lot of success, but seen a lot of moose. I am still learning the areas, but can't wait until next year and hope to try my luck at moose and caribou hunting and maybe even a bear hunt. We will see.

For Halloween , we are planning on going to the ward trunk-or-treat event and going to just a few houses in our neighborhood (bundled up, of course).

Jaycie is growing like a weed. She has now four upper teeth and two lower. One really noticable change is her hair is growing quickly. It is at the stage where we don't know what to do with it. She is now walking like a pro and exploring new ways to play with her toys. Her new thing is to take all her soft toys (stuffed animals, dolls, etc.) and put them in a pile then, one or two at a time, move them to another area of the house and put them in another pile. She will even lay on the pile sometimes. Here are some pics...

Here Comes Winter (Earlier than My Body is Used to)

We started getting some freezing temps the first week of October and snow by the 6th. Here are some cool pics of the heavy frosts we got just prior to the first snow storm...

I guess the ground was just warm enough that the frost didn't reach the ground, just the tips of the branches. Makes for a cools scene.

Fun in the Leaves

These photos are from about a month ago. Just in the nick of time, we raked our leaves in the backyard before the cold snap hit us and has since never left us (probably won't until May). Of course, we let Jaycie experience for the first time playing in the leaves. She had a ball!

Spruce Grouse

This is mainly for all the Moon boys. Me and Tyler, my neighbor went our Saturday to try to find some grouse. After a nice hike in the pristine Alaska forest, we found one. Tyler was gracious enough to let me shoot it, because I had never shot this kind of species of grouse before. Here are some pictures showing its coloration and distinct differences from Utah ruffed and blue grouse species:

Happy hunter with the grouse. It was a male, so it has some cool markings...

Notice the tale has no bars, but has a cool golden band across the tips of the tail feathers.

The feet have a lot of extra feathers. This makes it easier to walk on top of the snow. Almost like wearing snowshoes (weight displacement).

The grouse also had a bright red "eye comb" above its eyes (not pictured).

Thought I'd also throw this pic in for the Moon boys. This is the grayling I caught in the beautiful waters of "Ling Lake II" a few weeks back. Tyler was able to get me a copy (he took this picture on his camera). If this fish was just two inches or bigger, I would have gotten it mounted. It was a striking dark iridescent color. I caught him on a Uintah-type fly on my second cast.

Needless to say, I am going to be sure to head back up to our grouse spot more this year. I am anxious for the snow to fly so I can walk the logging roads and try to cut their tracks. Alaska also has ruffed grouse, but not very many. Most ruffed grouse stick to the aspens, which almost every place I have been hiking so far are birch and spruce forests. Hence, spruce grouse.

A Busy Little Girl

Kinda funny story...Shannon was watching Jaycie while she was getting a few things done around the house and decided to leave her unattended in her room (harmless, right?). After just a few minutes, Shannon came back into Jaycie's room to check up on her and found this...

Jaycie had effectively dismantled just about everything within the grasp of her little hands. Who can blame her? She is just a little explorer/scientist at this age. At least there wasn't any permanent damage.

Apparently, she was excited to have located her Johnson's Baby Shampoo.

First Steps

Jaycie took her first steps this past week! Previously, she had been standing up by herself as well as using her walker unassisted. She has now started to put "2 and 2 together" and will now stand up, and with some coaxing from Daddy or Mommy, walk a few steps at a time to us before falling down onto our legs or into our arms. It has been fun to see her progress.

She has also added a few more words to her vocab. She says "eez" for cheese and "deen" for drink. She also blew us away the other night by saying Jesus (in perfect pronunciation) when I pointed at our Greg Olsen painting in the family room and asked her "who is that?" This stems from a lot of time spent in the hallway at church with Daddy looking at pictures. She now gets fussy at church when she can't crawl whenever or wherever she wants, so I take her out in the hall during these fussy moments. To make the most of the time, I have been showing her pictures of Jesus and asking her "who is that?" Then I will say, "Jesus". I guess she has picked up on that.


Jaycie with her walker. She goes all over the house with this.

...All over the house
She, as many babies do at this age (so I've heard) goes through everything and pulls things out of cabinets and drawers. One of her favorite places to do this is in the kitchen with pots and tupperware.

Yellow and White...Hatcher's Pass Trail

Once we saw that the leaves were starting to peak, we decided to take a road trip up and over Hatcher's Pass. This road leads over some mountains near Palmer, AK. There was some gold panning and mining activity here in the gold rush years awhile ago. In fact, there is a mining museum on the mountain, but was closed for the season. Here are some pictures of the fall colors and the snow we hit at the top of the pass...




A lot of yellow. Almost all of the trees in Alaska are birch, which turn yellow. It looks really cool with the contrasting dark green pines.


Shannon and Jaycie in the snow. Jaycie was so cute...I picked up some snow in my hand and she was anxious to feel this new substance. She found out quickly that it was cold and was hesitant to touch it again.

Neat picture of the other side of the pass as the road proceeds down into the town of Willow, AK. We saw a lot of moose hunters on this side of the mountain, but no moose. Must all be hiding where the lazy hunters aren't willing to hike.

This picture shows where Fireweed gets its name. It is a beautiful green plant with vibrant purple flowers in the Spring, but turns bright red in the fall.

Daddy's new wheels. We almost had to put it into 4-wheel drive up over the top in the snow, but we weren't that lucky.