Dall sheep and more dall sheep...

Isn't this one of the most beautiful things you have ever seen? This is one of the 56 Dall sheep we were able to see inside Denali.
There are some BIG rams. They were pretty far away so the picture isn't great, but you can see the curls in their horns really well if you click on the picture.
More female sheep. These were on the side of a hill just above the road. TONS of cars were pulled off to get pictures of them. We were so close, the rocks that were falling due to them walking about, were hitting the cars that were pulled over (including ours!)

Driving to Denali and just inside the park

Beth is taking a black and white photography class at the college so she was having a blast taking pictures on this trip. I think she took 3 rolls of film.
My dear brother. Please don't ask what he was doing?
Weren't the colors just amazing?
The first animals to greet us just after entering Denali were three moose, a mom and two babies. This is one of the babies. Notice the hair on it's back is standing up. It was getting pretty nervous with all the car stopping to look at it, so we quickly moved on down the road.
Here are all three of them from our car.

My brother's visit...

What an amazing summer we had. Our final visitors were my brother Dan and his wife, Sherry. I can't tell you what a great time we had. It was two weeks of wonderful Alaskan fun and fellowship. If you don't know my brother and his wife you wouldn't understand, but they are just so fun and loving and YOUNG for their ages that you can't help but have a great time with them. Our visit started before Ralph returned home. In fact, just after we picked them up from the airport (well, the next morning) we headed straight up to Denali for the driving lottery. I was blessed by a wonderful lady in Anchorage with a driving lottery ticket and was able to share that experience with Dan and Sherry and Beth and Kyle. As you will quickly see, it was an experience of a lifetime! Here is just a sampling of things we were able to see on our trip!


Here they are arriving at the Ted Steven's International Airport in Anchorage!
Our first view of Denali on the drive up to the park.
A beautiful Ptarmigan changing over from summer brown to winter white.

The boys!

What a difference a year makes. This picture was taken at Kyle's baptism in Sept, 2006. These are his best buddies.
This is one year later. Although they couldn't remember where they were standing for the baptism picture, this is them one year later, still best buds and still working hard to become black belts in Tang Soo Do. I think they have each grown 4 inches this year.

Blog updates?

Where are they? Well...Did I tell you all that Ralph just got home 2 weeks ago?? LOL

Actually, the computer that is holding all of my pictures for my 365 days and our trip to Denali will not stay connected to the Internet. I have tried to figure out what is wrong, but can't seem to find the exact problem. So, I can post to the blog from this computer, but have no pictures to upload and because I am NOT a writer I would suspect each of you would find it rather boring to read about my trip without pictures. Pray I can figure out what is going on so I can upload absolutely amazing pictures of our last trip to Denali and some beautiful photos of our EXTENDED Fall season here in Alaska, although it is 23 degrees as I type this and the leaves are dropping 2 or 3 at a time as the sun hits them and they thaw from their very hard freeze last night. I suspect the trees will be bare soon. The fire place is roaring and the brisk air is refreshing. Winter is so very near here in Alaska.

Hopefully we will get this blog updated very soon.

COUNTDOWN IS OVER!!!!!! HOME!

ONE!!!!!!!!!

TWO!!!!

THREE and holding...

Well, this is our THREE countdown. We should have put up TWO today but Ralph's flight has been delayed a day so we are sitting here on THREE and holding!

FOUR!!

FIVE!

Termination Dust in our mountains and SIX!

This is the first morning for termination dust, also known as snow, in our mountains. Pioneer Peak had some a few days ago, but this is getting pretty close to home now!
And Ralph's favorite snack honors his homecoming!!

My countdown continues...

By now you have all figured out that this is my version of a countdown! Guess what day it is??? LOL

Fall in Alaska

This is just under the base of Pioneer Peak. The colors are getting more beautiful each day!
This is the meadow near our house. Sometimes it is brimming with swans and moose and even the occasional bear, but lately it has been quiet except for two swans that should be nearing their migration back south. The colors are so wonderful.
This is another spot in the 'meadow'. I don't think it is actually a meadow, but that is what I call it!

The leaves in our driveway. I keep asking them to slow down so that there are at least a few on the trees when Ralph gets home, but with the wind like it has been I am not sure that will happen.

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10 from a friend!

This was in my inbox this morning, sent to me from a very dear friend who is counting down with me!

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