Moose sitings and our holiday back to Tally

Please forgive me for my absence from the blogging world. I have no good excuse other than sometimes life gets busy!

First, (and most importantly,) I saw a moose! Crazy, yes! I was driving home from dropping Dan off at work and there he was, just eating a bush in someone's FENCED yard! It all happened so quickly, I wanted to take a picture, but people were behind me. We were also in a school zone and I was so afraid for the kids, but they did not seem to mind. I was sorry that Dan did not get to see him with me. He was very large, but I think he was young because his antlers were stubby. Still, he was easily twice the size of the chain link fence he was in, (how did he get there?!) The day only got crazier from there! When I woke up that evening from my nap, there was like 5 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. I panicked since I had to go to work, so i quickly got ready and left for work an hour and a half early, (it normally takes 10-15 minutes to get there). Dan called me along the way to warn me of the weather and he laughed when I told him I was already headed to the hospital. I was hysterical, crying in all, but somehow I survived. Looking back, it wasn't so bad, but it did take me 45 minutes to get to work!

The day after the "snow storm" it was time to head back to Florida, Yea! We dropped Bradley off at doggy camp and began our journey home with an overnight flight. The trip went well, nothing exciting happened, but Dan sat by an alcoholic who had the exact same conversation twice, it was hilarious!

We had a couple of weeks in Tallahassee to visit with friends and family. My friend, Sarah, got married our first weekend home. I had a great time seeing everyone and Sarah was a beautiful bride! My sister also came up from Orlando to visit for a couple of days and we had a great visit. Mom and Dad got a Wii and we spent a lot of the evenings making "Miis" and perfecting our bowling and fishing. They also gave us one for Christmas so now we have something to do when it is too cold to go outside! It was great having "game nights" with Matt and Sam again and hanging out at Cory's house. The comfort food I had been missing the most was Chick-fil-a and it has never tasted so yummy!
For Thanksgiving, Dan and I went to North Carolina with his family to a resort called the High Hampton. We golfed and ate the entire time! We stayed in a cottage called the "School House" that was actually once a school. We had a great view of the 11th green. It was fun relaxing in the rockers on our big deck and watching the golfers come down the fairway.

Golfing was so much fun! Two of the mornings we did scrambles and competed against other families on vacation. Both times we did very well, tying the second place winners the first time and tying the first place winners the second, but we were snubbed out by losing the tie-breaking holes, bummer! When we weren't golfing or stuffing our faces at the buffet, we made soap, played BINGO, and participated in betting on the "horse races" that the hotel orchestrates.

Leaving to head back to Alaska was really hard, I cried for a good part of 2 days. It is hard being so far from home. It was a really long day getting back to the good ol' AK. We woke up at 4:15 in the morning to start the long trek back. I was feeling really sick with what I thought was a stomach bug and I was worried we were going to have to take later flights, but the Delta lady said there was none, so I sucked it up. Luckily, after we got going, I felt much better for the rest of the day. It was so crowded in the airports, I think we will avoid flying around the holidays again. At one point we were on the down escalator and we were part of a human pile up, it was insane!

When our plane was landing in Anchorage, we were looking out the window and saw a moose walking down the road! Dan was glad to see his first moose, even if it was from the air. When we picked up our luggage at the baggage claim in Alaska, my bag had a huge gash in it! Then, we went outside to get a cab to the rental car place and we waited in line for 45 minutes... in 9 degree weather! Once we got to the rental car place it took an hour to get our truck, (they were packed). Once we got our truck we were ready to get our boy. He was so glad to see us and he has been sleeping since we got home!

So, now we are settled back in to our little routine and we are here until the middle of February for sure. We are thinking of extending here for a few reasons. Money is number one, but the Iditarod (dog racing) is in March and spring here is supposed to be great. We will see...