Planes and Automobiles

No trains on this trip. Cody and I enjoyed a great visit back to our hometowns this past week. We were able to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Wayne before Cody headed to the Husker game on Friday to meet up with his family and friends. We all joined again on Saturday for our wedding reception back in Iowa (see previous post). My family took off the following day, and Cody and I were able to spend some time with his family and grandparents (I even made them put up Christmas decorations). I flew back yesterday and Cody will follow on Friday after enjoying a few more days back with his family in Spirit Lake.

After 5+ years together, we finally got to fly together, instead of the usual airport drop-off

Otis got first picture honors with our new camera from my sister

We caught her!

Cody and Poppy

Quality time with Cedes

Whoops, I asked to decorate for Christmas a little too early :s

Enjoying the lights on the patio

'The Kids'

A fun view coming into Denver

Wedding Reception

Thanks to everyone to came out to our wedding reception. We had a great time and I was able to meet lots of Cody's family that I'd only had names before. Special thanks to the 'in-laws + friends' for decorating, organizing, and pulling off such a great time. Enjoy a few pictures below:

The impressive spread

Beautiful centerpieces

The awesome groom's cake my sister-in-law made for us

Kari, Emlyn Swanson and I: so glad to finally meet the little one :) (even though she wanted  nothing to do with me)

Imitation of a previous picture

Dear friend Lary and I 

Thought we better at least take one picture together

Cod and part of his amazing group of 'hometown' friends 

My dad took lots of other pictures, so hopefully I'll be able to post some of those soon.

The Fire is So Delightful

Although just barely, we made it through our first week of negative temperatures. Apparently there was quite the cold front, because after the 18-24 inches of snow we received the past few weeks, the chill then set in. Yesterday was the first day we saw + temps, and we were excited to see 10 on the car's thermometer! Who would have thought at this time of year...

Along with the cold, it's also getting dark around 4:30 pm, and the sun doesn't rise until 9:15-9:30am. It makes for quite the long evenings. I often think it should be 10-11pm when it's only 7:30pm!

Cody and I finished the wedding scrapbook this weekend, and we're only about 36 hours away from leaving for home. Any last requests for items from Alaska need to be in by tomorrow evening! We removed the RSVP on account of the reception just a few days away. Hope to see many of you there!

We took the camera after we spotted Denali out the previous day, but alas, we only caught the tip the next day

I so appreciate that he's so particular about kitchen cleanliness. Something that I just haven't mastered yet ;)

Frozen Arm

The same location as our beluga sighting this fall

Just a tad bit chilly

Frozen Arm

Moosen

We found 10+ moose in Kincaid Park while on our moose hunt tonight: looks like there's safety in numbers.

It doesn't look like they're wild with the fence there, but we were just headed into the Park. This was the first time we'd seen so many all together like that. This group had two bulls and three ladies. We've been up here over six months now, and still get just as excited to see these creatures- there's something about them that's just way more impressive than a white tail deer, all me crazy.

The first of the snow

About 8-10 inches fell last night into today. We're in for the long haul now:

pathway leaving work

poor buried car, but nothing a scraper and frisbee couldn't handle

Winter has arrived!

Add caption

Looks like we need to invest in a shovel

Busy Times

Not a whole lot to update since last week, except our first measurable snow fall came last Sunday. Apparently there were 103 accidents in Anchorage that day, so if that tells you anything about the drivers up here... Cody's very excited, and continues to be excited for the near-daily snow forecast. He's still working at the course during the week, but they've cut back the pro shop hours, obviously, lest the golfers use colored balls. I had a busy run of days at work as well, so forgive us for our lack of interesting news:

Hanging our wedding pic

Finally hanging things on the walls!

The basket we bought for the end table didn't fit, but apparently it was quickly repurposed

smiling.... BEFORE the game started