Kiss a Moose

Cody and I made a spur of the moment road trip to Palmer, AK (only about 40 minutes away) to check out the reindeer farm. It was fun, although cold. I had to work that night, so Cody met up with a couple coworkers to see the fireworks downtown and the Fire and Ice Festival.

Finally got the moose antlers in place

All the greedy reindeer (females are typically the only ones still with their antlers this time of year)

Caribou = wild; reindeer = domesticated

They can be aggressive, as demonstrated (these were all young females, ranging from 6 months-2 years old)

Quickly losing their attention once my food cup was empty

If you look closely, you can see bright red spots on this castrated males antlers (frozen blood left from the vasularity of the proliferative phase of antler growth)- castrated male antlers never detach or grow back very pretty- poor guys

Dolly, the 7 year old bison- known to break arms. I denied to 'pet' her or her horns

And there goes the frozen banana

Denali got a little more personal with Cody

And Cody got a little more than he bargained for

Cody.... come back! (They had two orphaned 3 year old male moosen- had to be injected with 'female hormone' this fall to hasten their antler shedding lest they kill each other in the rut)

Purple Moose Espresso: I WILL be back because I am beautiful

The Fire and Ice show in downtown Anchorage on NYE

Had to break out the government-issue parka in the new year for a forecast of -10