View of the mountains in Chugiak…one of these is Bear Mountain…taken close to the post office.

Mountains at Mirror Lake…notice the reflection of the mountains in the water.

Pioneer Peak in Palmer…taken from the parking lot at the Alaska State Fair.

Last week the children and I went with some friends to the Alaska State Fair. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! I am thankful we went. We had so much fun. One of the first stops we made at the fair was the veggie stand. Alaska is known for its giant vegetables and I was expecting some big veggies but WOW!

So I thought that I would share a few photos with you.

This pumpkin set a new record. It weighed in at 1,1o1 pounds!

This cabbage is actually in the photo above too, this is just a close up.  I do not know which cabbage weighed the most this year at the fair but this one weighed in at 93.9 pounds.  That is a lot of coleslaw!!

Here is a kohlrabi weighing in at 20 pounds and a 19.6 pound turnip!

Then there was the fun selection of veggie people.  This one was my favorite.

So, how does your garden compare?  Ha, I don’t even have a garden!  We are a large family but I think that veggies this size would even be too much for us!

Alaska has some amazing sunsets! This is definitely not the most spectacular but beautiful none the less. Maybe one day I will be able to capture the sunset with the inlet and the mountains also. For now, I will share the ones my daughter took from home last week. Enjoy!  God’s creation is awe inspiring!

Over the past couple of weeks it has been snowing cotton!  The cottonwood trees are releasing an unbelievable amount of seed into the air!  It is pretty to look at but talk about allergies!  I thought I would share a bit of our cotton snow storm with you.  In the first photo you can actually see some of the cotton falling.  Oh, and another point of interest, I took these photos at 11:30 pm on an overcast day.  Just to give you an idea of the daylight.

This Memorial Day will be a memorable one but not for the regular reason.  This was a BIG wildlife day at our house.  Even though our house is nestled up against the mountains we usually do not see much wildlife in our yard.  It is probably because we have dogs and the children tend to make noise too.   BUT, today was a big change.  This morning in the trees right across the street sat a very large bald eagle.  Of course, it flew away before I got outside with the camera.  Maybe that had to do with children running in yelling, “MOM,  A BALD EAGLE!”

I did manage to get a couple of photos of our afternoon visitors though.  A mama moose and her two little babies running right past our backyard.

I thought I would share part of my spring garden with you. We spent some time yesterday planting. Our house is beginning to brighten up for the summer! They are not the best photos but the flowers are beautiful!

My birch bark planter.

Some ferns in front of the house.

Another birch bark planter, I LOVE these planters!

My Mother’s Day gift.

Just something pretty I picked up at the greenhouse yesterday.

My hubby shared a photo he took in Afghanistan.  So I decided to share with you as well.  Enjoy.

Since all of my facebook friends have been so kind to share their photos of spring with green grass, blooming flowers, trees with leaves, and t-shirts and shorts, I thought I would share a bit of my spring so far!  These were taken 10 minutes ago!  April 14, 2010!  Enjoy……your nice spring weather! )

This is from the back yard.  You cannot even see the big mountains right on the other side of the house.

The trampoline still awaiting a time to be used.

A look down the street and the stream.

My front yard.

The deck.

There are signs of spring though…these are the daffodils beginning to grow in the flower bed at the front of the house.

On our latest visit to the Alaska Sea Life Center we had a great time playing with the sea lions!

Wanna Kiss?

Hello there buddy!

Tag, your it!

]]> http://mamaarcher.com/2010/03/25/one-big-sea-lion/feed/ 1 http://mamaarcher.com/2010/03/23/an-escapee-from-crabville/ http://mamaarcher.com/2010/03/23/an-escapee-from-crabville/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:58:51 +0000 MamaArcher http://mamaarcher.com/?p=2618

Image by Vanessa Pike-Russell via Flickr

My middle daughter has a hermit crab.  She takes great care of it and has enjoyed it so much that her brother decided that he would like to have one too.  The other day we headed for the pet store.  He really needed to get all of the supplies first but his sister decided to be gracious and said his crab could bunk with hers.  He was very excited as he picked out Jack and brought him home.  He placed Jack into his new home with his sister’s crab and assumed all would be well.

His sister’s crab seemed a bit territorial.  He climbed all over the other crab.  As the afternoon progressed and friends called to play they crabs were left on their own unsupervised.

Later that day when my daughter checked in on her crab and his new room mate, Jack, she was surprised to only find Jack occupying the tub.  Her crab was gone!  As far as she knew, he couldn’t get out.  That apparently was a false assumption.

We looked and looked.  While she was already planning to get a new crab to replace hers, all I could think of was the stench that would come when he died and we eventually found him in the house somewhere.

As the thought of the possibility of finding a decaying crab in the days or weeks to come and where that may end up being replayed in my mind, I decided to go for another look.  I was on my hands and knees looking in every nook and cranny.  When I finally decided to give up once again, I placed my hand on the corner of my daughter’s dresser.  I jumped and screamed as little legs moved.  Her crab was clinging under the lip of her dresser top.  Now I HATE spiders and let me tell you, crab legs greatly resemble large spider legs when found in a place they do not belong.  I was actually so shaken that I had to find another child to pick him up and place him back in his home.

Each crab will have its own living quarters tomorrow and hopefully there will be no more escapes from Crabville!