Welcomed Home By Winter

Sunny FL to this Winter Wonderland resulted in a bit of climate shock! My return to Juneau was graced with the result of the first snowfall that happened last week. There is something so peaceful, calming, refreshing and good about walking through a beautiful, fresh blanket of snow and the beginning of something new. 

A Warm, Wild & Wonderful Thanksgiving

Sunny & Beautiful Anna Maria Island, Florida

Tubas on the beach, just one of the many ridiculous things that happened.

Before the games. Round 2 of family olympics...theme: Holidays. Team pictures below.

St. Patrick's Day Irishmen

Cinco de Mayo. The 3 Amigos 

New Years Divas

TeamLOVE. 2010 Campions.

Our sweet ride (12 passenger van) that we drove around...in style of course.

Nothing but Blue Skies,  80s and sunny every day. Lucky dogs!

Cliquettes. We missed you, Oliver!

Thanksgiving dinner, poolside. Lots to be thankful for!

Sunshine State

The sun has been shining lately in Juneau, AK. We have a had a lovely break from the rain this week that has been bright, blue, clear and beautiful! More golden this morning on my walk into work today (pictured below). To go along on the sun theme, I am headed to THE Sunshine State, Anna Maria Island, Florida, tomorrow morning to spend Thanksgiving with some of my favorite people. I think I may be traveling the furthest distance possible while still being in the US. See ya next week!!

Reflecting

While trying to take a picture of the sky with my phone, I had the flip view button on and accidently got my face. Blue skies still made an appearance :)

 

Good Afternoon, Moon.

This photograph was taken at approximately 3:30pm outside my office. I was convinced it was time for bed, but the work day wasn't even over! This is confusing. It's crazy how much control of our minds and bodies mother nature has. We're in for quite the ride this winter. This is only the beginning!

Long Walks On The Beach

The Blue Skies & Sunshine came out to play again today! I spent most of the daylight wandering and instead of my normal walk to town I decided to head the other way down the beach until I couldn't go any further. Between the fluffy lingering clouds, snowy mountain tops and the bright, blue sun-shining sky reflecting off the water...I was a happy girl.

Il Bel Far Niente

After some morning exercise, today was spent enjoying Harry Potter movies on TV and baking experiments with friends. Dark, rainy days are really helping me to slow down and enjoy the beauty of doing nothing or "Il bel far niente" in Italiano.

Alaska Chic

We had the day off today so we decided to head into the woods and have a little fun with an "Alaska Chic" photo shoot. Here are some of the results. Photo credit and direction goes to Andrew Dubay.

Alaskan & Proud To Be

This is where I grocery shop, the "Alaskan & Proud To Be." The A&P for short. I guess you're bound to be proud to be Alaskan when you're view walking into the store to buy some milk looks like that. 

Switching It Up

In the midst of dark, rainy, dreary November in Juneau came this beautiful sun-shining day.

Nothing but Blue Skies. Fine by me!

Give Out Love

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in" 

- Morrie Schwartz

After a lovely, relaxing weekend spent with friends I needed some alone time. So I wandered down the street (30 second walk) to Perseverance Theater and caught the last showing of the play "Tuesdays With Morrie," which is one of my favorite books in the world. It was a wonderfully refreshing and touching two man performance about life, love, dying, simplicity and how the only way to really leave an impact after you're gone is to invest in others and share yourself with the world. If you've never read this book, I would highly recommend it!

New Adventure

I was wandering around the boat docks today taking in the scene and checking out all of the boat names. This one seemed fitting for my time in life. If you had a boat (maybe you do) what would you name it? Everyday Joy is sounding good to me :)

Taste The Rainbow

I did my first site visit for my monthly preschool health promotion series today. We "tasted the rainbow" and learned all about yummy fruits and vegetables an how important it is to eat bright, colorful foods full of nutrients. 

Alaskan Season Change

Fall in Juneau isn't exactly like the crisp Autumn of upstate NY or VA full of apple picking and bales of hay...but the leaves have officially fallen and this place is begging for some snow. I'm ready! 

Splish Splash

Southeast Alaska in the fall = rain with a chance of showers, heavy precipitation likely. Everyday. This makes for large puddles (Note the flooded parking lot of my office pictured left). I have super cool Alaska rainboots so I get to have the Joy of intentionally walking in the puddles and jumping when I could just go around them. It's great.

Grrrrr

We learned about bear safety at our monthly All Corps day today. 

Fun fact: There are almost as many bears in Alaska as there are people. 

That is certainly not a human footprint. On a trail we were on...ruh row. Don't worry, I'm still alive!