September 2024

It's hard to believe September has already come & gone! Highlights of the month were settling into the rhythms of the new school year, Shelby's 14th birthday, the girls' cross country season {I'll do a season recap soon!}, and Brady's new basketball season kicking off.

We celebrated Labor Day Weekend with blueberry picking on the side of a mountain at Arctic Valley & paddle boating on Otter Lake. It felt like a quintessential fall Alaskan weekend!

{our first try at making jam!}

{Spent the morning at the Alaska Museum of Science & Nature with my homeschooling sidekick. He is posing with his completed scavenger hunt of the museum.}

{Brady telling Shelby about his U.S. map that he is working on in geography}

{Brady lost a tooth at Olive Garden during Shelby's birthday dinner. He was wiggling it, and then it suddenly popped out of his mouth & shot across the table. He looked & looked under the table but couldn't find it. When I put my leftovers in a to-go box at the end of our meal, we suddenly spotted his tooth on my plate!}

{homeschooling field trip to the zoo!}

{we took a walk through the neighborhood throwing the football on a gorgeous fall evening}

{throwing the football at the river}

{I was walking into our bedroom the other day and had to do a double-take as I passed the window}

This last picture below was actually taken on October 1st. In honor of the first day of October, we donned our beds with electric blankets for the rapidly approaching winter {the kids were so excited for warm beds!} and I surprised the kids with little Halloween craft kits. Brady had a blast painting his haunted house and listening to Halloween stories on the Echo Dot. He had so much fun!

We have had the best fall weather since we've moved here! It's been much milder & drier, which has been so nice. As I am typing this, it is October 10th & we woke up to our first dusting of snow this morning. But the sun came out by lunchtime & the temperature is up to 40 degrees, so the only snow remaining is at the tops of the mountains. As I drove Shelby to jazz band this morning, we just kept marveling at the view--it looked like the inside of a snow globe or a picture on a postcard!