I’m glad I wrote that post about our first fall in Alaska a few days ago because, while the rest of the lower 48 slowly transitions to fall, we can now say that winter has arrived in earnest. We had our first dusting of snow early this week – about a half an inch – then we woke to about 4 inches of thick, wet snow this morning. Needless to say, the kids are in heaven and have spent much of the day playing outside, building snowmen, and starting a snowball fight. From what we’ve heard, snow in Interior Alaska is really dry after the first snows of the season, so the snowmen need to emerge now or never! It’s our first October in Alaska, and we’re sharing five things we’re loving, excited about, watching, dreaming, and observing.
Currently: October in Alaska
Loving // I am absolutely loving the fresh air we have here! I miss Korea a lot, but I do not miss the terrible air quality as we descend into winter. Not looking at the AQI is surprisingly liberating, and knowing we can watch the sunrise and sunset and actually see the colors, rather than the smog, is such a joy.
Excited About // The boys have their first ever jiujitsu tournament next weekend in Anchorage! They were in the fence for a while about whether or not they wanted to compete, but they both decided it’ll be a great experience to compete and watch others do so, as well. I’m excited to see them absolutely loving a sport, and I’m also pretty stoked for a weekend down south. It’s also worth noting that all three are doing jiujitsu now, which has been so fun!
Watching // We’ve been watching the Northern Lights a lot lately! We live on Fort Wainwright, and our little area has a ton of orange lights in the field to light up the playground and roadway during polar night, so the boys and I took a walk to a nearby field with no lights and watched the aurora borealis dance. It was spectacular to experience!
Dreaming // Ooof. I’m always dreaming, my friends. Right now, we’re dreaming up a trip that we’ll (hopefully) get to take over Ryan’s winter block leave around Christmas. We have some ideas of where/what we’d like to do, and it’ll likely depend on what sort of Space A we manage to conjure up because we love flying Space A with kids.
Observing // Honestly, I’ve been observing a lot of how life here in Alaska is so vastly different than any of the other places we’ve lived. It’s busy but unhurried, expensive but reasonably so, friendly but reserved. It’s nothing like the life we’ve lived in any of our other states, and it’s a far cry from our life in South Korea, but it has its own unique beauty to it. I’m slowly finding my footing here for my photography business and, as we settle in further, the options for us seem nearly limitless.
Our first fall – and our first October in Alaska – seem to be marked with changes; the change in season, the change in temperature, the change in priorities. I’m grateful for it. It’s a good challenge for us. All in all, though our PCS stateside (or OCONUS-OCONUS, if you want to be really technical) was absolutely wild, we’re settling in. Dare I say…it’s starting to feel like home?
Tell me – what are you currently loving, excited about, watching, dreaming, and observing?
