The Wedding Day!

Cale and Raegen got married at my parent's house like I did. Here she is on the front porch. Before the guests arrived

Her shoes...very cool!

My parents hired a professional make-up artist and hair stylist for the wedding party. It was fun being able to hang around and visit while waiting our turn for beauty treatments.

The beautiful bride waiting around

The bridesmaids and bridesman

Me and Raegen

My 2 best friends from college came to the wedding and I was so happy to see them! It was the first time I got to meet Cooper in person. He is such an adorable little baby!!! Cortney is due around Thanksgiving. YAY!!!!

Cale

Raegen

Me and my man! I made the tie for him on Father's Day last year. It's always a hit!

Dad and Mom with Raegen.

My sister-in-laws: Bethany, Heather, and Chelsea

Me and Billy walking together. He was our preacher when we lived in Mississippi.

Coming down the isle

I think she's happy ;)

My brother Ross preformed the ceremony.

The Reception

Their first dance as a married couple

I thought the cakes looked great

Day before Raegen's Wedding

My brothers and sisters at the rehearsal dinner from youngest to oldest: Rochelle, Raleigh, Raegen, Ross, Rhett, Rachael, RomFriday morning the bridesmaids got pedicures and manicures Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. Our good friends Lee and Cheryl were there so it was great getting to visit with them a while. My parents are at the table with us too.

Rachael and Cheryl...I guess we both got the blue memo This is my cousin's little girl, Savannah...she is such a doll!!! I wish I could see her more often!

I was glad to be able to visit with my cousins Sarah and Rebecca on Friday. I always enjoy hanging out with them. And....Rebecca is in her 2nd trimester! YAY!!!

Raegen's Lingerie Shower

Raleigh, Rochelle, and I hosted a lingerie shower for Raegen a few days before her wedding.

Rochelle, Rachael, Raegen, and Raleigh...the sisters

We LOVE our Dad!

It was a great turn out and she got a lot of nice gifts!

Walk through the woods

There are hundreds of miles of trails in and around Anchorage. We decided to walk one of the trails near our house that is in a city park. I only wanted to walk 3-4 miles, but once again we got twist turned around and ended up walking a lot longer. I like walking on trails through the woods and this particular trail was very pretty. We did have to watch out for bears though. There was a creek next to the trail that we stopped at and let Jackson play in. It was so cold, but that did not stop Jackson!

Giant Alaskan Malamute

Our friends, Paul and Devon, have 2 Giant Alaskan Malamutes. These dogs are popular here in Alaska because their thick coat keeps them warm in the winter. They are also used for mushing. These dogs can get over 200lbs. Devon and Otto. Here the dog is about 8 weeks old.

Back in Alaska

Well I am back in Alaska after being gone for about a month and I got here just in time for the first snow! On our way to church this morning my car said it was 28 degrees outside and during church it started snowing!!! I was wearing sundresses a couple days ago and now I'm in my winter clothes! Weird.
There was a lot going on that kept me in the "lower 48" (as the folks from Alaska like to say)....my sister Raegen got married, we visited Scott's family and friends in Greenville, I stayed home with my sisters while my parents went out of town, I flew to Alabama for my Grandmother's 80th Birthday then I flew to Arkansas to visit my brother Ross before he went to Africa for 10 years. Busy Busy!!! I am glad to be back home with Scott and settled into my own routine, but I enjoyed the time I was able to spend with many of my loved ones.
As you can see from the post below, Scott made good use of his time while we were gone.
I plan on blogging pictures from the trip soon.

Moose Hunting

This was my first experience hunting in Alaska. My friend Brad talked to some people and got the best info on where to hunt. We hunted near a town called Delta Junction. It will be on a map if you Google it. We were out hunting for about 2 hours when we saw this moose from a ridge. We went down after it, and after a small chase I had a shot and took it. My first shot stopped it, and my second dropped it. It has a 55 inch spread with 4 brow tines on one side and 5 on the other. After we shot it, it took us 10 1/2 hours to get it back to my truck. Needless to say the work begins once you shoot a moose. An average bull moose weighs 1200 lbs. We almost didn't make it out with everything. It was one of the hardest days of my life! I am going to have it mounted!! Rachael is so thrilled about that!

Here is my Field and Stream pose.

Here is my friend Brad going over the hunting regs to make sure we take all the meat we are supposed to. My trusty Polaris Ranger is in the background as well. If it had not been for it, we would have never made it. If you are in the market for an ATV/UTV, I strongly suggest this model. Polaris made a beast of a machine when they made this one!!

This next picture is a little graphic, but it shows just how much the Ranger can hold. We had the entire moose as well as our gear in the bed of the Ranger and made it through swamps, muskeg, over trees, and through rivers. The Ranger is king of quads!!

Jackson 2 Year Old Photos

These pictures were taken by Lucas Brown with Kickstand Studio at my parent's house in SC around the time of Jackson's 2nd birthday.

Saturday of Fun

This was the Saturday of fun (for Scott). Scott went fishing early Saturday morning with a friend from church. They went fishing for Silver Salmon and each caught one!

After Scott got back from fishing we went to the Knik Glacier. We never actually made it to the glacier, but we did ride our Polaris Ranger beside the Knik River. It was a wide open area with a lot of interesting terrain. There were rivers we road through that covered the floor board. The video at the end shows some of the areas we went. There were also a lot of people fishing, four wheeling, and camping. It was a really interesting area. In this picture you can see the Knik Glacier in the background with some people fishing as well.

Some of the wide open river bed areas we rode on.

This is Jackson having fun out on the ranger!

Here was a little stream we crossed in some of the more wooded trails.

Another picture of the river and glacier.

Here are some families out camping

Some more people out on their four wheelers.

Here is the video of us going through some pretty deep water.