What a Pickle?: Fall has... fallen??

Well, the weather here is a'changing and we're well into fall. The usual temperatures are in the 50s throughout the days and down in the 30s at night! We've had our first "termination snow" - meaning it snowed in the mountains leaving a lovely, dusty white ridge all across the top... and the termination of summer! Guess it comes and goes quickly here?! That was just about 2 weeks ago and it was snowing on the mountains again this morning as we headed to church! It is really pretty... although we can feel/hear/see the folks here moaning and groaning as they realize (much more than we do!) that another Alaskan winter is just around the corner!

Josh and I did head out on a lovely bike ride this weekend, enjoying the brisk weather and changing leaves (they mostly change yellow here? not much red and orange... not much variation at all - but still pretty)

We headed out to the coastal trail - which rides along the coast as *most of you would assume (* I realize a few of you are special, so I decided to explain...) My lovely husband got a new bike this week!! YIPPEE for carbon (you bike people would understand, the rest of us... just smile and act amused) It was a deal of a life time with parts and specs worth drooling over (again, just nod your head) So, thanks to me finally getting a pay check (and convincing him it was OK to spend money... he's not as good as I am at it ) and Josh promising to sell his current man toy (aka bike) he brought home a new one Thursday night. Lucky for him, he got to take it out on a whopping 5 mile bike tour with ME! His slow, aching, awkward pregnant wife. How sweet am I?? (again, 5 miles is a joke for those of you not familiar with my husbands love for 20, 30, and even upwards into the 50 mile bike rides) Now my pedaling stroke certainly isn't up to par with most cycling techniques... but the sack of potatoes I seem to be hauling around my middle is certainly a good excuse for now :o)

Now - look closely at this picture and tell me what you see... verrrrrrry closely.... hint hint - click on the picture and it will open bigger for you. For those of you that guessed Josh's face - WRONG, you lose - that's not what I was going for. Now, for the few of you that might have suspected something and guessed Mt. McKinley (aka Mt. Denali for the locals, which none of you are...) DING DING DING :o) It was a beautiful clear day and we could see clear across the water and flats to the highest peak in North America! 20,000+ feet... not to be confused with the famous Mt. Mitchell in NC - a whopping 6,700 feet :). Here's the best picture we could get...

PS - it's the bigger mountain on the right :) Yippee, so that's something to check off on our list of things to do... we've at least seen the peaks of Mt. McKinley. And speaking of peaks - Mt. Lilli seems to be making herself known to the wide world these days too! She just can't go without her spot in the lime light! So enjoy my little fashion shoot here... in all my glory and spandex. Who would have thought that even spandex doesn't fit the same these days?! Depressing...