Happy, Healthy and Blessed!!: We've arrived...

Our VERY early morning began with leaving my mom and dad's house at 4:30am in an effort to arrive at the airport by 6am. We hit a ridiculous amount of construction but still made it by 6am and going through security was a breeze, but then we got word that our flight was delayed so our 8:27am departure turned into something more like a 9:15am departure. Five hours (and 9 minutes to be exact) we landed in Seattle (which is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL city and surrounding area. With just enough time to ride 6 different trams and get some food in our bellies we arrived at our gate for the final leg of our flight just in time! I managed a small nap but the minute I began to see Alaska's snow covered mountain coastlines from my little window I was in shock and awe!! I couldn't do anything but say "Thank you Lord for being the masterful creator that you are" and I can't even begin to explain how beautiful is was and continued to get!!

Right about the time that the plane began it's decent we were surrounded by mountain peeks of all sizes and the Gulf of Alaska which sometimes was still completely frozen, or filled with ice chunks or completely defrosted and reflecting the mountain scenes like mirrors!! We landed without a single dump and made it through the Anchorage airport (which just happens to be one of the nicest/cleanest/and prettiest airports that I have ever see) in a breeze... we picked up our rental car and were on our way... our adventure was beginning!!

Within minutes of leaving the airport I spotted the first bald eagle... just sitting on a frozen pond on the side of the road with a bunch of seagulls... he just looked so regal and majestic... in fact he was so beautiful that I forgot to get my camera out... oops!!

We made it to our hotel (Anchorage Downtown Hotel) which is this cute and very quaint little place!! The guy or checked us in was great and circled a bunch of stuff on our Anchorage map that we should check out!! Our room is small, and 90% of the room is the king sized bed but it is soooooo comfortable... either way, this isn't a lay-around and chill vacation... this is an adventure!! As long as the room is clean and the people are nice I am happy!!

After settling in we decided to go grab something to eat but apparently the local high school is having a spring formal or maybe even a prom so all of the restaurants we packed so we wouldn't be able to get in until around 9pm tonight (which is 1am in Virginia... keep in mind we've been up since 4am VA time)... so we made a reservation for tomorrow and decided to head to Arctic Roadrunner, a local burger joint. On the way to the restaurant we were driving through the city and Jason nonchalantly says "oh there's a moose." I said "What? Turn around!!" So he did, and there she was... a beautiful long-legged animal just moseying down the road like she doesn't have a care in the world!! I couldn't get Jason to go any closer to her, but I did get a picture and then spent the rest of the ride down the road smiling ear-to-ear because I got to see a moose!!

We have eaten our delicious burgers but now it's almost 1am Virginia time now and we are both really starting to feel it so it's time to call it a night even though the sun is still shinning bright outside (thank goodness for these thick curtains). We are so very thankful for the prayers, and they were undoubtedly heard because our flights were great... we got here safely (and of luggage did as well)... and the weather is perfect (I was out in flip-flops today... yep... it's that nice up here)!!

Here are pictures as promised...