Termination Dust!!

The fall colors have really been beautiful here in the past week! One morning we woke up and it seemed like all of the leaves had turned yellow and orange over night! Apparently, the fall season is short lived - September through mid October. Then "termination dust" starts to arrive. This, we have learned, is when you start to see snow on the tops of the mountains. It is called termination dust, signifying the termination of fall and the beginning of winter. We started to see termination dust a few weeks ago, and it is slowly creeping down the mountains around us. A girl I work with at Providence was telling me about Halloween around here. She has to buy her kids' costumes a size or two big because they are wearing their ski suits underneath because it's so cold. There's usually lots of snow by Halloween and a lot of the parents pull the kids around trick or treating on sleds! We thought that was pretty funny.

Brant and I spent Saturday out and about shopping for winter gear. He is pretty stocked with clothing because he's had lots of warm stuff for hunting season, but I needed some snow pants, more wool socks, and some long johns. I actually wore some wool long johns under my jeans on Saturday and got made fun of because it was only about 50 degrees, but I was freezing! We talked to a guy that worked at the Sportsman's warehouse, and he was telling us all of the local places to snowboard, cross country ski, and hike in the winter. We are getting really excited about trying all of the new winter sports :) We also bought a set of studded tires for the Escape from a family who is about to leave Anchorage and be stationed in Germany. We are slowly getting ready for the snow! Everyone around here is making bets on when the first snowfall will be. Maybe the next post will be covered in white :)