Travelin' with the Folks

I am back!

My parents are still in Alaska but they are in Anchorage. I had to return to Fairbanks with my husband, who then left me alone to go to work.

I have had so much fun the last two weeks with my parents. I've put close to 2,000 miles on my car and saw more of Alaska in the last few days than in the whole year I've lived here. It was great to be a tourist.

We started in Anchorage. My parents came with us to do a session at the temple, a great way to start a vacation! We showed my parents a little bit of down town

That Friday we rode the train from Anchorage to Seward, it was a last minute thing that was free...yeah, I know this guy he hooked us up.(Picture of us speeding down the railway)

We spent some time in Seward it is a small town so there really is not much to see. We also did a little hike to Exit Glacier which was lots of fun.

Saturday we all stuffed ourselves into my little car and drove to Fairbanks. It was raining and foggy the whole way. We did make one stop in Talkeetna (the pictures our on my little point and shoot but I haven't loaded them). We toured around Fairbanks, went to Chena Hot Springs...which was soooo nice.

Then we left Jed behind to go to work and we went to Denali National Park!!!
Where we took a 12 hour drive into the park...it is closed to public access, if you want to go into the park you have to ride a bus! (or win the lottery they do every year to allow 40 private vehicles in during September.)
Isn't that a great shot of the mountain?

We got some amazing pictures of Denali...we were in the 20-40% of tourists that actually get to see the top of the Mountain.
We also went to North Pole and visited Santa, we saw the pipeline, and made it to Valdez!

I love my hubby, Jed...we had so much fun with him having experience as a tour guide...made it very entertaining!
(I love this picture of my parents enjoying the lunch on our glacier tour...they were tons of fun)

But the best of all was...

The fishing!
Heath flew up to Alaska, just to go fishing with us! We also brought along our cousin Christine. We had the boat to ourselves!
It was really wet! It rained hard the whole time, which made us very grateful that we bought rain gear as they suggested. It was kind of stormy at one point we were going through swells 4-8 feet high.
My mom only puked twice...but she had fun, and reeled in a few of her own!
We caught our limit and had 244 lbs of fillets to take home. Divided by 6...that is still a lot of fillet!

Hope you all like fish, because chances our you may be getting a visit from one of us!
Oh anyone have any good Halibut recipes?

busy

It's been a busy week.

This week will be even busier.

My parents will be flying into Anchorage on Wednesday!
YAY! I'm so excited to see them...and hope we get a little dryer weather.

I might be off line for a while but stay tuned because I'll have lots of fun pics and stories later on.

Crocs

Have you seen these? I know you have! I think they may be the worst fashion statement ever. However, I know that they are amazingly comfortable...but, is that really any excuse to wear them out in public, to church, or work? I know a lot of people in the medical field wear them and I will forgive those people, because they look okay with scrubs. But I don't think people should wear their bright pink crocs to church or to a restaurant...

BUT!!!
Since I am living in a cabin and I have to go outside to go to the bathroom I decide that crocs would be okay to own...
then when I went online I saw THESE!

I just got them yesterday! They are just as comfortable as the ugly ones, but these are much cuter!

I want to congratulate Crocs for finally designing a normal looking shoe! not only normal but cute! Just goes to show you can be comfortable without looking horrible!

Tips for Dry Cabin Living

Here are a few tips if you are ever in a situation of living in a dry cabin.
This is what I have learned.

I finally have an excuse not to do the dishes!
It is such a process to do the dishes, and it uses a lot of water so I only do them, once maybe twice a week.
How do we do that?

BBQ-er & Cast Iron Skillet...fast clean up!

Paper and plastic products...and this may sound gross but a quick rinse job on the few necessary items and wah-lah...you only have to do dishes once a week.
(Be sure to buy the Costco sized package of paper plates...and avoid paper bowls, it make your cereal taste papery)
Plastic spoon can be used as a knife...especially if any spreading is involved.

Make use of all the water you have. For example. I dropped an entire tray of ice on the floor...I stopped myself before I put them in the sink to melt, and remembered by plants outside need to be watered. Wah-Lah
I needed to thaw some chicken, but we don't own a microwave, so after boiling the potatoes I poured the left over boiling water over the bag of chicken to thaw! and Wah-lah, thawed my chicken and conserved water.

Get a good broom! It will be used daily to keep all the pine needles and dirt out, and it's also a useful tool in removing insects...especially the bees that seem to be on a suicide mission. (we remove them with no harm, just by holding the bristle of the broom up to where they've landed...they climb on and we take them outside to fly away!)
SAVE THE BEES!


BUT...THE MOST IMPORTANT
advice I can give you is....

Never pass up the opportunity to take a shower.
Even if THREE times in one week the gym did not have hot water.
Even if it gives you a headache to wash your hair because it is so cold.
Even if you think you will shower, the next morning
or down at the laundry-mat...
Don't miss the opportunity,
because
You really never know what will happen, what plans may change,
work schedule may change, plans with friends may come up suddenly...and you can't quickly jump in the shower!
If you missed yesterday's shower---you are going to be a smelly!
and NEVER (ever!) let five days go by without showering! That is way too many days! because on that fifth day when you do go to shower, something horrible will happen, like there will be no hot water!

I'm just sayin'

RIP cell phone!

My phone died...it just went crazy. It was doing just fine, it is the first cell phone I've had that didn't break after the first month I had it. It was fast and did everything I wanted without problems...but then without notice it just decided it had enough. It died, then started to load and load, but never got anywhere. My warranty has expired but good thing I have insurance. I was really hoping this was a great excuse to get an iPhone, but they are really really expensive in the middle of your contract. My contract is up in November so I will get the iPhone then. Meanwhile they are sending me a replacement phone, and I am using Jed's old phone.

I finally decided about my Job, my boss called me and said she realized how crazy things must appear and she found a schedule that will work for both of us. Mon, Tues, Wed 7:30am-12:30, with the same young man. Also because this client is higher needs they are going to pay me $18/hr to work with him. I couldn't refuse that! She also offered me the Care Coordination position if I were to stay in Fairbanks....I really don't want to live in Fairbanks all year, but it was nice of her.