BEAR

We saw a bear today! We decided to drive towards Girdwood today on Grandma R's last day in Alaska. And what would you know she FINALLY saw a bear, a GRIZZLY BEAR at that!! She still has not seen a moose, they have been hiding but we were soooo excited to see the Bear. We also saw the Beluga Whales again! It was a great day in Alaska but we are sad to see Grandma go.

Alaska Botanical Garden

I got of work early today and Mike, Grandma R and I all went to the Alaska Botanical Gardens. The flowers were beautiful, as was the weather. I will let the pictures say the rest.

Carmel Rolls

Mike and Grandma R made a batch of Carmel Rolls today using the family recipe. I went home for lunch to get a fresh one... and boy am I glad I did. They were very good. I told Mike He needs to make a batch every Saturday now... ha! Grandma did the instructions and made Mike do all the manual labor like kneading the dough ect. He still needs a little help with the portion sized some of the rolls came out the size of my head!

We do not have too much more planned to do with Grandma R. We are going out to eat tonight, since Mike goes back to work on Thursday Night. Me and Grandma are going to have girls day Friday when Mike sleeps. Saturday night we (Grandma and I) are going to my monthly scrapbooking get together, maybe I will turn Grandma into a scrapper :) It will be fun. The state fair is going on but we will have to see what the weather is like.

Whittier, AK

Saturday Mike, me and Grandma R loaded into the Versa and drove to Whitter Alaska. On the way we stopped on the side of the road, along with quite a few other cars to take some pictures of Beluga Whales in the Turnagain Arm waters. It was pretty cool. Then we continued to the Whittier Tunnel, a 2.2 mile tunnel that you must go through to get to Whittier. It is a one way tunnel that is shared by both cars/buses/trucks and the train. Really cool, next year Mike and I want to walk the tunnel, which can only be done once a year!

Once we got to Whittier we checked in with the Cruise place which we were going on. Once we got our tickets we still had an hour to walk around. So we went in search of an open store, surprisingly only like 2 stores open. So we went to a coffee hut and got coffee and fresh made mini doughnuts... they were so so yummy! Better then the fair.

Then we went and got on the boat for our 6 hour cruise. It was a little chilly when the boat was moving but we had great weather and saw birds, seals, and otters. Mike says if he had to choose to come back as a animal he would be a otter. The sensory was amazing. The Tidal Glaciers are awesome. We stopped and watched then calf, or break off. All in all it was an amazing day.

So Sad

A blog that I follow called Three Cheers for baby has had a really bad day today. http://threecheersforbabies.blogspot.com/ One of their daughters Annaleigh, will be passing away tonight. The three baby's were born on in the 25th week and 5th day of pregnancy, very very early. Annaleigh was 1 lb 8 oz at birth and will weigh 2 lb 14 oz as she passes today. It is so sad. If you have time look at their blog and say a prayer for them.

Grandma R... T minus 1 day

Mikes Grandma will be here in ONE DAY!! We are so excited for Grandma R to come and see our place. Mike is excited because apparently she told him she would how him how to make Carmel rolls.. my tummy is excited for that! I think Mike might go crazy tomorrow, since she doesn't get in until 10 PM. Tonight we have to set up our 2nd room, clean, and I plan on going to bed early because I am tired.

Jacob

Sunday Night we were over at Samantha and Hans house. Samantha snapped this picture of Me, Mike and Baby Jacob. He is getting so big. He is 4 months as of the 18th! He definitely has a personality and smiles a lot. He loves to lay on his changing table and kick, laugh and talk to the picture on the wall.

Last week

We had a pretty lazy week last week. Thursday night we made a homemade bbq chicken pizza. It was so good, I even made the pizza dough from scratch!

Here is a picture of how an average night goes. Mike decides to get on his computer and Java thinks it is an invitation to sit on his lap. She hardly ever does this when I am on the computer but the second Mike get on it Java has to see what he is up to.

Visitors

On Wednesday night we had visitors!! My Pastor from the church I attended in Fargo was in Anchorage. Steve and this wife Doris were treated to a wonderful Salmon and Halibut dinner. It was great to catch up on the happenings in Fargo.

Eight Years...Holy Cow

As of yesterday Mike and I have been together for EIGHT YEARS! That is a long long time, over 1/3 of our lives! We did not do anything exciting, Mike actually said that he no longer has to remember the date since we have a new anniversary! But the date August 11th, 2001 will be a special date in my heart. Here is how I remember the it:

After meeting at Pine Ridge Indian reservation on our Mission trip we said our good byes and promised to keep in contact. (The picture above is a picture of us a couple hours before we left the school on the reservations.) A day later our church van was stuck in road work and my dad (who was driving) says "I think on of the other Church's van is 3 cars behind us", so 2 of the guys from my church (Jason and Dan I believe) jump out of our van and run to the other one. Of course it is the van that Mike is in. I jump out of the van and give Mike a huge hug almost knocking him over! Then we have to say a quick good bye because the traffic started moving again.

My mom and brother met my dad and I in South Dakota and we went on a 2 week family vacation. Driving through Montana and Wyoming I kept thinking of Mike, wearing a beaded bracelet that he gave me. On August 11th we finally pulled into Minnesota.

That night Mike and his brother Jory, who also had been on the mission trip, call me up. We talked through the entire pre-season game of the Minnesota Vikings, I do not remember if we won or not. At the end of the game I am talking to Mike and he says "Jory wants to ask you something" Jory gets on the phone "Mike wants to know if you will go out with him?" And the rest is history!

Saturday!

Today was great! We slept in and I made coffee cake for breakfast. On the way to go on a hike we stopped to get gas, across the street from the gas station was a sign that said this:

Wonder what instruments the second band plays :)

Mike and I went to Kincaid Park on a hike and picked some raspberries.

I am going to make scones with the raspberries tomorrow! Then we went to Kohl's and each got a new pair of shoes. Tonight we had halibut with veggies and Parmesan pasta, it was so yummy.

Busy Week

We have had quite a busy week so far.
Monday was Samantha's Birthday. We went out to dinner with her, Hans and Jacob at the Glacier Brew House down town. Then we hung out over at there place.

Mike and Megan

Jacob

Samantha and Hans

Tuesday night was supposed to be out last game...but we only had 3 girls show up, we need four to play. So originally we asked the other team if they would let us play with an extra guy. Then our team got to talking and decided that we really did not want to play in the rain. We we told the other team congrats you won and headed to Moose's Tooth for Pizza and Beer (well I had their Cream Soda since it is SOOOOO good.) Our softball team did not do so well this year but we had a good time and got to know some people from the church a lot better!

Wednesday night was the current St. John youth pastor's, Adam, last night. He and his family are leaving so they can fund raise money to start up a missionary project in Fiji! It is totally awesome. He will be in Anchorage until his house sells. So Wednesday we went to help out with the youth group and say good bye. The "activity" for the night was a cheap skate scavenger hut at the Mall. Adam gave each of the 3 groups $10 in quarters. They got 10 points for each receipt they had for exactly 25 cents. 5 points for something under 25 cents and 2 points for a receipt with something over 25 cents. The youth seemed to enjoy it, although some just used the money to buy food and hung out.

Tonight we have nothing big planned maybe go work out and had Omelets for dinner, yum. Tomorrow the church has a candidate for the new youth pastor up so we are hanging out with the youth group again!

Hope, Alaska

Bikers Down Town Hope

Hike


Sarah, Jenna, and Ruth on the Hike Waterfall in the background


Water was moving quick

Jenna and I

Jenna, Sarah, Riley and Sebastian

Me and Sebastian

The road

YOU can kinda see the road in this picture if you look close

This weekend I went on a women's retreat to Hope, Alaska. It is only about 13 miles from Anchorage if you go directly, however if you want to take the road it is about 2 hours. There were a total of 11 women down for the day Saturday but only about 6 people stayed at the cabin for the entire weekend. I rode down with Sarah and Jenna and their two dogs Sebastian and Riley. Friday we went out to dinner at discovery cafe, they had very good onion rings :) Saturday we went on a short hike in the morning, played some games around lunch, and went on an adventure after lunch. Jenna had found a hiking trail to go to and the start was at the end of Palmer Creek Road, little did we know that the end of the road would take us an hour to get to, with the last 4 miles were not maintained. At some points it looked as though you were driving into a lake. Once we got to the end of the road we walked up to a waterfall, however we somehow missed the trail and just walked through the tundra. The water fall was really pretty, you could feel the mist! We found the trail on the way back down.

Saturday night we had a Halibut and Salmon Feast with a ton of side salads. We made a fire and made som-mores outside. I am really glad that I went, it was great to get away for the weekend.