Hope in Hope, AK

Friday following Thanksgiving, we rented a cabin in Hope, AK through the Nordic Ski Association. Hope is a really cute town about 90 miles from Anchorage on the roads (5 miles as the crow flies across the Cook Inlet!). We went during a snowstorm - driving to Hope we noticed the snowflakes appeared as big as pringles.

We cross country skied two days. Hope is part of a program that teaches kids to cross country ski. She skies Tuesday and Thursday evenings after school and Saturday mornings. It's pretty low key when you're 6, but many of the kids just a bit older can out ski me pretty easily. I have a glimpse of Hope out skiing me pretty soon!!

On the trail, this friendly dog (we nicknamed Dumbo Dog due to the size of her ears - not because of her intelligence since she was very bright and silly) adopted us and played with Hope

the evening and part of the next day. In the photo above, the sun is setting (it's 4:30) and the sky was the most amazing rosy pink. The picture doesn't capture it well, but it was so beautiful.

Sunday night, my friend Callie and I took Tatum and Hope to see the Nutcracker performed by a ballet company from Oregon with the Anchorage Symphony. Our favorites were the Russian dancers.

Fall Fun

LABOR DAY, SEPT 2009 (Above) -- We had an amazing fall trip to see our nation's largest National Park -- Wrangell St. Elias and the small town of McCarthy, Alaska. The weather and jaw-dropping scenery couldn't have cooperated better! Hope has proven herself as a worthy hiking partner, hiking 10 miles without complaint. We saw the most amazing technicolor bear scat - hot pink from the abundant currants and other berries (but no bears on this trip). We spent two nights at cute (i.e., tiny) historic hotel in McCarthy. We ran into quite a few people we know and we have decided to try to make this an annual Labor Day Trip.

NEW ORLEANS, OCT 2009 (Below) -- In October, we headed to New Orleans to celebrate cousin Vanessa's fun wedding and visit with friends and family! First stop was Lake Fausse State Park outside of Lafayette (Cajun Country). We experienced alligators (oh no cocodrie!) and mega-mosquitos and crawfish etouffe and canoes and Banangrams and a lot of fun with Grams and Grumps.

Next on the agenda was the wedding and its preparations. Hope was the flower girl - she's quite a pro and loves all the fuss surrounding weddings. The wedding reflected Vanessa's and Teddy's traditions and families and we had all of the cousins in one room for the first time in several years. We passed a good time yeah cher.

We had a 7-hour layover in Chicago on the way home. No better way to end a trip to New Orleans than adding on a little deep dish pizza and Millenium Park lagniappe.
WOLVERINE PEAK, AK, October 2009 -- Returning from New Orleans, the following weekend we took a hike up to Wolverine Peak (one of the ones in the Chugach Range that you can see from Anchorage). We didn't make it to the top because we got blueberry sidetracked. Good thing since the frost came the very next day. We got the last of the 2009 Alaska blueberries and we are enjoying them still!


HALLOWEEN 2009 -- Hope was a Snow Cheetah this year. Not to be confused with the Baby Cheetah in 2005, Plain Cheetah in 2006, Leopard in 2007, and Alaska Cheetah in 2008. We have had 3 Cheetah costumes in the past 5 halloweens. Alas, in 2009 it was not a white Halloween for the very rare Snow Cheetah (which was just fine with me!).

Alaskan Summer - Our Second Summer!

Now that our second summer is over (yes summer defnitely is over here!), we will finally get around to posting some highlights. Thanks to everyone who made the trek up to the land of the great north!

To kick-off a most wonderful summer, the Salt Lake City Burians came to visit. We had a great time with Carson, Cindy and Steve. The weather was record-breaking warm and we went to Denali National Park. North America's highest peak, Mt. McKinley (aka Denali at 20,000 feet) was in full glory (it's only visible about 30% of the time!). It would be a lie to say that "oh, it's always this nice in late April." The Burians must be living right! On that trip, we saw ptarmigan, caribou, Dall sheep and even a wolf.




Then, we completed a 26-mile bike ride around Eklutna Lake on Mother's Day. Hope, though pulled by Nic on her trail-a-bike (kiss the person who invented that if you see him - it's awesome!!), managed to ride 26 miles and pedal her third of the bike for 5 hours. By mile 20 Nic and I were exhausted and we weren't talking much. We had seen a bear on the ride up near a loud, running stream and the best way to avoid bear encounters is to make noise. Hope pulled her weight and sang the Great States song about 50 times, in honor of each of the 50 states. We rewarded ourselves with malts and ice cream cones when we got back to the trailhead!

For Memorial Day, the Brandes bunch from Colorado came over! It was so much fun to see our nephew Sawyer! Nic and Hope were able to spend some fun times hiking with Will and Becky and little soy sauce as Hope has nicknamed him (Hope LOVES soy sauce, so it's really a loving term of endearment).
Will and Hope at Flat Top:Can you spot little Saywer in the backpack with Becky and Will?

A few weeks after Will, Becky and Sawyer left, we tried our hand at digging razor clams. We loaded up Dora and went to the Kenai peninsula. Below is Jolie and Hope with the clam gun. Again, such amazing weather and scenery!

We did have some rainy days, and one of those was Father's Day. We hiked up near Arctic Valley ski area. It snowed at the top! We had fun bouncing on the tundra (it's really bouncy - who knew??).

To start off Hope at Camp Grandparents, Jolie flew with her to Vermont for 4th of July. We saw fireworks over Lake Champlain from Cedar Cove's large windows. It was our third July 4th in Vermont. I only stayed a few days, then I was back to Alaska to help with some of the wildfires in Fairbanks. Nic was already working on some of the fires there. Hope went to the North Hero summer camp and made some new friends. After about 10 days in VT, Pam flew with Hope to New Orleans to start session 2 of Camp Grandparents with my parents. This is Hope's third summer at Camp Grandparents - and she loves it. As long as the Grandparents are offering sessions, we'll sign her up!

Above, GramPam is rescuing Hope's tube.

Then, the Troxclair Clan arrived in tow with Hope from the deep south. Jolie's mom, Judy, Aunts Rose, Maureen, Suzanne, and Bernice and Uncle Ken descended upon Alaska! We had a great time visiting and cooking and exploring Homer and Seldovia. Nic and Ken did a halibut charter and we are enjoying their catch still. Judy and Rose

Ken and Bernice

Everyone took lots and lots of photos.

Beach in Homer



And finally, here's a picture of the other days in our summer. Poor, deprived Hope having to make toys with cardboard boxes.

When Hope was visiting the Lower 48 Jolie and Nic took advantage of our Alaska residency and went dipnetting. Our family was allowed up to 75 fish. We did not quite get that many, but we do have a couple nice size ones in the freezer for this winter. It is not a quiet, solo, wilderness experience. Think county fair/carnival crowd. Quite the mix of Alaskans.
Continuing our subsitence gathering we went blueberry picking again this fall. We are getting better at finding the right spots. The tundra changes colors and the ocean and sky make for some great scenery in the fall.