Strohmeyer's Alaska Adventure!

2011-12-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

Hope is ski jumping! Hope is now doing the Nordic Combined (cross country skiing and nordic jumping) for the winter. She skis two nights a week and jumps one night and Saturday afternoon. Here are a couple of videos.

Hope ski jumping the 15 meter jump.

Hope got the courage up to do the 40 meter ski jump on the last day of Christmas jump camp.

Here is Hope doing the 40 meter jump for the second time.

Ski Portage Lake and Glacier

2011-04-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we skied across Portage Lake to get up close to Portage Glacier. It's not quite summer up here yet!

A few weeks ago, a coworker's wife invited Hope to a dog mushing lesson. She passed the final exam by making it around the 1/4-mile track with Blitz.

Mexico - October 2010

2010-11-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

In October, we travelled to Houston to attend a cousin's wedding. We had a super time at the wedding - thank you Valerie, Alex, Bernice and Ken (and thank you Lange family for the Hope Taxi!). We had to take advantage of a plane ticket to Houston, and we went on to Mexico.

Below, Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw with Hope. And below that, most of the girl cousins (the photo is missing Valerie, the bride, and Veronica who is busy with college life).

We first went to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where we stayed with a family for a week and took Spanish lessons.

Above is the big church in the center of town. Below is the front door to the family's house where we stayed.

This is the San Miguel family. We thoroughly enjoyed their warm hospitality, delicious meals, and help with the language and culture. Below that is a photo showing how beautiful San Miguel is.
We went to a hot springs one day. It had tunnels leading to a series of pools. Hope really enjoyed exploring all of the tunnels!

Below, Hope is playing a pick-up game of futball (soccer). The boys seemed impressed with her ability to keep up and fairly assertive playing. We were enjoying some cervezas and fajitas in a restaurant that's to the left in this photo.

Leaving San Miguel, we then went to Guanajuato, Mexico - about an hour away. There are few roads running through town in Guanajuato since it was established before cars.
We rented a house in Guanajuato. Hope is at our front door. We could only access the house via a series of pedestrian alleys.

In front of our house was the donkey rest stop. The town still uses donkeys to deliver heavy items. We had 3 to 5 donkeys taking breaks in front of our house several times a day. (That's our white house in the background.)

Hope, the photographer, capturing us coming back to the house from one of the alleys.

Views of Guanajuato.

Spring in Alaska 2010

2010-05-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Spring in Anchorage allows for all sorts of activities. The cross country ski trails were still being groomed in town. We all set off and did a long, tough 8 kilometer trail called Spencer's Loop. It was Hope's first time doing it. It was a sunny and warm day. We were rewarded with great views of Denali and the Alaska Range at the top and a fun ski down.

Below is a video of Hope cross country skiing down Spencer's Loop. Click on the arrow to play.

After skiing on a Saturday we went bike riding the next day, Sunday. Nic pulled Hope around on the trail-a-bike on the slushy, not quite melted Tour of Anchorage Trail. After that we found a big empty parking lot to start teaching Hope how to ride a bike. There were many crashes and Hope's favorite bike accessory, the bell, got such a beating it didn't work by the end of the afternoon. Hope was a little torn up too, but she dusted her self off and got back on. The bike's name is Bella. She was able to make it about 30 feet before falling off. There were a lot of people out enjoying the sunny, warm (45 degrees) weather after a long winter.Next week, May 1, Hope really got it. We took her to the track of our local Junior High School and soon she was riding all by her self.

The track provided a smoother surface, with no hills and a softer landing for the inevitable crashes.

Click on the arrow for a video of Hope on her bike.

This week there is a community wide effort to pick up trash along the roads. Now that almost all of the snow is gone there is over six months of trash accumulation that is now visible. To do our part we walked from our house down to Old Seward Road to pick up trash. We had a competition to see who in the family could find the best trash. I will not tell you some of the things we found, except that Jolie won the prize by bringing home a large blue exercise ball. We ventured off the road and down to the marsh to do some exploring. We saw a bald eagle up close and Nic and Hope found some marsh water that was deeper than they expected.

Tobago

2010-02-01T21:31:00.001-08:00

Castara, Tobago Republic of Trinidad and Tobago 10 Degrees North Lattitude

To quote Jimmy Buffet, "Changes in lattitude, changes in attitude." Well, a 50 degree change in lattitude and an eighty degree change in temperature was just what the doctor ordered for us in Alaska for late December. Twelve hours of daylight versus five was nice too. After flying two days from Anchorage through Seattle and Miami and Port of Spain, we arrived on the small island of Tobago off the coast of Venezuela to find the small town of Castara. The picture below shows what it looks like as you are driving down in to the town.Below is the grocery store we frequented. It was too small for us to all be inside at the same time, so Hope and Nic would wait outside while Jolie went in to pay the owner for his produce. Once we didn't have enough money and he was closing up for the day. "Just pay me tomorrow" he said with a kind smile. Nic drove the rental Suzuki "Jeep" with right hand drive on the left side of the road with constant reminders from Hope and Jolie, to "stay left, stay left" as we would make turns into intersections. Shifting with your left hand takes a little getting used to. One day we went for a drive to check out another beach and coming home we saw two hitchhikers needing a lift. Since they looked harmless enough, especially in their primary grade school uniforms, we put them in the back with Hope and gave them a ride back to their home in the village of Castara that we were staying in. If they knew that I had the grand sum of three days of driving on the left side of the road, in a right hand drive car they probably would have waited for a safer alternative. As it turned out it was an adventure for all of us. They most likely silently wondered why each time I went to make a turn the windsheild wipers came on. We would see them again several days later after school but they denied needing a ride home again. At least from us.

If you go to the beach before noon you won't have it all to yourself. You may have to share it with the 'beach chickens'. Talk about your free range chicken. Not only could you label this organic chicken, Free Range, but you would also envy the life it had outside of the cage.

Most of the time you really did have the beach, the ocean, the waves, all to yourself.

A couple of times Nic helped the locals pull seine. After the fishermen threw their net out one end was pulled in by one group of men and the other end pulled in by more men. After about an hour of pulling the net in, there would be the fish, which would be carried about 30 yards to a fish cleaning table and sold. It was good exercise for Nic to keep up with his Nordic Ski training, and the locals appreciated the help. See if you can tell which one was Nic. No, he is not the one in the white underwear. Keep looking. He has black shorts. See him?

Not all of the fish were keepers, some got thrown back, as Hope is demonstrating.

After a hard day of swimming and snorkling we bought Roti from "Rasta Man". Rasta man had a small shack in the village of Charlotteville and sold Roti, rum punch, Carib beer and other things that make you feel good. Roti is a sandwich shaped like a burrito filled with curry. A man took a machete and chopped open a coconut for us to drink for about $1.00.

Below is the family photo of us on our fishing trip. We trolled for about five minutes when Jolie caught her first three fish (ever in her life not in a stocked pond) - then boated to a beach accessible only by boat. Then our guide started a fire, and cooked our fish and served us up a great lunch with a Carib beer after some snorkeling.

We were able to pry ourselved away from the beach and went inland a few miles and explored water falls on one of our hikes.

And this is the life...

Hope in Hope, AK

2009-11-30T21:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-24T20:48:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-09-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Volcanos, Lynx and Moose Oh My

2009-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

What a crazy weekend. Saturday afternoon we went for a walk in the neighborhood and a dark cloud began to move across the ocean towards our house and the winds began to pick up. After getting home, I stayed outside to shovel snow and soon I could smell sulpher and had grit in my mouth. Mt. Redoubt ash fall had started. Meanwhile Jolie and Hope were inside and saw four Canadian Lynx, a medium size wild cat with tufts of hair on their ears and feet as big as saucers. They are an endangered species. I missed seeing them, but.....the next morning we saw them agan and got some pictures and video. Here is a picture of Mt. Redoubt from our front deck before the eruption.

Below is Mt. Redoubt with steam starting to come out. This is on March 22, Jolie's birthday.

There were four lynx. For such an elusive animal, it is amazing to see even just one. I can't believe we watched four of them, from our kitchen windows. They were hanging out under Hope's play set and it looked like they were not happy about the ash on the snow getting in their paws. They kept shaking and licking their feet. Enjoy the pictures and the video.

In the picture above, you can see three of them.

The snow looks like a bright white from their paw prints. This is because the top of the snow is covered with ash from Mt. Redoubt. The ash is not like an ash from a wood fire, but is very gritty from the molten rock. Not good to breathe, or drive in and very abrasive. Saturday night we had 80 mph winds and it drifted the ash around the snow.

The picture below shows how big their paws are, this helps keep them up on the snow.

We called our neighbors and told them about the lynx. Then we saw a cow moose in the driveway and another moose, a bull moose, off the back deck. What a morning.

Video of the Lynx in our back yard.

2009....still winter

2009-03-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

Before Christmas, our great neighbors, Tricia, Jamin and Laney left for Scotland. We will miss them. Here is Hope and Laney, with Hope giving Laney one of her most prize possessions, a purple tu tu.

We went to Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Film Festival. Visited friends there and then drove to Colorado. Here is Grampam with the kids and grandkids.

Hope turned six January 13. Her best buddy, Tasso the cat is helping her blow out the candles.

Anchorage hosted an outdoor art festival called the Freeze Project. Here is Jolie and Hope going through a maze at 10 below zero. They don't call it the Freeze Project for nothing. This is on the Park Strip. A park down town that was an airstrip for Anchorage back in the day.

No Alaska adventure is complete without a sled dog ride. We went up to Girdwood, and although the skies were clear, it was cold, even by Alaska standards. Jolie and I took turns holding Hope on our lap in front of us, that helped break the wind for Jolie and I and kept us warm. Hope (who rarely complains about the cold) on the other hand, was so cold she had tears coming down her cheeks and her toes were numb. This ain't no Colorado ride with blankets and hot cocoa. We left the ride with a perfect imprint of our butts on a wooden seat of ice. It smelled like you were behind 16 wet dogs, with a 15 knot head wind.

Here is Jolie holding Hope in front of her.

Here is Nic holding Hope in front.

There is a new speed skating oval in town. We checked it out. It is a good work out to get in shape for the ski season. What a way to kill some time at ten below zero. The picture of Jolie with frost on her eyes was before she lost feeling in her toes. The picture of Hope and Jolie on the bench is after she lost feeling in her toes.

Jolie and I took a trip on the "ski train". The Anchorage Nordic Ski Association chartered the train and took us off the road system towards Talkeetna. It stopped at a spot called Curry and dropped us all off. It was a blue sky day; we saw bald eagles and Mt. McKinley (Denali) on the way up. Here we all are sorting out the skis.

Below is the polka band. They went through and woke everyone up at about 7:30. Then on the way back from skiing they played in the Polka Car. Jolie and Nic danced the chicken dance. Not easy on a moving train, after wine and cheese, but we met the challenge.

Above is Nic and Jolie out skiing.

Here is Jolie on the train.

Below is Nic and Hope at a cross country ski race. It was Nic's first race ever and Hope's first race ever. It is called the Sven Johansson. There are more than a couple of Scandanavians skiing in Alaska. Nic did a 30K and Hope did a 2.5K

Hope did her race at the same time Nic did his. Jolie asked Hope if she wanted her mom to go with her. Hope was adamant about doing it all by herself. After the flag went down and all of the 12 year old boys raced off into the woods, Hope was in the back of the pack, sans poles, skiing off into the woods. Jolie wasn't sure if it would be a good idea for a kindergartner to be all by her self in a maze of trails in the woods. Jolie evenually caught up with her and joined her to the finish line. Here are a few shots of Hope going out on her adventure all by herself. The last picture of the three melts my heart. Nic.

Below is Hope on the first day of spring. She was so excited about the equinox she put on her flip flops and exchanged her winter coat for a light wind breaker. It was pretty nice, finally, above 30.

Getting the Tree

2008-12-21T21:49:00.000-08:00

Nic and I feel that traditions and customs are important. Nic is better at "enforcing" them than I am. I cave to the stresses of life, and would sometimes "vote" to forego a tradition in favor of doing one less thing. Thank goodness for Nic, though, since I know these traditions will become a part of who Hope becomes as she grows up. (So, I know I don't say it enough, Thank You Nic!) One of the traditions for us is cutting down a Christmas tree. Nic has cut down a tree with his family for as long as he can remember. (We even cut a juniper tree down last year to preserve this tradition - even though our movers were coming Dec 27 to pack us all up for the move from UT to AK. The juniper tree, cut from the desert of Utah, smelled an awful lot like cat pee. Our house was on the market to sell, and we had to put the juniper on the back deck - but we did put lights on it. But, the point is, it was a tree that Nic and Hope went to the great outdooors for, searched for, cut down, and brought back to our home. I "voted" to forego last year - and I think that will be the last time I make that choice...)

This was the first year for our Alaska tree - Hope is standing in front of the one we chose. We went the Saturday after Thanksgiving to a spot about an hour south of Anchorage. It was unseasonably warm - in fact it was raining. It was warmer than any other time that I can remember getting a tree. Turns out we cut down a hemlock. It's quite nice! But, doesn't smell very "piney."

Last weekend, we had a moose sleeping outside of our dining room window. She was a joy to watch. She stayed for at least an hour. How amazing!

The three of us (4 if you count the new cat!) will be home together this year. We will still have our traditions. Nic and Hope will make Christmas cookies and make cinnamon rolls (just like his grandmother did) to bake on Christmas morning. I have some traditions too - cut and bake chocolate chip cookies when we decorate the tree - and we talk about EACH ornament as we hang it up. We talk about where it came from and share a lot of memories as we put up each one. It takes us a while to decorate this way, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's to your Christmas traditions...with love from our home to yours...here here!

Fun in the Sun in Hawaii

2008-11-29T18:28:00.001-08:00

We snuck off to Hawaii for a week in mid-November. We got an email from Alaska Airlines about an airfare sale to Honolulu, and we found a cheap place to stay (you get what you pay for) and the three of us went 10 days later. We were there for our 8 year wedding anniversary, so this was a great gift to ourselves. We stayed in Kailua - a beach town about 20 miles from the bustle of Honolulu/Waikiki. We spent a lot of time just hanging out at the beach. We played in the sand and in the surf, baked a lot of pretend sand-chip cookies, and I (Jolie) was fortunate to make yoga on the beach for four mornings (one morning for sunrise). It was a great vacation!

Hope and Nic enjoyed the boogie board, but I suppose I still have my New Orleans bones because I thought the water was chilly. That didn't stop me from enjoying a lot of nothing on the beach. We spent a day snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. I can't believe how incredible that was. It is a state park that gets really crowded, but in good Nic fashion, we were one of the first people there in the morning. So, it was great. I forgot all about the chilly water when we were snorkeling, because there were fish galore. But, the first thing was saw was truly wonderful. The three of us were swimming, holding hands, and a sea turtle swam right up to us. All 3 of us watched him and we were giving each other the "thumbs up" since we couldn't really talk about it with snorkels in our mouths. Since that was the first thing we saw (before fish even), I thought we'd be seeing sea turtles all day. However, that was the only one we saw and I think it's because we were there so early. This is a picture (that we didn't take) of what the turtle looked like while we were looking underwater. Truly amazing!On the last day, we visited Pearl Harbor and walked around Honolulu's China Town. We saw women making leis, and we bought one for Hope. It had plumeria and orchid and smelled absolutely wonderful. She brought the lei to show and tell and we used it as part of a Hawaiian Princess outfit for a Pirates and Princess party the weekend after we got back.

TASSO THE CAT!!!! I keep meaning to post photos of our new cat Tasso. He is now about 9 months old. He is an absolute wild and crazy cat. We were looking for a cat who Hope could play with and who was kind of "dog-like." Well, we got Tasso. He is very outgoing, and not afraid of anything. Purrs constantly. He lets Hope cart him around holding only one leg. They are best buds. With that, though, comes a cat who is NOT afraid of the squirt bottle or anything else for that matter. We keep hoping he'll mellow out as he ages. We'll see...

(Hope was a cheeetah, again, for Halloween. She picked it - I promise!)

Fall

2008-11-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

The weather turned out great for Fall. Nic's mom and dad "Grampam and Grandpa" came and visited. It was great to have Pam and Larry here in Alaska. We were able to show them around, and they went to Seward for a few days by themselves. They also helped us finsish some projects around the house. Of course, they spent a lot of time playing with their Hope.

Here is Hope helping Larry and Nic split wood for the wood stove to help heat our house for the winter.

We went for a hike on Winner Trail outside of Girdwood.

Above, is the hand cart that we used to cross a small canyon with the creek at the bottom. Two people (or two with a 5 year old) is all that fit in the cart.

Hope's Cross Country Training
We've experienced a great fall. Hope ran her first cross-country running race (maybe the first of many to come?). Here she is after "winning" her first medal, and with our friend, and her classmate, Tatum.

We all went for a hike to Hatcher Pass, north of Anchorage. It is the site of an old silver mine. We lucked out with beautiful weather again and had a great day exploring the area.

Nic took his parents on a short but steep hike above the Turnagain Arm for a view of the Kenai Peninsula. Once at the top they were treated to a spectacular view on a great clear day in September.

Above are a few pictures of us hiking to Portage Glacier. Hope wanted to keep hiking and we went bouldering for a while. Some hockey players on the same hike were not going to go further down the trail, until one of them pointed out the fact that a 5 year old girl kept going. "Dude, she owns those rocks," one of them commented to no one in particular.

On Columbus day we had to take Pam and Larry back to the airport. We awoke to snow and a suprise guest on our front steps eating the rose bushes. Shoo moose shoo.

First Day of School!

2008-08-27T22:51:00.001-07:00

Hope started Kindergarten at Denali Montessori yesterday. Her teacher is Mrs. Irene. Hope loves it! She wants to eat "lunch on a tray," so today she got the hot lunch. It was very impressive - egg roll, rice, and a "peach thing." She loves it and wants to have lunch on a tray tomorrow too.

Grumps, my dad, brought Hope back to Alaska from two weeks in New Orleans where she had a lot of fun and played a lot of Uno (the card game).

One of our favorite activities these days is going to the raspberry bushes in front of our house and gobbling up all of the ripe berries. The morning of the first day of Kindergarten was no exception.

Trip to Seward, Alaska

2008-08-18T20:40:00.001-07:00

In August, Jolie's mom came to visit and we went to check out Seward. We took a boat ride around Resurrection Bay and saw whales, sea otters, sea lions, seals, eagles, loons, oh my! It was a lot of fun, but not real toasty. A boatride is something all visitors should do.

Glaciers:

Glaciers calving - booming and splashing - it's an incredible site!
We saw several humpack whales - Nic did a good job of getting this dive captured with our camera:

Judy is getting our photo with the New Orleans' daily paper, The Times Picayune - we'll let you know if we're published in the paper:
Steller's Sea Lions sunning (?? - sun is all relative - ??) themselves:

A side trip to Exit Glacier outside of Seward the day before the boat ride:

The sun making a rare appearance on a picnic on our way to Seward:

In case anyone is following our remodel, pics will be posted soon. And we are DONE!...with the things we're paying others to do. Is anyone ever truly done??? Well, we are as done as we can be for now. Of course, there's always the paint touch-up, picking out the right thing to hang on a strange wall, etc. And there is still more fun to be found outside (we've identified the trees to sacrifice to improve our view of the ocean!). The saga will continue - as most of you can relate to. And summer is almost over - WHAT HAPPENED??? Still hoping some of you will make the time to visit the last frontier!

Love, us!

Father's Day in Cordova, Alaska

2008-06-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

We went to Cordova, Alaska for an amazing Father's Day weekend. Our house is a total sheetrock mess and we have no kitchen, dining room or living room (along with missing various parts of other rooms - we continue to miss things like real stairs, showers, carpet). [As an aside, Hope wins daughter of the year award because a few weekends ago, after a little too much partying at Kid's Fishing Day, hot dog, space walk, hula hoop, snowball, etc. - she threw up on our brand new subfloor - but she missed the BRAND SPANKING NEW CARPET by 4 inches - way to go Hope!]

This is Whittier...the jumping off point for Cordova...it was built during WWII - and has an interesting history to it...

Our weekend was a fabulous one - full of North America's longest tunnel (see http://www.dot.state.ak.us/creg/whittiertunnel/index.shtml) - where you travel for almost 3 miles on a single-wide lane that was closed to vehicles until about 3 years ago).

After the tunnel in Whittier, it's on the ferry to get to Cordova (http://www.cordovaalaska.com/). The ferry is pretty pricey (almost $400 round/trip for the 3 of us - 4 of us if you count Dora van), but it's an adventure itself. On the ferry we saw humpback whales (blowing and tail fins), Dall porpoise, sea lions, sea otters, eagles.

Some pictures of us in Cordova...

THE BEAR STORY! As told by Nic

We found a short 1.6 mile round trip interpretive hike to end our day late Sunday afternoon before dinner. The trail made it's way up through a forest to a look out bluff where you can look down at the valley below that you hiked from and perhaps catch a glimpse of trumpeter swans, bald eagles, maybe a moose munching grass or even a bear. About a third of the way up a young couple were quickly making their way down stopping just long enough to tell us that from the top they could see a bear way down in the valley walking towards the road. They were hoping to run down to the trailhead, get in their car and see if they could see the bear. We beat feet to the top, and got out the binoculars once we reached the over look. Jolie and I took turns looking and looking. We saw the couple's car way off in the distance driving the road. We couldn't see the bear. We didn't even see any swans or much of anything. Hope sat on a bench at the overlook eating a snack as Jolie continued to scan the vast Alaskan landscape hoping to see something. I looked back at Hope, heard a noise and saw something brown flash by. Maybe it was a bushy squirl's tail. I turned back to the overlook and heard a "Haramph" then back again at Hope. About 30 feet behind her was a grizzley bear sniffing the air and ambling up the hill towards us. I grabbed my pack with the bear spray, got my hand on the trigger and grabbed Hope with my other hand. Jolie and I both put our hands in the air and told the bear to go away (Jolie was actually shaking her finger at the bear as if he just hit a base ball through our window). The bear didn't run away like we hoped. We shoved our binoculars, water, and snacks back in the back pack and backed away from the bear. We put Hope beteween us and quickly made it back to the VW van. My heart rate went back to normal after two beers and three smores around the campfire that night. I didn't have time to take a picture, but here is a black bear that went by our house and van parked in our driveway in Anchorage.

Craig's List part II

2008-05-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

CRAIGS LIST in Alaska appears to be the go to place. Below is an article about the huge response received when a dead moose was put on CRAIGS LIST in Anchorage. The response was bigger than our rolls of blue carpet (more carpet will be ripped out of the house soon, so stand by CRAIGS LIST watchers). It makes me laugh.

Alaskans find takers for dead moose online
CRAIGSLIST: Interest is high, but giving away carcasses is risky, biologist says.
By JAMES HALPIN jhalpin@adn.com
Published: May 20th, 2008 01:47 AMLast Modified: May 20th, 2008 03:51 PM
When a 300-pound yearling moose stumbled into Calvin Hay's Hillside yard and died this month, he called the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, expecting the carcass would get hauled away.

Instead, he found out he was on his own.
"I guess I assumed that they would come deal with it," he said. "I kind of joked around a little bit; I said, wait a minute, aren't you the guys that say moose are, like, natural resources and they belong to all of us, but now that it's dead, it belongs to me?"
Turns out that's about right. So Hay, 46, posted an ad for a "dead moose" on Craigslist, a classified ad Web site, becoming at least the second person to do so in Anchorage this spring.
"You could use it for dog food or stuff it and put it (in) your front yard, bear bait, whatever," says the ad. "If you live in the Lower 48, this might be your best opportunity to get a free Alaska moose. I don't really care; I just want it out of my yard."
Within minutes, the responses began flooding in, he said. He got at least 50, including one poster who offered to take just a quarter: "I want it. But I can only take a haunch. I got only a small knife and a bicycle."
When moose die and their meat is deemed inedible -- often because the cause of death is unknown -- they become the responsibility of whoever owns the land they end up on, said Rick Sinnott, the Anchorage-area wildlife biologist for Fish and Game. When they die on public land, the responsible agency takes care of removing the carcass. On private land, it's up to the owner.

I think I have seen that guy that only has a small knife and a bicycle.

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've posted. I guess that means we've been busy (we have!). Today, though, we spent the day exploring and hiking around Hope, Alaska (about 90 miles from Anchorage). Before that, as part of our usual morning routine, we said good morning to the ocean, to the mountains, to the trees, and this morning...to a MOOSE...nibbling the landscaping in our front yard. On the way home, about 1/2 mile from our house, we spotted this bear:

It seems like we have been working non-stop on getting our house in order. Nic and I have started using a phrase that we did not invent, but can understand. It's "TIA." TIA stands for "This Is Alaska" and it's used to describe any multitude of idiosyncrasies or irritations that could be unique to this island state (like $4 avocados, or the fact that I can't find Annie's Cheddar Bunnies anywhere). Or like the fact that we ordered bathroom windows to fix this problem (portrayed in the bathroom below) about 6 weeks ago, and they'll be in "soon." Consequenetly, we've been about 4 weeks without a bathroom and no end in sight (Nic has reminded me to note that we ARE using a bathroom - we have more than 1 - so we're not that Alaskan...). The good thing is it'll be really nice when it's all done. The kitchen starts in a few weeks and I know that won't be fun.

At the end of April, we had a whopper of a snowstorm. In fact, it was Anchorage's THIRD BIGGEST SNOWSTORM ever. Nic couldn't get over the fact that he's shoveling 18"+ of snow at 9 PM and it's practically broad daylight. We are getting used to the daylight, but it does throw off your sleep. Our sleep patterns may never be "normal" again until we move back Outside (another TIA, they/we call the lower 48 states "Outside" with a capital "O" - the newspaper even refers to it as such).

Wildlife

2008-02-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

Nic here...............so far we have seen a moose every week since moving to Anchorage. Hope and I even saw "Buzzwinkle" downtown. This is the moose made famous by first getting his antlers caught up in a kid's swing set bad enough that the Alaska Fish and Game had to dart him, untangle him, tag and release him. In November the same moose was tangled up in Christmas lights downtown and stumbling drunk on fermented crab apples, in front of a local tavern no less. He is still downtown, sober, but with a mark on his hind quarter indicating a collision with a vehicle. Tonight we saw two moose running through the backyard. Here is one we saw between our house and the local elementry school. Bald eagles are plentiful too. It will be exciting when summer comes to see more wildlife. We went for a drive and short hike at sunset (3:30) a few weeks ago and watched the ravens migrate back to the mountains to roost after a day of scrounging the fast food dumpsters downtown. From here we could see all of Anchorage bowl. Here are a couple of pictures, one with the sky line and one with the setting sun over the frozen ocean with a volcano in the background.

Our first February in Anchorage, Alaska

2008-02-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

Family and Friends: It seems a fitting day to update our blog since this is the FIRST day we've seen moose meandering (or thundering more like it) through our backyard. Last week I followed a snowshoe hare hopping up the driveway.

We have finally moved into our house and are enjoying it - we love the views of ocean, mountains, trees and few neighbors (ok, and today a couple of moose). We moved in a little over two weeks ago and just only got telephone service a few days ago. We have a choice of two companies - one is terrible and the other one doesn't ever answer their phone. We chose the terrible company.

Check out views from our guest room (come stay in it!!).

We are enjoying our time here, although we get homesick at times. Hope is adjusting the best of all of us. She is making some friends. We went skiing Saturday and as we're getting out of the car, she starts talking to the kid getting out the car next to us. Turns out they go to the same preschool.

We have been trying to clean out our garage (the previous owner left us lots of "useful" things). One of which is a pile of carpet remnants. So, tonight we try to rid ourselves of the remnants so we don't have to pay to bring it to the dump. We posted the carpet for free on Craigslist and within 30 minutes of posting, we got 3 phone calls and 2 emails. Maybe the previous owner was on to something...hmmm...what else can we get rid of on Craigslist????

Some more photos of our activities in Alaska:

This is our playset in our backyard.

Nic and Hope are in the street in front of our house. We walked up the hill and they sled to our house down the street. Hope is in front of the playhouse built for her (and for holding tires - studded ones in summer and regular ones in winter). It was kinda chilly this day - I don't recall it getting any higher than negative 10 degrees.

Some of you will recognize our furniture in this foregin living room - that's how it still feels for now...

Skating at Goose Lake at the Ice Skating Festival! Hope is riding on a bucket and I am pushing. She found this a better way to get around the ice. Notice the "new" ice skates. They are much more comfortable than what I reported on the last blog.

Hope is enjoying helping shovel snow. She has also taken a liking to Windex and paper towels while we're not looking. She cleans EVERYTHING!

See some of you next month when we get around to Colorado and New Orleans...

With love, from all of us!

Our first two weeks in Anchorage - posted January 13

2008-01-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

Hi friends and family! We are trying this blog thing again since we have so many things that are fun to share. We arrived in Alaska December 30, 2007 to make sure we were here at the beginning of the year so we could particpate in the 2008 Alaska Permanent Dividend Fund. (Some of you may have heard you get paid to live in Alaska - and this is what they mean. Every man, woman, and child gets anywhere between $1,000-$2,000/year for being a resident.) As we were taking the angel off the top of the tree December 26, we weren't sure that it was worth the post-Christmas rush to get here. But, now that we are here, then I guess it worked out just fine.

We've been busy figuring out our way around town - Hope's school, the best grocery, where to buy warm socks (never knew my feet would get be so cold all the time!), the way back to our cubicles from the bathroom at work, our hotel, our apartment, etc. We are getting it down, a bit. It'll change some more when we actually move into our house which is scheduled for February 1.

This photo is of the entrance to Nic's work. It seems weird to see a BLM sign with snowy trees in the background.

On the weekends we have made it a priority to get outside and do stuff - nevermind the dang cold (and today was the coldest it's been all season - the high was zero and when we returned from pizza tonight, the thermostat on our car said minus 4).

Here is a picture of Hope and Nic skiing last weekend at Hilltop Ski Area. Hilltop is the little ski area in town that is about a 10-15 minute drive from our house. Can you see the ski jumps in the background? Hope really wants to ski off of those, but we are explaining that she has to learn how to ski first. She seems kind of exasperated at that fact. (Mom - we had her in the car right before this picture. Don't worry - we are keeping mittens on her when we're playing outside!)

Notice the frosty face on Nic? Check out the bear sign behind him...

I skied here yesterday (I had frosty eyebrows and eyelashes). It's great because Nic and I can cross country ski while Hope takes her two hour downhill lesson ($25 including lift ticket - you can't beat that price!). Nic and I took different trails yesterday (mine was flatter). My trail was probably groomed within the previous 6 hours, and there were more animal tracks (moose, coyote(?), etc.) than ski tracks. I was trying to make a lot of noise without completely embarassing myself just in case I came across another skier (I didn't). I swear that one of those tracks had rrreeaallllyyy long nails (I was thinking bears - but maybe I have an active imagination - and I did see that sign before I started skiing).

Today is Hope's 5th birthday. Where did the time go? We got her ice skates for her birthday, but they were kind of a bust since they're a little uncomfortable. Novice Alaska parents didn't see how they fit BEFORE we got out of the car at -1 degree, and I admit we didn't do a real good job of getting them adjusted to her feet. She doesn't complain much usually, but she could hardly walk, let alone skate. So, our plan this week is to get those skates figured out. I, however, did skate for about a mile just enough to feel like I did something, and Nic skied around the lagoon (where Hope and I skated). Here are some photos from our adventures today.

Hope and me on Westchester Lagoon (close to downtown). This is before we had to extricate the skates.

Below is a photo of all of us with Anchorage in the background. We are near the airport (on a little excursion following ice skating).

Here are some candles (blowing out and subsequent licking of chocolate icing) from a few hours ago in our little rental apartment.