Alaskan Thanksgiving and our new family member!

THIS IS OUR PUPPYYYYYYYYY!!!! We have been patiently waiting for the right conditions to get a puppy. We now have a large, fenced-in yard and are settled in our jobs, which means a lot more time at home. We have also debated which breed is the best for us and decided on a Golden Retriever! We talked to a couple breeders here in Alaska--where purebred pups are either $1000 or close to it, plus we had our doubts with the breeders. SOOOOOO, we found a breeder in Iowa with puppies that will be exactly 8 weeks when we are home for Christmas! Jeanette and Kevin went to check them out for us and it all feels right. Now we are deciding on a name and getting travel plans arranged for bringing back a pup! Our lil guy has already met "grandma and grandpa!"... thanks again Jeanette and Kevin.

For Thanksgiving last year, our friends had us over for the whole turkey meal deal--- since neither of us have family up here it worked out really well and we had a great time. We decided to do it again this year, at our house. Adam was in charge of the turkey- he did a great job. I forgot to take a picture of it all, but it was your traditional turkey meal! We had a beautiful snow that morning and took full advantage by going sledding and skiing!The boys trying to sled--- unfortunately, the snow was too sticky for our blow up sleds. (they work really well on powdery snow!.... riiiiiiiight Jacobs and Harris family!??!?!!) We are saving them for another time.

We did hit up a ski trail, which turned into a big snowball fight! :)

This is random...... Angel is a great helper--she was helping me with the last blog. This is our chair, she sits with me whenever I am working on school stuff or on the computer! :)

This is the ice rink in our culdesac.... we had a huge, nasty ice storm. School was out for 2 days!


Speaking of horrible driving conditions, this is the video I forgot to post awhile ago. It's from our Denali trip with Grandma and Jeanette. This the the narrow/scary road we drove along the sides of mountains. You can see some tire tracks in the video which show how close some vehicles get to the edge! eeessh!

Adam had to work on Friday, so I went snowboarding with Shawn (.... he's a teacher too (same school)) and a couple other friends. The ski resort had 11 inches of fresh powder and it was blue sky all day! Absolutely gorgeous. Towards the end of the day, the ice was starting to sneak through and it got kinda rough, but it was still a blast! The picture I took of the mountain/valley is on Adam's camera, I'll have to upload it later.

Adam and Shawn went hunting today.... only cows...again. But they still had fun. Adam accidently hit the back window of the truck with his treckin stick and SHATTERED the window! I thought he was teasing, but he definitely pulled up with a shattered back window! ...kinda funny. Especially since I had just talked to our insurance company about replacing the front window. HA! ... the thing is, in Alaska, they do not put down sand or salt--- but gravel. So you can imagine, little pieces of gravel constantly fly up and hit the windshield-- it is extremely common to see chipped/cracked windshields up here. SO... I have my first Alaska-cracked windshield, I believe we will wait until the end of winter to get it fixed(the front windshield that is). And FYI... we had 4-5 chips on each vehicle mended last spring from last winter's gravel. Insurance companies will come out for free and use their special stuff to prevent chips from cracking and therefore prevent having to replace an entire windshield.

We are putting up Christmas decorations and lights, we are even more excited this year since we have our house! :)

My family had Thanksgiving today, so we got to skype with everyone after the meal. Kane was talking like crazy and the girls were sillier than ever! It made Adam and I that much more homesick, but we had a great time and it was hard to say goodbye.

Please continue to keep the Robertson family and my brother Adam in your thoughts and prayers. The Robertsons celebrated Sue's life today with family and friends. Adam is feeling better, but is still having tests taken to figure out what is going on.

Take care and know that Adam and I are thankful for each and every one of you! :)

Quite the month

Well hello, it sure has been awhile. We've come to realize that life will NEVER slow down and I know that I've stopped saying, "Oh, I'll do that when things slow down."-- because it doesn't happen. So here we are-- like over a month since my last post, sorry guys and gals! This is Chena... our "God Puppy". We puppy-sat for a few days while Erin and Shawn were back in Minnesota. Chena and I went for a hike up Arctic Valley and enjoyed the first snow of the season up in the mountains! Obviously the mountains in the background had already accumulated, but little flakes were flying around us and she loved it! :) She is an awesome dog!

This is when Adam and I were scouting for his moose hunt. The area is tag was assigned only yielded a 10% chance of taking a moose.... eeesh! You basically have to be on horse-back and trek in quite a few miles for a better chance. We'll have horses some day! He had a few days off work and enjoyed sitting outdoors, glassing for moosers. His buddy went along with him for one day and I was able to go for a couple days on the weekends. Saw quite a few cows, but no bulls! We also scouted by going up and over another mountain up the valley, it was quite the day hike! We started counting the bear poo after awhile because it was quite amazing how much there was. We ended up with 26 piles.... plus the usual moose...... and even some WOLF! eesh!

Glassing the valley on a beautiful day, keep this photo in mind for future pics!

This is the same valley..... lil bit different conditions for hunting! :) We were bummed, the fog was playing peak-a-boo with the valley, which made the situation worse.

Hiking to our spot

A nice cow we saw in between the fog

We watched these two for awhile as well. My new Canon took these pics at .6 miles away! (GPS told us the distance)

The valley is there... beneath the fog. This is shows how it seriously just ate us up within a matter of minutes!

Bye-bye mountains across the valley!

The sun trying to burn through the fog... we were hoping! But no---the fog ended our hunt for the day. :(

The Nabers and us at a public use cabin on Nancy Lake. We took canoes out, across the lake and stayed for the weekend. We fished for northern...no luck! I had one follow my lure up on the second cast and THAT WAS IT for the entire weekend! It was pretty chilly, we had to keep breaking the ice from the eyelets of our fishing poles. We were also making last calls on whether or not to go, depending on whether or not the lake was freezing over! That's Alaska for ya and we love it! :)

The main room in our cabin, holy moly this wood burner can heat things up. I woke up completely sweating through my sleeping bag and Adam ended up sleeping outside in the grass for awhile- he was so hot! Haha... we had a good laugh about that one- we were worried about getting cold! :)

Right on the lake!

The cabin and canoes

Sunrise over Nancy Lake!

Shawn has quite the lil beer brewing gig (brewing is VERY popular up here... adn Shawn sure knows his stuff!) .... he let us girls borrow equipment and guided us through brewing our own wine!!! We made white wine and it is delicious!! These girls all work with Adam at the pharmacy!

Here is Angel- watching us do P90X! She follows us downstairs every morning and falls asleep in her cat bed (well, it was actually Snickers, but she loves it!). Once we get warmed up, we shed our clothes on to her and make her nice and cozy! She's so lazy! I don't remember how detailed Adam got in teh last post- we were having trouble with her urinating on the carpet in one room. We took her to the vet right away, worried she might have infection and a little anxious it might spread before we caught it (this is what happened to Snickers)...... after all the pricey tests- she was just being a stubborn/sassy cat. We tried all kinds of "environmental" things but ended up just blocking off the one room with a baby gate and moving her litter box. Now she is fine. We figured the dog from teh previous owner must have left his mark, but we're not sure why it took her 3 months for her to do the same--- I even shampooed all the carpets.?!?! Either way-- luckily it was just in that one room and we were planning on tearing up the carpet anyway to lay down tile for our "dog" room. We had some friends over last night who have a brand new black lab puppy--- it was the first time he had met a cat. Before any of us could catch him he pounced right on top of Angel...literally jumped on top of her, wanting to play. Well she put him in his place. It was pretty funny! She has to get use to having a puppy around, we are plannign to get one soon. The plan is to bring one back from Iowa during Christmas break! She is getting along with Chena pretty well now-- I think it just takes time! :)

My screen wasn't working on my old camera-- this was just a point and shoot, but I had to try it, the mountains looked like they were on fire!

A curious young moose in our next door neighbor's trash cans! News alert-- we also have an active pack of wolves in another neighborhood in Eagle River, thankfully not ours. But unfortunate it is happening at all, the pack drug off a family dog last week. The area is on high alert--- public safety!

Adam and Chena cuddling!

The Halloween party night.... we're getting too old for this partying stuff. I fell asleep with Chena!

Adam.... er Napolean, dancing! ---Chena was very interested/confused!

Adam and I..... Napolean and Deb. I was selling keychains and taking Glamour shots to make money for college. Adam was campaigning for Pedro! There were also HeeMan and Shera, Mary and Joseph, and Juno and her boyfriend/babydaddy. Mary and Juno were our preggo friends. Kara is due in December with a girl and Sara is due in January with a boy- we are having baby showers and loving how big their bellies are!

We have been putting a lot of work into the house....still painting, doing some decor/curtains, getting ready to tear up carpet and lay down tile, getting Christmas lights, little projects here and there, etc etc. WE NEED to take pics and/or video and put it on the blog. I've just realized only our Alaskan visitors have seen the house since we've moved in and made it ours!

Just a couple more things before bed....

My brother Adam has been having fainting/dizzy spells- he had a pretty intense episode last week and is still waiting for tests to tell him what is going on. Please keep him and his wife/girls in your thoughts--- the women in his life are worrying like crazy as we are not use to him being weak in health.... but of course he is still tough and stubborn as ever!

Our sister Jess and her husband have had someone very close to them battling the most difficult battle imaginable. Within the last month they have discovered and lost his mother to cancer. It was an unbelievably short amount of time and an extreme rollercoaster of emotions as they found out and were a part of the good and bad days. My thoughts were, "how could something so horrible happen to the most amazing and perfect person?" Yet I found my thoughts immature and weak compared to the strength of their family's. Their family is made of strong, devoted Christians and I just find myself in admiration and amazment of how brave and mighty this family is. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well! I am very proud and thankful this family shares the faith and beliefs to carry them through, it was very powerful to witness.

On that... I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving..... give thanks for your health and family members adn enjoy every minute you can with them! We have a lot to be thankful for.

love you all

Busy Busy Busy (nothing new to us)

Well October is wrapped up and we have a couple inches of snow on the ground. There really isn't too much of a fall here, seems to just go straight into winter. No worries tho, there is plenty to do here in the winter and the snow/ice makes everything look BEAUTIFUL. We will have snow on the ground for the next 6-7 months now.

I went moose hunting last week for a couple days. I was lucky enough to receive a tag to hunt the upper creek area of a valley just over the mountain from our house. The tag is for any bull moose in the valley. Unfortunately I did not see any bulls, just a couple cows. The area is actually really tough to hunt with most hunters dropping a moose if they are 10-15 miles in (with the only way to get in and pack the meat out being by horse). Seeing that we don't have horses, my chances of getting a moose were slim to none... but I know Danielle would not be against getting a couple horses! Anyway, the tag is good for the next month, until the alloted number of bulls are dropped. I might head back out a couple more times this upcoming weekend, we'll see. It's pretty nasty and cold being halfway up a mountain scouting a valley while snow and wind are pelting you.

Halloween was a fun time. I was Napoleon Dynamite and Danielle was Deb. We had trick or treaters last night and as you can imagine, they have to really bundle up tight!

I tried to put the studded tires on my car this weekend, but it turns out when the dealer rotated them last, they somehow wedged them on in such a way that they are impossible to get off with the simple tools that are provider for changing a tire on the side of the road. I need to get those puppies on ASAP as the roads seem to be icy every morning.

We continue to do P90X every morning at about 4:15AM. It's hard getting up to workout, but this way it works out for both of our schedules and we don't have to worry about working out later in the day. I thought this program was going to be just a fad sorta thing, but it is for real. It pushes you hard and if you follow it to a T (or even fudge in some areas), you will definitely get results! I recommend it to anyone that wants to get in shape, get big, or loose weight and doesn't want to go to the gym. The longest workout is about 90 minutes, and they average about 75 minutes. The commitment is 12 weeks, working out 6 days a week. Check it out! (Oh, and if you do decide to buy it, let me know, because ebay is the way to go for the DVD collection and most things you need to get for the program)

We had our house energy rated. It came back as 3.5 stars. We did this because we were accepted into an energy efficiency program which reimburses you a substantial amount of money for increasing the energy efficiency of your home and reducing your carbon footprint. In addition, there are federal tax credits being offered until the end of this year for energy efficiency improvements as well. We are going to try and double dip into these incentives and that means we will be busy until the end of December.

We still haven't finished the minor cosmetic things we want to do with the inside of the house (i.e. painting, decorating, small touch-ups, etc.) This also needs to get done ASAP because I just want to not worry about it anymore (and to make our house look nicer than it already is). A big thanks to Mom and Dad for helping us get a jump start on this as well.

We are very excited to come home over the holidays. It seems like it has been forever since we saw everyone. We get into Des Moines on December 23rd and come back on Jan 1st. The next time we will be back in Iowa after that is May. We arrive in Des Moines on May 20th and return to Anchorage on the 30th.

Recently Angel has been avoiding her litter box whatever reason. The workout room downstairs turned into her own potty ground. We took her to the vet multiple times and they determined that the reason she is doing this is behavioral. We ended up buying a black light to see how many times and where she went... needless to say, it was disgusting! No matter what we tried, she continued to go to poop and pee on the carpet in that room. We decided that since she only goes in this room, we would put up a doggy door to prevent her getting into this room. This was two days ago and it has worked beautifully. She no longer goes to the bathroom on that carpet because she can't get to it. She now uses her little box like she is supposed to. We think it had something to do with the last home owners and pet they had (territorial marking?). Regardless, the pee carpet isn't a huge deal to us because we were actually planning on ripping it up in that room and putting down some kind of hardwood/ vinyl floor.

Speaking of pets, Danielle and I have started looking for another addition to our family. We are looking for a puppy! As of right now, a Bernese Mountain Dog is a the top of our list, closely followed by a Malamute, Golden Retriever, and Lab.

Starting today, the hunting lottery application begins for Alaska. This goes for two months. It is the time frame hunters have to submit entries for desired species in desired locations and times. You are only allowed to apply for three different hunts per species, so a lot of research is required to determine what tags you want to apply for, with many of the local and good hunts having a draw success rate of 1%. It costs 5 bucks per entry, but if your name if drawn, you don't have to pay any additional fees. Hopefully we can get some red meat in the freezer next hunting season.

Well I ran out of things to write about. Have a great day! (Danielle will be adding pictures soon)

Hunting Update

Well we went in to our goat hunting area only to be disappointed by what we found because the weather was not cooperating!!! It was raining like crazy the day we went in (in fact, it had been raining hardcore for about 2 straight days). We mountain biked (and I mean hard core mountain biked) with all our gear and packs for close to 7 miles. My quads were burning like crazy, but the path was getting too unridable. At this point, we got off the bikes and hiked 3 more miles along the path until we decided that we were at a point where we needed to move off the path and climb up/around a mountain to get to the railroad to our destination valley. The off the road path was INSANE!!!! Imagine the thickest possible brush you can think of... then interweave it with Devil's Club ( aka thorns galore)... then throw a 50 some pound pack on your back... then make sure you just ran a mile and can't feel your legs.... and try walking through this crap!!! Oh ya, and make sure you are climbing peaks and valleys the whole time too! I can not tell you how tired I was, only to be dissapointed by seeing that the entire valley harboring the railroad was flooded. Turns out, the weather dropped record rainfall and dangerous winds which resulted in our inability to get to our hunting spot. Granted, if the weather was good, we still had a 12 mile hike along the railroad tracks (which is semi-illegal) and then another 5 miles of so of bushwhacking at the end to get to our goal spot.... and that didn't even include climbing a mountain to look around for the mountain goat!!! CRAZY!!!

So the week of hunting turned into a couple days. The good thing that came out of this was that we were out of our hunt in time to wait in line 3 hours before 100 moose tags went up for grabs. So now I have a moose tag for a hunt that begins Oct 25th and lasts until the end of August. It is a very competitive... and convenient hunt for locals. In fact, the hunting area is just over a mountain in a neighboring valley from where we live... I say "only" but it's actually about 5 miles of hiking to get to the hunting area. I have people lined up to help pack meat out if a bag a moose... but the good thing about getting one this time of year is that you can leave your meat in a tree and retrieve it gradually as it will be nice and cool in the field until May or so now. I'll let you know how it goes.

No time to spell/grammar check. Gotta hit the hay!!

couple more videos

OOPS.....I forgot to post this a LONG time ago

Here are a few more videos that I was not able to get uploaded for the previous entry.

This is part of the roadway we drove into Denali National Park on.... one lane roads on the edge of the mountains!.... seriously... the edge!

Old reds and one VERY old king! You can see how it has black and white splotches... as if it is molding while still alive!

Jeanette and G-Ma's visit!

Jeanette and Grandma came up around the 13th-21st-ish of September. They headed out for day adventures while Adam and I worked and then we all met back at the house for some yummy dinner and stories of the day. They went on some beautiful hikes (the trees were perfectly gorgeous while they were here) and went to the animal rescue/conservation center. They also checked out downtown Anchorage and went to some fun stores. They of course were a huge help to us-they made lots of delicious food, conquered a huge pile of Adam's clothes that needed to be sewn (and a few of mine!), took Adam fabric shopping for curtains, and lots of household stuff that we didn't need to worry about when we got home at night. Adam made his favorite recipes for salmon and halibut for Grandma to try. He also did a trial of clams and caribou steak!



The first weekend, we set out to the Kenai to show Grandma the scenery along the Seward highway and to see the last of the red salmon. Adam tried his luck fly fishing for trout. We went on a pretty rough hike...I tripped over logs and brush a good number of times-- Grandma and Jeanette were troopers! Especially when we came across some crazy bear signs and were given warning of a bear coming our way by some people on a floating raft! Keep in mind that Grandma was NOT AT ALL interested in seeing a bear!



The second weekend was the BIG ONE!! Adam put all of our names in for the Denali National Park road lottery. ONLY 4 days a year are open for people to drive their own cars all the way to the end of the road in the park, BUT you HAVE to have your name drawn. Well lucky, ducky us-- my name was drawn and we got to go! It is perhaps a once in a lifetime deal... you can always take the bus but it is a different experience when you can drive yourself and go at your own pace. We started the weekend with driving to Fairbanks to check it out, we stayed the night in the city, North Pole!! There was a look out point for seeing the Northern lights, you can see the horizon nearly 360 degrees around you, however, we didn't get to see them. (Adam and I have yet to see 'em!) Instead, we had to save the forest by putting out a raging hot fire that some crazy and idiotic people left burning. The flames were blowing like crazy in the wind. We were pist! The next day we went to Santa Claus' house...which was a little disappointing... just lots of xmas decor. We were really hoping to see the elves building toys! ;) After that, we took a beautiful drive back toward Denali National Park. We stopped at some pretty sights along teh way and even at "Dry Creek" to find some rocks. We spent the night at the White Moose motel (they had real pictures of an albino moose!) and set off early for Denali.



Denali was a dream... we had the best possible conditions. There was not a cloud in the sky and Denali was beautiful as ever. Some people don't even get to see the mountain due to fog and clouds. The wildlfe was also aaaaaaaaaaamazing! It was a VERY SCARY drive along the edge of mountains but well worth it and quite the experience!



Check out the pictures... the first few pictures are kinda in random order...they are Jeanettes and I uploaded them after mine.



G-Ma's version of the famous jumping picture! She insisted on staying next to the truck and far from the edge of the moutain. She got some air!

There go Jeanette and ADam... jumping on top of the world!! :)

Baby bear on his/her (pretty sure his.. he was pretty stocky!) hind legs. The park ranger said these cubs are 2 year-olds... I had no idea, but grizzly cubs are born in the winter dens and will stay with their mama even through the next winter. She will dig/find a den for all three of them! :)

Grandma with the road going straight toward Denali in the background!

This was a griz at the animal conservation center... I guess they were being a real hoot that day!

A roadside stop... Denali in the back

Cody and me at Hatcher's Pass

A griz paw, taken at the conservation center

Adam AND GRANDMA pickin on me! :)

This caribou charged Grandma (who was behind the fence of course... at the conservation center)... he almost made her fall on her ass. What a meany! :) ...... rutting season!

Beautiful!

Proud Grandma! Adam in his uniform!

Me with a mutated red... toward the end of his run

Adam fly fishin! He hooked into one... but didn't catch any that day

I think this is when we spotted a verrrrrry old King...he was actually molding!

Adam shooting his .338 for the first time! :)

We saw the belugas!!!

Can you spot the red in the water?!?!

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Jeanette and Adam picking blueberries at Hatcher's pass... yummy! :)

An arctic ground squirrel

Check out those colors!

Adam and I in front of Denali

Adam entertaining himself... watching himself be a monkey!

At Santa Claus' house

awwwwwwwww

Giant Santas everywhere! Oh.. his reindeer were also there! (they had caribou in a pen) A funny side note... a mother and her little girl, about 3 years old, were looking at the caribou and the mother flat out asked, "Shall we make them into sausage??!?!" The girl just replied, "nah!" The same mother and daughter were inside the building and looking at a life size Santa holding a walking cane and the mother said, "Look, Santa uses a stick to chase the fox away from the chickens too!"...... Just from overhearing those blurbs.. I can tell that little girl is growing up to be quite the Alaskan woman! :)

"bear butts!"

We were at the North Pole!

Dry Creek... yes, yes... very very dry! Pretty rocks though!

Our first wildlife sighting in Denali... big ol bull!

Nice full-curl ram.... we saw SO MANY dall sheep! Most were pretty far off, or high up in the mountains though

...eeeesh... our road! Check out the video below!

Mama and her cubs. Mama and one cub are pretty blonde for griz bears! She called them in close to her because she was spooked by the noisy flock of birds flying overhead. (arctic cranes, I believe)

Just watching the bears. You can see Denali and the cars on the road as well.

This is how close/far we were from them... however you interpret it!

Breath-taking!

A couple random caribou... far from their heard

..... that would be Grandma!

Check out this big boy!... if you know what I mean!

The tones of color on the mountains were unreal! And very hard to capture on camera.

Some more sheep

This is me shooting our .44 mag for the first time. We have had this gun for awhile and carry it with us when needed but haven't shot it yet due to AMMO! The ammo up here is ridiculous expensive, so we bought some from the lower 48 and had it barged up with our furniture. I don't remember if I told you all that..... we picked out furniture from a store up here and ordered the exact same stuff from the lower 48 and had it barged up here for cheaper than just buying it in Anchorage. ....crazy huh?

....this is at a gun range not far from our house (15mins).... suppose to be one of the top ranges in the nation. We met a couple out there who helped Adam to sight in his new rifle and scope for the moose hunt. They just moved up here and have been married for a year as well. The wife is a teacher and grew up with horses as well... we seem to havea lot in common and hit it off right away. Adam is now out on a goat hunt with his pharmacy buddy. So I went to the range with our new buddies again yesterday. I am getting pretty comfortable with the 44! I think they also have convinced me to buy a .270 for myself.... I shot hers and she has it set up so well that it kicked less than my 12 gauge!

...Adam's goat hunt. I know I've wrote about it before. They ended up biking in 6 miles to set up camp. (two crazies!) They left SAturday and are coming back out on Tuesday. .... we'll see!

This video shows a bore tide.... an extremely low tide shifting to a high tide. Kinda rare to see, you have to time it right... we happened to come across it this time! The wave can get so big that people actually surf on it! There are pictures on the Anchorage Daily News website.
http://www.adn.com/