Photos

So I'm going to buy a SLR camera soon so I've been playing with my little digital camera lately and some of the pictures that I have taken are actually pretty good I think. Here's a few that are my favorite, let me know what you think:

SUNSHINE!

Since we have arrived in Juneau there has only been one rainy day. We have been loving the warm weather. Monday was my day off and I went for a bike ride and rode to the glacier and to the westside of the Glacier to Skater's Cabin. Skater's cabin is a place on Mendenhall Lake, which is created by run-off from the glacier. It's a great place to hang out and a lot of the locals use it in the winter when they go ice skating on the lake.

Here are some pictures of beautiful Juneau that I snapped while on my bike ride.

Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall River
Mendenhall Lake with the glacier in the back
Skater's Cabin

Monday night for FHE we went on a walk on the dyke trail. This trail goes around the airport and the landing pond for the float planes. A few planes came in and took off while we were on our walk and it was cool to watch them come and go.

We also had to take a picture of us in the sunshine because we are trying to convince Brett's parents to come up during the summer but Suz says that all of our pictures last year looked too cold with us wearing our jackets all the time so she doesn't want to come up here because she doesn't want to be cold. It's beautiful weather right now and we are sure enjoying it. We're hoping it will stick around for the summer. And if any of you see Suz and/or Craig you should talk them in to coming up here and seeing us while they can come for cheap. So here's our picture for you Suz :) and one of the Joneses for my parents and see how dang cute Dax is in his snugli (if you look close you can see the float planes behind us). The bottom picture is of a plane that is just about to take off.

Last leg of our journey

We boarded the Alaska Marine Highway boat named TAKU on Thursday morning, May 14. We had to be there by 9 am and didn't load until 11:15 am. After we explored the ship and found everything that we were going to need for the next 26 hours we hunkered down for a nap then woke up and started watching "Yellowstone Aflame", (a movie) on our computer. We were trying to make Brett really homesick already because there aren't big fires in Juneau... In the middle of our movie they came over the PA system and asked if there were any doctors or nurses on board to please go immediately to the a certain spot on the boat. Come to find out one of the crew members had a heart attack and was in pretty rough shape. We never found out what his role was on the boat but soon they had turned the boat around and were headed to meet the Canadian Coast Guard somewhere in the middle of the water. We had to use the Canadian Coast Guard because we were still in Canadian waters so the American Coast Guard couldn't respond to our call.

It took about another hour for the Coast guard to get to us (Ashton Kutcher would be so disappointed..) Then once they got there it took another 1 1/2 hours to get the poor guy loaded onto the Coast Guard boat. We never actually saw the man but one of the other passengers said that they were doing chest compressions like crazy when they were loading him and they had a grief meeting for all crew members and any passengers who helped him. Unfortunately, we don't think the poor guy made it back to land alive. But we don't have any for sure confirmation on that. Here's some pictures we got of the incident.

A small boat full of fisherman came over to watch

On the rest of our journey we saw the city of Ketchikan, humpback whales breaching (breaching means jumping out of the water), and we sleep quite a bit. We did stop in the city of Wrangell and Petersburg but it was early and we didn't get any pictures. Upon on our arrival, Brett and I both rushed downtown to fill out some paperwork for our jobs so we could start working on Saturday, May 16. Then returned to Megan and Zach's house to get settled in for the summer. Megan and Zach purchased a house last summer just before we left. The house they purchased was a fixer-uper and needed some TLC, most, if not all was done after we had returned to Utah. So their house looks a lot different and is so cute. They have done a great job fixing it up and I even dare lay on the floor and eat out of the kitchen now. :)

Sunday we both had to work. Brett didn't have to be there until later so he was able to attend church and then go to work. It is great being back to work. I was just thrown back into what I were doing last summer with no refreshers. I was kind of scared for the first couple of tables that I took but quickly fell back into the routine of things. It's great to be back and be here with Megan and Zach enjoying the summer once again. We are home, once again, in Alaska!

The town of Ketchikan stretches along the coast (the majority of the town in the picture)

This man slept nearly the entire journey, we wanted to tickle his feet a couple of times but we resisted the temptation

A breaching whale (it's smaller so we think it's a calf)

A breech splash

whale's tale

Dax got out of his swing with this sweet hair-do. I think Brett's going to try and copy it.

Day #3

Day 3 of our journey began today in Prince George. We drove through some gorgeous country. Today was probably the most beautiful country that we have seen. Tonight we are staying in Prince Rupert. We will board the ferry tomorrow at 9:15 am, leaving at 11:15 am and arrive in Juneau Friday afternoon at about 12:30 pm. We bound to see more beautiful country along the way. We'll keep the picture coming. Here's a few more from our drive today.

Brett and I driving... fun! fun! fun!

Bird poop on our window... YUCK!
a falling rock sign, there is no words, just pictures
Road signs that are urgent look like this...

Our Journey to Alaska

Our journey to Juneau began yesterday morning at about 9 am. We spent the night at the Falslev's house and left a little after 9, heading to Newton to load up Brett's bike and take off. We actually got on the road at about 10 am. We headed up through Idaho and Montana and hit the Canadian border at about 6:30. We saw a ton of beautiful country. Just north of Dillon Montana was our favorite part of the drive. Unfortunately, because of our 12 hour drive we didn't stop to take any pictures but it was gorgeous country.

We stayed in Calgary Monday night at a Days Inn. We were so glad to be done driving for the day and have a clean place to rest our weary heads.

Tuesday morning we woke up to cold, rainy weather in Calgary. We weaved our way through the streets of Calgary and finally found our way out of the massive place. We drove through the Banff National Forest for about half of our drive today. It was so gorgeous! It was kind of a rainy day so there was quite a few clouds so we didn't get to see everything but we saw some gorgeous country. Here are a few pictures from our journey:

A statue of Christ carved out of granite in Butte

A bridge just inside of the Banff National Forest

What most of the drive through Banff looks like - GORGEOUS!

Cool mountains in Banff

A bear on the side of the road

Some of our favorite parts about our journey so far:

- seeing elk and big horn sheep in Montana

- the statue of Christ in Butte, Montana

- crossing the border, the patrolman was very serious - not joking around at all

- watching a HUGE tractor drive down the FREEWAY in Canada

- Gorgeous Banff area

- seeing the Elders in some town in Canada

- Old Man River

- Jack Ass Junction

- a town named "Blackie"

- the road signs in Canada

- figuring out the whole killometer thing

- watching a bear for a few minutes hanging out on the side of the road

I DID IT!

Yesterday was the big Graduation Day! Yeah! I am FINALLY done with my undergraduate career. I don't think it feels as nice to graduate knowing that I will be going back in a few months but it still feels pretty darn great. I'm actually finished with my undergraduate career! YEAH! After the ceremony my family headed to The Black Pearl to eat some grub. It was fantastic food and great company.

The highlight of the evening is when my brother-in-law Sean was dared to eat a huge ball of whasabi and HE DID IT!!!! Afterwords, he went to to restroom and within about 5 minutes there was a lines of about 5 men waiting for him to come out. It was hilarious! But he actually seemed to be doing fine.
Brett and the family gave me money to pick out a camera, a more professional camera

Thanks everyone for your love and support. I sure do appreciate it!

Here are a few pictures (ok... LOTS OF PICTURES) from the wonderful event!

Me and Brooklyn

Jamilin, Me and Becca (my study buddies)

my best friend Heidi

Falslev Family

My parents

siblings: Dillon, me and Megan

Petersen Family

Me and Dax

Me and the Bull

Brett and me

Graduation Cake

The coupon for my new camera!

Sean: swallowing the whasabi