Dax Man!

So I got an SLR Camera a few weeks ago and I LOVE IT! I decided to go with a Nikon d60 and ever since I got it I have taken at least 10 or 15 pictures every single day. I really like it. I love being able to take great pictures of the beautiful place that we are in but I would have to say my most favorite thing to shot is my nephew, Dax. He is such a funny kid. He is starting to interact with people a lot more and is become more alert every day.

Yesterday he got his first hair cut and he looks like a completely different kid. He looks so much older and a little chubbier. I also think that he looks more like his mom did when she was a baby.

This little guy is growing like a weed! Here are some the pictures that I have taken of him and a few of his first haircut.

Let the FUN begin!

We have been chomping at the bit for the last month just waiting for the chum salmon (also referred to as dogs) to start running. We have been out to Amalga Harbour on numerous occasions just to check if the fish were running. Every time we have been disappointed and left feeling a little down. However, our luck changed on Monday night when the boys decided to leave the girls at home to watch the Bachelorette and go fishing. They had a great time snaggin' some dogs. Tuesday was a pretty rainy day and we had a night in but Wednesday was an AWESOME night for fishing. Brett and I headed out around 8 pm and didn't leave Amalga until after 10 pm. We were catching lots of fish! On Brett's 2nd cast of the night he snagged one that was a fighter that ended up snapping his line. We caught about a half dozen fish but only ended up keeping one (one that I caught). The reason we don't keep them when we catch them is because they have already started to spawn and therefore are deteriorating so their meat is not any good. Even though we aren't keeping them it is so much fun. It's so much fun that I dare say my mother-in-law would love to snag a salmon. :) There's no feeling like that of having a big fish pull hard on your line and fight like heck to stay in the water. I even have a few blisters on my right hand from holding onto the pole and pulling so hard. The weather was fantastic and the fishin was great. We're hoping for some more wonderful days of fishing that are yet to come!Here's a few pictures that I captured of our evening unfortunately there aren't more pictures because my camera battery died from taking so many pictures. There was an absolutely beautiful sunset and some amazing eagle shots that I could have taken but I'll have to get them next time... Enjoy! If you click on this picture you'll notice the salmon jumping in the air on the left hand side

Happy Father's Day!

I have such awesome men in my life that I wanted make sure they knew just how much I love them. I have the best husband ever and even though he's not a Father yet, he will be someday...! He is such an awesome guy. He is the biggest sweetheart and means so much to me. He's such a blessing in my life. Thanks for always taking such great care of my babe.


My dad is such a great example. He is always sacrificing so much for our family, he has ever since I can remember. He is also so willing to help out anyone and everyone around him. Thanks for being such a great example to me and for all of your love and support throughout the years.

My father-in-law, Pops or Sparks as we like to call him, has taken me in and has loved me like his own. I'm so grateful for everything that he does for me and Brett. He is such a great example. Thanks so much for all you do!

I'm so blessed to have such great men in my life. They are all so good me - I am blessed. Happy Father's Day!

A brief catch up

So I have returned to Juneau. I got back into Juneau on Thursday, May 9. We left Tok after I finished the dinner shift on Monday night. We got out of there at about 9:30 and drove the almost 3 hour drive back to Fairbanks and then hopped on a plane the next morning - we ate at Denny's before getting on the plane and just to let you know it is the northern most Denny's, yup, I feel special. Along our drive to Fairbanks we stopped and took pictures of the Alaskan Pipe Line, the Knotty Shop (it's a wood shop), and Santa Claus's House. It was a fun drive and it was very pretty. We only saw one little moose that was probably about a year old but the picture didn't turn out too good.

Alaskan Pipe Line

An elk that is made at the Knotty shop

The North Pole Marker - sidenote: this picture was taken after midnight in Anchorage

Santa's House

While we were in Tok, we also stopped at Mukluk Land, which we thought was some sort of small amusement park or something. Come to find out we were VERY wrong. It turned out that it's a museum of all of the crap some old guy and his wife have collected and they charge people to go in and look at all of their crap. It was interesting to see some of the old stuff but it's a good thing that I only paid 2 bucks to get in! We did get to play some skeeball and that was pretty fun! :) We also took a little drive on the Taylor Highway, which happens to be considered the most scenic highway in the northwest, to a very small community called Chicken. A whopping 6 people live there in the winter and 30 people in summer. Here's a picture of downtown Chicken and I'm dead serious... this is ALL that is in the this town. It was a fun, beautiful drive.

Mukluk Land Entrance

This a a room full of dolls that is on display at Mukluk land 0f kinda creepy!

Downtown Chicken - yes that's all folks!

When I got home Brett and I went for a walk out to the Glacier and the waterfall on Wednesday night. This waterfall is absolutely amazing and mesmerizing if you stare at it for a minute. Here are some pictures of the waterfall and a video to help you understand the sound and power behind this big guy.

Mendenhall Glacier (waterfall on right)

Waterfall with Glacier in the background

Brett mesmerized by the waterfall

We also went for a hike on Thursday night to the Treadwell Mine area (click on the link for more info on the mine)f. At one point in time the Treadwell was the biggest gold mines in the world. It used to cover a huge area of Douglass Island but when the mine closed down in 1922 they ripped everything down and there is hardly anything left. They cleared nearly the whole forest while the mine is in operation but since it closed and all of the buildings are gone the forest has regrown and it doesn't even look like the same place. It was a very neat hike, i'll be sure to go back and take pictures when I get my NEW CAMERA!!! (which I have purchased and it should be here sometime next week. YEAH!) For now, to see picture of what the mine looked like click here. Life is back to the normal Juneau lifestyle and the fish are slowly starting to come in so hopefully we'll be getting some fish posts soon!!

TOK – don’t blink! You’ll miss it!

Yesterday I was minding my own business doing my job at work when Steve Hamilton, the general manager at the Baranof Hotel comes into the café and says, “Would you be available to go to Tok for a few days?” After questioning why on earth he would want to send me there, I found out that 1/3 of the Westmark (the company I work for) hotel staff has been stricken with the Norwalk Virus. It is a terrible virus that leaves you feeling really “crappy” to say the least. If you don’t know what it is or how you get it, look it up. It’s pretty gross. But it’s highly contagious and all of the staff has been quarantined. They had a couple of big tours groups coming in this weekend and couldn’t stand to be without a few extra hands. So a woman from the front desk at the Baranof and I were asked to come to Tok. We found out that they were for sure going to need us at about 11 am yesterday morning (June 4) and put us on the 12:55 flight to Anchorage.
Both of us had to run home as fast as we could pack as quickly as we could and book it to the airport. We boarded about 5 minutes after we arrived. We landed in Anchorage at about 2:30 with just enough time to grab a sandwich from a little shop and board the 38 minute flight to Fairbanks. Once we got to Fairbanks, we had to rent a car. We got a cute Blue Corolla and it is BRAND NEW. It only has 17,000 miles on it. We hoped in the car and about 3 hours later we arrived at our destination in Tok – it’s pronounced Toe – k. It is a TINY TINY town. It has one very small grocery store, a general store and 1 major gas station. You can’t see anyone’s house because they are all down little dirt lanes back into the thick of trees. All of the houses (all the ones that I have seen) are log homes. It’s a very cute town that would be an awesome place to have a summer house but it’s REALLY cold during the winter and hardly anyone stays here during the winter. They said that Tok has some of the most extreme weather in Alaska. The 3rd week of April this year was still below zero temperatures and now it’s 85 degrees today. Last year there was a high of 102 degrees.
We are staying at the motel where we are working so it’s nice to just roll out of bed 5 minutes before I have to be to work in the morning. I’m working in their dining area. I work breakfast lunch and dinner. All 3 meals is a mad rush of people all at the same time and then it’s dead for about an hour or two and then a mad rush of people and then it’s dead for about 4 hours and then a mad rush of people for dinner. So it gets kinda crazy for about an hour or so but it’s a lot of fun. I have always wondering what it would be like to work at an restaurant and I’m sort of finding out, it’s just even more different because this is such a tourist town. They also made me name tag while I’m here and they put on it that I’m from Juneau. It’s kind of weird to be known as the one from Juneau because I’ve never been able to claim it as where I’m from but to them I am. Things at this motel are much more laid back then at the Baranof. At the Baranof we have a very strict dress code – black slacks, black shoes, black socks and white button-up, collared shirts. Here we wear jeans with a button-up T that flashes the Westmark name and suspenders! Yup! You read right – I get to wear suspenders to work. Here’s a picture of my outfit just to prove it!

Our drive here was really cool. Fairbank is much different than the other parts of Alaska that I have seen. All of the other parts are very mountainous and lots of evergreen trees. Fairbanks is flat with lots of birch trees. As we drove closer to Tok I was reminded a lot of Cache Valley. We were driving on the flat part (the valley) and the towering mountains could be seen in the distance. It was a very pretty drive and we actually made great time because there is no one on the roads – you just have to watch out for lots of moose! We were able to see a mama moose and her calf hanging out in a big river. We had to cross the river so we got to get a great view of them and no one was coming behind us or in front of us so we stopped in the middle of a very narrow bridge to take pictures and to watch them for a minute. Here’s one of many great pictures that I got of them.
Meg, the woman I am traveling with, is known at our hotel as the front desk Nazi. She is very mean to everyone and doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She is also known as a slob, which I am far from and so I was quite worried about coming on this trip with her. But she actually has been a great travelling companion. She doesn’t have the best social skills but she is keeping her stuff fairly clean and everything has gone smooth so far. But she is not spontaneous at all so I’m really surprised that she even came on this trip. Coming up to Tok we had to drive through the North Pole, which is a suburb to Fairbanks so there is quite a bit of traffic. As I was driving I pass the sign for the North Pole and then Santa Claus Lane. So I told her that we were going to take this exit and go take picture of the Santa Claus Lane. She was kind of freaking out, “Oh, everyone is going to think we are so weird.” But I told her that I am probably never going to be back here in my life and I was going to do it and she didn’t really have a choice. So she agreed and she hesitantly pulled out her camera to take a picture of the Santa Claus Lane sign. I told her that I wanted a picture with me by it and she was so embarrassed – there was quite a bit of traffic and there were 4 or 5 cars stopped so that we could take a picture. She was too embarrassed to go get her picture taken but at least I got one! J The light poles were shaped and colored like candy canes and even McDonald’s was painted red and white. As we were pulling out of town, back on to the Alaskan Highway, we noticed a frontage type road and all of sudden a big house that had a big statue of Santa Claus. The Santa Claus House is right off of the road and we’re planning to stop on by on our way back to Fairbanks.
On a side note this is the furthest I have even been from my Sweetheart while we have been married. I miss him terribly and so wish that he could be here with me. I am kind of glad that he isn’t though because Tok is definitely a place I could see him falling in love with and wanting to stay. This trip and everything happened so suddenly it made me think of what it would be like to die and not be able to really say goodbye to your family or anyone that you love. I know that’s kind of horrible but it helped me to realize just how important it is to let my loved ones know how much I really do care for and love them so if I ever were to die suddenly, they would know how much they mean to me. Hopefully this very exciting adventure will be over soon so that I can get back to Brett. Meanwhile, give the people around you a hug today and tell them how much you love them and are thankful for all that they do for you. Tah-tah from Tok! Enjoy some picture of my journey!

Leaving Juneau

Somewhere between Juneau and Anchorage

Mountains just before Anchorage

Santa Claus Lane

Candy Cane Light Pole

A random sign on the side of the road in Tok in front of someone's house

Tok School (K-12th grade attends)

Our hotel/place of employment

Amalga

The weather has been so good here that we just haven't had time for posting anything on our blog. We've been enjoying the sun and the warm weather. This week it's supposed to get up into the mid 80's which is VERY rare for Juneau. There is hardly any polution up here and we're closer to the sun so 60's and 70's feel much warmer than they really are. We're excited. Yesterday, me and Megan had the day off and we went for a run with Dax. It was so hot that we both put on tank tops so we wouldn't die from heat exhaustion and I acutally got a little bit of a sunburn. YEAH! Maybe we won't be pasty white when we come home this year... :)
On Saturday night Brett and I headed to Amalga Harbour. It's our favorite place to go fishing because it's one of the best places to catch Salmon when they are running. We are trying to hit the run early so the salmon meat is still good to eat and we aren't having to throw them all back because they're too rotten to eat. So we've made a few drives out there to see if they've started their summer run and to do a little fishing to see if we could catch anything. We didn't catch anything but we had a blast being out there. There were a few people that came and catch little tiny fish but there wasn't many fish to caught. They should start running soon and then we can have SALMON coming out of ears we'll have so much!
While Brett was fishing, I took a few pictures. Ok more than a few - about 100 pictures but here are some of my favorites.

This was a truck we past on our way home from fishing

Wrangler Butts drive me nuts! :)

My ultimate favortite picture of the night