Getting settled

We have now been in class for a week and what can I say...
I'm feeling quite overwhelmed so far. Brett seems to do keeping up and doing fine so far. Meanwhile, I'm quickly realizing that grad school is going to kick my butt for the next 2 years. Once again, my life is owned by something much bigger than myself. So if I avoid anyone in the next two years just know that I still love you very much - I'm just so busy that I'm probably curled up on my couch hiding under a blanket, bald because I pulled my hair out already and bawling my eyes out.
I've already told Brett that I love him very much and I enjoy spending time with him just don't plan on seeing very much of me for the next 2 years.
Despite all of the negative things I have just said - I absolutely LOVE my program. The classes are far better than any of my undergraduate classes were. I am thoroughly enjoying learning and feel like I'm being challenged and actually learning - it's quite a different feeling than that of my undergrad.
Just an update for those of you who do not live by us or see us often: Brett shaved his beard! Yeah! I was quite surprised when we walked out of the bathroom and asked me if he should leave "it" like this for school. I about died when I turned around - what a dork! I didn't really mind the beard too much but I will say that I like him much much much better without the beard.
Don't worry he shaved all the way after he let me take a picture so he no longer has that mustache but he'll probably be start growing out the beard again soon for "the hunt".
So, don't worry if I don't post anything for awhile, we're still alive. I'm just super busy and don't have time for anything but school.

Journey to Zion

It's official. We are back in Utah (or Zion as Brett likes to call it). We said a tearful goodbye last Tuesday afternoon, Aug 11 to the Jones family and started to float down the Alaska Marine Highway on the Taku vessel.We stopped at a few ports on our way down the channel but totaled 36 hours aboard the Taku. We arrived in Prince Rupert at 3:30 am to begin our drive home. We drove from Prince Rupert to Hope on Thursday, Aug 13, for a total of 16 hours of driving - that's straight driving, only stopped for gas. We also decided that on our journey home we would be camping instead of staying in hotels to cut down on the travel expenses. We purchased a 5'X6' kid tent while we were in Juneau so that we could save money and because we already have 2 nice tents at home in Utah and we didn't want to spend the money on yet another tent. So this is what we stayed in our journey home:

Needless to say: we were a little cramped on room/space for a few days.

The next day we drove across the boarder, down to Seattle, stopped in Seattle to check out Pike Market for about 2 hours and then made our way down the coast on the historic Pacific Coast Highway. We first saw the coast in Astoria but didn't get to physically touch the beach or the water until the next morning in Pacific City at Cape Kiwanda. This was the first time Brett had ever been/seen the open ocean. He was quite content watching the waves and the surfers - I think he would've stayed there all day had we had the time. We had fun playing in the water and the sand but continued our journey down the coast. We stopped in Newport at the aquarium and again just outside of Florence to see the light house. That night we stayed at a beautiful secluded lake outside of Sisters called Suttle Lake. Unfortunately, we got there after the sun had gone down and I forgot to take pictures the next morning. You'll just have to trust me that it was beautiful.

And the 5th day of our journey consisted of us drive 10 hours through the desert. This was by far the WORST part of the entire journey. There is absolutely nothing to look at or see and it's hot and miserable. From Brothers, Oregon to Tremonton, Utah there is nothing. Brett told me to stop acting like a kid because on this last leg of the trip I was asking if we were there yet about every 5 minutes and complaining because I was hot, tired, and my butt hurt so bad that I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. Some how we survived - barely.

We arrived home at about 8 pm on Sunday, Aug 16. We were greeted by most of Brett's family and my parents.

It was so fun to see our nieces and nephew all growing up so fast. It was great to be able to smell the fresh cut hay, the smell of the water sprinkling out of the pipe lines, see the farmer's kids in their mud boots out moving pipe, and a million other things that we were so excited to see/smell again. The smell of home will probably always call us back to the place that we love.

This trip was so much fun. We enjoyed our trip up to Alaska, definitely loved our time in Alaska, and thoroughly enjoyed our trek home. We were so thankful to be able to make the drive there and back with no problems and be able to enjoy a long road trip together. One thing is for sure - you sure do learn a lot about your spouse on a long road trip, good and bad. Luckily, ours was definitely for the better.

As always, here are some pictures from our journey:Ketchikan's Downtown District - a lot of the town is build on boardwalks

Brett enjoyed a Rueben while at Pike's Market

Famous Pike's Fish Market - a halibut flying through the air

The Lewis and Clark Bridge - Washington is in the distance and we're in Oregon

Brett's first reaction to seeing the open ocean for the very first time

Brett enthralled with the surf

If you ever have the opportunity to go on a road trip, we highly recommend making a giant loop, going up the Oregon Coast, up through BC, Bamff area, and down either through Montana, Nebraska, or Yellowstone. Every place we went was absolutely gorgeous. The most beautiful country that we had ever seen. We absolutely loved every minute of our trek and recommend it to anyone. As much as we loved being away from home, it is good to be back. We have started school and are slowly adjusting to the student lifestyle once again.

Always big kids at heart

Last night we drove to Sunshine Cove for some sunshine and for our last campfire on the beach. We had so much fun exploring the rocks nestled along the coast and finding just a few of the interesting creatures that live in the ocean. This has definately been one of our favorite things to do while we have been in Alaska - especially campfires on the beach. As if exploring the rocks and the sea creatures doesn't make us feel like kids all over again, we found something last night that sent us right back into our childhoods. This being a...

ROPE SWING!

This was awesome. We all had a great time taking turns swinging in the tree tops. Here are just a few pictures of the things that make us feel the most like kids:

Brett and I are also preparing for our journey home and one of the things we needed to do for that was buy a inexpensive tent. We already have a tent at home in Utah but we didn't bring it with us because - well I don't know why but we didn't. So we didn't want to spend a lot of money on a tent but we are camping on the coast on our way back home so we need a tent. We ventured to Walmart and made a purchase of a kid tent. We brought it home and set it up to try it out and make sure that we would fit. As you can see, it is a little tight for Brett. It's a good thing that he is a fetal-sleeper and doesn't need a lot of wiggle room when he sleeps. Dax also helped us test out the tent and he loved it. Here's a few pictures to demonstrate. The last one is my favorite. He liked the mesh and he squished his head against it to get Megan on the outside of the tent. What a cute boy!

The rest of the story

Brett’s parents have come and gone already. We did a lot of playing while they were here and are so grateful they made the sacrifices to come up to Juneau to visit us. We were able to show them a lot of the area and I think they had a good time – we sure did! There was not a day of rain while they were here which also helped in allowing us to show them so much. Every single day was packed full of lots to see and do – I’m pretty sure they are going to need a little R&R to recover from their trip. As previously mentioned in the post below we saw lots of great stuff on the first two days they were here. However, we saw great stuff every single day they were here. So here’s a recap of how they spent their week in Alaska:
Wednesday and Thursday: shown in previous post
Friday: Craig and Suz were able to get on a helicopter ride. They were able to see the HUGE ice field that surrounds Juneau. Brett and I didn’t go with them so I don’t have a picture to add here from their trip up in the air but here is a picture that I have taken in the past: Friday evening we did a small hike/walk called the Treadwell Historic Trail. This trail takes you through the ruins of what was one point the largest mine in the world. The hike also goes along the beach so we enjoyed playing in the water and the sand. Dax especially enjoyed the feel of the sand between his toes. After we were done exploring we headed over to the Island Pub and had some amazing pizza. YUM! Here are some pictures of our explorations on the Treadwell Mine Hike: Saturday: I had to work in the morning so everyone came to visit at work and got some yummy breakfast. After they finished eating they headed up Gold Creek and checked out one of the mining museums there and saw were Brett likes to do his gold panning. Then they picked me up and we headed up the Mt Roberts Tram. We were able to have a great view overlooking the Gastineau Channel and Downtown Juneau. We really enjoyed the view and the sunny weather. Unfortunately, on the way down Craig was not looking where he was headed and tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. Suz and I saw it out of the corner of our eye and thought he was joking when he said he sprained his ankle. At this point me and Suz were cracking up and couldn’t stop laughing. Finally, we realized he wasn’t joking and felt bad for laughing so hard at his expense. Sorry Sparks…
Saturday night we drove out to Amalga Harbor to have a campfire and do some snag fishing. The fish were jumping like crazy but unfortunately there weren’t as many as there appeared to be and we didn’t catch very many fish. However, Craig did catch a few and Suz even got to real one in…. Let me say I am quite proud of her! Here’s proof: Sunday: Brett and I had to work so Craig and Suz went to church with Megan and Zach. After church, a nap, and dinner we headed out to the glacier to look for bears again and to walk out to Nugget Creek falls. We didn’t make it right next to the falls but we made it pretty dang close. Suz had to rock hop in a few places and I’m proud that she didn’t give up and go back to the car or anything. Way to go Suz – what a woman. We did spot a bear on our way back to the car. Suz was a little obsessed with seeing the bears but I do have to admit is quite the sight when you do see them and you can just sit and watch them fish and eat. They are quite the creatures. Monday: Brett had to work so it was just me, Craig and Suz hanging out. We went up to the Glacier to see if we could spot any bears but were unsuccessful. So we headed to the end of the road, the roads ends at a place called Echo cove. We got out of the car and checked out the area for a few minutes and then made the 30 minute drive back to the valley. We stopped by Skater’s cabin and Montana creek just to check things out and show them a little bit more of the area. There is a large fire in the Whitehorse, Canada area making the Juneau area very smoky. It was very hazy and we couldn’t even see the Chilkat mountain range just across the Gastineau channel or the glacier from Skater’s cabin (which you can always see both – even on the really cloudy/rainy days). It was kind of an eerie feeling and you could smell the smoke everywhere we went.
Craig got on a tour of the AJ Gastineau Mine and left time for the girls to do some shopping. Suz found a very cute ornament for her Christmas tree and two cute sweatshirts. Then we all met up and went to dinner at a favorite restaurant – The Twisted Fish. Good food, good fun, great company! After stuffing ourselves with yummy fish we headed to the glacier to see if we could bait in some bears one last time for Suz. We stood around for about an hour and decided to head back to the car when on our way back, Suz spotted a bear. We stopped to watch it for a minute and then headed back home for the rest of the evening to hang out and enjoy each other’s company and to let Suz and Sparks get packed for their trip back home.
We are SO glad they were able to make the trip up to see us. We’re so grateful to have such wonderful family on both sides, who are so supportive of us. We also grateful for Megan and Zach for allowing Brett’s parents to stay with us for a week – we are so blessed. Thanks Suz and Sparks for a full week of great memories!