Frankenberries

2009-01-04T09:51:00.010-09:00

Well here is what we have been up to... Holy crap we have been busy running around, having fun and trying to do everything we could fit in (and afford:) with the boys here. It was the best holidays yet, we loved having Josh and Kyle, hopefully you can tell how much fun we had by the pics. Hope everyone is doing well and wish everyone all the best for the new year!

Torie's not alone anymore

2008-12-23T08:49:00.005-09:00

I'm so freaking happy to have my family home! I missed them soooo much. I love having Kyle and Josh here. They're so much fun and such good kids. We're gonna have a blast!

2008-12-23T07:03:00.013-09:00

drake and hanna pigs n rabbits

brad n corbin proud papa

torie shooting brads 9mm

corbin

matt n drake feeding the cows

wolf mountain

kyle josh drake at wolf mountain

josh catchin air at mount frankenberry

the new drop in we built

the crew getting ready for the road journey

welcome to UT after 30 hours of driving

Hello everyone, we are finally all together and gearing up for Christmas. It was really great to see everyone back east on our vacation. Sorry to everyone that I didn't get to visit, but we will be back out in August for all of the weddins. My nephews Josh and Kyle made the grueling trip from PA with Drake and I in our new (old) car. We are so excited to have them here for Christmas. It has been dumping snow for us so Mount Frankenberry is in full effect and we are spending a lot of time in the snow! My neighbor Ken and I built an all new drop in for the front steps, no more shoveling snow to build it! We went to Wolf mountain yesterday and I think we will go there today also... Here are some pics, I will try to keep up on this for the next week so... yeah hope everyone is doing well!

happy day turkey

2008-11-27T12:02:00.002-09:00

Drake is staaaaaarving.

I cut my hair on Tuesday.

A funny family Thanksgiving pic. It's kinda bright.

I'm a slacker

2008-11-18T12:56:00.002-09:00

We're home, like I said before. I haven't blogged cause we've been crazy busy. I'm back at the ski shop working as assistant manager. It's cool. Bryce is doing projects at home. He can't stand having nothing to do, so he's finishing our basement bathroom. He's made himself a list of stuff to do while he's not flying. I'm stoked he likes to stay busy, but I don't think we can afford it all! :)
We're leaving to go to PA in 2 weeks. I'll stay for a week and Bryce and Drake will stay for two weeks. We don't know what we're doing for Thanksgiving yet. I have to work, so we'll probably just chill as the little Frankenfam. I'll post some pics of us when I get a chance.

2008-10-16T08:49:00.011-08:00

We are finally home, here are some pics from our trip down the Cassiar Highway.

2008-09-26T16:42:00.009-08:00

Sorry there aren't very good explanations, or much blogging, but I'm a busy chic lately-getting ready to come home. Again, the pics aren't in order, but you'll get it, I'm sure...
This is a porcupine we scared up a tree. They're obviously beautiful creatures.
This is on the hike out from Peterson Cabin. We went up there with Matt & Dana when they came up to visit. I think this was the 4th of Sept.

Drake passed out after the 4.3 mile hike up to the cabin.
Drake and Bryce playing pool at the Hangar (restaurant). Drake doesn't like to play the conventional way, but Bryce tries to help him.
Drake likes to pose in front of this creepy miner thing in front of one of the stores downtown. He thinks it's cool. I want to set fire to it.
Us with Matt & Dana on the hike up to Peterson Cabin.
Yes, that's a fresh bear print next to Matt's foot. It was huge! I was more than a little sketched out.

Drake helping us pick up the campground on one of the last days we worked. I'm so glad we don't have to pick up after people anymore. If I ever go camping with any of you, and you make a huge mess, I'll kick your butt.
Some random glacier. Cool pic though, huh?
Drake grilling some meat with Bryce.
So...everything isn't bigger in AK. Bryce and I went out for a date (wings and beer at a bar with Monday Night Football on the tv). This is what you get when you order wings in Alaska. Did it come from a pigeon? We'll never know. It was good though.
This may not be a cool picture to the untrained eye, but to a person that hasn't seen the moon in a month, it's freaking great. We stood outside and looked at the moon and the stars for about half an hour because we hadn't seen it in so long. I was seriously squinting because it seemed so bright. Pretty sad.

Drake helping Bryce recreate a picture from Bryce's trip up here 8 years ago. Proud moment.
My birthday. I know what you're thinking, there are a lot of candles on that cake. I'm only 28 (phew, not 30 yet). I feel about 5o after this summer. Thanks Matt & Dana for the cake and everything. We miss you guys and had fun with you while you were here.
Crazy landing.
I don't know who the people are, but the seracs are sick.
Another cool heli pic.

Peterson Cabin from the lake.
The inside of the cabin. It was really luxurious.
Matt & Dana looking at all their cool pics.
The salmon under the harbor.
This pic isn't extremely cool, but we saw 3 porpoises swimming around in the water. It was pretty cool.

All three heli companies.
There's always cool chunks of glacier ice floating in the lake.
Another pic of the Mendenhall.
Mendenhall Towers.
My sweet pea in front of the cabin.

Dead salmon in Sheep Creek. We went down there and the fish were rotting as they swam. There were fish without eyes. The gulls would come peck them out while the fish were swimming. There were hundreds of dead fish lying all over the beach. It stunk so bad.
Mendenhall Glacier from the air.

Bryce

The last couple weeks in pics.

2008-08-26T12:25:00.014-08:00

It's rained for the past week. I'm so angry at rain! And also, the month of July got double the average rainfall! The average is 4", WE GOT 8". So, in case you don't understand what I'm saying-I can't wait to see the sun. Okay, for some reason, the pics posted in reverse chronological order, but you'll figure it out.

DK and Sierra sharing a brownie and icecream. They got messy, but who cares! He's so cute in his little Carhartt overalls. And, yes, I know his hair looks like a girls. He's a skater kid! It's the new style! Back off!
Drake and Sierra in their "barbaloot suits." a.k.a. footy jammies (for definition of barbaloot suit, read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.)
Drake trying to make a monkey face.

Mendenhall Towers.
This is the medial moraine of some glacier. "A medial moraine is a ridge of moraine that runs down the center of a valley floor. It is formed when two glacers meet and the debris on the edges of the adjacent valley sides join and are carried on top of the enlarged glacier. As the glacier melts or retreats, the debris is deposited a ridge down the middle of the valley floor." (Straight off of wikipedia.)

Me and Drake in front of the helicopter.
My handsome baby boy. Bryce gives me grief for saying "baby", but he'll always be my baby, no matter how old he gets.
Drake drinking glacier water. It's pure. And, no mom, he didn't get giardia. He was fine.

Our landing site. Drake and I went on a helicopter ride on the 19th with our friend Eric Fields. His mom was in town and paid for us to go on an hour long ride over the icefield. It was amazing. So much better than a tour.
The Juneau Icefield. 1500 acres of ice. Breathtaking. You can't imagine the enormity of it.
Some cool icefalls.
Dogcamp. This consists of 5 big tents for the mushers and 80 dog houses. This gives you a little perspective of how huge the icefield is. Check out the next pic.
That circle is dogcamp. That's how huge the icefield and the mountains are. I'm telling you, it's unbelievable.

Riding our bikes on the Herbert Beach. It was pretty hard because you couldn't tell how deep the mud was until your tire was in it. I almost got stuck.
The trail was a little sketchy towards the end. The dropoff on the left goes into the Herbert River. I had to get off my bike and push it at some parts of the trail because the rocks and roots stuck out of the ground 8" or more. By the end of the ride, Drake said "I like the smooth, good trail." The bouncing on the rocks and roots hurt his butt.
Tyler's dog Kona getting a stick under the water! Crazy dog. Drake was having a blast throwing the stick and watching Kona stick her head under the water to retrieve it. At one point all we could see was her tail.
There were two old cars along the trail. This is the second one. They're really old, like 3o's or so. I don't know. They've got bullet holes in them. I have no idea how they actually got that far into the forest. Aside from the trail, the forest is dense and you could sink down pretty far in the moss in a heavy vehicle like that. This one is about to fall into the Herbert River.
Herbert River. Those are tree trunks sticking out of the river. The banks erode when the river swells with glacier runoff and heavy rains. As a result, the trees topple into the river. The river was running really quickly.

This is the view from the Mendenhall East Glacier trail. Check out how small the visitor center is (for those of you that've been here.) We're pretty high up the mountain!
Those little white things in the water are icebergs that have calved off the glacier. There's tons of them.
Me and my little berry.
A fam pic in front of the Herbert Glacier. The trail is 4.6 miles long, we biked nearly the whole way. It was fun. Drake rode his bike almost a mile, then we stashed it in the bushes and put him on mine. We went with our friend Tyler.
A pic of the Herbert Glacier with the Herbert river in front of it. We couldn't actually make it to the terminus of the glacier because of the river.

Mendenhall from the road on the way to the visitor's center.
Three coho salmon in Steep Creek. They come back from the ocean in the late summer to lay eggs, then die. They had most of the trail closed because bears are feeding on these salmon in the area.
A huge coho. It was nearly 2 feet long.
A great blue heron feeding in one of the kettles surrounding Mendenhall Lake.
Drake ahead of me hiking up the East Glacier Trail. It is a 7 mile loop with either stone or wooden stairs most of the way up. It's a 400 foot elevation gain. He's a hiking maniac.

A great woman

2008-08-19T11:50:00.006-08:00

Mom Mom passed away on Sunday the 17th. I'm really emotional about it. I can't speak for Bryce. I can't even begin to describe how he's feeling, I'll leave that to him. I can say that she was probably, and understandably, his favorite person.
Mom Mom was one of the nicest people I've ever met. The first time I met her, she immediately made me feel welcome and cared for.
She was possibly the most selfless person I've ever known. She was always concerned with how other people were doing, if they were alright, comfortable, etc. When she would have Bryce and I over for lunch or dinner, she was always worried about the meal or the seating arrangement or something like that. We were stoked to hang out with her, we didn't care if she had the fine china out (which she did).
She always let Bryce and I know that she loved us and accepted us no matter what choices we made. She always supported us, was proud of us and proud of Bryce going to school and getting a job he loves.
Mom Mom was never boastful. She was sharp too. I always thought it was cute that she wouldn't tell anyone how old she was. She told Bryce and I a couple years ago though (when she was 86). I felt like I had top secret information. She would always get dressed up to go to lunch with us.
I only knew her for 8 years, but she had a great affect on my life. I wish I could have known her longer. I wish she wasn't gone. I mostly wish Drake could have gotten to know her and how cool she was.

2008-08-15T17:22:00.003-08:00

cub waiting on mama to open our bear box
cub grooming himself
mama bear coming back through

Today's been crazy.
Bryce and I woke up at 6:30 to unzip our window and see a mother black bear with her cub trying to get into our storage shed that has all our food in it. It's about 15 feet from our bed. She was biting it and pawing at it. There are bite marks in the canvas of the shed. I was petrified. Bryce knew what to do, thankfully. He shooed it away and it hung around for about 15 minutes, then took off, with the cub following.
The major event of the day that has thrown us is Mommom's health. Bryce's grandma is in the hospital with pneumonia. He's very close to her. We had a scare this morning. I don't really want to go into it. I just ask that everyone that reads this prays for her, or throws some positive energy her way, whatever you want to do. We all love her very much.
Thanks.

2008-08-04T16:16:00.012-08:00

Bryce and Drake went fishing in the creek next to our campground and caught this huge salmon. We cooked about 1/3 of it that night for dinner. They're freaking huge.
Drake checking out the massive fish. He was saying "Dad, there's still some guts hangin out."
My guys are pretty proud of their catch. They're so cute. I love em.

Drake and Sierra. She's our friend's Mike and Lori's daughter. They're up here from Silver State too.
Drake playing soccer with all of us at the campground. He's seriously pretty good, not to brag or anything.

Me and Drake in front of Nugget Falls. It flows into Mendenhall Lake, right next to the Glacier. We hiked up there with my sister, Jen, when she was visiting. We all had a great time. Miss you Jen!
A closer pic of the glacier. You always pics from the campground, here's one closer up.
Me striking a pose with Drake in front of Nugget Falls.

At the Alaska State Museum, they have a section for kids to dress up and play. Here's Captain Drake stepping off the boat.
So, we're at the museum and Drake wants me to take a pic of him by this 300 year old totem pole. What does he do? Leans back on it and almost knocks it over. Holy crap, I almost passed out.

I took this pic at arms length. I'm a great photographer.

Obviously, Bryce is looking at me like "Why are you taking my picture?" But, whatever.
Drake looking out the window of the whale watching boat in amazement. We all know I'm a freak, so I made him wear the pfd everytime he went on the deck of the boat.
Some sealions hanging out on a buoy. They come out of the water to warm up.
Two humpback whales swimming next to each other. You can barely see their spray they just blew out.
This is one of the coolest ones. You can see one whale spraying out, and the other diving. They would spray, then show their big humpbacks and dive and show their tails. It was awesome. I have tons more pics from whalewatching, but I don't want to bore anyone.

We're still here...

2008-07-29T13:11:00.016-08:00

The first pic is a pic of Drake while we're riding bikes. That's all he wants to do lately. It's great. The only time I don't want to ride is when it's pouring rain.

The second pic is a crappy shot of this beautiful flower up here. It's called Dwarf Fireweed. It's so pretty.

The third pic is an example of Drake's art work. He's awesome. He can spell mom on his magnadoodle. he says, "updownupdown, o, updownupdown."

This fourth pic is Drake riding in the bike trailer of some cool Aussies we met. They stayed at the campground. We've met a ton of cool people.

Last pic is the Mendenhall. I can't get enough photos of it.

We've been busy too. The last couple weeks have flown by again. My sister Jen has been in town. The whole time she was here it rained. The weather has sucked the past couple weeks. I'm going outside to play with Drake right now, I'll post more later.

Drake is such a daredevil. This video is him power sliding at one of the campsites. He rocks.
This is Drake rallying.

Man, the days are flying by

2008-07-15T13:11:00.004-08:00

Bryce is right, the bugs are horrible. Just when we think the mosquitoes are dying, the no-see-ums start chewing on us. Poor Drake-we coat him with bugspray, but they still go for him. He'll lie in bed at night scratching his neck, face, arms, etc.
Drake is doing really well. He's rallying on his bike. He's just like Bryce! He loves to go off the ramp Bryce built for him and down steep trails. He psychs himself up for them. I can hear him whispering "No biggie, no biggie." Then he takes a couple deep breaths and goes for it. I'll post a video when I can. He likes to draw and do letters and numbers. He can't write more than a few, but he tries.
I'm busy at the campground. I can't believe how much crap people leave around. I do my best though. Not really much going on with me.
We went on a hike on the 6th. It's the Mendenhall West trail. At the end of the trail you can hang out at the glacier and go in ice caves and stuff. All of our friends here have already done it, but it's 3.4 miles one way, so it's kinda hard with Drake. We finally went for it. Packed snacks and everything since it's about a 6 hour round trip hike. We rode our bikes about the first mile or so. Drake rallied the whole time. When Bryce and I wanted to stop for water, Drake was like "Let's go! It's been a long enough break." He ended up walking the entire trail by himself except the last quarter mile or so. He's unbelievable! Anyway, we got just over a mile in and stopped to take a picture when I realized I'd left the camera at camp. OOPS. We continued on and it started pouring rain. We were nearly to the glacier when we decided to turn around. I was so scared of bears and I insisted we were on the wrong trail the whole time. When we finally got back to the camper, we were all looking forward to changing into dry clothes and chillin. I was soaked to the bone and cold, so I threw my pack down and got a towel to dry Drake off. We both started coughing. I realized that when I put my pack down, the bear mace sprayed a little. So we had to hang out in the jeep and let the camper air out. I'm such a dork.
Here's some of my picks of pics for the last week and a half. (Which, by the way, has flown by.)

2008-07-13T16:13:00.004-08:00

Well we haven't seen the sun in a while and holy $*@# the bugs are out in full force. I have had a rough couple of weeks, definitely the worst weather I have ever seen in a helicopter. The kind of flights where you land the last one of the day and head straight for the bar. But that's what I am here for, very valuable experience fer sure. Hope everyone is well, here are some pics. New snow on the glaciers all last week. Cheers

2008-06-30T16:56:00.008-08:00

Well, I wanted to put on some of my favorite pics, but I don't know what the deal is. The internet connection we're using isn't cooperating now.

There was a crazy rain storm Friday night. I've never heard rain like it before. You know the quick, fierce summer rainstorms we get in Utah? Well it was about 10 times worse and lasted hours. We had a 5 gallon bucket outside, and it got completely filled up in about 3 hours. I wanted to take a video of it. It began at 3 am. Of course, it's daylight here at 3 am, so I wanted to video the trees swaying and the sound of the rain. It would have been cool, but I was too lazy to get out of bed.
Other than Bryce seeing that one black bear a couple weeks ago, we haven't seen much wildlife. A couple porcupines, squirrels, nothing too exciting. We see dozens of bald eagles everyday, but up here, they're as common as sea gulls in Utah. I do have to say, if I go the whole summer without seeing a bear, I won't be too disappointed. I'm a tad scared of them. I bought a can of bear spray (basically concentrated pepper spray). Usually it's just me and Drake, so if I saw one then, I'd freak.

I did realize the other day that I'm already starting to take Alaska's beautiful scenery for granted. I drive down the road, and there's countless waterfalls coming down sheer cliffs between lush, green, forested, towering mountains. But when I drive by it everyday, I am in awe less and less. Stupid humans and our stupid short attention spans. We live at the base of the glacier for crying out loud, and I see it and think "Oh yeah, there's the glacier again." I have to remind myself this may be the only time in my life I get a chance to be in Alaska.

We've met a lot of cool people from all over the world. An older couple from Holland have been hanging out with us. They say if their children knew they had to hang their food in trees to keep it from bears, they'd be worried sick. There's also a couple from Germany here now. They have a 5 year old son that Drake's been playing with. They just moved to America a couple years ago. They've taken their son backpacking all over SE Alaska for weeks. Pretty adventurous! There's a lot of great people here, but they come and go. The tree-chopping, glass-smashing, chain-smoking parties come every weekend. I can't get over how ironic it is that Bryce and I have to go bust parties and ask them to quiet down. I giggle every time I do it, with my green "Forest Service Volunteer" hat on. We'll have to get our Volunteer outfits on and take a pic. It's so funny.

2008-06-28T19:21:00.010-08:00

Hi everyone, we are partying at the pirate house tonight so this will be short. Here are some new pics... hope everyone is doing well, we are at the half way point right now. We had a wicked Juneau rain storm last night, holy rip! Good stuff.

I took drake fishn, here is one of the big ones he caught. This is a video of a mulan, basically the water will cut a hole down through the glacier, we dropped a rock in and you can count how long it takes to hit the bottom below (its like 3 seconds). Pretty cool...This mulan is probably 100 feet deep, you never know how far they go down. Its funny because the tourists don't really understand how dangerous the glacier actually is, you fall into something like this and yer "ded" dead! There is a couple photos from my flight out to the gold mine north of Juneau, its kinda hard to take pics and fly... but I did get some.

2008-06-22T08:27:00.004-08:00

Hi, hope everyone is doing well. Here are the latest pics. Drake says hi to all cousins and friends. Drakes favorite thing this week is learning new tricks on his bike. He can wheelie, do no feet and he can do no fingers (that one cracks me up)! Oh yeah, I almost t-boned a black bear on my bike on tuesday, we had a staring contest at 15 feet and I guess I won cause he got out of my way... anywho no sappy crap from me... Peace

Evolution

2008-06-16T17:04:00.002-08:00

Life is good. I had forgotten how sweet it was because I was always busy running to the store, doing laundry, going to work, you know, the standard everyday crap. I forgot what life is really about when I was distracted by those errands. Getting down to the basics makes me appreciate everything more. I know it's super cheesy. Living in a pop up camper isn't what I want to do for the rest of our lives, but it's so relaxing and, surprisingly, energizing. I love to hang out in the forest, chill with my 2 berries and drink good beer. That's the part of life that's good.
It's easy living in a camper, knowing I'm going back to my nice, warm home in a couple months and we'll be surrounded by people we love and want to hang out with. Of course, there's the stuff I miss. I really miss my dad. I start to tear up every time I think about him. I miss him. I miss all you guys too. And I can say that, knowing who I'm speaking to, because the people that care about us are you guys-the ones reading this blog. I wish I could show you all the things we're seeing and experiencing. We try through the blog, but you really can't see it.
I truly hope that Drake remembers this most of all. I know he's around the age that he'll have memories when he's an adult, but I can't be sure, you know. It's not just Alaska that I want him to remember, but this unpredictable adventure that we're having. And how we're all so close right now. That's another thing everyday life drowns out.
I know I'll be a different person after this trip.

2008-06-10T21:51:00.007-08:00

Well after a very stressful weekend, moving in to the campground and what not we are trying to get things dialed in. We had a crazy weekend, there were some crazy Juneau teeny boppers causing a ruckus in the campground so I had to lay the smack down and call the po po. I got about two hours of sleep the first night and four on Sunday night. But it has quieted down since then. The campground is so nice, the Mendenhall Glacier is our back yard, there are chunks of ice the size of our house floating in the lake off of the glacier. The fam is doing well, trying to get through another transitional phase with the Drakester. He learned to ride his bike without his training wheels on Wed. We are so proud of him, he is cruising around the campground on his little bike, now if I could just keep the tires inflated! All he wants to do is go for bike rides which is cool with us except I am biking to work now and put in 12 miles a day the last thing I want to do is go on a bike ride, but of course I go anyway just to watch him ride. I will try to put a vid on here of him riding. There are some random pics of Drake and different glaciers that I have flown to in the past week, also a nice pic of the Juneau icefield. Well that is about all I can tolerate for tonight... later

We're gonna be campground hosts

2008-06-02T18:51:00.003-08:00

My parents are gone. I miss them, seriously. It was pretty sweet hanging out with them. I was really getting used to it.
Now Bryce and I are getting ready to move to the campground. We're both stoked. We made an offer on the camper and they accepted it. Everything is working out. Whenever things work out for us, I'm always cautious though. After all, we are Frankenberry's. So, if you're feeling like throwing some good thoughts this way, it probably wouldn't hurt.
Drake says he misses everyone in Utah. He says he misses all his friends. We miss you all too.

2008-05-29T12:44:00.003-08:00

10 miles on the bike yesterday and today. I'm getting addicted to riding my bike.

We put in our 30 day notice on our trailer. We're going to move closer to Bryce's work. We are thinking about being campground hosts for the remainder of the summer. Then I'd get paid to hang out in the wilderness and chill with Drake. I think this AK trip is turning me into a hippie.

So, this is kindof a random pic. One day when I was on a hike with my mom and stepdad I was setting up the camera to take a pic of all of us. The camera dropped off the platform I had it on. It was broken and split open. When I was trying to fix it before Bryce found out, I accidentally took this pic. Bryce and I were pissed cause we thought we were going to have to buy a new camera. Then Bryce fixed it. Wahoo for Bryce!

Happy Memorial Day people.

2008-05-26T16:00:00.004-08:00

My mom and stepdad are still here. It's cool. They give me and Bryce a good break. They help a lot with whatever they can and especially with Drake. My mom adores him. I have to keep her in check though because sometimes she'd let him get away with murder. You know it Mom! :) They brought their mountain bikes. We've gone on two 5 mile or so bike rides. Bryce got to go on them with us too. That's our new family outdoor activity. It's low impact so he doesn't jack his ankle or back up again. Drake loves it. I can't wait until he can ride his own bike though. 40 pounds is a lot extra to be biking up a hill.

We went to the Mendenhall Glacier and hung out at the lake for a while. Ice that's calved off the glacier floats down the lake and lands on the beach. It's so crazy clear. There's not any bubbles in it. The ice is blue at the base of the glacier. I even saw a piece floating in the lake that was blue. The water in the lake is a really nice light green. Almost like the accent wall in our front room. It's really murky. All the sediment from the glacier that comes down with the ice mixes in with the lake and river water. It's cool.

We hiked a little way up the Mendenhall west trail. The forest here is really dense. There's wild blueberry bushes all over and these crazy thorny plants called Devils Clubs. The pines are probably 100 feet tall with huge trunks. They're covered with really thick moss, as is the forest floor. I'll take pics on our next hike.

Well, it's Memorial Day. To me Memorial Day is a crappy reminder of last year's Memorial Day weekend when my Dad got in an accident that changed all of our lives. He was in a really bad auto accident on his way back from Wendover with my two aunts. He no longer has the life he chooses. He now has a life that is dependent on others all the time. I feel so bad for him. I wish I could make his life what it was. It's terrible seeing your parent helpless and childlike. Bryce always says he doesn't want to get old for that exact reason. The way he rolls, who knows if he'll live to see 60.

We went on a tour of the Alaskan Brewery. You get free samples while they give you the tour. It's sweet! In addition to all the standard brews they make, they have a few experimental microbrews you can try. Bryce and I both tried the Jalapeno Amber. Good flavor. We had the Raspberry Wheat the other night at a party. It was too sweet for Bryce, but I liked it, and I don't usually like fruity beer. The other was a nice witbier. It was just a little hoppy. I liked it. I haven't found many beers I don't like though. The brewery is working on getting their beer in Utah too. Wahoo for Bryce! Alaskan Amber is one of his top three favorites. I don't think he's ever found a beer he didn't like. We all know Bryce. Darn Germindian.

Oh, and, NO I'm not pregnant. I'm just chubby.

2008-05-21T10:36:00.002-08:00

My mom and stepdad are here now. They drove up in the rv from Washington.

2008-05-19T16:12:00.004-08:00

It's a beautiful day! The sun is shining, the temperature is actually warm, amazing! I made the ride today into town with Drake. Well, not just into town, to Bryce's work. About 10 miles. It felt great. I love riding my bike. It's awesome. I'm just about to try to get home now. We'll see what happens. Here's a movie of Bryce taking off to take some folks to the dog sled camp. Drake got to sit in the helicopter. He was being so careful. What a good boy. He was demonstrating to me how to be careful in the helicopter and to not touch the buttons. Our friend Mike Pope took a pic of us in front of the heli Bryce flew to the dog sled camp.

We went to a skate park jam the other day. Drake was so funny. He was like, "I wanna skate. Mom, just go drop in." He was dancing with his (my) skateboard, and standing, looking cool.

There's a little creek by our house. They're all over the place. Anyway, we took a short hike up it. I was kinda scared. I saw a lot of trails down to it. I thought we might see a bear or something. So that is the pic of Bryce in the mossy area.

Before we went on that hike, we took a short ride up the street to this guys house. He made a big fence out of skis. You can see my sweet boots. The common footwear around here. They're actually perfect. I wore heels out the other night. I felt really out of place.

Well, time to start the haul back home.

I got an awesome bike, man!

2008-05-15T12:45:00.003-08:00

The sun is out! We're taking full advantage of it. I found myself a bike on Saturday. First garage sale we went to. It's an old specialized hardrock. It's pretty sweet. We put Drake's kiddie carrier on it and took some test rides around the trailer court. We went fishing at Eagle Beach. I'll put pics on. Other than that, I'm just trying to decide if I want a job or not. It would probably be a good thing. It will just be difficult riding my bike to work, or organizing the commute with the jeep. I don't know. Drake is into spelling words. They sound a little like this "a-a-t-a-a-t-a-a-b-u-h-a." He says that spells nap time. The whole time I ride my bike, he says "Whee". And "Look at the beautiful nature mom!" Here's some pics. The first one is when Bryce, Drake and I drove up to the ski resort. I think it's called EagleCrest. It was crazy. One lift. There were tons of people hiking the day we went there. It had just dumped a foot or more. The reason Drake's not in the pic is because he was asleep in the car. The second pic is us riding our bikes around the block. The third pic is Drake helping me cook. He loves to help out. He knows the drill. Which knives he can use, washing his hands, etc. He can chop stuff so well that I actually use it in our meals. The fourth pic is him when we went to Eagle Beach. We wanted to go fishing. We ended up going on a little hike, then had a picnic. Yogi Bear did not attend, thank God. The last pic is me on my sweet new ride! I know you're all jealous.

2008-05-10T07:45:00.002-08:00

Bryce is at work. He's expecting a 12 hour day today. Good times. Drake and I are going to go to some yard sales to try to find me a bike. It's too expensive to be driving around all the time. Gas is $3.75/gallon. Ouch.
Drake is making friends in the trailer park. Of course they're all older than him, but I think he prefers it that way. He was hanging out with them yesterday and he was getting bullied by a little girl. He was trying to be nice and avoid her, but finally he got pissed. I had to go out and tell him if he fought, he'd have to come inside. It's so crazy being a parent. I'm out there with my hands on my hips being authoritative. It's just laughable to me.
Anyway, we're enjoying AK as much as possible. Going to the beach and hiking (When I feel comfortable enough to. I'm afraid of going by myself. I don't want to run into a bear or some wierd person.)
Take care everyone!

2008-05-07T17:11:00.002-08:00

Finally a day off! I got to do a few glacier tours so far this week, they went well and the tips are nice. I have today and tomorrow off then the tours pick up this weekend. We went to eagle beach today to take Drake fishing, he fished for about 3 minutes and then said he was done. Got to wheel the jeep around a little but there is a lot of snow on the wheelin trails so we had to be careful. Didn't want to get stuck in bear country. Beautiful day here in ak, hope everyone is doing well.

2008-05-01T12:26:00.014-08:00

Hello Everyone, I passed my 135 checkride yesterday, after an intense week of training. I start flying tours on saturday. These are some pics that I have taken over the last week and a half. On saturday night we fed 10+ eagles, pretty cool stuff, there was a seal playing in the river behind the house we were feeding the eagles at, but i couldnt get a shot of him. Anyway, I now have to learn all about the glaciers b/c I will be the tour guide as well. I will be taking tourists from the airport to the Herbert glacier, hiking around with them for 20 mins and then flying them back to the airport. we also transport workers to the numerous gold mines in the area and workers for the repeater stations on top of the mountains. Definately the most intense flying that I have done. there is a pic of one of the helipads we take workers to, and one of the crew of us up here, hope everyone is doing well. Drake really missess utah, he always talks about Allie and Tailie and Connor and Taylor. Sorry I havent been answering my phone, I am at work from 6 am to 7pm, and dont have alot of time to talk. Enjoy the pics, cheers

I wore drake out

2008-04-22T13:59:00.002-08:00

Drake and I are at a pizza shop in Juneau. It's about 2 miles from home. We walked. What can I say, I'm getting trailer fever. The only thing that sucks about it is that I have to carry him home. 2 miles. What was I thinking? I was hoping it would wear him out, but...
Bryce has been in training for the last 2 days. He's not getting paid for it. Sweet. Thank God for the funenjoyment of unemployment. We also found out that if there is any sort of serious injury, we'll have to be flown to Seattle, so we have to work on getting health insurance. Great, that's only like $300/mo. Sweet. I haven't been too diligent at finding a daycare. It almost seems futile. What's the point of getting a job when daycare is $35/day?
Other than all this complaining, things are going well. Bryce got to fly an Astar yesterday. His excitement was overshadowed by his new boss's impatience. He's stoked he flew, but he's nervous about a million other things. I keep telling him he's a kick butt pilot and he should just relax.
Drake is already over the glacier. When I suggest going to check it out, he's like, "No, not the glaaaaacier!" We went to the skate park here yesterday. It's sick! They've got a nice 4 foot halfpipe with an extension. They had some tabletops set up too. Drake was rolling down the pyramids all by himself. He was stoked. He wanted to roll down the huge 15 foot wedge on his stomach. What a frankenberry! I was skating the ramp and he tells me "Just drop in Mom." What a frankenberry.
So despite the frustrations, we're having fun and sticking together. We'll survive this crazy adventure, and if we don't atleast we'll all be crazy together.

We live in a van down by the river

2008-04-19T14:19:00.007-08:00

Almost. We live in a trailer down by the channel. (Gastineau Channel) We're on Douglas island. We finally got a place on our anniversary, which was Wednesday, the 16th. It was funny when we were signing the rental agreement and Bryce was like, "What's the date today?" He was so busted. We've just been getting moved in. We bought a 13 inch tv. It's pretty sweet. Life in the trailer has been different. Drake keeps saying "I miss my home in Utah." Bryce and I agree with him. Bryce just keeps reminding us it's only for 6 months.

Bryce went in for his first day of training today. I think it's kindof an informal thing, considering tonight they're having a bonfire. Monday is his real first day of training. After we dropped him off, we came up to the Mendenhall Glacier. There's an Earth Day event up here. Is it Earth Day? The Glacier is so beautiful. One can't imagine how awe-inspiring and breathtaking this part of the country is. When I see pictures of Alaska, I'm always like, "Wow, how beautiful." Let me tell you, no camera can capture the true and entire "picture". The wildlife is so plentiful. We see Golden and Bald Eagles just chillin all over the place. It's cool. Everyone has to make sure they lock their garbage cans so the bears don't get it. Even downtown. Crazy. The only animals I don't like here are the damn ravens or crows or whatever. They're freaking huge and annoying. I know I'm kindof a dork, but the trees and plants here are so beautiful too. On the way up and now that we're here I'm always wondering what type of pine tree that is or how that fragile looking flower can survive in this cold, constantly changing weather.

Juneau itself is pretty dirty and not taken care of. The part where the cruise ship passengers hang out is nice, but the rest of it is so gross. You'd think that being in such beautiful surroundings would encourage people who live here to keep the town kept up. It kindof reminds me of Pittsburgh. The homes downtown are really close together and on narrow, winding streets.

Hopefully they'll figure out, and in the meantime, I'll help out by keeping our trailer and trailer park clean. ;)

Check out the van down by the river: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2897606002265599151&q=van%20down%20by%20the%20river&hl=en

Still on the hunt

2008-04-14T21:16:00.004-08:00

We're still hunting for a home in Juneau. We have some promising leads, but half are ghetto and the other half are expensive. Yes, we're opting for the ones that are a little more expensive. (I know, what a shocker huh, for those of you that know how cheap I am.) We've been staying in the Juneau hostel (http://www.juneauhostel.net/). It's actually very nice. The hosts have a 3 year old that Drake runs around with. I asked Drake what he'd like to say to everyone that reads the blog. He says "Hi". That's it. We drove around for freaking ever today, looking for a place to live. It was horrible. I'm really getting crabby, I feel bad for Bryce and Drake. We went to this awesome place for dinner. Their pizza was rockin! I think I'm going to get a job there. I already have another job lined up, but this one is more accomodating to our schedules. So the last two days have been horrible, and I've been exhausted every night, so no blog. Too bad, so sad. But, yes, we're here, we're stoked, and we're gonna have a good time! p.s. I love Juneau. p.p.s. Yes the pics of the goat and buffalo are real and taken directly from the Jeep.

We made it...

2008-04-13T22:00:00.010-08:00

Here are some photos from the journey, sorry we missed a few days of posting. we are currently looking for a rental in Juneau. These pics are from the alcan... and yes that is a giant beaver.

are we there yet?

2008-04-10T21:08:00.004-08:00

The trip today wasn't too bad. When we exchanged $, I walked into the bank and said "I'd like to get some canadian currency". The girl was like, "no one's ever said it that way before." i'm such a dork. who cares. the trip today wasn't too bad. people in calgary can't freaking drive in snow. bryce's pics illustrate that. i'm tired. we're all tired. canadian kids shows are so lame. both bryce and i are going bonkers with the cheesy characters. thank god for molson canadian lager. the hotel we're staying at has the weirdest windows. they're big bubble windows. i'll post pics. bryce and i feel like we're in a woody allen movie or something. drake gave us a room tour. he was like "this is where you keep your food, this is where you sleep, this is where you make coffee, this is where you watch tv." i'm so glad he doesn't realize how ghetto it really is. soooooo tired. peace. oh yeah, i'm getting a kick out of how canadians speak, eh? and by the time we get through canada, i'm going to be so good at metric conversions!! let's start a new drinking game...

2008-04-10T19:51:00.006-08:00

We are now in Whitecourt AB, drove through calgary and decided that canadians cant drive in snow. there were cars off of the road everywhere, they got 10 inches of snow this morning. We even saw a motorcycle smashed into an exit sign! some dude tried to ride his motorcycle to work in 10 inches of snow... sounds like something I would do. (including the crashing part) anyway, we stopped in Edmonton and had some sushi, good stuff. now we are staying in some ghetto rat trap notel motel. Drake did really well again today on the way, we saw a dodge charger that looked like the transformer bumble bee and he was stoked! Last night Tor saw some antelope and said "look at the gazelles", pretty funny stuff... enjoy the pics. back to my molson canadian and fat tire. mmm not in utah any more...

We're okay so far

2008-04-10T08:12:00.004-08:00

Like Bryce said, we're in Lethbridge. We're aiming for Grand Prairie or something like that tonight. If we make it, cool. If not, whatever. We've got the jeep loaded. Poor jeep. My sister Milinda's playing with Drake. My mom and Steve are chillin too. We're getting ready to hit the road. We'll update via this blog since it's crazy expensive to make calls in Canada.

OH CANADA

2008-04-10T07:22:00.002-08:00

Well we are in Lethbridge alberta, 700 miles into our trip... ready to hit the road.

8 hours to blast off

2008-04-08T19:27:00.004-08:00

We're finalizing everything. The jeep's packed. Just dropped the fish off to Ken & Connie. (Love you guys) We're planning on leaving about 6 in the a.m., so realistically, about 7. We're going to Lethbridge or Fort Macleod, Alberta the first night. We're meeting my mom, stepdad and sister there. That's cool they're driving all that way. We have a ferry to catch from Skagway to Juneau on the 16th. So we've got a week to get to Skagway (approx 2350 miles). Bryce's job starts on the 21st. Wish us luck. Hey here's some pics of our going away party.

Still packing

2008-04-07T19:43:00.003-08:00

So I dropped the dog off to my sister in law Jan. I was so sad to see him go. I was more upset about it than Drake was. All he cared about was that he didn't get a toy at McD's. Whatever.
Now Bryce and I are busting our butts to get our stuff packed and organized. It's crazy to think we're only going to sleep in our house for 2 more nights, then not again for 6 months.
I'm much more excited now than I was 2 days ago. Now that all the big stuff's taken care of, I'm a little less stressed and scared. And to answer some questions: Yes, we're renting the house. Yes, we know him. He's one of Bryce's friend's buddies. Yes, we've met him before. No, we're not taking any furniture. And, finally, Yes, we're crazy.

Ahoy, Ahoy From Pennsyltucky

2008-04-06T07:34:00.004-08:00

In PA, had a banging bbq @Brautumns... thanks everyone! Brautumn, Jess, Joe, Kylee, Jeremy, Matt, Dana. Matt makes wonderful hockey puck steaks. Joes rum drinks would kill a pirate. Love you guys, see yuns in the fall. Mom Mom is doing well, I spent all day with her yesterday, had as much fun as you possibly can in a home like that. Leaving tomorrow @ 4 am to catch my flight in Balmer. Getting pumped for our road trip! AK or bust (literally).

Here we go...

2008-04-05T19:44:00.001-08:00

So, this is it. I'm crossing the items off my lists. I only have 3 complete days left until we leave. I have a lot to do, but at the same time I don't have so many things that I'm getting overwhelmed.

Bryce is in PA visiting his Grandma right now. He has the camera. So no pics for a couple days. He was reluctant to go. He didn't want to leave me to have to prepare for our journey on my own. Of course I can do it all by myself, no problem. Right? Maybe?

I'm really nervous, excited, scared and emotional. I'm mostly scared. Would I normally admit that if I were speaking in person or over the phone? No. I'm trying to be strong and brave. I don't want Drake to get any more weirded-out than he already is. He knows things are going to be different. I don't know if he understands how they'll be different. How does one explain this to a 3 year old? Do I tell him I'm nervous as hell about it too, but if we all stick together everything will be okay?

As you can probably tell, my mind is all over the place. I have so many things to do and so many random things I'm worried about. This is getting way too serious. I'm going to go do something so I can check it off one of my many lists.