Summer Barbecues...

Drew got a new camera just before our kayak trip.  He's been having fun learning to use it to take unflattering pictures of me and all our friends...but he is taking more pictures of our everyday lifem, which is nice to document sometimes too.  We had a low key memorial day BBQ with friends, similar to many we've had over the spring and summer so far, and of course we had a few kayaking BBQ's this year already as well.  Here's a few shots from then...

yeah, not kidding about the getting seriously burned thing...

Rich and I staying strong with our flip phones...

Joe and Rachel Visit

My brother Joey and his girlfriend Rachel bought tickets to come up and visit Alaska 6 months ago.  When we told them to come the first week of April we thought for sure there would be plenty of snow but also hopefully more sun.  It might even be warm enough to pull out the kayaks.  We spent the whole winter sweating it, thinking maybe we'd told them to come too late and there wouldn't be any snow for them to ski.  It was definitely spring skiing, but we got two days of beautiful sun and a fairly empty mountain to ski on.  I think we packed a lot into the week they were here.  I had asked for one day off of work and then finagled my way into getting put on call another day so I only had to work one day while they were here, and then I left on their last day to go on choir tour.  They were really fun to have visit because they wanted to do a lot of things that we like to do anyway, and they wanted to just see how we live up here.  With good weather and that as the requested itinerary, how could we go wrong?

Day 1, Saturday:  Picked them up in the evening after a long travel day.  Although I wouldn't wish it on anyone, I kind of like it when people do the trip up here because it gives them some understanding of the dread that I have every time I get on a plane to go to the east coast.  Drew's sister recently flew home from Ecuador and we were kind of surprised to hear her flight was way shorter than ours was when we fly back to see his family.  They made it home for some pretty sunset time and lots of pictures our the car window of the drive home:

Drew had dinner waiting for us when we got home and we planned out the week, Rachel made a chart and deemed what was nonnegotiable and what wasn't. :)

Sunday, Day 2:  We talked Rachel and Joey into attending the branch with us, if for nothing else than people watching, but then ditched after sacrament meeting to get in our first ski day: 

It was the warmest weather I've ever skied in and being a Sunday, the busiest I'd seen it all year.  We had a good time though.  Joe borrowed Drew's snowboard and Rachel rented demo ski's from the local ski shop.
After a good day of skiing we met up with some friends for a barbecue dinner out on the flats.  It definitely got chilly, a bonfire would have been nice, but the sunset was really pretty and the tide didn't get us.  Everyone took a lot of pictures that night, especially of Wren, the always adorable dog.  It was fun to introduce Joe and Rachel to our closest friends here in AK.

Monday, Day 3: I had to go to work, unfortunately, but they had a beautiful sunny day, and Drew was off so he took them to the Conservation Center to see some Alaska animals:

Yes, that is Snickers in a tree! 

My favorite, the musk ox.

They also stopped and took a quick peek at Portage Lake, which was still frozen over.

They eventually made it through the tunnel and pried the plywood off the windows so they could grab some kayaks for an early season Kittiwake tour.  Looks like they couldn't of had a nicer day:

Tuesday, Day 4: I ended up on call and Joey and Rachel's snowmobile tour didn't sound so cool without a lot of snow so we spent a chill day in Girdwood doing some interneting and checking out the town.  We got out in the afternoon and did some cross country skiing.  It was really icy and tracked out, so it wasn't ideal.  It was Joe's first time, but he was a good sport. 

Wednesday, Day 5: From today on both Drew and I were off from work.  We packed up and headed north, stopping in Anchorage to pack up on food for the night before heading up to Denali State Park.  We rented a cabin on Byer's Lake, and stopped at the south viewpoint for a perfect clear view of Denali (Mt. McKinley).  

We brought snowshoes, but we didn't really need them.  We dragged a sled with all our food and wood for the stove, we each had a backpack, and we cut across the lake for a very short trip to Public Use Cabin #2:

The cabin had a great view of Denali from the window:

We dropped our stuff and went our for a stroll on the lake:

Taking credit for a half melted snowman.

Testing the ice over the stream...

We came home, got the fire going, dinner going, played some cards, read the cabin journal, and took lots of pictures of the mountain, the sunset, and the moon.  We had a perfectly clear night, but unfortunately no northern lights.  We've barely caught them at all this year.

Thursday, Day 6:  We walked back on the trail pretty quick and drove back to Anchorage, stopping at Talkeetna along the way.  We did some souvenir shopping, ate at the roadhouse, and checked out the Denali Brewery Company, the first of several breweries we hit up that day.  Drew and I ended up having a lot of root beer that day. :)

Rich caught up with us for the last two brewery stops, the very last of which was Moose's tooth.  We went crazy, ordering 4 pizzas, 8 flavors.  We finished it off with dessert. 

Friday, Day 7: We got in another day of skiing.  It was a bit cloudier but still nice, and the resort was practically empty.

After skiing we did a potluck dinner with the usual suspects.  Rich hosted us at the bed and breakfast where he lives, which is always a treat.  Afterwards we got a soak in at the hot tub.  Everyone made something delicious to be sure.  

The next day they took it easy and took off for Philly.  All in all we thought it was a good time had by all.  Maybe we can even convince them to check out Alaska again another time!  Hopefully we'll have a real bed and a real room to put them in next time!

A Summer with Wren

This summer we got to watch our friends' dog Wren a few times.  I've never had a dog before but I loved taking Wren on walks and runs and playing fetch with him.  We have such a beautiful town that loves dogs and doesn't care if you put the dog on a leash or not.  So we had fun taking him around in what Drew likes to call "a dog's paradise."  Portage Valley is one of our other favorite places to go.  If it wasn't already owned or forest land and it wasn't so far away from work we would build a house there.  It's our favorite of the four valleys.  Drew came home from a kayaking trip this summer and we decided to do a hike together, but Drew was so exhausted that he didn't really feel like hiking up a mountain.  So we decided to walk the Blue Ice Trail, which is about as flat of a hike as you can get along the valley floor.  Wren and he had such a fun time being off leash and jumping into the water and the snow.  We had another gorgeous day.  He loves to splash in shallow water but he won't swim.  It was absolute torture if we through a stick in the water too deep for him to reach.  It was fun to watch him find ways to get the stick without having to swim.  He also loved the snow by the avalanche chute that still hadn't melted.  He is such a great dog and we love whenever he comes to see us.  Hopefully soon we can get a dog of our own that's just as good.