We are very blessed

"No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jusus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Happy Thanksgiving! We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving this year with our friends and neighbors from Eagle River. Thea's husband Mike is deployed to Afghanistan until February, but she and her daughter Lily, and her sister, Brita joined us at our house for lunch today. Lily wore her special dress she has been saving all year until Thanksgiving, and she entertained Duke
by reading to him from her Barbie coloring book while the adults played Catchphrase. We all came up with the top 10 things we were thankful for this year (we all have much more than 10!), we had a wonderful lunch, doing some major damage to a 17lb turkey, which I am proud to say I didn't burn :) Brant and I finished the night off by watching Home Alone, our yearly tradition and trying to feed Duke the giblets, which he is not too fond of :)














Tomorrow, we are going to get our Christmas tree and start decorating! Only 29 more days until Christmas :) We hope everyone had a nice holiday today!

Pictures from the 2009 Alaska State Fair!!

Summer in Alaska

So, we are quite behind on updating our blog and so much has happened since mom and dad's visit in May! Brant has spent a lot weekends fishing this summer...I went along on the ones that didn't start at 5am!! We didn't have much luck fishing for red's this year, but Brant did get a couple silver and a halibut - which will fill our freezer until next summer. The summer weather has been absolutely gorgeous this year - mostly in the low to mid 60s. We've enjoyed fishing, camping, hiking, and having dinner













on our back porch. Brant's birthday was July 13th, and we celebrated by having a cookout with a few friends. It was the first year in a LONG time it was not celebrated out on Lake Hartwell. Brant was thinking of














running over and jumping into Lower Fireweed Lake just to say he did get in the lake on his birthday, but we weren't prepared with our wet suits :)

We moved out of our home in Eagle River and up the road about 15 minutes to Chugiak, AK. The owners of our home in Eagle River are coming back from their deployment in mid-September, so we began looking in July for a new place. The first day we went looking, we found a house that both Brant and I really loved. It's a great log cabin home away from town, and has a big yard that Duke loves! We have a few neighbors, and Brant can't wait to build a firepit in the backyard. The first day we were out here, Duke ran circles around the house as fast as he could until he collapsed, so we knew he liked it too! With the help of a few of




























Brant's buddies from the dental clinic, we got all of our furniture moved in in 1 day. then we spent about 3 weeks going back and forth everynight after work and every weekend until we got everything moved out and the house cleaned. We are finally in our newhouse, although boxes are still everywhere! It has a great little wood stove that we can't wait to use this winter and a great backyard where we put up an outdoor kennel for Duke during the day.

Brant graduated from his residency on August 14th - YAY!! He is now officially on his own and loving it. He wasted no time starting to use his accrued leave time after graduation. He left this morning at 5:30am for an 8 day float fishing trip down the Kasilof River with 2 other guys from the clinic. They were flown out this morning in a small single engine plane and dropped off with their gear and a boat in the middle of nowhere, AK. They'll float for 8 days, catch and release trout. He gets home for 1 day and then leaves for 4 on a moose hunting trip with 2 other friends. Hard life! haha. Brant has been working with Duke, training him, so he is able to accompany him on some hunts next year. As of now, he's still a wild man :) He just turned 7 months and is 70 pounds! He loves running through tall grass, stealing neighbors' newspapers, swimming, playing ball, and hiding his tennis balls under the couch and then crying until we dig them out for him.


The leaves have started to change this week and fall is in the air! The weather is still beautiful, but we know snow is only about 6 weeks away! We're going to enjoy as much sunshine until then as we can!

Mom and Dad's Visit

Mom and dad were here for a visit last week over Memorial Day. Brant and I both had 4 day weekends, so it was the perfect time to have visitors! We went out to eat at all of our favorite restaurants in town and the weather was nice almost the whole time! Mom and dad got to see a moose on the way back from dinner on Thursday night - the first day they were here! On Friday, we left for Seward for the weekend and had planned a fishing charter for all day Saturday. On the way down, we got a call and our charter got cancelled due to bad weather, so it got postponed until Sunday. On our way down to Seward, which is about a 2.5 hour drive south of Anchorage, we stopped at the Conservation Center and saw a bunch of wildlife, including black bear, grizzlies, a porcupine (that was a first, and they stink like crazy!), moose, caribou, and some other animals as well. We got down to Seward and went to dinner at Ray's - a restaurant that Brant's parents recommended that they went when they were here on their cruise last summer. It was on the water at the marina and had a beautiful view of the mountains - and was really yummy! Since our charter was cancelled on Saturday, we had the day to fiddle around town. We went to the SeaLife museum, which is kind of a rehabilitation center for animals. And I was excited we got to see Puffin! After we left the SeaLife museum, drove to Exit Glacier. It's a huge glacier in Seward with lots of trails you can hike to the foot or all the way to the top. We took the hike to the foot of the glacier as it was getting to be dinner time :) We hit the hay early as we had to be to our charter at 6am the next day. The weather was not good again on Sunday, so we didn't get to go out as far as we wanted for King Salmon, but luckily we still got to go out. It was a long fun day. Dad was the only one that caught a halibut. Mom, Brant, and I all caught cod, and then mom caught a rockfish. There were 5 halibut caught on our boat total and the biggest one was 90lbs!! We got our fish packaged up and headed back to Eagle River. Monday was Memorial Day, and Brant wanted to take our salmon rods down to Ship Creek to fish for king salmon, as they are just starting to swim into the rivers this week. Mom and I dropped of Brant and dad to fish while we took Duke down to splash around in the river. He had a blast and good thing I had him on his leash - he's not quite big enough to fight the current on his own yet :) We went back to pick up the guys and our first sight was dad climbing up the hill with no boots and mud up to his knees, holding his fishing pole. Apparently, they got in a pretty mucky spot, and he sunk into the mud and got his boots stuck. Brant tried to help dig his boots out, but they were too stuck. So, he had to crawl out of his boots and leave them. We found a hose to hose him off, and Brant rode home in the back of the truck with Duke because he was just as muddy. Brant and I had to go back to work on Tuesday, so mom and dad were on their own to explore. I got a text message at work on Tuesday afternoon from mom that said "moose in your yard." I gave her a call, and she said there were two moose in the neighborhood and they were currently in the front yard, one was sniffing our trash can, and dad was hiding behind the birch tree to get a closer look! I told her to remind him that they WILL charge you if you get to close. He risked his life, but got some pretty good pictures :) We've never seen moose in our neighborhood before...maybe we should start staying home from work a little more :) We had a great visit with them and are looking forward to other visitors this summer!!

DUKE!!

Brant and I have a new addition to the family :) We got Duke last weekend from a breeder in Eagle River. We had been looking to possibly get one this summer, but we found him, and he was the last puppy left out of a litter of 7 born on January 29th. He's 14 weeks old and growing like a weed - he already weighs 35 pounds!! He loves his kennel at night, which is good - not much whining...until anywhere between 4am and 6am. He follows us around the house, including sitting on the rug just outside the shower! I take him on a walk every morning before I get ready for work, and then Brant and I both take him on a walk after dinner. We are very fortunate to have wonderful neighbors that offered to help us out during the day. Thea and Lily come over at lunch time and let Duke out to the bathroom, feed him, and play with him for awhile. Lily is 3 and was mortified that we were naming our puppy Duke because "that's a silly name for dog poop - Poopie Dookie!" But, I think she's gotten over that! This is his favorite toy - his hedgehog. He cuddles with it every night :) My friend Suzanne has a 7 month old black lab, Harley, and they are training him to be a hunting dog. She invited us to a "Fun Duck Hunt" this weekend in Wasilla where Harley was competing. They had blinds set up in the field, they would shoot into the air and slingshot a frozen dead duck into the sky. They did this three times for each dog, and the dog was supposed to retrieve the duck and bring it back. It was fun, and we took Duke so he could be around some other dogs and see what the Fun Hunts were all about. We love him!

It's Almost Springime!! Happy Easter :)

The temperature is 30-40 degrees here on a daily basis now - people are bringing out their shorts - seriously!! It's amazing what feels warm to you after being in weather from -20 degrees to 20 degrees for 5 months!! Brant and I have not gotten out our shorts yet, although we've switched from heavy winter coats to a light fleece :) The snow is finally almost melted, and we were able to take the studded tires off our cars. We were told not to get to excited because last year, they got 2 feet of snow overnight on April 25th!!

We have been having quite a few "Girls' Nights" at work lately. A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Valerie, hosted a Spa Night at her house. There were about 10 of us at Valerie's house, and 3 ladies that worked at a spa came over and offered massages, pedicures, manicures, facials, and some other stuff. I had a pedicure and an awesome massage. It was really nice to spend a relaxing Friday night with the girls! Brant was on call the same night and was called down to the ER at the end of his work day....I got home from Girls Night before he got home from work - how sad! This is my favorite picture from the night...this is Kay after she finished getting her head massage. We told her she'd better run a brush through her hair before she got home or her husband would wonder what went on at Girls Night! haha.

Our clinic was closed on Friday for Good Friday, so several of us went hiking to Wolverine Pass in south Anchorage. It was a nice mild day - about 35 - and we hiked for about 2 hours and went to lunch at a great pizza place - The Moose's Tooth. It was a really nice day off and we all enjoyed spending most of the day together!

Hope everyone reading this is enjoying the warmness for us!!!

Happy Anniversary :)

For our anniversary we went down to Alyeska ski resort in Girdwood, about an hour south of where we live. We drove down Saturday morning and checked into our room. Brant has his own














snowboard, but I still rent as I don't know if I really want to invest in a snowboard quite yet. I've only been snowboarding 3 times before, I'm not good, and Brant has been a great teacher trying to build me up so I'd be ready to go down the "big hills" at Alyeska. I have been practicing on the














ski slopes on base, which apparently aren't that big - they were to me! We rode the tram up to the top and had lunch a Glacier Express, 2300 feet above sea level - the view was amazing.

After lunch, it was finally time to test our skills on the slopes. I really did not enjoy snowboarding until this weekend at Alyeska. I really had a great weekend, the weather was gorgeous, and we got to spend two days out on the slopes. The best part was, I learned how to turn :) so I didn't have to spend the weekend on the bunny hill. I think I can get on most chair lifts now without busting my butt. Except for lift #1 at the resort - I only got off that once because I think I got whiplash.

I was able to snowboard on the same slopes as Brant all day. Well, he would either go ahead of me and stop to wait, or he would let me get a head start and then catch up with me :) I'm getting there. No major injuries incurred except for some large bruises, sore muscles, tender tailbones, and whiplash from getting off the lift :)

Saturday night, we went to the Double Musky for dinner. It has been featured in a lot of "Best Of" magazines and was recommended to us by a lot of people. It was wonderful - and we even had Double Musky Pie for dessert - yummy :)



Sunday morning, we slept in and had breakfast at the resort. We hit the slopes for a few more hours before heading home, whipped! We got home and had leftovers for dinner and our wedding cake with champagne for dessert - it was italian cream cake - and it was still wonderful after being in the freezer for a year :)

Fur Rondy 2009

Last weekend, we went downtown Anchorage with Richard, Lori, and Avery to the 2009 Fur Rondy Festival (short for Fur Rendezvous. It is a 74-year old tradition that celebrates life in Alaska. We got there early for the parade...it was freezing. Luckily, we were standing right next to the coffee shop and they were loaded with hot chocolate :) We took advantage of that! We watched the parade for about an hour then watched the Sled Dog Races for awhile. We were up close and personal watching from the starting line, and they had streets blocked off all around town for the race. The actual Iditarod race doesn't start until March 7th, so


these were the sprint races.

After we were done watching the races, we went down to the ice sculpture contest. This was my favorite ice sculpture...Scrat from "Ice Age." All of the sculptures were amazing and so detailed! After browsing around the sculptures, we were all getting pretty cold, and Avery was getting pretty tired, so we walked back to eat lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse - one of our favorite restaurants in Anchorage.



On our way, we had to walk through the fair. Yes, it was probably 15 degrees, snowing, and there were people riding on the ferris wheel and the pirate ship, and the potato sack races. I guess they don't know any better, and we couldn't think of anything more miserable! After filling up and warming up at the Brewhouse, we drove to the airforce base and went snowboarding from about 5-8PM. It was my last chance to practice on the 'small hill' until we headed to the 'big hill' on our anniversary. I took advantage of it :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Brant and I made some last minute plans for our Valentine's Day weekend. Brant had Monday off for President's Day, so we decided it would be the perfect weekend to leave Anchorage, since we haven't been had time to travel much inside Alaska yet. We made reservations at a bed and breakfast in Talkeetna, AK and scheduled a guided snomobile tour from Trapper Creek, AK to the entrance of Denali National Park. We had heard a lot of people talk about how neat the town of Talkeetna was, but we didn't realize exactly how small it was until we got there. I'm talking smaller than Lakeview, MI -- for any of you from MI reading this :) There are only 1000 people who live there year round. This is the "welcome to downtown" sign for this little "hippie" town. There is 1 street considered "downtown" and it had probably 4 small restaurants and a few places to stay.

We rented snow shoes from the base and took them with us. We had a little time on Saturday when we got down there before it got dark to go on a short little hike. Brant thinks we saw Bigfoot tracks :) We ate dinner at Mountain High Pizza Pie - yummy! And we found out that our waiter went to Clemson!! It was really weird to meet someone that far away that went to Clemson - he probably thought the same thing though.

Saturday night, the entertainment in town was a Valentine's Day show put on by the Denali art's council called "The Complexities of Love." It was packed - I guess it was the only thing going on in town. It was a cute little show with a variety of people singing, dancing, playing the banjo, acting, etc. We were a little worried about what we were in for, but we both really enjoyed it.

On Sunday, we drove to Trapper Creek, about 30 minutes away, and met our snowmobile guide, Bob. We had a total of 7 people in our group. We rode about 3 hours north to the opening of Denali Park, and out in the middle of nowhere to a little cabin that served us lunch. You can only reach the cabin by ferry (when the river isn't frozen) or by snomobile in the winter. And people live there. We had awesome homemade turkey and dumplins, homemade bread, brownies, and hot chocolate. After we warmed up, we headed back a different route and arrived back to the cabin just as it was getting dark. It was a really awesome trip and I had a sore back for 2 days afterwards :)

Brant had Monday off, so we went to Hatcher's Pass with our friends Richard and Lori to hike with our snowshoes. We hiked up some really steep hills and around Hatcher's Pass to an old mining village. The snow was really deep - no way we could've hiked it without snowshoes! We had a great weekend and enjoyed being outdoors for most of it. And it is finally starting to stay light longer!!!

Amanda's and Ryan are gettin' hitched!!

Brant and I were fortunate to be able to travel back to SC at the end of January for Amanda's wedding. I got to go home a week before the wedding and have fun at the Bachelorette weekend. There were a total of 12 girls and we all spent the weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee. We had a


honkey tonkin' good time at Cotton Eyed Joes and lots of memories to share (or not to share :) The highlight of the weekend was that Amanda rode a mechanical bull. And we have video that we're not sharing :)

I got to spend the week before the wedding with Amanda in Kingsport and we drove to Charleston on Wednesday before the wedding. It was really nice to be able to spend a few days with some of my family members from out of town and help with last minute details. It was a beautiful weekend and everything went perfecty as planned. Brant flew in on Friday late afternoon while we were all at rehearsal, and was just in time for rehearsal dinner at The Boathouse (http://www.boathouserestaurants.com/) We enjoyed a nice dinner together and a memorable slideshow of Amanda and Ryan. After rehearsal dinner, we headed downtown to The Saloon with Amanda and Ryan and some of their friends for one last night of fun. Again, we have video that we are not sharing :) The morning of the wedding was an early one. All of the girls in the wedding party, moms, grandmas, and aunts met at Poogan's Porch for a wonderful breakfast at 8:30am (http://poogansporch.com/). Brant was excited that he got to spend time with a few friends that lived in Charleston. Shortly after breakfast, we all were on our way to get ready for the wedding at 2. The girls took a trolley ride from the hotel to the church, and we got to take some pictures just across the street since the weather was so beautiful! The wedding was at St. John the Baptist Catholic cathedral (http://www.catholic-doc.org/cathedral/ ), and everything went perfectly. We spent the rest of the evening at the reception at Magnolia Plantation carriage house at the reception (http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/). Brant's parents were also at the wedding, so we got to see them too. Amanda and Ryan had an awesome band that played and we all had tired feet from dancing all night. The night was finally over, and we went back to the hotel to hang out with our family and a few friends that we have in Charleston stopped by. It was a short night, as our plane left to head back north at 7:30 am. We tried to get some sleep on the plane, but was difficult as our seats were not together :( We were whipped when we got back, only to find Brant's truck had a flat tire at the airport :( We repaired it as quickly as we could as we were greeted with snow and 5 degree weather! I was fortunate to have Monday off, so I got rested up, but Brant had a quick trip weekend and had to be back to work at 7am Monday morning. We were just very happy that we could make the trip. It was a wonderful weekend.