A Tail of Forbidden Love

This is Bobby, (you have to click on the picture to see the whole thing) he is a delightful young dog from the Clan Chihuahua. I first laid eyes on this strapping young man last week as part of my ritualistic combing of the internets in order to find a dog to buy/adopt. Bobby was given up by his owner-I assume because the dude couldn't handle such a rock n roll hound-and is being held hostage by an organization known as Friends of Pets.

Now I know you may be thinking right now that any organization with the word "friend" in its title has to be legitimate, but the process they make you go through in order to even have a chance to look at the animals they have in their facility (read prison) would make you think otherwise. It seriously is easier to adopt a kid than one of the dogs they have; it might even cost about the same too. Anyway, I filled out the required paperwork and submitted electronically a few days ago and now our file is being reviewed by one of the cronies that work there. There were several sections in the application where the applier is encouraged to elaborate on his or her answers, so I laid it on thick. I utilized every scrap of writing ability I learned throughout my college years and applied them to this application. When they get done reading it, I'll bet you dollars to donuts that they think Jaime and are aristocratic, or possibly Democratic.

Now it's a waiting game. Because the agency is only staffed by volunteers, they work on nights and weekends and try as hard as they can to get applications processed in about a week. As of this writing we are Submission Day +2, so I will keep you posted as I receive more info. Once the application is processed, and they think we would be a good match for Little Bobby, they give us a chance to come in and meet him. If we pass that phase, they will then come to our home and do a residence visit where they will assess our living space to ensure it meets their requirements. Now I don't know if any of you have ever seen a Chihuahua, but they are the smallest breed on earth, averaging about 6-12 pounds. I've eaten more pizza in one sitting than that. An adequate living space for the tiny Mexican pooch would be a laundry basket, so I don't think we'll be disqualified for that. Assuming we make it that far, Ole Bobb-O is placed in our care for a trial adoption. If that goes off without a hitch, he's ours!

So, if in your Christmas spirit you feel like sending good thoughts and feelings our way, I think Bobby would appreciate it. It has been a fun experience so far and I hope we get a chance to go see the little guy.

The Little Things

You know what is really annoying?  Having your power windows freeze when you are attempting to go through the drive through.  Now that we live in Alaska, it is below freezing most of the time/all of the time. :)  We have found that our windows freeze right around 20 degrees.  from 20-35 degrees we might have to "help" the window a little by pushing down on it, but usually it will open.

Today it was a brisk 25 degrees when I went on lunch from my work training.  I was craving Arby's so I headed over there, navigated through the icy roads and finally made it to the drive through.  As I pulled up to the window I tried to roll down my window, and it was stuck!  Yes, yes, I could have just opened my door and ordered, paid, and got my food, but number one, that is just awkward.  And number two, it is freezing cold, and who wants icy air coming in an open door while they sit and wait?  Not this girl.  I was already cold even though I was bundled up in a Down coat zipped all the way up and had gloves on.  I don't even want to think about how cold I would have been with the door wide open!

Luckily, at the last second I was able to "help" the window open and a crisis was averted.  So today I'm grateful it was just warm enough for me to roll down my window at the drive through!

Our first Christmas tree

What would you say if I told you this was our first Christmas tree as a married couple?

It's true.  We have never decorated a Christmas Tree together until this year, and this is our 3rd Christmas together. Let me re-cap our previous two Christmas' together:

Christmas #1: Newlyweds.  We cut down a beautiful tree in Manti and left it at Mac's parents house, with the intention of getting it in the next day or two and putting it up in our apartment.  Fast forward to Christmas 2009--the tree was still beautifully decorating Mac's parent's lawn.  Oops.

Christmas #2: Moving in with the Parents.  Yep, the beginning of December 2010 we moved in with my parents to save money for our big move to Alaska.  So we just mooched off my parent's tree but didn't really decorate it.

Christmas #3: OUR FIRST TREE!  We got this little beauty at Fred Meyers.  It is super cute and we love it.  It would have a star on top...but....Mac doesn't know his own strength, and broke the star we bought.  haha, it was a pretty sad moment but we had a good laugh about it.  We think our tree is still beautiful!

Mac and our broken star!

How lame are we?  We only dressed from the waist down for our first Christmas tree picture.  Here is the full view: 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Moose Alert!

This morning I got up early to clean the church at 9am (since the sun doesn't come up till 10am it is really easy to sleep in!)  So as I walked to the church at 9am it was still pretty dark outside.  We live really close to the church so I just decided to walk in celebration of the heat wave passing through Anchorage (it was 38 degrees yesterday!!  I thought it was summer for a minute.)  Anyway, as I was walking I passed this wooded area that is across from our parking lot.  I've always thought the moose would love that spot but I've never seen one in there.  So as I walked I thought to myself, "That would be scary if there was a big moose in there!"  So of course I looked to see if anything was there (it was kinda creepy/scary because it was dark and foresty looking) and sure enough!  I big huge bull moose just chilling right inside the tree line.  Having watched all the alaska outdoors shows where people get attacked by moose and bears and all that jazz, I kinda panicked and started walking really fast (and quietly) so as to not startle him.  He just looked at me as I cruised past.  He was only like 20 feet away from me.  Wildlife viewing is so much more fun from the safety of a car!!  Oh, and no, I didn't get a picture because I was too busy putting some distance between me and him.

New Beginnings....

I think I posted a little on here a month or so ago about how awful my job here was.  I finally decided I had had enough and took a leap of faith by quitting my job before I even had another one lined up.  I knew it wasn't good for me to stay there so I just had to trust that things would work out for us, and they most definitely have!!  I officially accepted my new job today and start on Monday!  I really am so excited.  I will be working as a Foster Care Licensing Specialist for Denali Family Services here in Alaska.  I have been wanting to get out of Substance Abuse Treatment and into Adoptions/Foster Care for some time now, and it seems like this job just fell into my lap.  It's amazing.  I know there will be ups and downs in this job, as in every other job out there, but I know I will at least be supported by my supervisor and encouraged to do well instead of put down at every turn.  Here's to new beginnings and hopefully making a difference in the lives of some very special children!

You know you live in Alaska when......

I always love this type of joke....."you know you're a redneck when...." "You know you live in Utah when....."  "You know you grew up in the 80's when....."

My new favorite is, "You know you live in Alaska when...."

Yesterday mac and I walked outside to the truck to run some errands around 1:00pm.  It was a GORGEOUS day in Anchorage with blue skies and a bright sun.  This was a very welcome change as it has just been dreary and cold and dark for the last little while.

As we were walking to the car (bundled up in like 1,000 layers) I said, "wow, it is really warm today!!" I was thinking to myself that I probably could have just worn a sweater today and been warm enough! When we got in the car and saw the temperature, it read 23 degrees.  HA!  I guess when it has been in the negatives, a freezing 23 degrees can feel like a warm spring day!

So.......

"You know you live in Alaska when you think 23 degrees is WARM."

Maybe you have to live in Alaska to appreciate this one....but I think it's pretty funny. :)

Bored......Really Bored.

Last week I was beyond thrilled to have survived my last day at my miserable awful job.  It was SO MUCH FUN to be home and hanging out with Mac everyday.  We were out and about a lot and made yummy dinners and had epic ping pong battles.

BUT.......

Now Thanksgiving break is over.  And Mac is back to work and school, and I'm sitting here at home!  If you know me, you know I don't do well with "nothing to do".  It drives me crazy.  I already cleaned the entire house yesterday, cleaned out old clothes from the closet, organized, read a book, cleaned, watched a show, surfed fb and people's blogs, and cleaned some more.  I'm seriously losing my mind here!!  Hopefully I'll be back to work at my new job by next Monday as long as my background check comes back in time!  If not then my start date will get pushed back another week.  PLEASE NO!!!

I know I will be begging for the days of "no work" once I start working again, but for now I'm ready to be productive again, and I just don't think my house can survive any more cleaning!

Fundraising to bring Maria Flor home from ECUADOR!!

A lot of you know (but some of you don't) I spent three months volunteering Orphanages in Ecuador during college.  To say this experience changed my life would be an understatement.  I arrived in Quito an accounting major and left with a plan to change my major to social work.  My life would be VERY different right now if I hadn't donated three months of my time to volunteer.  Oh, HOW I WISH I COULD GO BACK!!  This experience was truly incredible and I hope to one day work in adoptions myself.

My AMAZING friend Kim Perry and her husband Devin are toward the tail end of adopting one of our sweet babies from Ecuador (something Mac and I plan to do one day!).  They have FINALLY been officially assigned to Maria Flor and are in the last leg of this long, difficult, stressful, emotional, and amazing process.  They are having one last push for fundraising before they get a loan to cover the remaining travel costs, etc. to Ecuador to pick up their little girl.

So here's the deal.  Go to their blog http://strobeliteblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/fundraising-raffle-you-know-you-want-to.html and donate at least $5 to the Maria Flor Fund.  Then leave a comment saying you donated, and you will be entered into a raffle to win one of the awesome prizes they have listed on their website!  (read the directions for ways to get more entries) This is for a really good cause and my only sadness is that we can't donate more.  Let's help em out!!

For more information on the backstory of how Kim and Devin came to adopt Maria Flor, see their blog here: http://strobeliteblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/re-introducing.html

Thank you in advance for helping out Kim and Devin!!

Things just work out sometimes...well, most of the time

It is days like today that I find myself asking myself the same old question: "Why do I stress and worry that things won't work out?"  I am a worrier, a stresser, and a planner.  I go through this all the time when something doesn't go my way initially and then I freak out and then it all works out for the better and I find myself wondering why I did all the worrying and stressing to begin with.  Yeah, that day is today.  Life is good.  Life works out.  We really don't have a whole lot of control, but what we do have is trust that Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and He does.  Today I'm grateful for that knowledge!

Changes

I did it.  I turned in my two weeks notice and survived my last two weeks of work!  I can't really even describe the amount of relief that I feel knowing I never have to go back to my old job.  Of course, with that change comes more worry if I'll like my new job and what challenges that will present, but I'm up for the challenge as long as it is an environment where I am treated with respect.  For now, I'm taking the week of Thanksgiving to recuperate and then I'll start my new job.

One thing I've always struggled with is remember to trust in the Lord's plan for me, and not just make my own plan happen by sheer force of will.  I'm can be pretty stubborn sometimes (shocking, I know) and I like to think I know how things should go.  Over the past year I've been constantly reminded that I'm not in charge and I think I finally got the message.  I'm trying every day to see the big picture, and it is getting easier. Things will work out, don't they always?  In the moment we can't see how, but down the road it all makes sense.  I'm grateful for an eternal perspective and for everything I've been blessed with.

Lately I have really been missing family and friends at home.  There is just something about having people who truly know you and love you and accept you for your quirks and all.  We are going home in January and it will be much needed time to spend with our loved ones.  In the same breath, I can't believe how much closer Mac and I have grown since moving to Alaska.  We have loved having so much time to spend together and having to be creative in entertaining ourselves since it is in the negatives outside and it gets dark at like 4:30.  We have been playing lots of UNO, enjoying our favorite T.V. Shows, and looking forward to our first summer in Alaska....in just FIVE short months. :)

I guess it is time for some new photos since I've been so busy lately that I haven't even processed most of them from the past few months.

Enjoying our weekend getaway to beautiful Seward, Alaska

I can't wait to come back next year when it is a little warmer!

Having fun at the Sea Life Aquarium in Seward.

I love starfish!

Getting a little Salmon Education

We must have watched these Sea Lions for 20 minutes.  They were so entertaining!

Practicing my dogsledding skillz

Mile 0 of the Iditarod.  Can't wait to experience this next year!

Beautiful snow capped mountains EVERYWHERE.

Our first Alaskan Landslide.  We really wished it would have blocked the whole road so we'd have a reason not to go back to work and school, but unfortunately we got around it.

One of our favorite spots....The Wildlife Conservation center!  Almost every time we go we see the bear trainer, but this time we were pretty much the only people there and got to talk to him one on one about the bears.  These Kodiak bear cubs are being sent to a zoo in Sweden next year.  The trainer just stopped going in their enclosement a few weeks ago because they have gotten too big and its not safe any more.  Uh, yeah!  This is how they feed them now...with a big pipe!

We LOVED having Jeff come visit us in October!  We tried to get him to see a glacier while he was here, but the weather wasn't cooperating.  We could hardly see anything, and it was FREEZING!

I'm cold, can you tell?

The Anchorage, AK LDS temple.  I still think it is funny that it shares a parking lot with the stake center!

Beautiful Alaskan sunset

As always, we found a few moose at the airport.  This little moose was just right off the side of the road!

Greetings From the Great White North

So I can never get Mac to post on our blog, but a lot of times he sits by me while I update and puts in his two cents.  However, he has a blog he shares with his buddies back home and occasionally posts on that blog, so I just stole it and am posting it here!!  Some of it might be a little bit of a repeat of my last post but it will give you a different perspective. Enjoy!

Alaska, the final frontier, these are the voyages of the starship USS Little Godzilla (thats my tiny 2wd Toyota!)....Something about boldly going where no man has gone before, star date something, I don't know.

Anyway, as you all know, I would like to be kept up to date with the goings on in your lives, and it's only fair that I share whats up with me.

To begin, Alaska is awesome, albeit the strangest place I've ever been. Tucker can vouch for me on this, Alaskans are strange Jose's. It's hard to explain why it is so weird up here, but it almost feels like it's ten years ago. Red Box came up here just 2 years ago, and Verizon doesn't even exist north of the Lower 48. It's pretty archaic. But like I said, it's amazing. In my private pilot ground school class we are working on maps right now, and every time I open the Alaska one I'm blown away by how immense this place is. The state is 1/3rd the size of the whole contiguous United States, it would take years to even get a grasp of what there is to do here.

I don't know how long we'll be here, but I am trying to convince Jaime to let us stay and work here for awhile. I will be graduating in December 2012 and I found out that at that time, there will be tons of positions opening in Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam. So those might be where I submit my name to work when I get done here. I voted on Guam, but Jaime isn't so hot on that idea, and she wants to live in Hawaii. So let me know what you guys think.

We are not pregnant yet. We just passed the one year mark of trying to have a kid, and it's starting to get to me. I know it can take awhile to conceive, but I didn't know how taxing it could be emotionally. So keep us in your prayers, and we name the kid after one of you...

Anyway, I better sign off. I have a test in my aviation history class in a few hours and I didn't study as much as I wanted to. So adios mi amigos, I shall talk to you laters.

Noteworthy Notes about Life in Alaska

Hi Family and Friends!  I know, I know, it has been a long time since our last update, and to be honest, not that much has happened!  Life has just been so busy and we are just trying to keep up.  So here are a few noteworthy notes about our lives in Alaska:

1. Mac is rocking Air Traffic Control School!  Seriously, he is so smart and it is fun to see him doing so well and learning so much!  His Aviation History teacher was giving him tons of praise because he is at the top of the class and said, "You know Mac, you really get it.  I wish I had a whole class full of Macs!!"  Hahaha, he'll be embarrassed I told you that but I can't help but share.  :)  He was invited to do summer semester next year which means that he will graduate in December 2012 instead of April 2013!!  That is great news, but really crazy that it is only one year from now!  We found out that when he graduates there will be a lot of Air Traffic Controllers retiring in Guam, Alaska, and Hawaii.  I vote for Hawaii but Mac has his heart set on staying here in Alaska for a few more years.  There is just too much hunting and he needs time to hunt Bear, Caribou, Mountain Sheep, and anything and everything else.  We'll see....but right now it looks like we will be picking Alaska and Hawaii as our two states to work in!  (For those of you who don't know, after Mac graduates we will submit two states to the FAA, saying that we will work in either of them.  We only get two states, so we will end up in one of the two that we pick.)

2. We finally got callings in our ward!  Yay!!  Mac is a ward Mission Leader and is loving going to the Gospel Principles Class.  And drumroll please......I'm in the PRIMARY!!  Surprise, surprise! :)  It was a fun month and a half of socializing with adults in relief society, but it is back to the Primary I go!  I get to work with the blessed 4-5 year old boys who are totally crazy and out of control!  They are really sweet though and I think I'll really enjoy teaching them.  Our ward is having a Chili cook off this Saturday and Mac entered the contest.  Keep your fingers crossed that he wins the best Chili!

3. My job is awful.  I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not.  My boss is really quite mean and it is a pretty negative work environment.  I'm contemplating changing jobs, but starting a new job is so much work.  I'm trying to decide if it is worth starting over again, or if I should just tough it out for a while longer.  I just hate having a job on my resume that I only worked at for two months.  It just doesn't look good, so I may just stick it out for a while.  Mac is really supportive though and always helps me change my really bad attitude by asking me what I'm supposed to be learning from this experience.  One thing I have learned for sure is that nothing good comes of tearing people down.  I never realized until now what it feels like to basically be told you are worthless if you make one tiny mistake.  The hard things in life make you stronger.....right.....RIGHT??

4. Infertility is the worst.  This has probably been the biggest challenge of our lives to this point.  We hit our one year mark of trying to have a baby this month and in a way I can't believe it has already been a year, but at the same time it seems like it has been an eternity.  Some of you might not know all the details, and honestly I didn't really want to tell everyone because I didn't want to have to deal with people asking about it, but it is clear that we are in this for the long haul and I might as well just get it out there.  The doctors "think" I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS.  They "think" this because I have enough symptoms to qualify for that diagnosis, but I don't fit the profile of someone with PCOS.  They have done a million tests and everything is normal so I guess that is the best they've got to work with.  I really like my doctor here and he is being really pro-active and I'm really really grateful that I found him.  This experience has given us many opportunities to turn to the Lord.  How else do you deal with something like this?  It seems like something so good and worthwhile and righteous should be easy, but for us it isn't.  Everyone keeps telling us that when we finally do have a little baby of our own we will appreciate parenthood so much more, and I think that is true.  We know our kids are out there somewhere, so keep us in your prayers.  We need all the help we can get!

5. We are going to Seward this weekend!  This was a trip we wanted to take right when we got here but we weren't able to make it happen.  We only get to go for a day because of work and everything but it will just be nice to get out of anchorage and enjoy such a fun town.  Our good friends go to Seward all the time during the summer and they say you can camp right on the beach and hear the waves crashing as you doze off to sleep.  Doesn't that sound A-MAZING?  

6. It is freezing here.  Literally!  I got into my car the other morning and the temperature on my rear view mirror said the temperature was "ICE".  haha.  It was below freezing, so it told me to beware of Ice.  We've got lots of snow in the mountains but it hasn't reached us yet.  I can feel it in the air though, I bet we have our first snow in the next few weeks.  The days are getting much shorter now too.  It is getting light about 8:30ish and it is dark outside by the time I get off work at 7:00.  It makes me dread the days of December when the sun rises at 10am and sets at 4pm. I think the only thing that will get me through is knowing that Summer is coming.  Summer here is going to be unbelievable!

Well, I guess that is it for now. All in all we love our lives here and are so glad we took this crazy leap of faith and moved 3,000 miles to the Great White North.  It has been an incredible experience and we are so excited for what the future will hold for us.

Valdez, AK = Bears, and lots of them!

Bridal Veil Falls, on the way to Valdez

Our trip to Valdez, AK was my favorite trip yet in Alaska! We haven't been to Seward yet, (which I hear I will probably like more) or a lot of other places, but for now, Valdez takes the cake. What do you think of when you think of Alaska? Wildlife, and lots of it. Namely bears and Salmon. Beautiful scenery, ocean life, rain (haha) and adventure. Valdez has it all! We saw 10 bears (black bears and grizzly's), Sea Lions, Seals, Sea Otters, Eagles, More seagulls than you could ever care to see, Breathtaking waterfalls, Ocean views, Beautiful Mountains, cool-looking fog, and the list goes on and on! A big thanks to our friends Jeff and Tricia Harris for letting us tag along. We stayed in their fun pop up camper trailer and loved every minute. We played Uno like pros and were able to keep from getting too competitive (a real accomplishment for Mac and I).

Another pretty waterfall. Obviously.

Our new buddies K.O. and Chewy. These little dogs belong to the Harris' and they have so much energy and we want them for our own! They are so much fun and we loved having them sleep with us in the trailer. They are so snuggly!

The first black bear we spotted. At first you could just see brush moving and then all of a sudden there was a bear. It was crazy to think how many bears could be just inside the brush and we would never know. YIKES!

Enjoying our 30 minutes of sun shining through the clouds. It rained pretty much the whole weekend, but since it was mostly just drizzling we were still able to fish and play.

These boys are just funny. It cracks me up how much alike Tricia and I are, and how much alike Mac and Jeff are. We sure have a lot of fun and they were great fishermen!

Trying to catch a Fis' (come on...say it like Gus!)

Broken reel=no bueno.

Beautiful Ocean scenery

I loved this waterfall. It was just breathtaking with the fog up at the top. Actually, it was all just breathtaking! (except for all the dead Salmon...haha...but for reals, they were gross.)

Sea Lion snatching up Salmon and attacking the Seagulls who were trying to steal his fish!

This picture does not do the view justice. We drove to where the old town of Valdez was. Basically it just has marked where the town used to be before it was wiped out by the Tsunami back in the day. There was fog just covering the Ocean and it was sooo pretty.

Mama Black Bear teaching her cubs how to fish. I could have watched these cubs for hours. They were so cute! I've never seen bear cubs in the wild so this was an awesome experience for me.

My first wild Grizzly!! This poor guy had an injured foot and kept running away on three legs. We saw him this day and then the next morning Mac and Jeff were fishing on the bank and who did they see walking toward them? THIS GUY!! Needless to say they gave the Grizz plenty of space and then went back to their fishing.

Like I said. Dead salmon. Everywhere. A lot of the salmon had already spawned so they were just dying. We caught A LOT of dead fish. :(

Jeff teaching Mac to fillet a fish. Mac LOVED it....Not.

One of the Silver Salmon that Mac caught

Our last day it finally stopped raining and we did a photo shoot around town! It was great fun, right Jeff!? (haha, well at least Tricia will get that joke!)

A giant Indian Totem thing-a-ma-jig. This thing was HUGE! It was actually kinda cool and I really like this picture.

Another waterfall

Our last night we went driving looking for more bears. I spotted this huge Grizzly fishing.

It is so crazy to think that the leaves are already changing here! It was Labor Day weekend when I took this picture. The colors are just so vibrant. I can't believe winter is right around the corner! I guess I'll have to come back and read these posts during winter so I can be reminded that summer is fun and hopefully just around the corner!

Fishing the Russian River

Since the Brady Boys (Mac's brothers, Tucker and Eli) were kind enough to drive 3,000 miles across the continent with us, we decided we'd better show them a good time in Alaska for the few days they were able to stay with us. Our good friends the Harris' told us about this spot on the Russian River near Kenai and we headed out for a crazy day of Salmon fishing. It took us a little while to get the hang of the "snagging" game (you don't really wait for the fish to bite, you just let the line go tight in the water and then pull hard, and you snag them...on their body, fin, mouth, etc.) It was so crazy because you are standing there in the water and you can see big red fish everywhere! We had a great time and Tucker went back to Utah with an awesome story of how he battled a King Salmon.....

Tucker was definitely the star fisherman. He was determined and didn't give up and ended with a King Salmon. It was amazing.

I fished for a while and snagged a few and almost had them reeled in and then they would get away. I was not the star fisherman. :) I enjoyed netting them though, and of course, taking pictures!

Eli was a great fisherman too and caught a few Red Salmon. At first we thought you couldn't keep the reds, so we threw back one of the fish he caught. Oops!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Makes me laugh so hard! That fish was slimy and heavy and I couldn't pick it up!

No explanation needed....

Love this man! He was so selfless. We didn't have enough waders for everyone so he netted the fish while the rest of us fished. He never complained once even though I know he really wanted to fish.

You can see the Reds in the water. They were everywhere!

E-dogg fishing

This kind man fishing right next to us took pity on us and started giving us the red salmon he caught. They were only keeping the silvers so I gladly netted the Red salmon he caught.

I think this was Eli's first Red Salmon that we accidentally threw back.

So proud of his fish!

I wish I could tell this story and do it justice, but I know I can't. I'll have to ask Mac to come blog the story later when he gets home. Long story short, right before we were going to leave, Tucker snagged a big one. He had to walk down stream while trying to reel it in for 1/2 mile so that it didn't break the line. All the way down the bank seasoned old fisherman were giving Tucker a nod of approval and telling him to keep going. At one point the fish jumped out and over a log, apparently trying to cut the line. One of the old guys said, "oh yeah, that's a King!" Eli got close enough to net the fish but it was too big to fit in our net! Eli said he could see two other hooks in the fish from when he had broken other fisherman's lines. Eventually the King broke Tucker's line and got away. We couldn't have kept it anyway, but it sure was a cool experience and a fun story to tell. These pics are during Tuck's battle.

Fighting hard.....

The King. Look at the picture of Mac sitting with our net and you will see how big the net was...and how big the fish had to be to not fit in it!

There is just something that is not sexy about waders....but I can't put my finger on it.

A glacier on the way to the Russian River. Can't remember it's name though.

Enoying the fun and watching everyone catch fish. Some of the guys were catching a fish on almost every cast!