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!

Goodbye UTAH, Hello ALASKA!!

It has been exactly one month since we moved into our apartment here in Alaska. That is so hard for me to believe! I've been working at my new job for 2 1/2 weeks and we've already seen so many cool, amazing, unbelievable things/places here in AK. While there are moments when I definitely miss home and family and friends and everything I've known for the last 25 years, I am so excited to be here with Mac on this adventure (and it is DEFINITELY an adventure!)

It all started with saying goodbye and packing up the trailer. Have you ever moved across the country and tried to pack all of your belongings into a 6x10 trailer? I never had before and it was sad to realize a number of our things would not be making the journey with us. We packed that dumb old trailer and used almost every square inch! Once we got packed up and said our goodbyes, we were on the road, and there was no turning back! Here is an email I sent out while we were on the road in Canada:

I just wanted to update all of you and let you know that we are alive and well!! The trip so far has been interesting. Surprisingly it hasn't been that bad just riding in the truck. I thought I'd get really antsy to get out of the car but I haven't. We've been listening to books on CD which helps pass the time and doing crossword puzzles. I've been impressed by how NICE all the Canadians have been. They have the cutest little accents and we've passed time by pretending to talk like them in the car. We haven't had much luck with our hotels, and that has been stressful!! The first night we got to Helena, MT and all the hotels were booked. I guess it was opening weekend of the hunt so there were tons of people. Then last night we stopped in Banff, Alberta (which was BEA-utiful by the way, but super rainy. I was bummed because I wanted to walk around but it was pouring rain). We paid almost $200 for a crappy hotel, but that was all there was. :(. Then today we drove to Dawson Creek, AB. Apparently there is some huge rodeo so ALL the hotels were totally booked! The sweet lady at the counter said that there was someone who didn't leave a credit card number and hadn't checked in yet, so she gave us their room. So grateful we have a nice place to stay for a reasonable price, but I hope the other people aren't too put out. Tomorrow we hit the Alaska Highway and are staying at some little lodge in Toad River. There literally are no hotels along this stretch and the reviews for the lodge say that it smells like rotten eggs and is dirty. HA! Can't wait for that, right? After that we should be in more populated areas when we stop. We've had lots of adventures and tons of little blessings and answered prayers, from the time we accidentally didn't pay for an entrance ticket into Banff National Forest and then got caught on our way out (the Ranger lady was sooo nice and just told us to make sure we get a pass next time) to the time the check engine light that came on and was fixed by a $6 cleaner at Auto Zone for the Air Flow something or other, to the ONE room left that we were able to get into tonight. I still have pangs of sadness that we really are gone for real, but I'm so excited to finally reach Anchorage!! The Brady boys have been nice to me and surprisingly they aren't too smelly. :)

So Enjoy all these pictures...more to come of our adventures here in AK!

My Birthday Dinner with the Fam at Rodizios Grill!

Taking a break from our drive at Yellowstone Bear World! We love this place....

No Explanation Needed

MONTANA......

....was boring.....

We stopped and drove through the town of BRADY

BEAUTIFUL Banff. It was freezing (as you can see from the frost on the trees) but when the sun came out it was just breathtaking!

One of many Glaciers to come.

The lake behind our cabin in Toad River! This place was awesome. The water smelled like rotten eggs but it just may have been our favorite place that we stayed!

Toad River Lodge!

First black bear sighting

Second black bear sighting

Sign Post Forest! This place was sooo cool, and HUGE!! We are going to save our Utah license plate and put it up in the sign post forest when we drive back across the Alaska Highway when we leave Alaska.

Bangerter Highway Utah, Provo Ut, Highland Drive...LOVE IT! Utah post.

Guess who is in the U.S. and who is still in Canada? And of course Eli Planking the country divide!

3 weeks to go!

WARNING: I just watched a sad movie and now I'm feeling nostalgic and Mac is on a fly fishing trip so I miss him and well....you've been warned. :)

I really need to stop neglecting this blog! I love getting on and looking at everyone else's blog, so I'm going to try REALLY hard to return the favor. I'm sure I'll be blogging more once we get to Alaska so that we can keep a good record of our time there. Speaking of Alaska....we are moving in less than a month! We are pretty close to ready (well except for the whole packing up thing). It has been a real eye opening experience to go through the emotions of this move....excitement (for the first 8 months we knew we were going) and then recently it has really started to hit that we are leaving our families and friends and our "HOME". I've felt nervous, scared, happy, optimistic, sad, and a million other emotions. I've started to appreciate everyone just a little bit more every day. I'm trying to remember the nieces and nephews smiles, laughs, and their fun little quirks. I'm spending more time talking with my mom and dad, and making the time I have so close to them count. It has really made me realize how much I just take things for granted. Utah has been an amazing place to grow up and maybe one day we will end up back here with our own little family, but for now Alaska will be our new home!

My last day of work is August 2nd! This too has hit me all of a sudden. For the longest time I've thought how nice it will be to change jobs and get benefits (FINALLY). But now I'm a little nervous. Will I like my new job? Will I find "friends" in my new co-workers? Will I fit in? My job right now has its moments of sheer craziness but my co-workers are some of the most amazing people and we have so much fun together! Sometimes it is more like we play at work, instead of working at work! I will truly miss them all. I was also surprised how hard it was to tell my clients that I am leaving. I have a few who are really close to graduation but I am not going to be able to be there when they graduate. I've been lucky enough to travel a part of their journey with them and I'm so proud of what they have each accomplished. It really is amazing to see how much someone can change in 8 months and so rewarding!

More than ever I am learning to trust in the Lord. We have had so many experiences that just reaffirm that we cannot do this alone and I am so grateful that I know that my Savior died for me! We are not given challenges that we do not have the ability to overcome, even though sometimes it seems like there could be nothing worse. I have felt my Savior's comforting love over the past few months and it has given me so much peace and faith that He has a plan for me. I can't wait to find out what the next few years will hold for us. I am so excited to make new friends in Alaska and for that moment when it feels like "HOME" to us just like Centerville.