"Good Googledy Boogledy!"

It has been a whirlwind of a few weeks, and I hesitate to begin typing for fear I will run-on ad nauseum and lose most of my "listening" audience.  But I'm willing to risk it if you are!

Hunter Safety Education
May 2015

Marksmanship Qualification

Ethan is finishing up his school year, and rounded out the week leading up to Grandma and Grandpa Lynch's visit completing his hunter safety education course.  After passing his written test with a 96, and his field and shooting qualifications, he is now ready to hunt in the wilds of Alaska!  The first hunt is scheduled for early August and will include grouse and ptarmigan, so that we can begin to train Ahtna.  The second hunt will be with his Daddy for big game (moose especially), and will hopefully fill our freezer!  After the hunting class was complete, we were ready for our family guests and our next great series of adventures (or mis-adventures...depending on your point of view)!

We "re-lived" Hatcher Pass again, and have come to love that as one of the first outings our family and friends experience together.  It is close to our home, and the views are absolutely gorgeous -- rain or shine.  It has been interesting to observe the changing seasons of that landscape, and spring is as beautiful as any of the others.  Snow still lingered on the mountaintops, and the Independence Gold Mine was only accessible to foot traffic.  The road will not actually re-open until mid-June.  We tried hiking in, but only made it about 2/3 of the way before we all were "done in!"  We determined that hiking the pass while combatting jet lag does not a pretty picture make; however, turning around to come back down the mountain DOES a pretty picture make.  So much so, that Grandpa uttered the phrase, "Good googledy, boogledy!" And that said it all!  Well, that and when he told us all that he didn't mean to offend us, but could we "please get out of [his] pictures?  I don't want any humans in my pictures of the Alaskan mountains."  Bahahaha!

Hatcher Pass May 2015

Michael had a few days off and we were able to hit the road heading North into the Interior for a few days.  The other summer tourists have descended again, and we counted 34 buses on our way to Fairbanks and 60+ on our way home!  Though our travels started rainy and windy, by the time we reached Fairbanks and spent a few days there, the temperatures turned to a balmy 80 degrees with sunshine and NO humidity!  We experimented this trip with a Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO) site in the North Pole, and we met the marvelous Proctor Family!  What a special host and hostess!  Michael and Steve were able to talk all things Air Force and beyond, while his wife Simone and I swapped first-year homeschooling tales.  They have three beautiful children ranging in age from 8-11, so Ethan was in heaven!  The family rents out the apartment above their garage for guests, and the amenities included two bedrooms, a bath, a kitchen, living room/dining room area, a canoe on the Chena slough, trampoline, tree house, and picnic/fire ring area.

Dianne & Adina Canoe the Chena Slough

The kids really had a great time, and Ethan is still recovering from hours of outdoor play with them under the midnight sun.  I'd like for you all to think that the adults are well rested; but sadly, we are old(er) and we, too, are recovering from all the play in the land of the midnight sun.

Michael has been nursing a sprained ankle that we think he got while on the Riverboat Discovery. Although he will argue with our logic, we believe he received the sprained ankle from traversing each of the four stories of the Riverboat from bow to stern to steal Salmon Snacks.  For those of you that have not had an opportunity to visit Fairbanks, the Riverboat Discovery is an amazing tourist trap!  We set sail on a "3-hour tour" that featured a bush plane take-off and landing on the water, Susan Butcher's dog kennel (she was an Iditarod champion before passing away from cancer), an Athabascan Native Village (complete with fish camp, trapper cabins, and fur displays), and a full history of the introduction of riverboats to the interior waterways of Alaska.  They cater to their guests by serving complimentary blueberry donuts and coffee for the ride to the village and salmon dip and crackers on the return trip.  Ironically, it wasn't the donuts, but the salmon dip and crackers that got Michael into trouble.  He disappeared from the top deck of the boat under the auspices of seeking out latrine services (boy is that politically correct or what?!)  After being MIA for quite some time, he finally came back to our seats with fistfuls of crackers with salmon dip heaping from the tops.  He "looked" guilty, so when I asked if he was okay, I was surprised to learn that he had visited EVERY deck of the ship seeking salmon snack stations so he could sample the dip from every station "to see if they all tasted the same!"

Michael Reveals He's Been Stealing Salmon Snacks

We are certain that the boat captain caught it all on film because he made the following announcement before ending our tour: "Ladies and Gentlemen. If you'd like to come back for seconds, or even thirds, on the salmon snacks, please feel free to do so.  We cannot save the snacks and we don't want to waste what's been opened. And...if the deck you are on runs out of dip, please move to any of the other decks until the supply is exhausted.  Except for the 40-something male in the camouflage jacket...he's reached his limit."

OK...so I added that last sentence for good measure; but you would think that they caught him on camera sneaking to every salmon station by his guilty actions, his whispering to tell us what he did, and because they made such a grand announcement about behavior they knew SOME of their passengers were already engaging in!  Once we arrived back at the dock, we tried to leave stealthily by joining a Princess Cruise tour bus crowd.  They veered into the dining hall for lunch, and we headed for the Cold Tank.  The Cold Tank simulates life at -40 degrees, and it is said if you can hack it for 45 seconds, you might be able to handle living in Alaska.  While I held all the bags, Mom, Doug, Michael, and Ethan braved the cold -- only the tank had been cranked up and was resting at -55 degrees.  As they entered the tank, a random woman from the Princess Tour came running in at the last minute.  She was so great about it, the staff workers thought she was a member of our party and took her picture as part of the group!  Mom and Doug wanted the touristy photo, so the staff had to fumble around and crop the other lady out of the photo.  It was hysterical!  But they lasted for 45 seconds, and it seemed Mom and Michael were having some sort of weird contest to see who could stay frozen the longest!

Surviving at -55 Degrees!

After the Riverboat, we ventured to Alaskaland (which has been re-named Pioneer Park, but we refuse to conform!).  We watched the Memorial Day festivities, ate over-priced ice cream, watched an elder Native woman who worked in the park and a seemingly know-it-all tourist nearly come to fisticuffs, and rode the park train.  After that, we tamed the Wild Salmon and had all-you-can-eat Alaskan cod, salmon, and tenderloin at the Alaskan Salmon Bake.  Gluttony is a terrible sin, and tastes terrible after the fact -- even if it is smothered in Brown Sugar Salmon Sauce!

Denali (aka Mt. McKinley) from Talkeetna

After a restful evening, we rose early again to venture to the Santa Claus House and all things "North Pole-y."  Mom only hung out the window a couple of times to take pictures of the lamp posts that looked like candy canes.  We finished the day taking pictures and skipping rocks at the Chena River.  I say "finished the day," but I don't really mean it.  Mom and I were up again at 1:00 a.m., headed back to the Chena Flood Channel to take pictures of the 1:30 a.m. sunrise.  That would have been okay, except for the fact that we left North Pole that day to travel the six hours home.  Only the six hours turned into 12 thanks to road construction, a beautiful day for a 2-hour picnic in Denali, and a dinner pizza stop in Talkeetna.

North Face of Denali

Talkeetna was a very eclectic little place and before we left we noticed that the train and several tour buses stop there overnight.  It's almost exactly half-way in between Anchorage and Fairbanks, and receives the bulk of its sustenance in the summer months -- thanks in large part to tourists.  As we got back into the truck for the last leg of our trip, we realized we were parked next to the "town park."  An adult pick-up game of kickball was about to begin that included a mixture of locals and tourists.  Captains were picking teams except the rules were a bit "different" -- the player just picked got to pick the next team member, so we heard people calling each other by their clothing or their geographic region -- i.e. "Hey, you in the red ball cap - I pick you" or "You, in the blue shorts, where are you from? Colorado? Yeah, ok...I pick Colorado for this team!"  The other rule...to play kick ball you had to BYOB (yes, that's beer), and you had to hold your can during the entire game.  So that was a new one for us.  You know, "Welcome to Alaska. Come Play Beer Kickball with the Locals!" Although it exists, I haven't seen an advertisement for that.  I did "Google" it though, and apparently "keg ball" is a real thing -- even in the lower 48.

Ethan Sleeping in the Kennel
Before Ahtna Arrives -- Really!

First Night as a "New" Parent

As if that weren't enough adventure for a week, Baby Ahtna arrived at our home Friday, May 29 -- and we haven't had any sleep since then!  With Michael working some midnight shifts, Ethan and I took up vigil in the living room right outside the kennel for those early morning potty breaks.  It's been 10 years since we had an infant in our home, and I can honestly say to any young couple...if you are thinking of having a baby, get a puppy.  That is certainly a way to determine your "readiness" for a baby.  We've been up nightly nearly every 2-3 hours, walking, stopping occasional crying, and cleaning up messes that babies make :)  But it has its benefits, too; and all of my boys have "needed" a dog!

Day 2 with Baby Ahtna

While Michael and Alex "babysat," Ethan and I took Grandma and Grandpa to the Musk Ox farm earlier this week.  They are amazing pre-historic creatures, and the ones here are working on nearly 100 years of "domestication." While their "domestication" is almost complete, they still have to be behind sturdy fences - particularly the mothers with calves.  Avalanche, a first-year mother, actually charged the fence when we got too close to her baby, Heath. That was super scary! She stopped just short of the fence and snorted at us.  We also learned that they use afro combs to comb the qiviut (pronounced kee-vee-oot) hair under the guard hair.  It is processed and knitted into garments that are the lightest weight and warmer than wool.  I suppose that's what you would expect since they are arctic animals and the qiviut is the hair closest to their skins.  They were just really neat animals!

Mama Avalanche

Ethan's Boot

We are now into Vacation Bible School, and I get to help in the kitchen with VBS snacks.  Every thing is related to a "God's Safari" theme, so the snacks have been so fun.  Each day the students learn a new principle from Proverbs, and the snacks coincide with those principles.  For example, the first day the students learned about listening, so the snacks were elephant ears; today they learned about moving mountains, so they had ice cream mountains with cool whip "snow" on top.  So we've been having a bit of fun.  Ethan has some sort of soft tissue injury on his foot that has been worsening, so they put him in a boot today for the next week to stabilize it. He was not enthused -- particularly since it's the middle of VBS and we have some other hiking adventures we'd like to do with Ahtna and Grandma and Grandpa.  Sadly, it may have been traipsing up and down stairs and hiking at Hatcher Pass that exacerbated his injury.  Ah, well...such is life with an active fella.

Seeing Eklutna for the First Time

A Boy & His Dog

Nevertheless, we are enjoying Grandma and Grandpa's extended visit, and are excited when any of our family and friends get to experience the wonder of this place for the very first time.  It's a blessing for us!  We love you all, and will try to post again soon! Much love!

Eklutna Lake

"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast." Psalm 36:6