Whats it going to be !?

For Brian & Jen. Congrats!!

2011 Year in Review

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! What an amazing year we have had living in The Frozen Tundra, AKA Fairbanks, Alaska. Actually, we say Fairbanks, but technically we live 30 minutes away….30 minutes. Yes, I drive 30 minutes to Wal-Mart. Wow. Where do I live again?!?

So anyway…this year has been amazing! We’ve done and seen some pretty cool stuff. Surviving 3 hours of sunlight in the winter

and 40 below temperatures has now been placed on my accomplishment list! How many people can say they’ve lived through that?!?! Seeing the Aurora Borealis on those long nights made it worth it. Such an amazing creation! Jalen had the opportunity to travel to Japan and Guam for six weeks during the winter, so he doesn’t think winters are that hard here! ;) ha. He was able to do some cool flying and participate in some exercises with many different countries. What an awesome experience for him. I escaped with Sophia to Utah, warm weather (30 degrees) and some great friends while he traveled. Hey…that’s a 70 degree difference!

Once the guys returned from their trip our lives became super busy! Here’s just a few of our highlights:

· Jalen participated in 3 Red Flag Exercises and a Northern Edge Exercise. He flew tons and gained lots of experience at being the “bad guy” in a mock war. We were able to see lots of friends from previous bases and some of Jalen’s Academy classmates. It was a fun reunion basically all summer.

· We traveled the beginning of July to Hawaii! We got to see the Carlsons, a military family who introduced Jalen and me, and spend time with their whole family. The Carlson kids played and entertained Sophia a lot and babysat one night so Jalen and I could have a date night. This was one of the most relaxing vacations I’ve ever had! Plus one of the most gorgeous!

· Jalen’s family came to visit the end of May…we were fortunate to have his mom, dad, sister and grandma stay with us for a week. We traveled Alaska…in a short period of time! We went halibut fishing, on a glacier tour, explored Seward, hiked up to the base of a glacier and stopped every 5-10 minutes for another picture opportunity! This place is amazing!

· We had many fire pits in our yard, socializing with our friends here. Fire pitting on a summer night ‘til 2:00 am because no one has any idea what time it is when the sun is still shining. Makes for some great memories and close friendships!

· Jalen went to Texas for the Life Support Equipment Investigation course in July also and was able to visit his grandparents in Wheeler. He took Sophia with him and his parents went down to visit as well while Jalen went to class. This was the first time Sophia has been away from me for a whole week (and I was in Alaska by myself). Yikes! But we survived. I went to my internship during the week and worked on organizing our house! I was ready for my family to be home though after that week!

· I was able to be a part of a photography internship here for 3 months this summer. What a great hands on experience. I didn’t know all the work/equipment that went into taking amazing pictures! I have a whole new respect for professional photographers!

· In July we went to Valdez, salmon fishing & exploring. I was hoping to see a bear, but no such luck. Jalen was able to go out on the boat fishing with the guys and he saw a black bear. I was a little bit jealous! ;) We now have a deep freeze full of Silver Salmon, Halibut and Sea Bass. And the scenery in Valdez is breathtaking! Southern Alaska is so gorgeous and well worth the money for a plane ticket…hint hint! :)

· August brought yet another Red Flag exercise. Our fourth for the year, but Jalen’s last for the summer because we would soon find out that it was off to Alabama for Squadron Officer School, a 5 week leadership course which would keep Jalen from the fifth and final exercise of the year.

· September and October were a whirlwind. All three of us flew to Atlanta, and then Sophia and Alana stayed to begin the month long visit with family while Jalen continued on to Montgomery to start the course. What a great opportunity to spend some sorely missed time with Alana’s family and friends. God has truly taken care of us, even amidst the great distances we face. We also had a chance to visit some wonderful friends from Valdosta at a surprise dinner party for Jalen’s 30^th B-day. It was an awesome chance to see old friends, some who are now spread out across the country!

· After the course, we went to Colorado for a week to see Jalen’s family and had an equally great time while there, celebrating Sophia’s 2^nd birthday in true Mickey Mouse fashion! (Thanks Gaga J)

· November quickly came and that meant a base wide inspection, which kept us super busy for the two weeks immediately after we returned. But, not to worry because Thanksgiving followed shortly after and we especially enjoyed spending the holiday with our close friends here at Eielson.

Now here we are in December, and it’s white all over. We’ve seen weeks of -30, -40, and even -50 degrees already, but currently are enjoying a WARM spell of 20-30 aboveJ It may not sound warm, but if its warm enough to snow, we’re loving life and praising Jesus for our blessings.

We love and miss all our family and friends. Please know that we always have a warm, open home and would love to share it with any who are able and willing to come our way! Until then, God Bless and have a wonderful, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's above Zero! Let's go for a walk!

So...Like I said the other day...the weather has been great here! Anything above zero is fabulous in my book! We decided yesterday to get out the house and take a walk. Zero degrees is way warmer than 40 below, but it's still cold! But we were getting out! Taking Sophia on a walk requires lots of effort though...layers, gloves, boots, hat...you get the point! 30 minutes later...we're ready and Buddy was going NUTS! He doesn't get to venture out much...20 below hurts his paws and makes him limp...so bring able to run free at zero was the highlight of the day for him! Our walk was nothing to really blog about....just nice to see a little bit of daylight. I took some pics for you to see our snow here...the tree behind our house...and the cute kid all bundled up! ;) ENJOY!

A New Year...

Well here we are. 2011. A new year. Far from our families...Living in Fairbanks, AK. Not where I would have chosen, but we're loving it. The darkness can be a challenge, but we're trying to get out when the sun is shining and may end up purchasing a Happy Light soon! Jalen and I are good at blogging when we are traveling, but not daily. So here's my New Years Resolution: I am going to challenge myself to post a blog at least 2-3 times a week. I've had requests to hear about our adventures and how we survive 40 below temperatures. So here we go! ;)

The weather in Fairbanks has been great for the past week. Temperatures have stayed above zero and even reached 30 once or twice. It has been warm enough that we've gotten some significant amounts of snow. Our driveway is full...waiting on Jalen to come shovel! ;) And all the tr

ees are covered in white snow. It's definitely a winter wonderland where we live. I will try to get out today or tomorrow and take some pictures!

Jalen is loving his job up here. He's getting to fly lots and see gorgeous scenery! Sophia is doing great. Growing like a weed. I'm having a hard time breaking her of the bottle, so I think next week we may hide all the bottles and use sippy cups only. I think if I wait until she's ready, she may be 5. She's definitely attached to her bottles! It's been interesting watching her grow. She still only has 4 teeth but I think one may be coming in. She says mama and dada..but not much of anything else. She can do sign language & knows things. You can tell her to grab something or do so

mething and she will...she just wont talk back yet. Jalen tends to think the lack of teeth is keeping her from talking, but who knows. We just keep reading books and I know one day she will start...and never stop! haha.

Well...thats about it for us. I'm

trying to stay busy and keep this house together! :) We may travel to Utah in the next month to visit friends, so I'm excited about that! :) We're counting down until summer....Well....I'm off for today! Hopefully next time I'll have pictures and the blog won't be as long! It has been almost 4 months since the last post! Tata for now...

PS. These are some pics from our travel to Anchorage. It's gorgeous there. I'll get pics on base soon!

"Adventure Move-Alaska" Day 14

Change. Its what rattles us; Jerks us out of our comfort zones and sends us out into the cold. Today we had a change of plans, and we ended up driving the rest of the way from Haines Junction all the way to Eielson, so were here!! Finally, after 2700 miles of driving, 3 days on a ferry and countless motels (ok, 10 to be exact) we made it. What a gorgeous trip it was too. You've seen most of it, but if there ever was a finale to be had, today was nothing short.

We started the day off slowly with no hurry, originally planning only to make the 4-5 hr. drive to Tok. We had breakfast at our motel, scraped the ice off the windshield (yes, it froze last night) got some gas, because you don't pass a gas station w/o stopping in this part of the world since the next one won't be for 150 miles or so, and we were off. As you saw yesterday we began to hit the fall colors up here, and today was no different. The yellow aspen leaves were super bright, and mixed in with the evergreen they created a real life painting. Words can't do them justice, and for that matter neither can these pictures. Most of the time we were in Canada, we were driving along the border of the Kluane nat'l forest and the St. Elias mtns. They were soo awesome, topping out at over 19,500 feet. Just for perspective, the highest pass we drove over was 3200 ft. They were the tallest I've seen since Afghanistan. We didn't see much wildlife, but let me tell you the drive felt like riding a bull. The roads are terrible, which we expected but couldn't have imagined what we encountered. We were down to 30 mph a couple of times and frequently were driving in the opposite lane to go around the holes and troughs. No matter though since we were one of about 3 cars we saw per hour or so. Part of it was still gravel, though you could tell pavement once existed, but had been pretty much torn up by weather and traffic. We crossed back into the US just after hitting the 2500 mile marker and immediately found newly paved roads. Sometimes the American tax system pays off.

Anywho, after all the drama of the road itself, Alaska didn't disappoint with its scenery either, and we saw 6 moose today alone. One on the side of the road and FIVE on base near base housing. Alana was super excited and tried every mode on her camera to get a good picture...all in about 10 seconds. (love u babe:)

Tonight we're staying at my buddy Yoda's house (John Wolinski) until we can hopefully find some housing for ourselves in the next couple of days, before I head right back down to Nellis in Las Vegas for a week of academics.

Hope you've enjoyed this trip as much as we have. Writing about it has been fun, and I know we'll remember this trip forever...both the fun and the stressful times.

Praise the Lord for our safe journey and oh by the way we've all finally over come our upper respiratory issues. Sophia has a new top tooth (barely) and we're safe and sound!

Thanks so much for all your prayers, support, and for reading:)

Good night!!

"Adventure Move-Alaska" Day 13

This morning came early as I mentioned in yesterday's post and I took Buddy for a walk in the cool Juneau air before getting our stuff mostly packed up. It all worked out well because by the time I had our last couple bags in the car they were ready for us to pull out of the boat. Good thing we didn't try to do it all at once...they'd have been waiting for a while! Once we got off the boat it was time to decide what to do next. It was much earlier in the day than we thought it might be, so after touring all around Haines to find our motel where our reservation was, we found no one to be home, and a note on the door saying "your key is on the bed." "If you don't have a reservation, and you need a room, just move in and you can check in later." We got a pretty good kick out of that one, so we had to leave a message on the machine letting him know that we were going to press on to Haines Junction, about three hours down the road in Canada, in order to save some time driving tomorrow.

Turns out that was a good idea because the customs officer at the Canadian border was nice, and when my passport wasn't where I thought it was, she was patient until I came up with it. A few short questions later and we were on our way. Tonight we're at the Alcan Motor Inn, then only place in town where you can have a pet. and only one of 3 choices for that matter. not a terrible place though, if you don't mind a stinky room. No worries though. The drive up here was absolutely stunning.

We drove through British Columbia, and are now in the Yukon Territory, with about a 4-5 hour drive tomorrow into Tok, our last stop before reaching the base. Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and let me tell you, the options for food and other travel amenities are getting thin. When they said services were sparse up here, they meant it. Check out the picture of the gas prices too...

See you in Tok!

"Adventure Move-Alaska" Day 12

Happy 11 month B-day Sophia!
We finally made our first port this morning. 36 hours straight and we've arrived in Ketchican, AK which sits right at the very Southeastern tip of AK. Buddy finally got to get out and smell some grass and we hung out for an hour or so in the town. The ferry traded out some cars and then we were off to the next stop. The next 12 hours would bring stops in Wrangell, Petersburg, with Juneau and finally Haines coming up tomorrow. I think our favorite town was Wrangell, partially because of how it looked as we approached from the water, but also because of the Wrangell narrows which were a very curvy and, you guessed it, narrow part of the trip. for some great scenery as we followed a local fishing boat up the channel at sunset. Not a lot to speak of in terms of wildlife or other events. More trips to keep Buddy company, more naps, and more friends made each day by Sophie. Our joke was that everyone on the ship knows Sophia, but we've officially earned our titles as "Sophia's mom and dad." Tomorrow its an early stop in Juneau when I'll have to do the majority of our packing so that we're ready to drive away quickly when our stop comes in Haines, and then the ferry ride is over!

Talk to ya tomorrow!