More Changes

So we have been building our new home here in Alaska. It is something we have been planning for a very long time now and are very excited to go out every week and see such huge progress being made. I cannot wait to look out my picture window every day at my mountain view or cook in my awesome kitchen. The best part is that this home will be our forever home. No more moving for us. It seems odd to say that after 14 yrs and 12 moves but it makes us all very very happy.

A New Way of Fishing

Back home, fishing was more of a way to relax than anything. I could sit out by the lake with a beer and a lawn chair and wait for my bobber to go under the water before I had to do anything. Alaskan fishing is the total opposite. You must constantly be moving around to catch a salmon. There is a weird movement that one has to do that involves a flipping motion and then once your fly lands in the water you have to strategically move it in front of the salmon headed upstream and drag it diagonally across the water before doing it all over again. Right now I look like a combo between having ants in my pants and having no control of my arms while I fish. It is a movement that I have not quite perfected, but I'm getting there. I come home from fishing tired and sore but I still love it. I am still have trouble multitasking though. You have to watch the incoming tide, watch for the other fishermen around you, watch the kids running about, and watch that the grizzlies don't get too close and steal you fish. It is a little crazy, but I wouldn't trade it for my lawn chair and beer back in Oklahoma. Who knows, maybe by next summer I will be able to fish, keep my bear spray in my hip pocket and have a beer in the mud. I will show these Alaskans how someone from the South fishes before I leave here!

All Eyes on Me

This morning we got up early and took the kids to visit the optometrist. Not only did we take our kiddos but we took our friends kids as well. I loved how they all were excited for their appointments and how they cheered the other kids on when it was their turn to see the doctor. I love my kids, and I love that they have such great friends. Never in a million years would I have dreamed that I could handle five kids in a doctors office. With these kids its a breeze, well that and my awesome husband was there to watch them while I was visiting with the doc. My mom always told me that after you have two kids, you could have twenty. I don't know about twenty, but I can handle five like a pro!

Has it really been this long?

You know I always post about having the best intentions but somehow I just cant seem to keep up with all of the typing and posting of photos. How about another top ten list of cool things we have done recently.
 10. We just got home from buying fly fishing supplies. I am determined to learn how to successfully fly fish next weekend.
9. Last week we traveled to Whittier, Alaska via the longest tunnel in North America. It takes seven minutes to travel through it. You drive through a huge mountain that is in between two glaciers. Super cool.
8. Whittier is where Prince William Sound starts. It is gorgeous. We took the kids to see all of the boats in the harbor. This has added fuel to the fire with the love affair with boats. We have spent the whole day looking at buying one.
7. My dog grooming business has taken off. I am busy four to five days a week now. I love setting my own hours and being my own boss. I never thought my college degree would be useless, but I love what I am doing so that has to stand for something.
6. We have been discovering the many ways to cook halibut and salmon. Our neighbor has been the salmon fisherman extraordinaire and has stocked our freezer full of Red Salmon in the last few weeks. We love eating fish as much as we love catching it!
5. We saw our hottest day of the year this week. It hit 81 degrees which is about ten degrees above normal for us. I know for those of you in the lower 48, that seems mild, but for us it was a heat wave!
4. We have discovered that Alaskan wildlife is everywhere! It doesn't matter if you are in the city or out on a lonely stretch of road, bears and moose are all around. We have had a black bear in our garage, as well as in the neighbors garbage recently. We also had a moose come and eat Kaitlin's prized petunia plant. Moose have been running through the playground and scaring the kids. Its nuts.
3. I have learned that military means having family no matter where you go. Recently we have met some really great folks and are building a great friend base here.
2. We have discovered a love fore gold panning. I know it sounds silly, but we really enjoy getting out our waders and sifting through the silt of the rivers and stream beds in search of gold. We have been quite successful too.
1. We have come to a decision that Alaska will be our permanent home. We both grew up in the great state of Texas, and thought it was great until we came here. Not that Texas is not nice, but Alaska fits us better. The kids love to be outdoors. Bryan turns into Grizzly Adams or the Brawny Man every chance he gets. We have done more fishing, hiking, and camping here than we ever did before. If we aren't out exploring the Alaskan wilderness at least once a week, Bryan begins to go into withdrawals. We all love it here. I just hope that Uncle Sam will cooperate and we can finish out our enlistment here and retire. Only a few more years to go. Until the next adventure....
Christi

Right or Wrong?

I really tried to post about our trip to Alaska while on the road, which obviously didn't work as I stopped in California. I have all of the photos as well as my journal that I detailed every day's events. Is it wrong of me to write blog entries and back date them or just start from now and leave those events in the past? As I type this I realize that I cannot let these wonderful moments go unpublished so I guess back dating it is.

The Mojave Desert and Edwards Air Force Base

   We decided that we would all be more happy at Disneyland if we took a day off to rest. So we left Barstow, California and drove through the Mojave Desert  to Edwards Air Force Base.










We were pleasantly surprised with a house to stay in for the next two days. Edwards is renovating base housing so they used some of the old housing units as Temporary Lodging so we are pretending that we live in a house again. There is a yard for the kids and dogs to play in and tons of stuff to do here.

The funny part is that there are probably 100 housing units and only maybe ten families here so it is like a ghost town.


 I spent the day washing laundry and trying to figure out how to repack the truck. Cannie and Katie played Barbies most of the day and colored and drew or played outside.









 Bryan went and bought our Disneyland tickets and then we all took a much needed trip to the commissary and BX for supplies and food. Even though we have added a day to our trip, it was so  nice to be able to stop for a day and relax and ready ourselves for the adventure that lay before us tomorrow!

Oh! Isn't it Grand

We drove to the beautiful Grand Canyon today!! The weather was perfect and there was virtually no one there!! We stood and marveled on the rim for hours

Bryan throwing Kaitlin over the edge!!  : - )

The Barron Family at the most beautiful place in the USA

 . Surprisingly , Kaitlin was our little daredevil. She had no fear and was climbing over the edge when no one was looking. Of course, I was terrified that the kids would fall over the edge, but we managed to make it back to the car with both kids and both dogs. Whew!!! Cannie was afraid and clung to every tree within ten feet of the rim. She was also certain that she saw a dead body down in the canyon. Later in the day Kaitlin swears that she saw a jackolope in the desert. So we had quite a day! We are now in Barstow, and calling it a night. We have managed to drive over 1500 miles so far. We are almost halfway there!!