Goodnight Alaskan-style!

We went out last night with a few friends then decided to go watch part of the ever-lasting sunset. This picture was taken at 11:30pm over Cook Inlet looking over toward Mount Susitna. Beautiful.

Our trip to Tucson

Last weekend we travelled to Tucson, to find OUR PLACE, the place we're going to get married at next year! Not only did we find a FANTASTIC place, but we also go to visit Ben's family and our great friends Kevin and Spring.

Click on the picture below to view our trip!

Tucson Trip

Deck Day 5

So today we decided to tackle the stairs so that we could start using the deck to let the dogs out instead of having to go down the stairs all the time.... The stairs were the hardest part, calculation wise. The ground in the back yard slopes up as you go away from the house as you can see, this creates a tough math problem for us college calculus graduates... We eventually got it figured out though...

Here is a shot of me cuttin the stringers... An interesting fact about building a deck is that you get to learn a ton of new terminology. Joist, beam, post, header, ledger, treads, stringers, toenail, hurricane brackets, hangers, denier and on and on...

We also got the 3 tons, yes you read that right, 3 tons of rock delivered by a big dump truck today. This is the pile in the driveway that took about 30 very full and heavy wheel barrow trips to the back yard. We are spreading it under the deck cuz grass isn't going to grow down there any more.

Lisa was a trooper! We had a big day, got a lot done and are really enjoying the deck now. Glad we did it and glad we did it ourselves.

One step at a time...

All that's left now is to waterproof and then onto the handrails.

Memorial Day Weekend continued

Here are some more pictures from our jam packed memorial weekend with Kevin. After our hike up Bird Ridge, we decided to drive down to Seward to hike Exit Glacier, then camp overnight on the beach at Resurrection Bay, then take a chartered fishing boat trip out the next morning......great time had by all, even though multiple blisters ensued from all the hiking and our quads didn't work that well. :)

Click on the picture below to take a look at the photos......ENJOY!

Seward Trip

Deck Day 4

So this is what we did today, bent over and screwed our brains out, some 500+ screws! good news is that the top is amost done, we are 3 boards short of a full deck!

The decks stability was in question for a while but now it is strong and stable as a mountain! What a great thing to have for the summer, we are getting really excited....

The parting shot at 11 PM, almost done, and with plenty of daylight to spare! Hand rail here we come on day 5!

Deck Day 3

So progress has been made and at an alarming pace I might add. We finished the subframe on day 3 and are ready to put the decking on now... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

A shot from above showing our joists...

Kevin and Laura stopped by to hammer in about 12 nails... too much fun for them;)

Lisa and I in action.

Joey and Rachel have been a huge help with all of this and we are planning to put a deck in her back yard next! Look for Rachel on the Day 4 photos...

Deck Project Day 2

Just a quick update to keep you all up to speed on the progress, we got the wood delivered the other day (all 2600 lbs. of it) so we decided to tear the old deck off... Man was it time for a replacement, the old one had a lot of rotted wood. We had a blast as demolition only took about 45 min, wish we could build the new one that fast! We got the ledger board up and bolted in, man is that sucka attached good!

Here are our 3 construction bosses: Kaena, Cubby and Sipsy (our roommates dog)

The stacks of wood, waiting to be installed. Made the garage smell awesome!

Lisa, trying to figure out how to get the dogs to the ground.... :)

Deck Project Day 2

The rotted wood of the old deck.....yikes

Bashin it down!

Using her skills her dad taught her!!!!

Hike up Bird ridge

It was a windy day along turnagain arm where we went hiking up bird ridge. The dogs had a blast and stood right into the wind and had their tongues blown right out of their heads!

It was a really steep trail, reminescent of Koko Head in Hawaii only steeper, we ascended a little over 2000 ft. in less than a mile and a half. The views were amazing and we wished we had a sunny day to enjoy but alas summer is over in the AK, we had our week of sunshine and hot days....

Kevin went with us and we all had a great time scaling the cliffs and watching the huge tidal changes in the bay.

If you want to see the whole album from the day click on the picture below.

Bird Ridge

Deck Project Post 1

Let it be known that we have started the deck! Updates will follow with progress of the fun. So far we have drilled the holes for the footings about 4 feet deep and sunk the sauna tubes into the holes and then poured the 8 60lb! bags of concrete into them. With the footings in we can now go get the lumber... The deck is much cheaper than we had anticipated, which is always nice! We are going to put in cedar with a pressure treated sub structure and some fancy copper encaps on the hand rails, assuming all goes as planned. Should turn out to be quite nice and have plenty of room for good summer BBQing fun and games! The finished product is going to have a table and chairs and a big area for bbqin. Looking forward to finishing this baby! We are headed to the Chulitna river for our first Canoe trip of the season tomorrow, stay tuned for the fun!

Deck project day 1

Bouldering in the bowl

Bouldering fun

The above set of photos was taken on a bouldering hunt for a glacial eratic in the trails just to the west of the Chugach. We headed up there about 9 that evening and enjoyed the long summer days here in alaska searching for a LARGE rock in the forrest to climb on. We had a blast hiking around and found the rock along with a rope swing and played around until the sun started to set. Great night to break up the week of work.

Alyeska in May

Trip to Denali NP

I FINISHED!!!!!

I attempted....I swam...I pushed...I biked...I had a HUGE leg cramp....I pushed harder...I ran...and crossed the finish line loving every minute of it!!!! Well, except the leg cramp part of course :) AND, I came in about 30 minutes under what I was expecting me to take. I don't have the official time yet, but I'm just totally pumped and proud of myself that I finished one. I have to thank my friend Spring Clegg for inspiring me to do this....you rock Spring!!!!

Here's the 3 National Weather Service girls at the end of the race....Kristine, Louise and I, all first time triathletes!

Here's a shot Ben got of me at the finish line. I don't have the greatest face on because 1) I was TIRED, and 2) I didn't see Ben and though he hadn't come, so I was pretty bummed. But seconds later I saw him and was so happy he had come!!! Thanks babe!

Wish me luck!!!!

I'm attempting my first triathlon today up here in Anchorage....The Gold Nugget Triathlon. So if I make it across the finish line, stay tuned for some pictures!
Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Confusion with smaller pictures

We've been getting some questions about the smaller pictures in our blog, those are actually links to "web albums". So when its an extra small picture (like the Jeeping in Alaska and Fairbanks posts), click on the small photo and it will bring you to the whole album.

Ben and Lisa

Bean Bag Toss!

Filled with boredom but also with excitement of summer one evening, Ben and I decided to make our favorite game that we played in Hawaii - Bean Bag Toss. We recruited Kevin and Laura to help us...along the the puppies to stand guard :)

After a few mess-ups with the bean bag making (had to sew them all, 8 of them to be exact, by hand), we had a great game of bean bags. We learned from some mistakes in Hawaii building the boards, and now they are super light and transportable......so look for us touring the nation with this AWESOME game! :)

Great action shot of Kevin makin a toss......this picture was taken at 9:30pm - good ol' Alaskan Summers!

Jeeping Trip in Alaska

Alaska Jeeping Trip

(Click on the picture above to see the whole album)

With a gorgeous Alaskan spring day this weekend, we decided to take advantage and attempt some Alaska 4-wheelin with Kevin and Laura joining us. We were pretty much the only Jeep out there, mostly just ATV's and dirt bikes. Most of them were completely COVERED head to toe in mud.....seemed like some sort of badge of honor. Anyway, it was nice to get out. We tried to make it to the Knik Glacier, but it took WAY too long.

One of the highlights of the day was a joke Laura told that fit our experience to a tee:

What is the last thing a redneck here's before he dies?

(in a redneck voice) "You're doooooin it man!"

:)

Fairbanks

faribanks

(Click on the picture above to see the whole album of pictures)

So Lisa and I went to fairbanks last weekend. We had a great time despite a bit of boredom as the city of fairbanks is pretty crappy. We put together a web album of the highlights, some pretty cool stuff when I look back at it. We saw an Ice museum full of cool art and went to the best hot springs I have ever been to and ate out at some interesting restaurants and remarked about how preety it could be if everything were green and the river boat rides were up and running. Our bed and breakfast was nice except for the really annoying laugh of the lady who ran the place. It was a bit stuffy for us too but not bad I guess.... Lisa is still there til the end of the week, she gets to stay at the springhill suites. Much nicer! She is attending a fire weather training event. Cool stuff! Guess I will call it quits for now... Tons more to post though.... So keep you eyes peeled. Sorry for the long wait.

Ok so here is my Jeep after a lift and bigger tires. Oh and about 6 hours of washing, waxing, vacuuming and shining. Still looks pretty dang good for an '03 if you ask me. K so next weekend I am going to take her out and do some wheelin' alaska style. Should be a blast so watch for pics and video!