Scotty turns 3!

well, here we are. pulling into my hometown definitely made it all worth it. we made it. the place i've longed to be for four years now. when i moved away 10 years ago, i never thought i would be back, much less with my husband, two babies and a dog. so much has happened in 10 years and though i've been back numerous times to visit, living here again is a totally different thing and it just feels right. celebrating Scotty's 3rd birthday was so fun, not because we did anything particularly special, but because it was with family. Scotty's favorite person in the whole world is his Uncle Scott and it was really special to spend the evening with my brother, sister in law and my two nieces. we went to Chuck E Cheese and the "kids" (Jay) ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. it was fun to let them loose and have a good time. Zac is still a bit young for this type of activity and as you can see from the pics, he was having a great time. can't believe my "baby" is three.....

Leaving on a jet plane....I wish.

Wow, what a difference in stress level from moving to Alaska four years ago with just the two of us and our dog and now moving from Alaska with two additional little boys. Wouldn't recommend doing the scenic route through Canada with a teething 9 month old! What were we thinking!?!? We joke that the only reason we made it through that trip still married was because there was no place in Canada that could legally divorce us! Fortunately, the next time we move, the boys will be much older. I guess looking back on the trip, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was at the time, but still not something I ever want to do again. June 22, 8 AM, we hopped on the fast ferry heading north, about a 2.5 hour trip, and got off in Haines, Alaska. We drove a few hours and stopped for lunch at a small place called Haines Junction. After standing in line for what seemed like forever at the ONLY place in town, we decided to sit down for a nice picnic at a little school yard playground so the kids and the dog could stretch their legs. All was fine until two local children pounced on us and started begging for food. EEEK! I made some excuse and we quickly packed up and headed out. The food ended up being the worst meal we'd had in a long time (now we understand why our American fast food restaurants state 100% real beef....not sure what kind of meat we had in Canada....) and we decided from that point not to frequent the little restaurants along the way if we could help it. After a long day in the car with an unhappy baby, we stopped off in Whitehorse for the night and I seriously considered hopping on a plane with the boys and letting Jay finish out the road trip alone with our dog. I could not fathom another three days in the car if that first day was any indication. But the following morning, after considering our option of buying two tickets for $2100, I decided to save the money and suck it up as a family. At that point, we re-vamped our itinerary to include less time in the car and more rest stops for the kids....oh, and a bottle of baby benadryl. This second day was much better for all of us and by mid-day when we were about to approach our designated stop for the night in Watson Lake, we got a wild hair and decided to trek on for another 300 miles to Fort Nelson. This was definitely a turning point in the trip and like a scene out of a movie, when we made the decision to go for it, Jay and I slapped a hi-five in the car and said "let's do it". A bit dorky, yes, but it was the first time I truly felt like we were a team reaching for the same goal: to get through this hell hole they call Canada. This also was a big risk with two small children because we learned from a fellow traveler that had just come from that direction that between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson, there is nothing. No where to stop but small villages and maybe one or two gas stops. It was already 3 PM at this point, so we knew that if we were doing it, we were going all the way. Onward and upward we traveled and I have to say when we arrived Fort Nelson at 10 PM, it was like the heavens opened up "aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh". We made it! And we got to spend the night in the nicest hotel, new and clean, and it was the best night we had the entire trip. Oh, and the bonus was that we were ahead of schedule, which was a huge deal considering when we started out that morning we figured the trip was going to take us longer with all the extra stops we were going to have to make for the kids. It was a huge relief. The following day we started out new and fresh and ready to do another 600 miles to Prince George. We thought, if we can make it to Prince George this day, we will be in Washington in time to sign the papers on our house AND get out of Canada even sooner! YES. With another hi-five, we were off. This day of travel was good and the kids did fine. The benadryl was holding up and I think we finally had a hold on the routine with the kids in the car. However, arriving in Prince George was not as glorious as I had imagined. Though we were a couple hours ahead of ourselves that day, the town left a lot to be desired and I actually wanted to keep driving to the next town. But it was too risky because we didn't know what we'd find even then. If it was just Jay and me, it would've been a welcome option, but with the two little ones, we knew we were pushing our luck to even think about going further. Thus, we stayed but it took us a while to find a decent hotel. Nothing of course was up to my standards, but we had to settle on something. Frankly, sleeping in our car would've been a better option than most places we saw. We tried one place that appeared to be okay, but upon entering the room I couldn't even imagine setting my things down, much less my children. When I pulled back the comforter and blanket to remove it (as I always do in hotels), I saw stains on the blanket (gross!!) and then I preceeded to get small itchy bumps on the lower part of my arm. DISGUSTING. Needless to say, we high tailed it out of that dump and I found some rubbing alcohol to douse my arm. We finally found a Days Inn that was in better shape, but still located in seady downtown Prince George. A bit disappointing that there were no really nice hotels considering how big that city is. Fortunately it had a secure entrance and our room was a few floors up from ground level. We had to leave Heidi in the car that night because they didn't allow dogs, but that was okay because she watched over our vehicle. Needless to say, we couldn't get up and out of that town fast enough in the morning. The only good thing about Prince George was that they had a Starbucks and I was able to start my morning out on the right track. Phew, another town down and the closer we were to the US Border!! This was the final day of travel thru Canada and there was no stopping us. We were going to drive as long as we needed to cross that border and we did it in great time. We could've kept going that night and arrived our final destination a whole day early, but decided to find a nice hotel in Bellingham, WA, and take a load off. We ordered take out from our favorite place, The Olive Garden (oh, how we missed you), and Jay and Scotty even enjoyed some time in the hotel pool. Definitely a great end to a less than desirable trip through our northern neighboring country. Granted, there were parts of the trip that were amazing with all the scenery. That stretch from Watson Lake to Fort Nelson was the most scenic and had the most wildlife on the side of the road to include black bears, moose, a herd of buffalo crossing the highway that we had to actually stop for, and a sheep that was very close to ramming the side of our vehicle had I not screamed for Jay to keep moving! He actually pulled up alongside this animal on MY SIDE of the car and rolled down the window for me to take a picture. We were so close I could've touched the darn thing, but I was scared to death because this sheep was literally backing up to make his charge. I wanted to strangle Jay!! All in all, it was an experience, good and bad, and we will definitely remember it forever......and we will never do it again. But at least we can say we did.

Our Juneau Experience

As we count down our final days in Juneau, Alaska, and wrap up four years in this town, we reminisce about the experience. Though it has been hard to live here with the cold, dreary weather 95% of the time, the isolation of being land-locked, and the lack of fast food restaurants and shopping....our memories focus on the positives. We came here with only our dog and not knowing a soul, but we are leaving with two babies and a plethora of good friends we know we'll never lose touch with. That's the beauty of being in the military and going to many different places....moving is a pain, but you leave with so much more than you came with. We wouldn't recommend southeast Alaska to anyone, as it is cold and wet most the time. Ironically, we're looking forward to moving back to the Seattle area for "better" weather. But when the sun is shining here and the skies are clear, there is no other place on earth more beautiful. It's God's country. We are from the great northwest, so these things are not new to us, they are just closer and we have appreciated them more. We definitely won't miss the potential for coming face to face with a black or brown bear wherever we go (Jay & Heidi recently had an encounter with a sow and her cub...and lived to tell the story). Jay will definitely miss the great Alaskan outdoors and all the free time he had to enjoy it, but he won't complain because he will be back on a ship. However, when we're sitting in traffic on I-5, we'll appreciate the time in Juneau when it only took 10 minutes to get anywhere. We are fortunate that the only thing we've had to complain about the past four years is the weather. We survived this experience and we may even come back for more someday....probably not southeast Alaska, but possibly Anchorage or Kodiak. Check with us in a year and we'll see how we've adjusted back to the fast life in the lower 48. For now, we will look forward to this next transition and pray for smooth sailing (and driving) up and into Canada and on down. To all our Juneau friends, we thank you for adding a personal touch to our Alaskan experience. You've left a lasting impression on us and we will truly miss all of you. Much love and hugs.