Crow Pass Hike

Let me tell you that I promise never to take a 20+ mile hike again!!!  This hike was 24 miles or so and it was death.  There were beautiful views and it was a great experience in all, but once is enough.  From now on, 15 miles is my max.

This hike went up and over a mountain pass and then went up and down through the mountain valley's.  It was amazing and there were beautiful waterfalls.  Plus it was such a great workout, I think I'm good for a few days.  :)

The Cons:

• There were a million fly's all around us, the WHOLE time!  Plus a million mosquito's!  My arms look like I have hives because of all the bites.  No joke, I probably have 200 bites.  (The fact that some of them are from fly bites grosses me out!)  Stopping for food breaks was unpleasant.  
• We had to cross a river that was at LEAST 50 feet wide.  It was melting from a glacier that we could see on the side of the mountain, and it was flowing so fast there were white caps.  We seriously almost decided to turn around because it was unsafe.  But we split into 2 groups of 4 people and held on to each other while we crossed it.  And at every step I thought I was going to get rushed downstream.  And when we got to the other side, the pain of our ice cold feet was horrible!  Yeah, it was crazy.  I was crying.
• Sunburn!  I put sunscreen on my face but forgot about my chest and back of my neck.  Ouch!  
• The pure aches and pains of walking that far over uneasy ground was really hard on my ankles and knees.  I was actually afraid that I would break my knee going down the steep banks. 

So the nearly frozen water, bugs everywhere, and steep climbs over rocks made for one memorable trip.  (That I will not be doing again)  Lucy said that it made her want to run it next year.  That hike is also a famous infamous marathon in Alaska.  I don't know how people could run that race.  I would be falling and breaking my legs over all the rocks.  But more power to her!  Here are some pics!

Lucy and I

The before picture.

This was all in the first 5 miles.  I didn't get any pictures after that because it was so intense, I just didn't think of it.  And we didn't do an after picture because I could barely walk.  Seriously, I was in bad shape the last few miles.  Luckily, I am hardly sore at all today.  :)

Downton Abby

I know I'm way behind on the times but we are watching Downton Abby season 3 right now.  We watched season 1 and 2 a while ago but something happened and we weren't able to watch season 3... without having cable anyways.  I know how to do netflix but that's about it.  If it's not on there, I can't watch it.  But Glen is the one who can find any show on some crazy website.

*Warning- I'm giving away things on the show.  So if you're like me and way behind on your shows, don't read on.  But anyways, Glen and I just watched the episode where Lady Cybil dies during child birth.  OMG.  Couldn't believe it!  But I was shocked at how emotional I was.  Seriously, I was crying the whole episode and the episode after that.  I just kept thinking about how awful it would be to die and leave a newborn baby with Glen.  He would NOT know what to do.  I just can't bare thinking of that.  It's amazing how times have made childbirth so much easier.  I don't even consider the fact that I might die having a baby.  They did a great job portraying a father who lost his wife but gained a baby girl.  So sad.

Babies are really on my mind lately.  All my friends are having babies.  I know of 4 women who have had babies, just in the past 4 days!  Not to mention all my friends who have had babies just this summer.  I can't wait to see some of the babies born when I get back to Pullman!  It's really baby season.  Plus, aren't we all excited about the royal baby.  :)  

Career Decisions

Last week I had the opportunity to go to achievement days camp.  I learned that this is a thing that only this ward does.  An older lady with all her kids moved out, has invited the 8-11 year old girls at our church to come to her house for 4 days for a day camp.  She runs the whole thing and simply because she loves it and wants to!  Apparently she thinks that it's not fair that boys have cub scouts but girls don't have anything haha.  She's awesome!  And I wish I had a picture of her house!  OMG, it is huge and beautiful and at the very top of a mountain.  One side of her house is completely window, 2 stories high!  It looks out to the city, the ocean and Anchorage.  It is a spectacular sight!  Plus, she has a ton of land for the girls to roam around on.  I had a blast hanging out with these girls!  I'm used to toddler/preschool age so it was fun to hang out with some older kids.  And man are they funny!  Each day I came home tired but I really had fun!  We did crafts and hiking and songs and lessons and more.  It was a good way to spend my week. 

This got me thinking tho...  I am currently starting the process of applying to grad school.  I got my bachelors in Speech and Hearing Science and want my masters in Speech Pathology.  (speech therapy)  My ultimate goal is to work as a speech therapist 2-3 days a week.  But a lot of my friends are having a hard time getting into grad school for speech pathology and I've already applied once and didn't get in.  I was an average student, I didn't do anything above and beyond, but I got mostly A's and B's.  I don't have anything that stands out.

But after having so much fun at that day camp, I started to wonder if I should get my teaching certificate.  I had the opportunity to be the leader of a group for a couple hours and it was fun organizing the kids and seeing the things that they came up with.  I'm still applying to speech schools but maybe I should apply to get my teaching cert. if that doesn't work out...  Idk.

I don't plan on going back to work full-time until my kids are in school full-time, if ever.  So it might be silly to get my teaching certificate ten or so years before I want to use it.  Is it hard to get your teaching certificate in your late 30's?

I just hope I get into grad school for speech pathology so I don't have for go to plan B.  We will see what happens.  Does anyone have any good online schools they liked?  Pro's and Con's to getting your teaching cert. before you plan on using it?

Salmon Fishing

*Warning: Don't continue reading if you don't like blood

We went salmon fishing and it was a success!!  Yay!  (I honestly thought we wouldn't catch any)  Glen's gone fishing before but we have never been very serious about it and therefore, we have never caught anything.  I didn't have high hopes.  But this time we were successful!  We were on Klutina river, which is just a couple miles from the famous Copper River.  And we knew -almost- nothing about fishing when we left.

Is it weird that sometimes I feel like having low expectations about something makes it more enjoyable?  I feel like having too high of expectations is what makes us frustrated about events.

Glen was not happy because we only caught one fish in the first 4 hours and we were thinking it was time to go home.  When suddenly we started catching them.  And when I say "we" I mean Glen.  I was not able to catch one fish!  Bummer.  But surprisingly, I had a great time!

The best story of the day ended with both of us covered in blood splatters.  So.... after you catch a fish, you have to really smack it on the head to knock it out.  I thought that 1 or 2 hits on the head would do the trick. NOPE.  After loosing one fish that wiggled back into the water, we realized that you have to really wack them.  So after we caught our 2nd or 3rd fish, I wacked it a few times and thought I was good.  Then I saw it wiggle again.  So I gave it one more good hit... right on the gills.  This is not a good idea.  Blood splashed us all over our face and clothes.  :(  I didn't get a picture because we were in a rush to wash off.  It was pretty funny tho.  

Glen caught 6 fish, which is the limit that one person is allowed to catch.  Amazing!  I didn't catch any but my job was making lunch and dinner.  Plus, I was the allocated wacker.  Every time Glen caught one, he would pull it to shore and I would go at it.  I was pretty vicious.

First fish!!

We filleted a couple there but then decided to take them home to fillet.

Apparently you have to cut their gills so they bleed out.

Our loot!  

Ready to freeze.

We are SO excited to take these back to Pullman.  We had so much fun that we might try to go again before we leave.  We might need to buy another freezer.

YUM!!!

Alaskan 4th of July

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!  I LOVE this holiday!  This year it was a little different for us.  Since we're in Alaska, the sun never, well, almost never goes down.  So at midnight it still looks like dusk.  It looks like it's about ....oh, 7 or 8pm.  We could have gone to see fireworks but it just wouldn't have been the same.  

Also, they do the fireworks in Eagle River the night before the 4th.  I think they do it that way because they have to wait till after midnight (for it to get somewhat dark) so technically it's on the 4th. Strange.  Another reason it was different is that it was cold and rainy.  :(  We were planning on an outside bbq with a parade.  So we did an indoor bbq and the kids still went to the neighborhood parade.  From what I'm hearing, everywhere else was super hot today!!  I don't like heat, so maybe it's good that I'm up here.  

Glen made his famous Chicago style hot dogs for our bbq.  They were a hit!  I skip a few ingredients.  Picky eater.  But I loved my version of his hot dog.  Hehe.  

This is basically what they looked like. 

We had a GREAT non-typical Independence Day!  

Mountain Hike

Glen had the day off on Tuesday so we were thinking about what we need to do to take advantage of it.  We thought about going fishing but the fishing wasn't very good that day.  So we decided to do a hike in Girdwood.  They have a ski resort there that has a lot of hiking trails in the summer.  Lucy (Glen's sister) told us to go on the hand tram; where you pull yourself across a river.  We started out going that way but apparently got on the wrong path.  About an hour into it we realized that we might be going the wrong way and we were headed to the top of the mountain.  But it was fun and so we decided to just go for it!  It was scary at times because there was a lot of icey snow but we made it!  And we had fun!

Very steep!

The top baby!

Alyeska Resort!

*Sorry these were already on facebook.  My plan is that my blog will now have more photos and stories and my facebook will have less.