Our Busy Little Bee!

I will post an update about Zak in a day or so but I wanted to put a few things up about Belen first, since it's been awhile.  She is walking like a pro and she can now eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but  she still only has the two teeth so we still have to stick to a lot of the softer food variety.

What a girly girl!

Playing with Daddy!

Playing with Jana!

Wearing Mommy's Coat

 "I'm gonna get you! There's nowhere to hide!"

"I can seeeee youuuu!"

"Pleeeeaaaassseeee!"

In other news, we have made the official decision NOT to move to Alaska in July. It was a tough decision for us because we had the opportunity to be associated with some really great people but as we began to move in that direction (i.e. beginning to pack things up and contacting moving companies and apartments up there) it just didn't feel like the right thing nor the right place for our family.  We have a few other options that have come our way but we will be taking the summer off school (the first since we moved out here two and a half years ago) so that Zak can work and make some moolah.  Yes, after nearly 14 months since our daughter was born, 37 weeks of pregnancy before that, AND 5 months of marriage before that...I have finally decided that I am O.K. with being a wife and mother without being involved in some additional personally defining activity (work/school). Zak would very much like to support me in this endeavor but that requires that he take the summer off to work rather than finishing his last semester of school. We are not completely sure what kind of work he will be involved with...he may do an internship or he may do some summer sales in Missouri and reserve his internship for a company in an area we'd actually like to stick around in. We are itchin' to find our little piece of heaven on earth and I'm convinced that, for us, it is not in Idaho.

 

Sorry the video is sideways, I'd edited it on my computer but, hummm, I don't know what happened.

Back From our Alaskan Adventure!

Well, Zak and I are back from our Alaskan Adventure and all I have to say is it just wasn't long enough!!! We arrived late Thursday night, loaded up in a bus with all the other recruits who were all (minus about 2 or 3)on the same flight as we were and were dropped off in front of our hotel. After a good, albeit short (Alaska time is 2 hours behind Mountain Standard Time), nights sleep Zak had to walk across the street for a morning of interviews, followed by a great lunch of fresh salmon from a famous Anchorage restaurant, tours exploring the wiles of Alaska within the Anchorage vicinity, a team-building scavenger hunt (where, among other things, he saw 5 Moose in an hour and a half!) and a catered dinner in a Chalet.

I, as well as the other spouses, were given a quick tour of the office where our spouses were interviewing, dropped off alone in downtown Anchorage and left to our own accord, strangers in a strange land...so, you ask, what did we do, all day, in a strange city? Go to the mall of course...I didn't know anything about the city, where -to- go- what- to -do -and -the -sort, I had no transportation, and the only other option was to sit all day in the hotel. AND, while my husband was eating fabulous salmon, I was across the street eating at the Food Court in the mall. Sad, yes I know. We, "the spouses" were however, invited to meet our husbands for dinner at the Chalet. Thank goodness for that.

Although Friday was pretty lackluster, Saturday couldn't have been more of a contrast! We met up , recruits and spouses, ate a quick lunch, loaded up in the bus once again and began our travels south, down the Seward Highway.

'Where to' you ask?

'You will just have to wait,' I reply!

For the journey is as magical as the destination.

As we head south toward Portage, Alaska to the right is the Cook Inlet. An icy body of ocean facing west, across the Cook Inlet stands a variety of impressive, snow covered mountains looming over the frigid waters on the Kanai Peninsula. I wish I could have had the bus driver stop so I could take some pictures because I have never seen anything quite so beautiful. To our left (east-ish) stood the sharply rising peaks of the Chugach Mountain range also covered with snow. Larger, more rugged peaks than those of the Rocky Mountains.

An hour south of downtown Anchorage we finally cross the city limits...a little strange, the bus driver announced that the city of Anchorage is, if I remember correctly, somewhere in the vicinity of 2000 square miles making it one of the largest cities in the U.S. in terms of square mileage. Another 15 minutes brought us to the Byron Glacier trail head. No snow meant that we could explore the glacier up close, climb all around without the danger of falling into a crevasse. It made for an amazing adventure! Here are some pictures of Byron Glacier.