Firsts

We've had some firsts this last couple of weeks.  

1.  Camping  - We planned to go camping for the first time with the boys. I spent the entire day packing the car and shopping for food.  I had no idea how much stuff we would actually need, so I just thought we'd bring our whole house.  Our car looked about as loaded down as when we traveled across the country for a month.  We had a campsite in mind (10 minutes away from home in case we bailed in the middle of the night), the cooler was packed, and we just had to pick up Chris from work. As luck would have it, it started to rain as we were driving to get him.  We didn't know if we should just wait it out and then go, or just quit altogether.  Instead we compromised on doing a backyard fire in the drizzle, camping in our playroom, and going on a hike the next day.

Making the fire

Clark looks like he just belongs in the wild.  He is so comfortable trying anything and everything if it has to do with the outdoors.  Good thing we drug him to Alaska.

We went to go get some "roasting sticks" and this is what Clark brought back. Haha!

Being moose, with abandoned child in the background. 

We stayed in the tent the whole night after watching Monsters Inc. 

The next day we went to Eklutna Lake for a day hike.  It was gorgeous. And because the whole state is basically a state park, nothing ever seems too crowded.

Loving this stroller

Learning to skip rocks

I love watching them all play together.  I could have all boys and be totally fine with that. 

2.  Backyard guests -  We had our first moose friends visit our backyard this week.  One time it was a mom and a baby. The next time it was a mom and twins.  The picture don't really capture how big they are, but they are like a horse. It was fun to watch them eat all of our trees. And they seemed to care less that we were on the deck taking pictures of them.

3.  Rain Suits - I bought rain suits for the boys before we went on the ferry because someone mentioned we would need them. But we never used them because the weather was nice, so they got to use them this week for the first time. They are AWESOME!  The neighbor friends came out wearing some too!

4.  We turned on the heater and fireplace for the first time - yes, already. In August. 

5.  And here's some more pictures just because they are cute. But that's not a first. :)

Answers to FAQs

After we decided to move to Alaska, people started asking tons of questions. Here a few of them with the answers: 

1. Doesn't the sun never go down in the summer and never come up in the winter? 

• It depends on where you are in Alaska.  If you are in the northern most parts, then yes, this is pretty accurate. In Wasilla, it seems like it gets dark around 11 pm and light around 5 am in the summer.  In the winter, it's the opposite.  The sun is up from mid-morning to late afternoon. 

2. Do you need to be careful about polar bears?

• It depends on where you are in Alaska. The northern most parts have polar bears, but we do not have polar bears where we live. And yes, you do need to be careful because polar bears are dangerous animals - not a cute, white bear that drinks Coke. 

3. Isn't it really expensive to live there? 

• It depends on where you are in Alaska (notice a trend here??).  Things do seem to be higher priced for us, but most things aren't totally outrageous. The things that I have noticed a big difference on are dairy and produce. Basically, anything fresh.  But good deals can still be found. Housing prices varies depending on the location within the state. Prices where we are seem to be comparable to California. 

4. Where are you going to shop?

• The same places that you do - Target, Sams Club, Costco, Walmart, Fred Meyer, Sports Authority, Best Buy, etc. Anywhere surrounding Anchorage (the largest city) will have a decent selection of stores. However, if you live on a remote island or in a small town, options will be limited and prices will be high. 

5. Is it expensive to travel there?  

• In short, yes.  But you can find decent deals on the off-seasons.  A few more airlines recently opened up flights to/from Anchorage, so this should drive down the prices a little bit because there is more competition. 

6. Do people live in igloos?

• I have yet to see any igloos here. In fact, the houses look pretty normal to me. :)

7. Are you going to live with Eskimos?

• If you are picturing a person wearing a thick coat made of animal skins with fur surrounding the hood, then no.  But we do live among Native Alaskans (proper name) and they look and dress just like everyone else.  I would venture to say there are places in Alaska where the Native people have kept more of their Native lifestyle, but I haven't encountered any. 

8. Don't you get paid to live there?

• Kind of. After attaining residency (living in Alaska for 1 year), every man, woman, and child receives a yearly check (amount varies depending on the year) - this is called the Permanent Fund. It is basically from oil revenues and the state shares it with the residents. I have heard the amounts are around $800-1000 per person per year. Many families use this money to start college funds for their children. 

9. Aren't you going to freeze to death???

• Probably, but time will tell. :) But again, it depends on where you are in the state. In Wasilla, the winters are long and often windy, but it's not in the negatives every day either. I haven't experienced a winter here yet, but from checking www.weather.com everyday last year and talking to people, I feel like comparing it to Northern Utah, Idaho, or Montana would probably be accurate. 

10. How long do you think you'll stay up there?

• That's a hard question. We have no idea. We're going to take it as it comes. :)

Feel free to ask more questions! 

Trek to Alaska - Part 2

After 2 weeks in Utah, we started our drive to Washington. We stopped in Oregon one night and finished the drive the next day. We stayed for 2 nights at yet another hotel in the Seattle suburbs. We wanted to give ourselves some wiggle room to make it on time to Washington because if we missed our ferry, then we lost our money! While we were there, we were able to see my cousins, aunt and uncle in the Seattle area. I hadn't seen them in years, so it was time well-spent.  

They got pretty good at taxiing our luggage. 

Boredom strikes in the hotel.

And since we needed a reason for getting there with 1.5 days to spare, Clark took care of it for us. He got a splinter in his foot and it got infected. So the night before we were supposed to board our ferry, I spent 6 hours in the E.R. with him trying to take care of it.  It wasn't THAT bad, but there are no doctors on-board the ship, so we wanted to make sure everything was okay before we left. After a very traumatic attempt to do an ultrasound of his foot  (me and some guy holding him down in a dark room while he was yelling and crying), they finally got a good picture of his foot and determined there were no "foreign objects" still inside.  This meant they did not have to cut into him and all he needed was some antibiotics. At first they were telling us to not take him on the ferry, so we were relieved to know that we could all go as a family.   

The next morning we drove 2 hours up to Bellingham, WA (where my Dad was born!) to board the M/V Kennicott.  Chris waited in the line to park our car on the bottom deck of the boat for 3 hours.  We opted not to all stay in the car with the kids since they were so so so sick of the car after driving across the country.  So I took them onto the boat and got the keys to our room. Here is our room and a few pictures from the boat so you can get an idea of what kind of boat it was.  

There's a little bathroom and sink in the room as well. 

M/V Kennicott

The best way I can describe the 4.5 day journey on a ferry boat is in between camping and a cruise. It's an odd combination, but that's exactly what it was like. 

We brought almost all of our own food and had to keep refilling our cooler with ice because there aren't personal refrigerators on the ship. They had a cafeteria on-board but it was very pricey.  So we ate a lot of oatmeal, soup, PB&Honey sandwiches, Easy-Macs, etc.  We also had stocked up on pre-made Trader Joe's salads and dinners before leaving Washington which was very nice. Having a little TJ's sushi on day 3 of the trip was a welcomed treat. 

We spent a lot of time eating. And annoying the other passengers in the cafeteria. 

The boat stopped almost once a day so we tried to explore the tiny Alaskan towns but there wasn't much to see unless you took a taxi. 

They loved the playroom.

It got a little hectic in tight quarters.

The part that resembled a cruise was the fact that we were sailing through beautiful scenery and meeting interesting people on-board.  There were no swimming pools, entertainment, or wi-fi (or cell service for most of it!).  But it was great that people were actually TALKING to each other rather than on their wireless devices.  We saw some really cool wildlife - orcas, humpback whales, dolphins, a bear, and sea otters.  It's one thing to see them at Sea World, but totally different to see them in the wild. 

We finally docked in Whittier, AK and drove 2 hours to our new town.  We couldn't get keys to our rental house for 2 days, so we went to ANOTHER hotel. FINALLY, after months of anticipation of what our life was going to be like here, we moved in!

Here's our rental house: 

Our backyard :)  Clark calls it "the forest". And the best part is that he just found wild raspberries growing all over back there. 

Same view at 10:30 PM. We are sleep-deprived because it's never dark...

Master Bath

Isaac testing it out

Kid Bathroom

Ktichen - the cabinet space! And the gas stove!!

We love it so far. The boys have spent many hours digging for treasure in the backyard. We love the house and don't know what to do with all of the space. The weather has been awesome - in the 70's since we arrived so we have been taking advantage of being outdoors more than unpacking. We'll have plenty of time to unpack during the winter ;)

(More pictures of the house once I actually get furniture to put in it). 

And just to embarrass him - he's official! 

I snapped this shot when no one was looking at the front desk of his office :) 

Sorry if this was long to read, but it was even longer to live through it! ;)