Moving Trip

So, I haven't blogged for awhile so this post is going to be SUPER long cause we just moved to Seattle and went on a fishing trip to Alaska. This post will also have a ton of pictures so get ready.

Here we are a weekend or two before leaving Colorado with my family going rafting down the Colorado. Needless to say, don't go in June-it's cold, fast, and scary.I couldn't believe how HUGE my hips look in this picture! Ty is wearing a wet suit circa 1980...Here's an adorable picture of my three little bros showing off their rafting gear

Afterwards we went down to Royal Gorge and I saw this old fire truck and couldn't resist snapping a picture.


It was pretty late, so the light isn't very good, but if you look at the website there's a pretty neat video.

Our moving adventure started early Monday morning (early being 6:00am) as we got all our stuff packed in our car to drive to Utah. However, we were making a surprise visit to Ty's parents so we told everyone we were actually driving through Idaho. In order to help the drive be more productive, we bought one of those DC adapters for the car that converts the car current to household current so we could work on our laptop in the car. We did get some work done, well, mostly Tyler because I get to sick in the car. We arrived in Provo right on schedule and boy were mom and dad surprised to see us. We all got together and ate a scrumptious meal, had FHE, and then went to TGIF for Ice cream (thanks dad). It was great to see everyone!
Then we trucked off to Idaho the next afternoon after a morning of golfing and shopping--that's when I found my swim suit, yay! We arrived at Uncle Greg and Aunt Vickie's house a little later than planned, but we still got to see Aunt Mary Jane and some of her kids, who I hadn't met yet. They were so hospitable and we stayed up (too late) talking and having fun. The next day, Wednesday, we made the last leg into Washington. We had never been to the house we are staying at, so we were relying on my phone's GPS to guide us. Well, we made it into Redmond where we would be staying, but the road we were supposed to turn on to get to their house didn't exist! After aimlessly driving for like 20 minutes, a kind man finally came out and told us how to get to the place we were going and said that the GPS was wrong because the road we were trying to go through really didn't. It was funny. When we arrived at the house we would be staying at we were taken back. The house is GORGEOUS! The people we're staying with are so kind and generous and we are loving it here. The things that I have to get used to are:
1) driving forever to get anywhere
2) all the trees
3) sea level cooking
4) sea level breathing
5) sea level weather
6) living on a septic
7) everything "GREEN"
ok, well you get the idea, there are lots of things to adjust to.

The next afternoon we flew to Anchorage where my grandpa picked us up and showed us around town.

This is the house they lived in for years in College Town when my grandpa was in the AirForce. Unfortunately, the house hasn't been kept upand it bugs my grandparents tremendously.


At least the lawn is green...We went to Alaska to go fishing. Usually we go to fish salmon and halibut, but this year the river outside the cabin was closed to King Salmon fishing, but fortunately for us there are many other types of salmon to fish:
My grandpa has a hanger in Birchwood, about 10-15 minutes from downtown Anchorage. Here he has an apartment for him and my grandma to stay in the in-between trips from the cabin and stuff and he also stores all the equipment. For anyone who hasn't been to Alaska, it truly is the land of the wild. The only way to get in and out of the cabin is by bush plane, float a boat up the river, or in the winter, snowmobile in. In the following picture you can see the snow mobiles and the Cessna 206 that we fly into Willow, the second stopping point before reaching the cabin. We slept in the hanger on a very nice queen size bed that my grandpa keeps for visitors. Thankfully we had plumbing and electricity at this point and the mosquitoes weren't even bad.
Here's my grandpa and Tyler flying the 206 to Willow.
It was cloudy and rainy when we got there and stayed that way all week, here's a pic of the beautiful view of the Susitana River that the Deshka runs into...
Once we land at Willow,(in my gpa's words, the only people that live there are either running away from work, or running away from the law). we take the SuperCub (a serious bush plane), which only has 2 seats so we make two trips. The first my gpa and gma go, then the second me and Gpa sit in the seats and Ty is stuffed back in the baggage area.
This is another pic of the 206 at the Willow hanger.
Here you can see how Ty is smashed in the back. I tried to sit back there since I am smaller, but he wouldn't let me. What a gentleman.
This is another view with a little more sunlight.

Once we arrived at the cabin, the mosquitoes were out in force! This is the girls' outhouse, closest to the cabin because we can't just stand off the porch when the need arises and it's scary to go out when everyone's sleeping cause of bears
We took a trip out to my other Gpas cabin so I could show Ty and so we could check on everything. His property is probably a mile from my gpa ashby's. He has been working on creating indoor plumbing to encourage my gma to come out with him...

voile! it works:)
here's an interior view of the "A" frame cabin my gpa wallace built with his bare hands!
This is the landing strip right outside the Deshka cabin. Only for a Supercub because it is only 800 ft long at best. Years ago one of my gpa's friends tried to take off with his Cessna 182 and fell nose first into the river! No one died thankfully but it was definitely a warning to pay attention to the weight and take off requirements of your aircraft.
This is the Deshka river where we usually get our King Salmon. Since we couldn't, we spent our time eating (my gpa's a fantastic cook) and reading. It was a great R&R for us.
This is the interior of my gpa's cabin. I wish that I could desribe how neat it is! Everything had to be floated in on the river. Including the logs! My grandpa spent 2 weeks floating the river with over 40 logs in freezing temperatures.

This is the front view of the cabin. Tyler and Gma are watching out for the wildlife.
My gpa always takes care of the wildlife, and although you can't see it, there's a fox in the distance we had been watching eat the food we left on the porch.
Here's another view I was trying to get of the fox.
After spending two days at the cabin, we went to Eagle River for church and afterwards did a little sight seeing. This is at Earthquake Park, overlooking the Knik arm of the Cook Inlet. On March 27, 1964, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America shook all of Southcentral Alaska. The Good Friday Earthquake was originally recorded between 8.4 and 8.6 on the Richter Scale and later upgraded to a magnitude of 9.2.
Monday we decided to go to Homer to try our luck at Halibut fishing. "Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Bourough in the U.S. State of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population was 5,364. One of Homer's nicknames is "the cosmic hamlet by the sea"; another is "the end of the road". A popular local bumper sticker characterizes the town as "Homer - A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem." Most of what I saw was off the spit where we loaded the fishing boat and took off to Seldovia--you can only get there by boat or plane, surprisingly enough:) This is a picture of the Harbor at Homer
Once we arrived at the Seldovia cabin, I was astounded by it's beauty! Even though temperatures never get above 50 degrees F, as long as you're bundled up, it's fun.
This is the Seldovia cabin.
Another misty view of the beach at Seldovia.

We tried to keep our boat in the water, but the tide was the lowest of the entire year and, we got beached.

The next morning we took off in the boat to go fishing. I had a terrible stomach ache the entire time (because of motion sickness) but was still able to enjoy the time. This is Ty reeling up his first halibut!
There it is! a small 12-15 pounder
Satisfied after reeling it in...
We had catch after catch, but then finally we had a hang up. Tyler spent over 1/2 hour trying to reel this one up and what was it but....A GIANT OCTOPUS
The water was getting too choppy so we traveled back to the cabin and cleaned the halibut. After we threw the carcasses on the beach, over 10 bald eagles flew in to feast.

That next night we went back to the Deshka cabin for our last night and decided to chop some wood. Here's Ty showing me how to do it!
And me!
Moose ears.
Tyler on his pole that he and gpa fixed up to shear the roof since it was sagging.
The wood we chopped.
Some sunny views of the Deshka
My gpas 1940's Jeep

Taking off to go back to Birchwood before we left to go back to Seattle.

This is the coolest thing, so when you fly you can't ever see the propeller, but when I took this shot of the runway I got this interesting time lapse of the rotating props.
Well, there were lots of interesting times, and I just have to say I am glad that we are back safely. Alaska is always trying to kill you.