To the glacier with Mom

My mom was wonderful enough to come and visit me for a week during July. It was a lot of fun and almost didn't rain the whole time! We did some fun hikes, a boat tour and had some good meals.

Brian and I took Mom to the glacier, a good day for a hike and another good opportunity to touch the glacier.

Here we are in the midst of the ice.

Tracy Arm Glacier Tour

Mom and I took a trip to the Tracy Arm Glacier. It was a very long boat ride to and from the glacier, but well worth the adventure. Along the way we saw some whales, seals, a brown bear, and all sorts of ICE!

Happy Fourth of July!

Fourth of July is a big day in Juneau. The whole population of 30,000 people or so come to downtown Juneau to watch the fireworks which are on the night of the 3rd/4th, unlike everywhere else in the USA. A big group of us gathered at Brian's mom's house to watch the fireworks from her porch. Only one small cruise ship in town that night.

It was a pretty decent show, lasted about 30 minutes.

The day of the fourth is also a big deal, the only traffic problem I'll ever see in Juneau is this day, it took us about ten minutes to pull out of a parking lot after the parade. This picture is the Filipino group dancing and representing. They had great outfits!

The loud and fun group I was with most of the day!

Hiking Heintzleman Ridge

This awesome hike was about two weeks ago with another fun group, Christine and her husband Tim, Brian Ewing, my Brian, my roomie, Rachel and myself. Plus four border collies!

Yes, flowers are finally blooming in Juneau, it took until July, but they are here. The short month long summer is finally here!


More beauty to behold! A truly fantastic place to hike and live for this period of time.

Mt. Juneau

I've had some great day hikes in the last few weeks, so I'm finally getting the pictures on my blog. This hike was three weeks ago I think, Mt. Juneau, quite a climb to the top. It was a beautiful day and I actually wore a tank top for a bit of the hike!! Here is me perched at an amazing viewpoint!
Next up: the picture below is looking at downtown Juneau from the top, or almost the top of the mountain. The cruise ships are so huge compared to the city!



Brian and I at the top!
And there were mountain goats up there!! A dozen at least and we were able to get pretty close. I did have a zoom lens which helped me aquire this picture.


A great group to hike with, Michelle, Christine and Brian.

Backpacking to Herbert Glacier

Finally a backpacking trip!! I don't think I backpacked at all last summer and was supper excited to get out and do something here in Juneau. We gathered a large bunch of people, started with the six in this picture and another six came later in the evening. Here is Karla, Tim, Dave, Adam, Morgan and I all ready to hike.

Morgan, Tim, Adam, and Karla in front of the glacier on the sand flats.

Herbert Glacier right behind me, Karla and Morgan. We couldn't get right up to the glacier because of a raging river in the way.

Morning shot next to the camp fire. We had a nice tarp and everything, but God blessed us with cloudy skies and no rain!!

And of course guns had to be brought along for this trip. We shot at some plastic bottles and cans for targets.

Rafting the White Salmon

Every Memorial Day weekend I am lucky enough to go rafting on the White Salmon River in Washington with some friends. This year, Brian was lucky enough to come along. We camp out at the same house every year and play games in between trips down the river. Here's a group of us playing Boci Ball.


My best bud, Sarah Stuart and I. Entirely not enough time spent with you, Sarah!!


Here is Brian, getting ready to raft!


Me, Sarah and Carrie!


Here is the group, waiting to be assigned to a raft for our most exciting trip down the river. We had a raft flip on this trip, no one was hurt thankfully, just a little scared and more than a few bruises and scratches.

Gwyndolyn on the beach. Isn't she a cutie?

Brian was able to rent a surf board for a day, unfortunately the waves weren't all that great, but the kids had fun attempting to ride the surf board. Except when they fell off in the freezing cold water! Here is Benny riding the waves on his knees.

Becky and her beautiful kids!

I encouraged Isaac to make a sand angel, he seemed to enjoye it and made a great one, then promptly stepped into it to mess it up. Oh well, it was a beautiful piece of art at first.

Isaac, Becky and I. I do love my family!

More from Oregon...

My family pretty much loved Brian, especially the kids. Before we had even seen the kids, Brian and I were hiding from them in my sister's house and the first thing out of my nephew Benjamen's mouth was, "where is Brian?" IT was tons of fun seeing them, here is a picture of Hailey, Noah, Brian and Ben.


Little Gwyndolyn!! Such a cutie, each time I see her she is a little bigger!


My mom and Benjamen.


Brian has this obsession with the llamas at our house. My family has had llamas for a really long time, so it's not a big deal to me, but Brian was very excited to be able to touch and hug this llama, named Strider. And yes, the llama is in the house.


Thanks to the 90 degree weather for a few days while I was home (which will probably be the best days of my summer) Brian was able to sleep outside in the pasture. This was one morning that Noah, Isaac and I went out to find him in the tall grass.

Wow, the month of May flew by!!

Brian and I took a little vacation to Oregon last month. I had two weeks off and spent it all at home!! It was a really fun trip, and I've got a lot of pictures to post, but don't have enought time to do it all now. I'm putting these up for Emily! Here is some new pics Em!! More to come later. Anyway, here is Brian and I in front of Multnomah falls on our way white water rafting the White Salmon.

We also got to stay at the beach for a few nights thanks to Tammi and her sis!! What a great house, right on the beach. The weather was amazing and it was actually warm on the beach! CRazy for the month of May!

Here is little Jeremiah! Such a cutie. Okay, well I'm off to play in a slowpitch softball tournament, so more pictures to come later when I have time.

Back to Alaska

I returned safe and sound from Hawaii. It was just rainy in Juneau when I arrived at the airport, almost two weeks ago. Then, the very next morning, I wake up to find this outside!!! I knew it was snowing, but I didn't expect this much snow to fall on April 17th! Absolutely crazy!! Lucky for us, it was short lived, because then we had over a week of sunny, warm weather. Just wanted to share some fun Juneau stories with those enjoying different weather than I am. That is my Chevy underneath almost a foot of snow.

The beauty of this place is quite staggering sometimes. God knew exactly what He was doing when He created the mountains.

A visit with sunshine...

Four girls living in Alaska, and one in Ohio decided to take a vacation to Kaua'i, Hawaii. Lucky for four of them, Erin works for Alaska Airlines and could get them all there for almost nothing! Thanks a bunch Erin, the trip to visit the sun and warmth was much appreciated!

The Waimea Canyon was the first location we visited while on the island. 10 miles long, 1 mile wide and more than 3,500 feet deep. It was equally as beautiful as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, just on a smaller scale. And much more green. It was a little cloudy the day we were there, so my pictures are hazy looking!


Erin and Denise at one of the overlooks to the canyon.

And here we are, all five thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Another fun sight to see, Spouting Horn, where waves rush through a lava shelf and burst through a small opening. We even saw some sea turtles out in the ocean.