Picture this...

About a month ago, this is a scene at which I found myself in awe:
It's dusk. The whole sky is in watercolor. The sun is a gold coin melting into the western horizon, bathed with the misty clouds of (which seams more like south to me because of the layout of the roads and lack of mountains visible daily). With golds and reds and pinks circling outward, it reminded me of the saying, "the red sky at night is a sailor's delight.
In the opposite sky (east), there lies a sky of violet and crystal blue, fading to deep blue midnight. A full moon, touchable. Candy flocked evergreens. Picturesque.
Impossible! Delectable.


Here are some random photos. Unfortunately, no brilliant scenery. Just some of our adventure.

Azilyn and I at the Russian River Falls in July. We have a video of some fish jumping up the falls, but it was early in the season for it, so it's kind of a boring little clip.

Us at the Exit Glacier near Seward, AK. It was a fairly warm day, probably 65-70, but next to the Glacier it was like 30 and windy! The glacier actually creates it's own weather! Azilyn got car sick this day and vomited in the car. Awesome!

Azilyn and I under the giant leaf of a Devil's Club plant to get out of the rain.

Tolson's favorite fingers! LOL Before I took the picture, he was sucking his thumb and had his pointer up his nose! Awesome Tols.

Azilyn as a pirate for Halloween. What was Tolson you may ask...well, he was suppose to be a duck, but somehow we ended up with duck feet and no duck costume...?? We're still trying to figure that one out. So, he was just himself. Sorry bud!

We had our first snow on Halloween (3inches). Luckily we had a trunk-or-treat in our church parking lot. We drove home with no headlights. Yikes!

Mom did the pumpkin carving this year. Azilyn put her hand in and brought it out in disgust! LOL

Happy Halloween!

Autumn

Well, it's hard to say when the seasons actually change around here because the temperatures are so moderate, but if I were to guess, I'd say the Fall only lasted 1month, maybe 6weeks. One day, at the end of August I woke up and went outside to a chill in the air. The atmosphere was changing. Though the temperatures have only been 5-10deg cooler, from 55ish in August, to mid-upper 40's, low 50s as highs. The nighttime lows have dropped into the 30's and at the start of this week, we had our first frost (that I noticed anyway). Winter quickly approaches. Eeww. I'm kinda nervous about it because we are not prepared.
Last night I went visiting teaching to one of my ladies that lives about 2 miles from me. She is a brand new convert! I just got my VT assignment, so this was my first visit. I don't know her well, but I know already that she is a very strong and valiant spirit. Her conversion story is truly miraculous! I wish I could she some of it with you, but I feel I would breech her trust in me. I will just say that with the trials she has endured, the Lord sure works in mysterious ways.
I was at her house until 12:30 last night, helping her with a project that was simply too overwhelming for her to do alone.
Anyway, I started telling this because when I went home, it had been raining, so there were little water droplets on my car, but when I tried to open the door, they were frozen and it was a little difficult to open the door! It has turned cold quickly and we expect to have snow in the next few weeks.

Faith of a Child

A few weeks ago, Azilyn had a nursery lesson on the priesthood. So, on the way home, we were talking about what she learned. I asked her if she knew what the priesthood was and she didn't really understand, so as I'm stumbling aver how to explain it to her, Danny comes up with, "it's God's Magic." Um, ok. I guess that's a good way to explain it to a 3-year-old. As we kept talking she kept saying, "and when I'm big, I can have the priesthood too!" After trying to convince her that that wasnt possible, I gave up and said, "well, you'll have to take that up with Heavenly Father." Immediately, she began to pray and said, "Heavenly Father, will you help me hold the priesthood." Haaaa! Oh, the faith of a little child. Later that day she did something that, "made Jesus sad," so again she immediately prayed for Heavenly Father to forgive her! I'm glad to know that Azilyn realizes she can pray anytime, for anything. I love that girl. She teaches me so much.

Labor Day Excitement!

Well, I've just been busy and haven't been able to telling about our exciting Labor Day. We went to the Alaska State Fair! They were celebrating their 75th anniversary, which is really interesting to me because Alaska has only been a state since 1959. How does that work?? Maybe they count all the fairs they had while they were just a territory too. Alaska was actually a territory of the US since 1912 and before that was a district since 1884. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 and was primarily a military region.
Well, I wasn't planning on a history lesson, but there you have it. This is what I'm learning while a resident of another state! Anyway, we went to the fair. Danny and the kids had some fun looking at all the displays (here are some pictures)

Azilyn standing next to a world record breaking pumpkin, well almost. It was actually disqualified because of a quarter-sized hole.

Azilyn in a native costume head cut out thing

Tolson got a kick out of this

The kids enjoyed themselves while I was hard at work at the fair. A lady in my ward asked me to compete with her in the 1st annual dutchoven cook-off! It was so fun. My partner is really competative and has done these competitions before, so I wasnt surprised when we took 1st PLACE! Yeah!!!

My brother-in-law, Sam took 2nd with his partner! It was very cool.

Winning qualified us to go to the WORLD competition, but my partner already qualified with another partner, so we gave it to the 2nd placers. (but we kept the money, $500!)

Yea mommy!

However, just last week, my partner asked me if I could go with her to worlds after all because her regular partner is expecting and will be 8 months along when they have to go! And, she's paying for my plane ticket! It's in SLC, so I will get to see my family in March! Yea!! Also, it just happens to be during Danny's spring break, so I think we will all get to come! I know I owe this one to the Lord. This all came about so randomly, yet has perfectly fallen into place. The Lord truely knows us and works miracles!

Some flora of Alaska

So, I definitely suck at blogging! Sorry to be so sparse.
Saturday we went to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. I thought they could take us on a "tour" of the area and we might actually see some local wildlife, but NO. Dumb! There's just a visitor's center and some "reserve land". Like Alaska needs that! Honestly. The biggest city (anchorage) isn't even 300,000! Pretty sure there's enough land for those wild guys.
Anyway, we actually went for their Annual Berry Fun Day. I was hoping we'd get to pick some wild blueberries or something, but instead they showed us local berries and which are eatable. Good information, and actually quite fun. Some of the berries we have here are blueberries, trailing raspberries, elderberries (poisonous when raw), high-bush (bright red) and low-bush (deep red) cranberries, red currants, wild rose hips, dwarf dogwood (very abundant), crowberries (very dark purple), watermelon berry (grows dangling underneath the leaves), cloudberries (look kinda like under developed raspberries), Timberberry (bright orange, looks like a pumpkin, edible, but distastful), Devil's club (grow in bunches, also poisonous).
We have some wild rose bushes and red currants in our yard, along with dogwood and low-bush cranberries in our forest and along the off-road path. It's cool to know!I took a few pictures.

I think this is a red currant. I don't recall. It looks very close to the high-bush cranberry.

Elderberries. Grow in bunches. Bears love them. Easy eating!

Azilyn and me trying to get out of the rain under the leaves of a Devil's club.

Ok, well, I thought there were more pictures, but I cant find them.
I do have some interesting mushroom pictures though. It rains here so much that they just spring up at random, and there are sooo many different ones! It's cool. In our yard alone, there are probably 20 varieties! I know most are not edible, even though we have some that look just like portabella. We do have one called a puffball that is edible! We even have some of those in our yard (I think). I dont think I'll try it though. They were too small to get a good picture of but, here are a few of the most interesting ones from our yard and the hike at the Refuge.

This one had been munched on by the bugs, but it was a beautiful red-orange.

Here is another view of the underside. They actually grow convex, rather than the normal cap formation.

This one is a red-purple. So cool. There is a turquoise colored one in our yard too, but my camera wouldnt capture the color.

This one is actually quite large, and another inverted-type.

Here is another view. I couldnt get a great picture.

Nickname is Mario's mushroom.

At first I thought this was bear scat, but it's actually a black mushroom!

This one grows this way. It wasn't smashed.

def. Temperate: Alaska

Okay, so not all of Alaska is temperate and cool right now, just where I happen to live. You know those days when its cold and rainy and you just want to stay in your pj's, curl up with a blanket and some hot cocoa? Well...welcome to the month of August in Kasilof! Average high: 58, avg low: 47. Ugh. I miss summer! And, I really hope I survive here for two years.
This whole week has been rainy or overcast. Yesterday we did see the sun in the afternoon, but it was cool and windy, like Autumn.

Our Alaska Adventure

Wow, how time does fly! I haven't had internet for the past month, so there is a lot to tell about. I will have to tell all about New Orleans later, when I have some pictures.
First off, a little about Alaska. We flew in the 29th of June, getting in about 1am Anchorage time (3am Utah time). The flight went fairly well. We had a super stewardess that helped up get all of our baggage checked and kids settled. That was a feat! I think we had a total of 9 travel items/bags; three carry-ons, the stroller, port-a-crib, 2 car seats, and 2 checked bags. We had a lay over in long beach. I thought it was going to be rediculous trying to get 2 kids, three bags, the stroller and a car seat transfered to our next plane, but the man sitting next to me helped us and the walk to the next plane was like 100 total yards. It's a super small airport. Plane ride number two was a little more challenging. Tolson fell asleep shortly after take off, but Azilyn was too excited. She played well for a little while, then pulled her usual, traveling at bedtime routine, which involves 10 minutes of crying and complaining before finally giving up in exhaustion and falling asleep mid-"my toe hurts, boo hoo hoo". It was a lovely display. I'm sure all the passengers agreed! They slept the entire flight, til the last 10 munutes and woke up upon descent when the whole cabin began to wake up an rustle around in their seats. Im sure the pressure change had some influence as well. Azilyn then cried the entire way to baggage claim until she saw her Daddy! Yeah!!! Tolson wasnt too sure of him at first. I think it was because his head was shaved (thanks, Hun! I really hate it when he does that.) We stayed in Anchorage that night.
The first few days all blurred together as we tried to adjust to the time change and long travel day/all-nighter. It's been a hard adjustment still. Adjusting to a new place, new house, borrowed car, few personal belongings (everything is still in Provo). Azilyn has been testing her boundries with Everything, on top of being her normal sassy, independent, "terrible" two-year-old self. We live in a little cabin 15 miles out of "town". It's a one bedroom house with an open common area for living, kitchen and dining. We have the only enclosed room with built-in closets that maybe a quarter of my wardrobe will fit. Danny's brother Sam is living with us too. There is an up stairs area big enough for a twin size bed and dresser where he stays, and he has his own bathroom. The kids are sharing a "room" for the first time. Their space is a sun room, featuring eight 6ft tall x 2ft wide windows and an exterior door. This area also has built-in cupboard space which serves as a pantry and entertainment cupboard for food and DVD storage. We do have 3 small drawers and no hanger space to put their clothes. Luckily, their room is big enough to fit a bed, crib, and a couple totes for toys. Oh, the room also has a 45" sq window like opening that opens up into the kitchen, and there's no door enclosing the room! This has served very interesting while trying to keep Azilyn in the room for naps, or out while Tolson is napping, or for mere sound and privacy during these times. It's nearly impossible to even do the dishes or vacuum while one of the kids is asleep.
Needless to say, it's been a difficult transition. I think I am doing rather well at keeping my sanity (although some days I wonder) and a positive outlook. We will be in this house for 1 year, maybe two before Danny will begin applying for jobs around the country. In the mean time, Danny will be doing some course work in Process & Instrumentation Technology, and aims to be a Plant Operator (Oil Refinery, Water Treatment, Power, etc.) someday. I will be putting in job applications this week, looking for a Physical Therapy Assistant position, or the like.
We are blessed to have some of Danny's family near (Mom & Dad, Brother, Sister, and several Uncles and cousins). We also live in a fantastic, young ward that is very strong in the church, tight-knit and active! I have met several new friends already and have been surprised at the small world in which we live. Our first week we met a family that were in our same ward when we first got to Provo. Last week, we met some close friends of Danny's cousin and many other young, pro-active and friendly families. Today, we ran into my Icelandic professor from BYU, who has always felt like family, and had dinner with our 32-year-old bishop and his family. All, wonderful people I am excited to get to know better!
Many people, even I, have questioned why we would to Alaska, of all places, and so far from my family, but I think the Lord really has our best interest in mind by sending us here. This is a great opportunity to finish up school, pay off some bills, meet new friends, contribute in His church, and grow together as a family. Though I am still hesitant about my surroundings and nervous for the up coming months, I am glad to be with my wonderful husband and together as a family in our cozy little cabin in the woods.
We have a bid yard for the kids to play in (supervised, of course) and many little forest friends that we look forward to seeing. A white bunny lives nearby and loves to eat his meals under the cool shade of our surrounding canopy. Grass, trees, and wild flowers grow spontaneously and abundantly here and our little bunny loves to eat all the dandelions and clovers in our yard. We have a black cat that visits occasionally, her keeps the rodents under control, and a family of squirrels nest in one of our sheds. We have seen 3 moose in our yard, a momma and her baby, and a small (6ft) bull, with antlers about as big as his ears (about 8 inches), stubs really. All of which scared the crap out of me as I saw them out of the corner of my eye, through the window and thought they were bears! Luckily, we have seen no bears around our house. The moose like to eat the young, tender trees and plants around the yard. The other day I saw a planted garden surrounded by an 8ft leaning fence to keep the moose out! Good luck with that. We see grazing moose off the highway daily, no big bulls yet, and there is a sign on the highway that says, "Give Moose a Brake," 252 moose killed on the hwy in the last year!
It is very beautiful here. We live less than a mile from the Cook Inlet, so it stays a little cooler. I think the high since I've been here was 76 degrees. Normal morning temp is around 45deg. My Icelandic friend told me it is colder here than in Iceland! Awesome. I think Danny stretched the truth about the weather as he was telling me about it before we came, telling me about only the best days. It rains weekly and is overcast 50% of the days, but usually just for 1/2 the day, then warms up to 60-70deg. The sun sets about 11pm now, but it stays very light & dusky til wee hours of morn. It's very strange and the kids sometimes have trouble with it (like when we're traveling after bedtime). We have descent blinds that block the light when necessary. Our bedroom can blackout.
Well, that's all I can think of about where we live. Some other interesting things that have happened since we got here include, Danny's $510 no proof of insurance ticket. Azilyn's attempt at breaking her arm (just a sprain though), and Azilyn and I having the flu.
Tolson is walking and talking more! He says Yes a lot, which is adorable! And he makes lots of other understandable words, though I know he's saying a lot which I dont catch. Today he said one of his first sentences, "she is sad," when Azilyn was crying. Then he wanted to go give her loves! We gave his his first haircut yesterday and he is so handsome! He loves his mamma best, and loves his sister and Papi!
Azilyn loves to use her loud voice, watch the bunny, and walk to the post office (1/4 away), pick flowers, and "help" mom. She missed her Provo house, grandma, and playmates, and needs to get out to play with some new friends.
I have been trying to get us settled and working on Azilyn's quilt. I was hoping to have it done for her birthday, but alas, it will not be so. It's kinda hard to make a quilt when your sewing machine is still in Provo!
Danny is working hard building a shop/apartment with his dad, brothers, and uncles. He will be back in Provo to pack our apartment the first week of August, will drive everything back the second week, then start classes the third week.
We have been able to do some sight seeing and fishing. We went on a hike to see the salmon jumping some falls. There were bear on the hike, but we never saw one, just heard it in the bushes! Ahhh! We also went Halibut fishing abt a week ago. The ocean was calm like a glass lake and we caught our limit. One 100 pounder and bunch of smaller 30-40 pound guys. Halibut are flat and have both eyes on one side of their body. Ugly! The ones I caught werent big fighters, but it's tiring reeling up a 30lb fish from 150ft, with the resistance of the water and the weight of the boat and tide pulling on your catch. This week will be the big salmon run and we'll get some good sockeyes! Yesterday we went to Seward, walked on the boat docks and saw a glacier. It was warm, 75 deg, but the glacier produces a catabolic wind of abt 20-30mph and it makes you shiver! Burrrr! It was lots of fun. Azilyn walked both 3 mile roundtrip hikes without complaint! I think she was just glad to get out of the house.
Our next adventures include clam digging and shrimping, and possible caribou hunting (well, just for viewing). I would also like to go to North Pole, Santa's workshop, and Denali NP this summer!
We love you and miss you all!