Squatters

Since we arrived in Alaska I have joked that we are "squatting" at my father-in-law's house until we can move into our house. Coincidentally, I found out today that some folks in North Carolina decided to really squat in our vacant, for sale townhouse. Apparently a neighbor called the police, the people were arrested and their stuff was vacated. But they had moved in so much stuff it took hours to take it all out. I have yet to hear from Raleigh's finest about the occurrence so this is all secondhand information. Guess I should place a call. Oh the joys of moving across the country!

Here are pics of us "squatting" at Papa's house. Luckily he hasn't called the cops on us yet...but he is out of town so we can't really get on his nerves! 

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UPDATE: After a call to Raleigh PD, a call to my Realtor and two calls to Raleigh Sheriff's Department I uncovered what happened. We did not have squatters after all...shew! Apparently the cleaners we hired to do the move-out cleaning at our townhouse started fighting with each other in the driveway. The cops came and arrested them. Classy!

Our first bear sighting!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am pretty bear-phobic. In my head there's a bear at every turn and behind every bush and they all are coming for my kids. So I am usually ever-so-slightly on edge when we are out hiking. An exception is Arctic Valley. I don't feel so nutty out there because there are big mountains for a good hike, but it is very open with mostly knee-high shrubbery. You can see a long ways there...to spot any lurking bears.

So we were hiking along, Mike, Stella, Lola and me (with Brennan on my back), and passed two ladies who told us about this "darling" black bear on the ridge of the mountain beside us. They said he had been walking the ridge line with them. So we scanned the mountain and saw him! It was the first bear I have ever seen outside of a zoo. And he was far enough away that I wasn't scared of someone being eaten. I did insist we turn back after we spotted him so I could keep an eye on him and make sure we weren't going to cross paths. Hopefully my bear dramatics will subside after being in Alaska for a while.

It was pretty cool to spot a bear out in the wild! I feel like I should get my official Alaskan card now.

Afternoon Adventures

No matter where we go, our afternoon adventures are always fun and Stella is always dirty by the time we get home. I am sooo loving that I work an east coast schedule from Alaska because our afternoons are free for activities!

This is a part of the Campbell Airstrip trail. It is right across the street from where we are staying right now.

It is a beautiful spot but I am a little nervous going alone because of all the "DANGER", "bear country" and "bear season" signs posted up everywhere. Oh and I just learned tonight that the Campbell Airstrip area has the largest population of brown bears in the area. I mean, I'm definitely up for adventure, but not bear adventures:

I am actually quite bear-phobic. Even more so with one kid attached to me in a carrier and another kid and dog who run, wildly, ahead of me, completely oblivious to their surroundings. Recipe for disaster.

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Here are some pics from another park we frequent. It has no bear warning signs, which is nice. It is much easier to relax when you aren't constantly on the lookout for a charging bear.

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And if we don't feel like driving (or we have an almost flat tire), we can always play in the driveway, redneck style.

Or enjoy some delicious Alaskan vittles (this is at Humpy's, where Mike and I met).

Its HOT in here!

Man it's hot! 

AM:

PM:

But at least we have a fan!

Alaska "Rocks" the Cat Box!

Who needs a playground? There are rocks to climb on everywhere! Glad she is so easily entertained. 

But seriously we are loving it so far. My new work schedule has me done for the day at 1:30 pm (5:30 pm EST). That leaves us with some serious day time to go out and play (and climb on giant rocks).

The Incredible(ly long) Journey

Our July 20th moving day broke down like this: RDU to Chicago, Chicago to Portland, Portland to Alaska. Yep, long day.

On the first flight: Boy baby did great. Girl child was a handful. It was during her usual nap time but did she sleep? NOPE! She did have an impressive diaper issue and threw a few eye- and ear-catching tantrums. I totally contemplated abandoning her in the bathroom on the plane...

After the sweet relief of touchdown in Chicago, we had to change terminals. Here are some pics of our walk from one terminal to another. Don't judge the daytime pacifier use. Or go ahead and judge, I don't mind, I probably would. We never let her have one during the day, but desperate times call for desperate measures. So the walk started like this...

Then ended with this...if it weren't for the switch we would probably still be walking through that airport.

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Chicago to Portland was much more pleasant: Our first class seats were complete with all the perks, Stella slept from before we took off until just before landing (thank you benedryl) and Brennan did some sleeping, too. Here is proof of the sleeping:

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Portland to Alaska...well I was so delirious I have blocked much of it from my memory. Here is what I recall. After a long Portland layover we finally boarded and took off. This was at 10:30 pm west coast time so about 1:30 am in our bodies. Stella was wide awake and having some serious personality issues due to lack of sleep. Enter benedryl and it was smooth sailing from there. Mom-in-law had the baby the whole time. I was in and out of consciousness but didn't hear any screaming. I think it went as well as a red eye flight with two small children can go.

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So in summary: it was a LONG DAY. The end result was worth it, this is our new view: 

Game time

We are about to head to the airport. Two adults, two children and one million pieces of luggage. Thank you baby Jesus for my mother in law who is making the journey with the kids and me. In a quick (yeah right) 20 hours or so we will be in Alaska.

Pictures from trip 2: March 2010 (very late)

About 3 years and some change later (and marriage and two kids)...here are some pics from the March 2010 trip. This trip was to pack Mike up so he could move down to NC and start his job at WakeMed. While in Alaska, on St. Patrick's Day, at F Street Station, we found out I was pregnant with Stella.

Oh and by the way...

...he got the job! We're moving up in mid-July 2013. Woohoo!

May 10-20, 2013 - A very productive trip

May 10 - 20, 2013 Trip:

In January 2013, with our second baby due any day, Mike sent me an invitation on our Google calendar to go to Alaska in May for 10 days for "Anchorage Fire Department (AFD) testing". AFD  was hiring so on May 10 we took our 2.5 year old and 3 month old to Alaska so Mike could go through the testing and hiring process. Keep in mind that we left about 3 weeks after I had returned from 3.5 months of maternity leave...employee of the month! While we were there I got up at 4:30 am AK time and worked an east coast schedule. Getting up sucked, but I was done by 1 pm, which rocked. We did some hiking and ate some good food and hung out with good friends and family. Here are some pics: