Carrie Underwood!

The concert last night was so great. Yes, I like country music. BJ... not so much... so I went to see this one with BJ's mom and Carl.

We had great seats plus I knew EVERY song... which is rare for me. :)

Guam?

Through Google Analytics I can, purely for kicks, see who's checking out our blog... Many people find us randomly, thus... Guam.

Reds Game

Thankfully the Red's won it - we're just spoiling things for everyone. :) BJ and I met up with Eric and his girlfriend Erin for the game and had a lot of fun. Afterwards we crashed in on Andrea and Andy as they were hanging out with each other and working on wedding stuff. :)

Last Thursday's Glacier Cruise

So I'm just going to have to slideshow this one because we took so many photos. For those of you who have interest... there you go!

So we took off for Seward Thursday morning for the glacier day cruise. We were warned about choppy weather when we got there, and at times the waves were 5' - thank goodness for Dramamine!

The main attraction of the cruise was, of course, the glacier. It was amazing! We were there about 20 minutes and we were able to see it 'cap' several times. Once a piece broke off that was the size of our boat (that held 100 people). Here's someone else's video of this same glacier - this is very similar to what we saw. Keep in mind that the boat is a quarter mile away from the glacier. It's a lot larger than it looks!

As far as sealife, we spotted eagles, puffuns (our favorite!), a humpback whale and a humpback whale baby, sea lions, sea otters!

Our Homecoming...

This is what awated us after a sleepless night and 13 hours of traveling... Our neighbors were nice and came over to help us clear off the road so we could reach our house.
Our white pines took a bit hit - we lost three of them. The 50-foot tall trees were snapped in half.
Any ideas of what we could carve these into?

Making our way back home...

As I write this BJ and I are in the Denver airport waiting to board our next flight to Indy. We left Anchorage at 11pm Alaska time (3am our time). Hopefully we'll be home by dinner time. We haven't slept since Friday night. We. are. tired. And tomorrow we head back to work. :(

We had an amazing time in Alaska and I we are so incredibly thankful for Adam and Karlene for opening their home to us and showing us Alaska!

A Little Too Tired...

...to post about Thursday because there is too much to say. We went on an amazing glacier cruise out of Seward... more on that later! :)

Alaska (Wednesday)

On Wednesday we spent time in Kenai! :) The highlight of the day was riding four wheelers on the beach. :)
As we rode we were able to see the homes that have fallen off the bluff due to erosion. We also saw a bald eagle and some seals! :)

Alaska (Tuesday)

Yesterday we took a trip to Homer - which was amazing with mountains, glaciers and volcanos all around us.


BJ spotted a sea otter who kept summersaulting around in the water.

We also got to see one of the boats from 'The Deadliest Catch' and talk to some of the guys from the ship/show.

On the way back we saw our first moose and moose baby!

Alaska (Monday)

Today we headed down to Seward where we went to the Sealife Center, shopped, and hiked up to Exit Glacier. Along the way we stopped at a pull-off to snap a few photos and geocache.

At the end we got an up close view of the glacier - which was so amazing.

On our way back down the trail we went to the foot of the glacier and the guys found some glacier ice! Here are the two of them trying to catch the ice floating by....


Before the hike there was a sign with general information including this helpful bit about bear attacks...

Alaska (Saturday)

We went 'humpie' fishing! Humpies are salmon that have already spawned and are about to die. They have a significant hump on their back hence their name. To get to the 'humpie' spot we had to forge the waters to an island. BJ and I were both ferried over. :)
You can basically just throw in a line (without anything on it) and catch one.
What I'm holding is a 'silver' that Adam's friend Brian later cooked for us (as 'poor mans lobster').

Alaska (Friday)

Our drive to Kenai was awesome! Here are some photos from along the way including an elk and the guys at the conservatin center, a random bear (we stoped along the road to get this photo) and BJ and I at one spot along the road.

Alaska!

We've safely arrived in Alaska - right now we're in the hotel and getting ready to meet up with Adam and take the awesome drive to Kenai. On the way we'll be taking the tram up to the top of the mountain at the Alyeska Ski Resort and then going to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center!

We met a really cool guy named Steve on the flight here - he lives in Texas and was on his way to spend three weeks welding in the oil fields in northern Alaska (and then he gets three weeks off, then three weeks back in Alaska and so forth). :) BJ asked him if he's seen polar bears - he said that they did have one about 75 yards away from them - which was a little too close for his comfort!

Renaissance Festival

So yesterday we headed to the Renaissance Festival and had a lot of fun. We saw this guy playing the 'ghost fiddle' (aka playing glasses). It was amazing! We ate a turkey leg and watched people jousting...
Mostly we watched people - it's a great people-watching place, especially those who came dressed for the occasion. Where exactly does one pick up a full body suit of armor? I guess they must have bought it at the festival last year. :)

Bears, oh my!

So we're a little scared of meeting up with a grizzly in Alaska (we leave next Thursday)... we even tried to see this 'Grizzly Man' in Batestville this weekend so he could teach us some 'moves' to defend ourselves. :) Then, I thought I'd read some Anchorage news and saw this article.

"Howard Hawkins Junior says he found that out the hard way when he was driving to get an early morning cup of coffee Friday. He says that before he could even react, he plowed his Land Rover into a large grizzly bear running at a full gallop across one of Anchorage's busiest streets. Hawkins says he didn't stop his car, the impact did. Hawkins was uninjured. Police eventually killed the bear, a 15-year-old grizzly that was part of a state Fish and Game research study to determine how many bears there are in Anchorage.

So far this summer, 18 black bears and one grizzly have been shot in the municipality in defense of life or property. That's a higher number than normal."

10 Year Reunion

Ten years ago I graduated from Penn High School (around 800 in my graduating class). I feel pretty fortunate in that I had a pretty great high school experience because of some awesome friends. There are a few people I really missed seeing at the reunion, but it was great to catch up with the ones that were there! :) Also, it was wierd.

Indy Trip

This weekend I got to spend time with my sister Kris and her son Aidan (who live in California), my sister Julie, my brother Eric, and my mom! Aidan is sooooooo cute and a ball of energy! :)
Me and my buddy Aidan... loving the TRAINS!
Us four on one couch!
Hey squirmy! Let's take a picture!

Golden Eagle

BJ and I went canoeing this weekend - which was quite a workout but a lot of fun. We were really surprised at the amount of wildlife we were able to see from the river - we saw a ton of cool birds including a golden eagle! We had no idea that there were eagles around here but sure enough.. there one was soaring above us! I've been meaning to figure out what type it was and just learned that there have been other accounts of golden eagles in Indiana.

We head to Alaska in a month - maybe we'll see a bald eagle! :)

Snake Plant

I am not gifted with green thumbness... and have killed many a plant. But for some odd reason it seems I may be improving!






Yesterday BJ noticed that one of my many snake plants (I l-o-v-e snake and jade plants) had something strange growing from it's middle. Day of all days! It's flowering!!!

Cooper!

I'm a bit behind on the blogging and my excuse is that it's summer. Last friday BJ and I got to meet Tim and Erin's little man Cooper! He's so awesome and we are so incredibly happy for them.

Camp!

BJ & I got back this weekend from a week of high school camp. We had a ton of fun because the students are a ton of fun. :) Here are a few of the girls in our 'family group'.
Here are our 'family group' kids performing the modern version of Peter's life story.
Here's BJ with one of the cutiest girls on the planet.
Part of our rockin dodgeball team.
Veronica and Kayla playing one of our favorite silly games.

Erin's Baby Shower

This is a little late.. but we've been gone. :) These are from Erin's baby shower. We love Tim and Erin so much and can't wait to meet their little man (any day now...)!

Welcome to the world...

Isla! :) My new cousin Isla and my aunt Yvonne...! :)

I'm a Cousin!

Congratulations to Bill and Yvonne on their new baby girl, Isla!!! We're so happy for you and we can't wait to meet her! :) Bill and Yvonne are my aunt and uncle who live in the UK - this is them a few years back with Julie and my Grandma Marie.

A Week of Peace

...and now I have a peaceful week to recuperate and catch up! Everything was awesome last week (more to come) but it was a LOT.

Our cats are unposable... They just like to be symmetric sometimes.

Why My Life is Crazy...

I have a few people wondering why I've been so bad answering emails and calls... so sorry if you need me and I haven't gotten back. Here's why...

Work craziness: John McCain is coming in an hour or so. The press was here early (some were all set up by 8am... but the national press just showed up) and we've set up a press room for them. This is on top of (or I should say putting a halt to) my regular work (that is piling up because of this)!

Personal craziness: This week we had a graduation party and cookout Sunday night, a softball game Monday night, Kutlas concert Tuesday night, concert at Bright with college kids last night and then a few of the college students stayed with us... tomorrow night we have a SEABIRD concert, and Saturday we have a baby shower, a party, a golf tournament (BJ) and a high school girls sleepover. Plus I've got 7 freelance projects going on.

Anyway I just thought I'd explain myself! Back to the craziness!

Visit from McCain

John McCain is coming to Xavier tomorrow (we found out yesterday) and this place is CRAZY! That's all - got to get back to the madness!

Fresh Strawberries

I'm not sure if it's because we helped them grow or that they are smaller and more packed with flavor... but they're GOOD! We're picking about this much a few times a week now. :) Check out Layla's perked-up ears! She's cute. :)

Softball Game

Here's a few from BJ's softball game last night... Layla loves the attention and the dirt!

The Beach

BJ and I went to "The Beach" waterpark last yesterday with our friend Jon and his daugher Jasmine. It was a nice hot day - perfect to get cooled off. The cicadas were AWFUL! They were everywhere! It really made us thankful that they are only on the east side of town and we haven't seen a single one by us.

We went to the wave pool and I about had a heart attack. My sister Julie and I had a frightening experience in a wave pool once so I was a little on edge and kept watching out for kids. We were in for a little while when we decided to get out. I turned around and at my feet (at the bottom of the pool) was a little girl floating still face down. My heart about stopped. I grabbed her and pulled her up and she looked at me shocked like, "what the heck, lady!". Um... maybe you shouldn't be floating still at the bottom of the wave pool!

Lightning Storm

Here's a couple of pictures BJ and I took last night from our back porch... We sure have been getting some crazy storms lately!