They Have Arrived!

I am a happy lady as I write that Tiffany and John are here in our very own house. It feels great to have them here, though we have not lucked out as far as weather goes. It is to be expected, but we're really hoping for some sunshine soon. Last weekend before their arrival, we were all able to make it to Seward for a full weekend of relaxing fireside, and hiking up a mountain that follows along side Exit Glacier. It was the most spectacular environment, I love Seward, and this hike was gorgeous. There was not enough time in the day to enjoy everything around us on the hike, especially while listening to the sound of my own panting as I huffed and puffed up the massive mountain. We were right next to the blue glacier the entire time, and we could feel the cool air blowing on us, we were able to pick salmon berries on the way up and it was all around wonderful. Sadly on the hike down, Dave and Eric got attacked by a swarm of bees while I followed right behind and somehow went untouched. I felt lucky for having no stings but it was sad to see Eric's huge ankle for the following days. We are going to take Tiffany and John to Seward for what will hopefully be a similar weekend next week before they head home. We are going to do the wildlife tour that I mentioned earlier, and maybe we'll repeat the hike but we will see what we have time for! We're going to do the wildlife conservation center on the way or the way back and I'm really looking forward to that as I have not been there yet. Stories and pictures will follow. Since Tiff and John have been here we have been hanging around Anchorage, biked Eklutna which resulted in a few stressful hours of trying to keep the dogs under control as they pulled our bikes. Towards the beginning I faceplanted over the handlebars of my bike which luckily turned out to be highly entertaining. For me at least and I'm pretty sure Tiffany found it pretty funny as she approached me lying in the dirt face down. The weather has been cloudy for the most part and raining off and on, but the sun peeked out on us for a bit today which felt wonderful. We enjoyed the sunshine downtown going shop to shop as there are many interesting places here. We are going to go to Palmer this weekend, hopefully to the State Fair as well as the Musk Ox farm that we visited on our visit last summer, and we're going to perhaps hike Hatcher Pass where Eric spent some time with work learning the different grasses. We're going to have a picnic there, and tomorrow we'll be starting the weekend by hiking powerline with our friend Brian. This is one of the best spots to find the moose rutting, and I think everyone is really looking forward to seeing that! Tomorrow night we might go to Humpy's a favorite casual restaurant, and if the weather cooperates we might grill out at Brian's this weekend up in the hills. His house is one of my favorite places to go because it is so wonderfully beautiful, so I hope that works out. I believe those are the most recent updates, we are all happy and well right now... Eric went on his first work trip and returned this evening, he went to a little village called Pilot Point with his boss... They walked and did work to find if the land was a wetland where the engineers plan to build. He said it was a great experience and seemed to have enjoyed it so I'm glad for that, and glad he is back :) I forgot one update, and that is that I officially started my last semester of classes this week. It felt so odd to be going back to school, and I felt just confused and detached because I have not been in the school state of mind for a bit now. I have been so focused on work that I almost just forgot. I felt like I was just starting all over again since I didn't know where I was going or who I would see, and overall it has not been all that enjoyable but it's fine. I will say that my sign language class is wonderful and exciting and will most certainly be a great and meaningful experience for me. I hope I can continue to learn more after the course ends. I am anxious to see how my schedule turns out with class and both jobs, but for now I have some work to do in solidifying my schedule, I need to change some classes around. I realize I have written for ages now, and you're probably hoping this will end but if you're still reading-- thank you for hanging in there with me! I can't seem to find a balance, I either don't write or I write too much! Until next time!
As John would say,
cheers!