Arches & Mesa Verde...

Well this last weekend us and Blake and Jenny Quackenbush decided to head out to Moab for the weekend and do some hiking and camping. We started out in Arches National Park hiking up through the park. It was pretty sweet because this is a place that is so close to us and we always take it for granted. The first arch we hiked up to was the most famous, Delicate Arch, it was a cool hike through slick rock up to the arch. It was amazing! Then we spent the rest of the day hiking around the park seeing hundred of other natural arches. That night we camped out in Moab. The next day we got up early and drove to Mesa Verde. If you don't know what that is, it's these 750 year old American Indian villages that are carved into the cliff face. To get to them we had to climb up and down the cliffs by ladders. It was cool to see these amazing structures that people used to live in. All in all it was a cool weekend getaway, and we're going to keep on taking advantage of the cool stuff that we have here in Utah. We took hundreds of pictures so we put a few on a slideshow for you all to check out.

Up The Canyon with The Quacks

Keepin up with getting the most out of summer before it ends, we went with Blake and Jenny last night up Provo Canyon. It was a great time we cooked marshmellows, and banana boats around the fire, and even had time to fit in a little football before it got dark.

U of U Football Rules...

Well yesterday we went down to Utah County for the day, and forgot that we had to go through Provo on BYU football gameday. To make matters worse we got stuck in traffic on the way down because of everyone trying to get to the game. To set the scene.... we were stuck in a flood of mini-vans and jacked up trucks covered in BYU stickers and waving BYU flags out the window. Well we didn't want anyone in traffic to think that we were part of the crowd, so Jenn quickly drew up a U of U Football Rules sign to hang on the window. It was pretty funny because everyone gave us the stink-eye the whole way while we laughed and laughed and laughed...Go UTES!! Here's some pictures of the sign.

To Donut Falls We Go......

Well since the whole time we were in Alaska we only had maybe 5 sunny days we have been trying to make the most of the great weather that we have. This being the first time we've been back to Utah before October we are re-learning how great it is here in the hot weather. This all said we decided that we would go hiking last weekend up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We took a hike up to Donut Falls. It's a pretty cool hike, nice and easy and ... it ends with a cool waterfall. They call it Donut Falls because the water comes off the moutain through a hole and turns into a waterfall. After that we decided to take a drive up the rest of the canyon. We went up through the back way to Park City, then back to Salt Lake. It was a great day! The next night we went back up the canyon with a few of our friends to build a fire and cook out. We've probably have at least another month of really warm weather (which is anything over 65 degrees for us) and we're going to make the most of it.

I finally saw a real live Eskimo....

This is a picture that Brian took up in Skagway, for three years we were in Alaska and never saw a "real Eskimo". But right before we left Brian saw this lady walking down the street. It was awesome, she was exactly as we would have pictured a Eskimo woman. She was really small too, notice that she's shorter than the numbers on the side of the train car... well those are chest high on Brian to give you a little perspective. The picture isn't the best because it was taken with a cell phone camera, and she didn't know he was taking it, and some one's face is totally in the picture....but it's still cool.

Golden Onion Days....

Well it's that time of year again....Onion Days!!! Now if you're not from Payson Utah than you probably aren't aware of the coolest small town celebration in the world, but every Labor day weekend everyone from Payson returns for the carnival, parade, crash up derby, greased pig wrestling, and so much more. In fact our first date was Brian taking Jenn to Onion Days, and since we've been in Alaska the last 3 years during Labor Day we haven't been able to attend. Till this year that is. Heather and her family also came down from Boise for all the fun too. We all went to Payson Lakes on Saturday to play in the lake. We took a kayak up so we could paddle around the lake, and as soon as we pulled it off the jeep all the nieces and nephews wanted rides too. So we put 5-7 people in our 2 person kayak and paddled all afternoon. That night we went to the carnival, funny how all the kids who either dropped out of high school, or got pregnant and quit high school can always been counted on to be at the carnival. We also found out that the ferris wheel ride collapses down to a trailer, this we found out as we were getting off and saw the tires under the ride.....real safe! On Monday there was the awesome parade. Everything was fine until 5 minutes into the parade and it started pouring rain. we stuck it out for a while, but eventually decided to pack it up and go. Probably a good idea since as you can see Brian was the only one without an umbrella and couldn't see anyways. All in all it was another great event in Brian's hometown.

Goodbye Skagway...Hello Utah....

Well after another great summer working in Alaska, it's time for us to go back to Utah and back to school. We've had a lot of fun this year, we saw lots of bears, both sets of parents came up to visit, and we saw the sun 3 times! Anyways we're back in Salt Lake now, and school started today. We are now living in the student apartments, which aren't really that bad. In fact they are identical to when Brian's parents lived in them 26 years ago. But the price is right and it's close enough so Brian can ride his bike to school. So goodbye for another winter Skagway, hopefully we'll see ya again summer of '09

We're off to see the bears....

So Jenn won a contest at work and the

prize was a trip away for the night. All the way across the ocean, 20 miles to Haines, AK. It was a pretty cool trip, we took a fast ferry over there, and checked into what we're pretty sure is the hotel that inspired the movie "The Shining". After settling in the room we ate dinner at a little local restaurant, and then took off for our twilight bear watching tour. It's right smack in the middle of the salmon runs right now, which means the bears are out in full force. Mainly the Brown bears are the ones that we see in the area. The guide we were with took us out to the Chilkoot River where we immediately saw a 4 year old brown bear hanging out in the deep grass. Throughout the night we also saw another 4 year old, as well as a sow with her two cubs. It was a great trip, but unfortunately we had to come back the next day to work. Well Brian had to go back to work, Jenn is done for the season and will be flying out tomorrow with Brian following this Thursday.

Heli-Camping...

Well it's getting closer and closer to the end of our summer season up here in Skagway, Ak and like last summer Brian and the rest of the Dock Reps went out on a campout. This year they went Heli-Camping (where a helicopter drops you off at the top of the trail). They went up that way and then back by the train the next morning. It was a great time, after getting a quick ride in the chopper up to the Laughton Glacier trailhead they hiked up to the US Park Service cabin. Then it was off to the Laughton Glacier. It's a pretty sweet hike that almost immediatly has a visual of the massive sheet of ice. More than the chopper ride, or the hiking on the glacier, the best part was just to be away from town (and tourists) for one night.

Tourist For A Day.......

Well, if you haven't hung out with us in a while then you might not know about our complete annoyance with tourists this year. Don't get us wrong, we realize that they are the one's paying our bills, but this year it seems they are more annoying than usual. All this said we decided that us and the Quackenbush's would be tourists yesterday. This does not mean that we stood in the middle of the road taking pictures, or asking over and over again how to get out free train charm, it means we finally took advantage of a couple tours offered here in Skagway. First we decided to go Glacier Country flight seeing. This is probably one of the coolest things you can do up here (besides the train of course...). The tour takes you over several of the large glaciers in the are, and finished off with the Mead Glacier which is part of the Juneau Ice Fields. It is easily some of the most amazing scenery that we've ever encountered. The pictures turned out cool, but don't really do it justice. After doing that we went across the fjord over the the city of Haines to float the Chilkat River. This river is pretty cool because it has the largest concentration of bald eagles in the world. Also, on the bus ride out to the river we had a pretty sweet encounter with one of the largest brown bears I've ever seen. It was fishing on the creek bed for salmon, while her two cubs watched. I've attached a quick video of the bear getting a fish and taking it into the woods for her cubs. It's a little shaky cause we were in a bus seeing it, also the sound is of everyone on the bus so i recommend turning it down. All in all it was nice to get away from work for a day and see some of the amazing things we have around us up here in Alaska.