Busy Life in Alaska...

So it's been a while since we have posted because it has been a crazy couple weeks for us up here. Let's recap really quick what's been going on 3000 miles away from home.... The whales are back in our waters, and Brian was able to get some pretty sweet pictures of a couple of them swimming pretty close to the docks.

Also, we were able to go eat dinner at the really fancy restaurant on one of the ships that Brian works with. It was amazing!! Now here in Skagway all our food comes to us on a barge that takes a week to get here from Seattle, so the food is not so fresh. But the food on the ship was amazing, Jenn had a perfect filet mignon, (weird...meat...oh well), and Brian had a 22 oz porterhouse. It was awesome. Then we went on a tour of the ship, including all the areas that the regular passengers don't usually get to go to. Unfortunately Brian forgot that the camera was in his pocket and this is the only picture that we got.

Also, last week we went on a camping trip up the the White Pass Summit. It's this amazing area that you can only get to by being dropped off by the train. So we took the train up and got left out in the tundra with no one around for miles and miles and miles. It was so quiet up there. We spent the day hiking around and exploring the area. We also hiked along the old Trail of '98. This is the trail that was carved out by the thousands of miners who were trying to get to the goldfields. It was really cool because since the late 1890's there haven't been very many people who have been on that trail. That night we pitched out tent in the only flat spot on the whole summit, miles away from civilization.

So yeah it's been a crazy couple of weeks, we could post for pages to talk about it all. We only have about 5 weeks left and then it's back to our winter lives of going to school in SLC. But first, some other cool quick things that happened in the last to weeks were:

We broke in and spent the night in an old caboose....

got a pool since it's been unusually hot this summer...

Went river rafting...

and came to work to find a giant pile of Bear poo waiting for us at the front door.

Happy 4th of July....

The 4th of July here in Skagway is one of the coolest times of the year. Imagine the smallest town celebration you can, and you have an idea. First we went to the parade, now since our town is so small to make the parade last longer than 20 minutes it goes down the main street, then turns the corner and comes back up the main street. The funniest ting in the parade is a lady from town who looks like Sarah Palan with a sign that says "I QUIT"!
After the parade we watched the little kid foot races, the dunk tank, the spike driving contest and participated in the egg toss. All the while eating "fair-style" food...such as corn dogs, nachos and Philly cheese's. One of the coolest things that we have on the 4th here is the fireworks! There are two towns up in our neck of the woods, there is us and 20 miles across the fjord there is Haines, but only one guy who does fireworks. Since we are way smaller than Haines we have to have our fireworks show on the 3rd. What happens is the whole town heads out to the waterfront and watches the show. this year they shot them off the end of one of the piers, as well as from the tug boat. What's cool about the fireworks is that since it is the middle of summer it never gets dark, so it starts at 11 and is barely dusk out. It was a good old time 4th of July, just the way we like it!

Happy 25th Birthday Jenn!!!

So yes today is Jennifer's big 25th birthday, (or as she likes to call it "halfway to halfway dead). Unfortunately we both have to work today, so we had her big party last night. We had a Kabob bbq, and like half the town showed up to celebrate. It was a great time, we just sat around and hung out, played a little badmitten, and then BROKE THE PINATA!! Brian gets a pinata for Jenn's b-day every year, and this year it was a giant lipstick. It was hilarious breaking it open!! Here's a slideshow of the party we had.

Happy 25th Jenn, Love Brian

Alaska Zipline....

So we got a new zipline tour in Skagway this year, so we went with the rest of the train guides to try it out. It's a pretty sweet tour, they take you up the Klondike Hwy and then there's a short hike to the lines. Once you get up there you are on the edge of the mountains and can see the whole Skagway valley below while you are zipping down. It was also a sunny day, so we could see forever! Here's a few pics of the trip:

Campout at a Glacier

This weekend we went on a little camp out up to Laughton Glacier, its this sweet area 16 miles up the train tracks from us. We went up there with our two roommates Jacqui and Julie. We started out by having the train that we work for drop us off at the trail head. Then it was an easy 2 miles hike to the cabin where we stayed the night. The forest service maintains several cabins in the forest around us that you can reserve for the night. It's a pretty sweet place, there is sleeping for 6, an oil burning stove and a fire pit. After dropping off our packs we headed out for the hike up to the glacier. It was amazing!! We have been up there a few times in the last 4 years, and its crazy to see how quickly the glaciers are receding up the mountain. It looks drastically different now than it ever has. After spending some time at the base of the glacier, and even licking the ice, we went back to base. That night we hung out by the fire, roasted hot dogs, smores and had a good time. Brian decided to try out his new hammock and slept between two trees while the girls slept in the cabin. Today we woke up, hiked back to the tracks and caught the train back to town. It was a great to get away and get into nature!!

At the trailhead

Brian in his new hammock

At the base of Laughton Glacier

The forest service cabin

Some picturs of Alaska so far.....

Washout, Rockslide, and a New Bike....

Well, life has been pretty busy for us up here in Alaska!  We have been working like crazy, herding thousands of cruise ship passengers on and off our little railroad.  A railroad that has had a rough summer.  First, about a week ago there was a track washout, which basically cancelled any trips into lake Bennett, as you can see from the picture below there is a track on the right basically where it should be (except with nothing under it) and then you can see the other side of the track way off to the left.  It's going to take crews a while to get it back to normal. 

 Luckily 95% of our tours dont get as far as this spot, so Jenn still gets to give her awesome tour over and over and over and over.  Speaking of Jenn's tour... there was a film crew in town from South Africa doing a story for the Travel Channel last week.  They rode the train and wanted a young, cute train guide to ride with them if they had any questions, well, Jenn was chosen for the job.  When she got there, she quickly realized that they wanted more than they asked for, because they filmed her the entire ride.  This included making her walk in front of the train cars over and over, as well as walking up the stairs, and down, then up and down until they got the perfect shot.  The hosts of the show also coached her on how to "act" because she was the focus of their whole ride, they could've cared less about the train or scenery.  Needless to say,

 it was

 quite the experience, Jenn in on the cusp of being world famous!!  We dont know when it's going to air, but keep an eye out, and let us know if you see it.  

Another crazy thing that happened this week was on Wed, in the middle of the day between our morning and afternoon train trips there was a major rock slide about 16 miles up the track between two tunnels.  Unfortunately we had no idea it had happened and sent 5 trains full of about 2400 passengers up the mountain.  The engineer on the first train up saw the blockage and stopped, as well as calling out for the other 4 to stop.  It was so massive that all 5 of them had to back all the way back down, and we were cancelled for about 36 hours.  The largest rock that hit the tracks was 20 feet tall and about 10 feet wide, so the section crews had to blast their way through, then repair the rails.  We have pictures of the slide, but not on computers yet, so as soon as we can find a scanner in this town we'll let ya see them.

Also this week we got a new bike!!!  By new I mean a super old, rusted out, bent wheeled, Huffy.  Which is basically perfect for what we need it for.  If you've never been here we live in a town 21 blocks long by 4 blocks wide...and the blocks are tiny.  So most of the time we are walking, but it is nice to get somewhere on the far side of town quickly.  Luckily for us, our friend Wade had an extra bike lying around and let us have it.  It runs right now, but it needs some work.  This will give Brian something to do on his day off.  Either way, check out how cool we look!!

Our first week in Skagway

Well in case you are wondering if we made it up to Alaska or if we died....we made it! Also, unlike last year, it has been sunny and 60 degrees every day. Last year there were only 5 days of sunshine, and this year we're actually on the verge of getting a sunburn. We are back in the groove of working for the White Pass railroad, which boils down to 13 hour days, and thousands of tourists.

We were able to go hiking, and here's some pictures of our hike...

Here's the trail....notice May 15th and still snow.....

This is Jenn on the side of the mountain overlooking our town

Here's a mosquito on Jenn's leg....massive!!

Also we have the house with the BBQ and deck so we have tons of BBQs...here's picture of us and our housemates hangin out

Happy Anniversary.......

“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
-Edgar Allen Poe

Happy 4th Anniversary! I love you so much! Thanks for being the BEST husband ever. These are just a few reason why I love you so much:


10. I LoVe that you know all the words to every country song ever made.

9. I LoVe that nothing ever worries you.

8. I LoVe how smart you are, and that you are excited to share that knowledge with anyone.

7. I LoVe that you always eat my red M & M’s for me.

6.I LoVe that you love everything I cook for you, and even go back for seconds, no matter how horrible I know It tastes.

5. I LoVe when you laugh so hard it takes your breathe away.

4. I LoVe the way you play with our nieces and nephews.

3. I LoVe that you are working hard through school to genuinely help OTHERS.

2. I LoVe the way you always find the positive in something or someone, even when the rest of us can not.

1. I LoVe the way you LOVE me!

North to Alaska....

Yeah I know, it's the lamest post title there ever was, but there it is. We are officially in Alaska now. We got here last night at about 12:30am Alaska time (which is 2:30am Utah time). Needless to say, it was a long day of travel. We got to the Salt Lake airport at 7:30 am for a day that would include two plane rides, a taxi, and a boat to get to our summer home in Skagway. The plane rides went off without a hitch, all except on the flight from Seattle to Juneau the guy sleeping next to Brian was having night terrors or something because every five minutes or so he would JERK awake, smacking Brian in the face, shoulder, arm and chest. Other than that, the plane rides were great. In Juneau we loaded what was supposed to be a 7 hour boat ride to Skagway, but for some reason the Coast Guard wouldn't let us leave, so we sat there in the harbor for 2 hours. This delay turned out 7 hour ride, into a 9 1/2 hour ride. It wasn't as bad as it sounds though. The scenery from the boat is amazing, it's the same trip that people take cruise ships through. We finally got in to Skagway where Blake was waiting for us to give us a ride home. Once we got there we were so hopped up on caffeine from the boat ride that we ended up cleaning our house (which we're pretty sure hasn't been done since we left in August), and unpacking all our stuff. It was a long day, but we are finally here and ready to start our summer jobs.

This is the view off the back of the boat

Here's Jenn at the beginning of the ride

and here's her at the end.