Airports and Governors and Bears...

but not necessarily in that order.

WOW! It is just 2:30 here in Alaska this lovely Friday afternoon and yet a lot has happened already today.

The girls and I rolled out of bed reluctantly at 5am to take Greg to the Juneau International Airport for his hunting trip with his younger brother Steve. Greg flew into Anchorage where Steve picked him up and the two drove up to the Palmer area where they are hiking in to about 5000 ft elevation to hopefully fill Steve's Dall sheep tag. We have our fingers crossed that he'll get a big one and the hunt will be a blast for the guys. Here are the girls saying their goodbyes to Daddy. Smile, girls! When we got home, we sat in the driveway for a few minutes, thinking we might be able to hear Daddy's airplane take off, even though we could not see it through the fog. Instead, we saw this through the windshield:

Yep, ol' Yogi just moseyed through the yard, very close to the car where we were just staring at him.

Holy smokes! Thank God I was so exhausted from getting up so early (and also staying up late sewing a neck gaiter for Greg) that I made up a reason to just sit in the car for a few minutes, or we might have had a much closer encounter. So, those of you who scoffed at the teeth marks on our trash can lid (see older post) should be red-faced now.

And because it is such a pleasant surprise and an exciting time for Alaska, we're jumping on the Palin for VP bandwagon. Here is a picture of Gwen meeting Governor Sarah Palin last fall while we still lived in Valdez. Palin was pretty darn pregnant in this photo it turns out, but that still didn't make Gwen (Palin's very biggest fan in the world) want to smile or even look at the camera. I kid you not, when Palin was newly elected Governor in early 2006, Gwen would be running through the living room and come to a screeching halt in front of the TV, cock her head to one side and say, "Did somebody say 'Sarah Palin'?" It was so adorable considering Gwen had just turned two at the time. Also considering that neither Greg nor I voted for her.

Palin was so charming and personable at this event. She stayed and talked to every last person who waited in line, much to the dismay of her aides who were nearly beside themselves and jumping up and down, trying to get her to the airport. She gave Gwen a big hug before I snapped this picture. While we like her immensely and feel she would be a great President, let alone VP, we are sad to see her go so soon. We aren't quite ready for her to leave Alaska yet, but she would be a great leader for our country! Go Sarah! Please note: I am mum about McCain; I don't have an opinion on him yet. Heck, I just got interested in this presidential race this morning! :)

It's Just Another Rainy Tuesday (woah,woah)

It has been a chilly downpour in Juneau for what seems like months straight. Oh wait, it HAS BEEN months straight! This blurb is from our local radio news desk:

[2008 summer in Juneau tied for fourth coldest so far. Juneau's summer has been unseasonably cold overall. That description of Juneau's summer, if you want to call it that, is from Meteorologist Corey Van Pelt in the Juneau Forecast Office. He says between June through August 18th, its been 2 point 2 degrees below normal which ties 1974 as the fourth coldest summer on record. The coldest came in 1949 when the temperature was 3 point 6 degrees below average. This July was the third coldest on record since records have been kept at the airport since 1943. It was also the second wettest July on record.]

Gwen and Amelia have apparently not noticed this weather phenomenon.

And yes, that is about 4 inches of standing water lying against the foundation. Sometimes renting seems like a good choice after all.

Glory Be!

Well, we've finally done it, at long last.... we've been diligently searching since we moved here in April, and today we found it!
Nope, it's not a house, but good guess since we are looking for one of those too, just not as seriously yet.... here's a better picture that is kind of obvious...

Yes, that's right... it's our new church! Juneau Emmanuel Baptist

We have been to services twice so far and we feel right at home. In a bizarre twist (or just business as usual for God) Emmanuel Baptist's (Editor's note: OK if you see the abbreviation "EB", it does not mean Easter Bunny) former pastor and his wife, Earl and Shannon Midkiff, are fairly good friends with our old pastor and his wife, Glen and Nancy Little, from Valdez First Baptist Church. We are so happy to feel so at home here with these new friends.

Since we have bounced around Alaska so often, we have fallen in with the US Coast Guard crowd and have many dear friends of that ilk, so it's a no-brainer that we like our new Coastie pastor here in Juneau, Adam Gray. We will have pictures of all of our new EB "family" and activities soon. We hope to dive right in and help out wherever we are needed and where He directs us. Greg was thrilled to hear that "90% of this church hunts and 80% fishes."

For now, we are content to say "Praise God for His wondrous ways!"

BEAR ATTACK!

OK, it's been a while since I posted anything, primarily because we've had a fairly ho-hum week.

But that all changed when we got up this morning and we noticed something peculiar in the driveway.... we had a midnight visitor... a bear! Greg needed to thaw out some halibut bait for a charter today so he put a bunch of fish parts in the trash can overnight. Well, the bear found that smelly bonanza and did his darnedest to get inside at the loot! The trash can was knocked about rather harshly and we even discovered some teeth- and/or bite-marks!

Here's our bear-proof trash container.... if you look closely at the top,....

... you'll see three white divots in the green lid where the bruin tried to pry the lid open.And a bunch of scuff marks where he dragged the can around on the pavement for a bit before either getting scared off or recalling that lack of opposable thumbs and thus giving up.

In other news, my soccer team is officially out of the running for league champions. We played a couple of fantastic tournament games and didn't head down to the losers bracket immediately like we usually do. We have a year-end party scheduled for Aug 31, during Greg's sheep hunt with his brother Steve. Anyway, here's a few shots of the soccer action:

And last but certainly not least, we think we found a church!! We attended Emmanuel Baptist Church last Sunday and are excited about heading back tomorrow. We think this is the place God meant for us to find, but He wanted us to check out all our options so that when we walked in to Emmanuel Baptist, we would know right away that we were "home". We will include more details on this and other adventures (like the sheep hunt) soon. Stay tuned!