The Best Part of this Post is the Announcement at the End

I don't have much of an intro this week, so let's just jump into the good stuff....

After work one night (remember we get off at 10pm) we decided it would be fun to do a spontaneous backpacking trip. We asked our friend Ben, a Juneau local, a good place to go and he told us Windfall Lake. This was about a 4.2 mile hike one way, not bad, so we decided to do it. Here are the highlights and the not so highlights of that adventure:

We saw a porcupine climb up a tree! Yah, who knew that porcupines are huge and climb trees?!

We never found a flat place to put up our tent, so at 2:30 in the morning after hiking a little over 5 miles - taking every possible branch in the trail and bushwhacking off the trail hoping to see that "just around the corner" perfect camp spot - we finally admitted defeat and settled for a less than desirable tent location on uneven, hard, bug covered ground. I wouldn't say we cursed Ben's name, but we sure had a lot of "what was he thinking telling us to come here?" moments.

All was forgiven in the morning when we saw the lake in the light. Wow! It was gorgeous, and we had a great morning playing on it. The forest service had canoes for public use, and we spent some time paddling out on the water (it felt SO GOOD TO BE ON THE WATER!). There was also a really nice forest service cabin that you can rent out for $30 a night. The family that stayed there through the night left early in the morning so we had the whole place to ourselves. We definitely want to come back to this lake, as we wanted to spend the whole day there but had to turn back to get to work by 2.

Also this week we did the West Glacier trail - hands down our favorite trail we've done so far. This 7 mile round trip trail takes you up to the Mendenhall Glacier, and from there you can take your time exploring all around this enormous, beautiful piece of ice. There were ice caves, and glacier arches, and waterfalls, and just about everything you could imagine in an Alaskan dream.

Best tasting water you'll ever have.

The weather has been surprisingly warm the last couple of weeks so we decided to go for a swim on Saturday before work. We went out to Auke Lake and played around. Chris had fun using the rope swing, and I started to hate mosquitoes even more than normal as I realized my wet body seemed to be their favorite thing in the forest. Cool fact: Auke Lake looks black because of the tannin from the spruce trees - these are the same chemical compounds found in coffee, tea, and wine. But don't worry, we kept our mouths closed so we're still good on the Word of Wisdom.

On Sunday we taught Primary for the first time. We found out that we were actually just going to be subbing for the Valiant 10 class for 2 weeks and then were going to be permanent teachers of the Valiant 9 class. The teacher of Valiant 10 has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and the primary presidency assumed she would want to be released. She has asked to stay in her calling, so we will sub for her while she is in treatment, and then will take over the other class once she comes back.

Sunday evening we were invited to dinner with another young couple from the ward - Brooke and Garrison. They have the sweetest 14 month year old daughter, and it was so great getting to know all of them better. Brooke cooked halibut to make it a true Alaskan affair. They moved to Juneau the same week we did, so like us, they are new to the area and trying to make friends. After dinner we took a walk by the ocean where we ran into the bishop's family! It was a lot of fun and we look forward to doing more together.

Here's the best part of this post, which is this announcement at the end.........

Next spring, from April to August 2016,

we are going to thru-hike all 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail! 

Now, for anyone thinking that sounds a little crazy, or a tad bit dumb we want to redirect your questions and concerns to Aunt Susan. After much badgering, uncontrollable pressure, and refusal to take no for an answer, she has forced us into making this decision. Don't believe us? Here's the picture proof:

Our planning is well under the way and you will continue to receive updates as we prepare for this epic adventure. You will also notice changes to our blog as we give it a makeover to include a new page specific to the PCT.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. We-Make-Crazy-Decisions-Together Andrew

Perseverance and our First Alaskan Campout

Monday morning we were able to go on a hike with Ian and Ronda (the friends we met at church last week who invited us to dinner and a bonfire on Sunday). We did Perseverance Trail. It's rated one of the top things to do in Juneau, and while it was pretty we would not rank it as one of our favorite parts of Juneau so far. We're thinking maybe the people who choose "the top things to do in Juneau" aren't as avid of hikers as we are, and since this trail does have beautiful parts and is also physically easy it puts it at the top. You know us though ~ we'd rather take the rotten-hard-steep-scaleamountain-vergeofdeath-destroyyourbody type of hike. This one just didn't have the same thrill factor, but of course we still enjoyed it. We were bummed though because Ian and Ronda moved away on Wednesday, so though we enjoyed becoming friends and doing things together, they are now living in Utah.

Instead of focusing on all the fun Juneau has to offer, we actually decided to be responsible and had a very productive week. We worked 48 hours (each), Chris started his online math class, we got familiar with the area around the B&B (our guests always ask questions), and we went grocery shopping. We did not have a car when we went grocery shopping and it was a full morning event walking to the larger, aka cheaper, store and backpacking our food back to our apartment.

Also this week we got in our first camping trip of Alaska! We met up with our friends Ben and Camille after work one night and did a quick backpack trip to a private beach. Rumor had it the Auroras were out, but even though we were completely void of light pollution it still never got dark enough for us to see the colorful lights in the sky. We stayed up until 2am, but then the sun started rising and we admitted defeat and attempted to get some sleep instead.

The next morning was full of adventures:

Some awesome news: we aren't sure how long it's going to last but as of Saturday evening we have a car! Well a used minivan, but it gets us where we want to go. It is a company vehicle that just recently got work done and for now we get to use it in the mornings and nights to get around. It sure is a blessing and we hope it is a long stretch of time that we get to keep it for.

Sunday was quite eventful for us. We both were called to serve in the Primary! We will be coteaching the Valiant 10 class. It will sure be an adventure for us as Chris looked at me dumbfounded after we were called and said: "I don't know how to teach kids", and I chose to study Early Childhood Education instead of Elementary Education because I feel comfortable teaching kids under the age of 8 (preferably under the age of 6 - hello kindergarten). However, we are hoping to be half as good of primary teachers as Grandpa and Grandma Hall, and are excited for this opportunity to serve. We know we have been called where the Lord wants us to be - we just need to figure out the why. Also, having a calling where we are coteaching means we will officially be spending 24/7 together. We work together. We adventure together. Now we teach together. We won't even have an hour apart of being in different church classes. Good thing we like each other.

After church on Sunday we had the privilege to have both the missionaries and a new convert (baptized last week) over for dinner.  We have two Elders in our ward - one is from Samoa and the other is from Malaysia. They have very strong testimonies and also really amazing stories and backgrounds. It was great hearing them teach a new member lesson, but my favorite part was seeing the fire in Christopher's eyes as he was able to be a part of this lesson and missionary opportunity.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

Our First Full Week as Eskimos

Our first week up in Alaska has been amazing! *Side note - our first week in Alaska also marked one year since we met each other. Whaaaaaat?! Have we really just known each other a year?! What a year it's been!!!* I'll start with the boring mundane things that our parents probably want to know about - work and our apartment - but if you want to just scroll through the pictures a little farther down and read about our adventures we understand, and approve of that choice. 

We started training at Grandma's Feather Bed on Monday. We had three days of training with Jeremy (who was actually a friend of mine from when I was up here the first time), and then were on our own from Thursday on. We do everything in the restaurant for dinner shy of cooking and dishes, and we also run the front desk. Right now they have us working Monday-Saturday 2pm-10pm. Once they get a few more employees trained we are hoping to work just 5 days a week, at least through the summer, so we can get in some good backpacking and camping trips. For now we're focusing on the positive - overtime hours equates to more money. 

On Tuesday we were able to move out of the hotel room and into our apartment. It's really nice! We loved our basement apartment in Logan, but this apartment is great because it's a lot newer, and we love being on the second story and having all the light from the big windows. Our first night there we couldn't help but laugh at how large our room was compared to our last apartment. Our new bedroom alone could have fit our last bedroom, bathroom, and hallway storage closet combined! Though they had quickly cleaned the apartment before we moved in, I convinced Chris to put in some good time really deep cleaning the place with me. It's one thing to make some messes of your own, but I really just can't handle living in dirt - especially when you don't know where the dirt came from. We're hoping (ok I'm hoping) to get to the store soon to print off a few pictures to decorate the place and make it feel more homey. We'll be here at least eight months, so I think it's well worth the investment to fully transform the apartment into a home. And bonus: we were thrilled to see that our apartment has a washer and dryer! It's really nice to be able to do laundry at our own convenience. 

Unfortunately we don't have a car right now, but we have been doing just fine getting around on foot. Our lives are blessed with many tender mercies and things have just had a way of working out. We aren't too worried about it, but we are trying to track down some bikes. Luckily our apartment is less than a five minute walk away from work. 

Now for the ADVENTURES! 

We wake up each morning and ask ourselves "how much can we get done before 2pm?", and honestly we aren't doing a half bad job at getting a lot done....

We went on a run to Mendenhall Glacier and hiked the East Glacier Trail.

We had grown close to one of the guests at the B&B as he stayed with us a few nights on business. He knew we were new to town and didn't have a car so he asked us if we wanted to go out and adventure with him his last morning in town. Of course we said yes! He drove us out to the Shrine of St. Therese.

Merciful Love Labyrinth

The shore at low tide

After exploring around the island that the shrine was on we hiked to Nugget Falls near Mendenhall Glacier.

Another morning we hiked up Mount Roberts in the Tongass National Forest (the largest temperate rainforest in the world). At the top we had a chance to check out the visitors center and were told that if we spent $10 each we could ride the tram down for free. Well that was enough motivation for us to buy some fresh fish caught from the ocean below and enjoy a delicious lunch with a view!

Tram overlooking Tongass Nat'l Forest and Gastineau Channel

On Saturday a coworker covered the beginning of our shift so we were able to go on the Tracy Arm tour that went from 7:30am-6pm. Amazing! (Not pictured because the wildlife was just too quick and our phones ran out of battery on the way back to Juneau: whales, sea lions lounging on icebergs, and soaring eagles).

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Sunday we were able to go to our ward for the first time and were overwhelmed with the acceptance we felt. We have definitely been welcomed in with open arms. Everybody was incredibly kind and we are excited to get involved and get to know the members better. We told the bishop that we are ready for some callings, and we are excited for the prospect of opportunities we have to serve in a small ward. 

Sunday evening we were invited to dinner by a couple from the ward and then went out to a beach for a bonfire. It was a beautiful private beach with an alcove of giant pine trees and the coolest part was hearing whales spout out water in the ocean we were overlooking.

Needless to say we're loving everything about Juneau!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

The last frontier

We had a studious start to our week as Chris studied and tested, studied and tested, studied and tested, studied and tested, and did great on all his finals. He had a great semester both in school and with his additional EMT and CNA courses and we are super grateful for his education. We still aren't sure where we will be for nursing school next year, but it's nice to know we are on the right path.

As Chris was spending time with his education I got really good at cleaning, labeling boxes, and packing up our life. We've always been such mobile and adventurous people that it was quite surprising to both of us when we realized how much stuff we've accumulated since we've become a "we". No longer can we throw things into a couple of suitcases and backpacks and call it good, now we need a storage unit - and not even the tiniest storage unit, but we needed to go one up in size! We are glad we have furniture and a fully furnished kitchen, but it sure was eye opening on how "adult-like" that seemed to make us now. Luckily with some help from friends we were able to have some extra muscles and trucks that made moving all our belongings a lot easier.

We did take a mid-week-stress-break-date as we used Chris's 50% Olive Garden discount for the last time, and with the gift card he won from having good sales we enjoyed a nice free lunch in the park.

Right before we left Logan we stopped by the Duersch's for dinner and good-byes. Austin was a little concerned that we were going so far away and wanted to know if phones still worked in Alaska. We assured him they did and he plans on testing it out on Monday. Feel free to get in touch with him if you want to know whether or not it is possible to contact those in a different countr....oh wait, Alaska IS in the United States. Yes. Our phones work.

Our parting shot of Cache Valley

After the testing and moving nonsense we headed down to Pleasant Grove for a nice visit with the Hall Grandparents. We loved staying at their house and are glad we had the opportunity to help get their Christmas lights down, clean out the rain gutters, and help take Charlotte's green waste to the dump. We also had an opportunity to meet up with Dad Andrew in his Springville office to do some swapping of items and use Ondamed. Thanks to him we should be nice and healthy up in Alaska! If not, he also gave us supplements to fight off whatever might try and get us. Alongside the errands we had some quality time just being with Grandma and Grandpa. They were worried their fridge was getting too full but by the time we left there was plenty of space. We were stuffed to the breaking point. As a matter of fact, Chris borrowed their bathroom scale to weigh our suitcases before we took off - we did some on Friday night and some Saturday morning. Chris said that in that time he gained 5 pounds!  Maybe it's a good thing we are flying away from such loving family for a while...we're not ready for the kind of weight gain staying at grandparents houses brings upon grandkids as cute as us.

Although he finished his CNA class over a month ago, the state has been incredibly slow in getting testing vouchers to Chris. Finally, early this week the panic set in and he began calling to try to figure out who could test him THIS WEEK. The state UNAR office broke down and finally emailed him his vouchers instead of snail-mailing (c'mon, aren't we in the 21st century?)(and to the wrong address might I add) so Chris got busy calling all the testing centers within driving distance of us. The good people of Tooele took pity on him and scheduled a testing time right away, so Friday afternoon we were driving out there for his exams. Chris feels they went well, but once again we won't hear back for another week or so for them to use the pony express to get his results back.

Finnnnnnnaly, what you've all been waiting for, we moved to Alaska! We left SLC at 5pm mountain time and after many hours of flights we landed in Juneau at 9:15pm Alaska time (3 hours behind Wisconsin, 2 hours behind Utah). When we were on our second plane I noticed that I recognized the girl sitting in the row across from me, and she noticed me too - it was a friend that I had in the Juneau Singles Branch 4 and 5 years ago when I lived here! Chantilli and I remained friends on facebook, but we haven't spoken in years. It was so fun to connect with her and it turns out that her and her husband decided to move back for the year to make some more money before finishing school. Chris and I realized it was a tender mercy running into her as she was able to tell us that Sunday was Stake Conference. Without that tidbit of information we would have been showing up at the wrong time and would have missed church completely!

Stake conference was a really neat experience. There is some amazing strength in this stake, and the spirit was very strong. Chris was utterly amazed when he noticed which wards some of the stake members were from and put together how large the stake was. For example, both Ketchikan and Sitka Alaska are in the same stake as Juneau - Sitka is 165 miles southeast of Juneau and Ketchikan is 286 miles south. Needless to say, we were being put up in a hotel here because our apartment was not ready, and we were not the only church members staying at the hotel. Many people had taken the ferry and plane to Juneau for stake conference, and those who were not able to do so were able to watch it at their local church buildings thanks to satellite transmitting.

Since stake conference was a distance from the hotel we took advantage of having a few miles under our belt and spent the afternoon walking and exploring the area around Auke Bay and Auke Lake. We had absolutely beautiful weather and it really was fun to have a picnic lunch on the ocean docks. We saw two bald eagles and a sea lion! But we were too slow to get any pictures so you all just have to come up here and visit us to see the wildlife for yourself.

Our training started on Monday and the apartment should be ready for us on Tuesday - we'll cover all of that in next weeks post.

Until then, happy adventuring!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Eskimo Andrew