We Got a Dog!!!

Just kidding. We did however dogsit for a full week, and took our job very seriously. The majority of our week was simply filled with going on runs and walks with Fynn. This was actually a really good experience for us as our time dogsitting made us recognize that we are not ready for the responsibility of caring for a living creature. Fynn not only needed to be walked twice a day but also needed to be fed twice a day and had to be let out to go to the bathroom. As Chris said, “How are you ever supposed to leave the house?” Not to mention neither one of us enjoyed picking up dog feces and having to carry it around until we saw a trashcan. So we probably won't be getting our own dog any time soon, but we sure had fun getting on some trails with Fynn.

This week we also spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen. After all, I had gallons on gallons of berries to deal with. So,

We made fruit leather for hiking snacks...

Only a small portion of the fruit leather we made. 

And freezer jam!

We also had the opportunity to take advantage of a sunny day and get some climbing in. We both really wanted to climb at a place called the Sea Cliffs (it's super beautiful and you can only climb it when the tide is low or there will be no place for the belayer to stand). After spending some time bushwhacking and searching for the climbs we were disappointed when they were finally found. All the bolts were completely rusted and although some rusted bolts can still be ok to fall on, it's impossible to tell which ones so we decided not to risk it. *We're more saftey cautious than most of you think - take a moment here to just be proud of us.*

There was a climb that was just off the road which we saw driving to the Sea Cliffs so we decided to do a quick climb there before heading home.

Other than all that our week was filled with lots of work, math homework, and yoga (I'm trying to get into it, and this was a good week as far as actually taking the time – Naomi should be proud). Oh, and we watched a really cool documentary called Breaking Ice with our friends Ben and Camille. Yah, we like glaciers.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

The Andrews

Berries on Berries

On Tuesday night we went out camping with our friend Derek again. We hiked to Outer Point on Douglas Island and enjoyed a beautiful night with a bonfire on the beach. In the morning we explored the tide pools (Chris and I aren't from places with oceans and are just like little kids when it comes to tide pools - they are so fun and we can't see them ever getting old!), and found a giant hammock made out of a fisherman's net up in the trees.

We officially have Wednesdays off for the remainder of summer which meant once again we were using back-to-back nights to camp. Derek was kind enough to drop us off at Thane's "end of the road" and we backpacked to DuPont beach. Even though this beach was super beautiful we thought it would be fun to keep going all the way to the end of the peninsula and camp on Bishop's Point. There is a trail that goes to Bishop's Point so we backtracked and went on the other trail to take us there. So far in Juneau we have been really impressed with the trail maintenance, well, obviously the great trail maintenance that has gone into other trails took so much time that Bishop's Point was overlooked. We spent hours bushwhacking and dodging devil's club (this horrid plant that you don't wanna touch), climbing over and under fallen trees, and searching for a trail that kept getting lost. There was a little branch in the trail to an old cabin and we took it. That trail let us go out to the beach and imagine our surprise when we got there, looked left, and then realized how far we had come from DuPont beach - or rather, how far we had not come! We had been so certain that we must be close to the end of the trail, but when we got to the coast it was clear that the conditions of the beaten down trail slowed us so much that we were nowhere near our intended destination. The tide was low so we decided to try following the coast line to Bishop's Point instead of the trail laden in obstacles. Well, as great as the coast line originally seemed it wasn't long before we were sliding and slipping on slick wet rocks trying to go a fair distance. After talking about it we realized that as much as we wanted to get to the end, the reality was we had work the following afternoon. We decided it was a wiser decision to just go back to DuPont beach where we had seen some really nice camping spots and spend the night there so we could enjoy some time in camp. We followed the shoreline (because we preferred slipping on wet rocks over dodging devil's club) and were stoked when we finally had camp set up. We once again explored some tide pools and also had some fun hammocking in the trees.

Because of the high rainfall here the trees don't put down very deep roots.
When a strong windstorm comes through hundreds of trees topple over leaving massive bald spots on the forest floor.

Abandoned dock at DuPont beach.

Thursday morning we got up and after hiking out on the trail we still had a few miles of road hiking to get to a shuttle stop so we could get a ride back towards home. As we were walking we began to notice that there was raspberry bushes along the side of the road. We stopped and ate a handful and they were, as Christopher would say, "super delish!" As we continued walking we saw more and more berry bushes and could not stop constantly picking them as we journeyed towards town. There were both raspberry bushes and salmonberry bushes right on the road for about three miles! We ate a lot.

We convinced a friend of ours to go back towards the berry-loving-road to go berry picking with us on Friday. When we were out there we found a section that wasn't just right on the road, but went back into a full field of berries! There was a flowing creek and bushes on bushes on bushes of tasty ripe berries. We think we might have found the Garden of Eden. Needless to say we took home about 4-5 gallons....yum.

On Sunday we had a crazy time in Primary. The teacher for the ten year old class was missing (this was the class we subbed for before) so we taught both the nine year olds and the ten year olds. Well, I'm pretty sure we had the four most rambunctious boys in the whole ward, and none of the girls were even there to add a balance to the class. Though the boys were wild we did our best to teach them, and pray daily that something they learned in class will stick. We have a lot of fun teaching the littles at church, and hope that we do a good job.

Remember to pray and remember to play, 

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

Six Months of Officially Being Best Friends for Eternity

I know, I know, we are supposed to update this every week so our family and loved ones can understand what is happening in our lives.....and I realize this post is officially a week late. Oops! As Christopher would say, "sorry 'bout it" - but the good news is you should be getting two posts in a short amount of time, that's exciting, right?

Tuesday night after work we took off with our friends Derek and Jase (the two raddest coworker brothers around). We drove out to Echo Cove and hiked in to a beautiful campsite. We roasted some hotdogs and then went to sleep around 2 in the morning - you know, cause it was still light out so we lost track of time. In the morning we walked around the beaches. 

Jase, Derek, Dani and Chris

On Wednesday WE HAD OUR FIRST DAY OFF! Well technically we have Sundays off, but we are large supporters of keeping the sabbath day holy - you know, since it's a commandment and all - so we try not to do any large adventures on Sundays. Anyways, after coming back in from our hike with the guys we headed straight back out. We hiked from a shuttle drop-off point downtown to the base of Mount Juneau and then started our ascent. Unfortunately we think we're getting used to living at sea level because we sure felt the elevation gain of 3,576 feet more than our Utah minds expected! When we told people we were going to hike Mount Juneau in the rain they all laughed at us and warned us how dangerous it can get. We decided it wasn't storming that bad and we needed to take advantage of our day off so we just went for it. It was rainy, but beautiful. But as we passed the first layer of clouds and started crossing waterfalls from the rain, and sections of icy snow the "rainy, but beautiful mindset" started drifting to a "rainy, and freezing, and this is steep whey aren't we at the top yet" mindset. When we finally summited we were so excited to set up our tent and get into our warm sleeping bags! 

We learned what it meant to live in a rainforest.

Waterfalls? I guess we just gotta cross them....not like there's a giant drop-off if you slip on the wet rocks...

Chris actually wrote about this experience in a talk he gave in church on Sunday, and I think he explained what happened next better than I could: "Thankfully we stayed fairly warm and dry after we were in our sleeping bags, however, the storm got worse during the night and we hardly slept with the wind blowing the walls of our tent in every direction. When it finally became light enough for us to see the trail around 3:30 in the morning, we decided to break camp and hike back down.

"As soon as we got out of our tent we had a Lehi's Dream experience. Our hearts sank a little when we realized that we could only see about 20 feet in any direction because of the thick “mist of darkness” that shrouded our view. I was reminded of the sign at the beginning of the trail cautioning us against losing our way off the path. Because the trail is well defined, I knew that as long as we could find our “iron rod” and didn't stray from it, we would be able to find our way. With a quick prayer we began hiking and within half an hour we were safely out of the clouds and freezing rain."

Our summit shot - it was too cold to stand outside for a picture.
Not like you could see past the clouds anyways.

Disappearing trail.

Thank goodness we have a large living room to dry out our gear.

Needless to say after work on Thursday we were grateful to climb into bed, and decided it wise to take it easy on Friday. 

On Saturday we celebrated our six-month-aversary! That means we've already spent six months of officially being best friends for eternity. My, oh my, time has gone by fast - but what a great journey we are on. Our boss found out about it and actually ended up giving us another day off! We know we are up here to make money, but with the amount of overtime and tips we've been getting lately we gladly accepted the invitation and were glad to have time to go on a real date and celebrate our marriage. After all, cultivating our marriage is much more important than just one days work on a paycheck. And - get this - not only did we get the night off, but the B&B wasn't fully booked for the night so the owner let us stay in one of the rooms for free! We're talking a $200+ dollar a night, nicest place in Juneau, free stay . . . with a four-poster featherbed, fireplace, and jacuzzi tub in a fancy room, and gourmet breakfast in the morning. Yes - we were spoiled rotten. And yes - we enjoyed every minute of it. We also went out for a nice dinner, a fun bike ride, and to the movies. We rarely go on dates like this so it was nice to have a relaxing day compared to our normal crazy lives! 

We are car-less, but a nice couple in the ward gave us these fancy sets of wheels - we love them!

On Sunday we both had an opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting. Once again Chris killed it - he is so good at speaking about the gospel! And then there's me. My talk started out with "Good morning brothers and sisters, my name is Dani Brading, oh wait, no it's not, my name is Dani Andrew. Oops. We just celebrated six months yesterday so you think I'd have it down by now..." and needless to say flustered me was speaking as a hurried embarrassed mess and it took a moment to regain my composure. It must not have been too bad though because the bishop's wife texted me on Monday and asked for copies of both our talks because she enjoyed them so much and wanted to share our messages with people that she thought needed it. We also loved teaching our primary kids! They are such a spunky bunch and we are learning that 9 year olds aren't as scary as we thought.

Remember to pray and remember play,

Mr. & Mrs. Brading, oh wait, I mean Andrew

Climb Alaska

So neither Chris or I are feeling overly chatty this week - shocker, I know - so you're in for a short post.

We had another full week of work, math homework, and play. The highlight of our week was getting vertical on the rock. Oh, how we've missed climbing! The climbing scene in Juneau is quite sad, especially compared to Moab and Logan Utah. But we both loved how great it felt to get on the rock and just go up. We definitely need to make the time to get in more climbs while we are here.

 Chris has a habit of picking me wildflowers while we are out adventuring - golly I love him.

You'll notice we are starting to make some changes to our blog. It's time to get serious about the PCT! (Can it be next summer yet? We can't wait!)

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

Where the Road Ends

Chris and I had another crazy 50 hour each work week, but as always remembered our priorities....so Chris did lots, lots, LOTS of online math homework and we still fit in some fun adventures.

Since Juneau is the capitol of Alaska, most people don't realize how isolated it is. The truth: the only way to get into Juneau is by boat or plane - which means the roads here, well, they just end. We drove to the south and saw the end of the road.

We had attempted to go into town this day - you can tell because we look so nice - but that lasted about 5 minutes until we remembered we don't like crowds, we don't like noise, we don't like crazy shopping, and we just aren't the "downtown type" of folk! So instead we found a hiking trail and started exploring south of the road on a trail called DuPont. It was beautiful (and much better than downtown)in our oh-so-humble opinions. We have full intentions of coming back to this trail and doing a backpacking trip one day. Rumor has it the trail branches off and can take you straight to the beach - yes please.

Our other fun adventure this week was an overnight backpacking trip with our coworkers Matt and Nicole. Matt and Nicole are the sweetest brother-sister duo from Alpine, Utah and it's hard for us to hang out with them because they typically work the mornings. We hiked out to Crow Point and enjoyed a fantastic evening cowboy camping under the stars. Our only complaint was the drunks who were blasting music from their boat while speeding up and down close to the shore with no lights at 1 in the morning! The next morning we spent time exploring tide pools and frolicking in fields (ok we didn't really frolic but we probably should have, and we probably should have also sang the Sound of Music).

Photo taken at 11:30pm. It stays light for so long!

Our PCT preparation is still going well, and pretty soon here we'll start telling you about our sponsors! Just remember, if you have any inclination to buy us Christmas, birthday, or anniversary  gifts this year we accept money, gear, and jerky.

In church on Sunday we taught the kids about the good Samaritan. We encouraged them all to try and memorize the Bible verses Matthew 22:37-39, and challenge all of you to do the same. Imagine how great a world we would live in if everybody loved God and their neighbor with their whole being!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew