Salmon for Thanksgiving

Our good friends Garrison and Brooke Field left town for the holiday week, which means we once again got to stay in their house and watch our best friend Fynn! We sure love this energetic dog:

Trying to have a dance break from studying but Fynn cut in

One of the best hiking buddies around

Chris threatening to eat Fynn's food if he doesn't finish

Staying in a nice home felt like a vacation to us, and also got us excited for our future. I love Brooke's style, and hope to have a house like hers one day (you can check out their cool family blog here).

We had a rare sunny day while the snow was still on the ground, so Chris snapped some incredible pictures.

The morning sun just touching the Mendenhall Towers.

Mt. McGinnis and her reflection on Auke Lake.

The frozen lake in front of Mendenhall Glacier

We found out on Monday that we did not have to work on Thanksgiving, and tried to make some last minute plans. We wanted to volunteer at the community dinner, but unfortunately for us - and fortunately for them - they had enough volunteers who had been signed up for months that our help wasn't needed. Since we couldn't find any other volunteer opportunities and the weather was nice we decided to spend the day hiking.

Chris and I rented a cabin to stay in for Christmas Eve, so we chose to hike out there while the snow wasn't too bad. (Juneau weather is crazy, one day you'll have over a foot of snow and the next it will rain and *POOF* winter wonderland disappears.) It was a fun hike and we loved getting out in the sunlight, which is a rare opportunity in southeast Alaska this time of year - we have very short day light hours, and very rainy weather.

Our future Christmas cabin

At 3pm, Alaska's low winter sun hides behind serrated razor-edge peaks of the snowy mountains 

After our hike we had a nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner of grilled salmon, rosemary sea salt bread, parmesan sweet potatoes, and a kale spinach & pear salad. I even made Chris a pumpkin pie and maple whip cream for dessert (sugar doesn't count on holidays, right?). I loved having a nice kitchen to use to make everything from scratch, and am excited to get back to Utah where all my nice wedding-registry kitchen tools are waiting in a box for me.

Our Thanksgiving feast paired with my
gorgeous surprise "just because" flowers

We had a lot of fun eating our feast and listing off all the many things we're grateful for. A handful of our greatest blessings are our knowledge and understanding of the gospel and Atonement, our perfect marriage, loving families, true friends, the freedoms we enjoy in this beautiful country, Alaska adventures, healthy bodies, education, and employment.

You'll notice that Chris's beard has been trimmed up. The long-hair-shaggy-beard look has been giving off mixed impressions to people we meet. Marijuana is legal in Alaska, and there's the occasional local who mistakenly assumes Chris is into that sort of lifestyle and offer to "hook him up." Then there's the occasional shady guest who checks into the B&B and asks Chris if he knows where to "get the bud." He's always a bit confused in these situations, as Chris is clearly not at all connected to that scene, and how do you awkwardly tell a guest that they are gravely mistaken? Finally - and this one's my favorite - there's the adorable young kids in primary who think Chris looks just like Jesus (parents have confirmed this is the case). And each week as we walk in with senior primary a couple of littles in junior primary start looking. There's this one four year old boy in particular (to help you get the full image he has light blonde hair, thick round glasses, and is normally wearing a vest and a bow tie) who perks up, looks until he gets Chris's attention, and then with bright doe eyes and an infectious smile waves harder than you've ever seen a four-year old boy wave to get the attention of Jesus, I mean Chris. Chris always waves and smiles back to the great delight of this young boy; as a matter of fact the boy will continually wave until he's received some sort of reply from Chris. It's only the most adorable thing ever. Anyways, long story short, we wonder how this beard trim will affect the many images of Christopher Andrew. ;-)

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

A Dread-ful Decision

Have you ever thought something sounded like a really good idea, and then you tried it, and realized it was actually a really bad idea? Well I have.

The idea: getting dreadlocks.

The last couple of years I have been fascinated with dreadlocks. There's two different kinds of dreads - the gross kind, and the really pretty-but-edgy&perfectly-hippy kind. And I have been waiting for a chance to transform my hair into the pretty-but-edgy&perfectly-hippy kind for quite some time. Lucky for me I married a guy who also happens to like dreads! One night Chris decided we should just do it, so being well educated by a large variety of YouTube videos we set out to get everything we would need to give me perfect dreads at home.

Not able to see the back of my own head, Chris took on the title of head hairdresser. He got really good at using that metal flea comb to backcomb my hair into locks. And my dreads were born. 

Now as any person who has done their internet research on dreadlocks would know, dreads aren't going to look perfect on day one. They take time to settle and form. However, on day two of the dreadlock journey two things became blatantly obvious to me: thing one - not wanting to hurt me Chris had gone easy on the roots, leaving the top much looser than the bottom, thing two - these dreads were not going to mature into the pretty-but-edgy&perfectly-hippy kind, but had the perfect beginning to mature into the gross kind. 

With thing two weighing heavily on my mind, I was all of a sudden fearful of a third thing that came into my mind: the longer these dreads stay in my hair, the less likely I am to get rid of them while still keeping hair on my head. Admitting that my dream of dreads was a bust, and that I would look even worse with a pixie cut or a bald scalp, I started the long, tedious, multi-day process of brushing out my dreads. 

This part hurt a lot...

If you can't tell from the above picture, my hair was pretty damaged after this experiment. I started deep conditioning and still needed to cut off about three and a half inches. To minimize the amount of length that was removed from my hair I ended up getting some layers as well.

The layers are even more obvious when my hair is curly, or
 pulled back. But still, 3 1/2 inches seems like a lot to me!

We also enjoyed living in a snowglobe this week. The pictures are pretty but don't even give this magical winter wonderland justice. Life in Narnia is spectacular, and we can't help but be in constant awe at all the beauty around us.

By the end of the week there was over a foot of snow!

Our weekend adventure was probably one of our favorites yet. One of our sweet primary girls, Zoey, and her sister Tatum got baptized. Zoey is 11 and Tatum is 9, but they both attend a class younger from where they should be to be with their friends (approved by the bishop and primary president due to family circumstances). Their father isn't a member, and their mother is just starting to come back to church after years of inactivity. We absolutely adore these sweet girls and are so proud of them for the choices that they are making. Zoey is a joy to have in class and has such a fiery testimony for a kid so young and new to the church. She is always asking questions, and her mom told us that she loves class so much that every Sunday she goes home and then teaches her family everything she learned that day. Zoey excitedly asked us to participate in her baptismal service, so I gave the opening prayer and Chris spoke on the importance and blessings of baptism. He also had the opportunity to stand in their confirmation circles on Sunday. It was a special day for both of them, and Chris and I felt validated in our callings as primary teachers -- we're glad we could play a small part in Zoey's learning. We just love seeing the the "aha" moments in our students eyes, and have fallen in love with not just our students, but all the children in the primary. What a blessing it is to teach Heavenly Father's little ones, and be surrounded by their sweet spirits each week. 

Tatum and Zoey on their baptism day.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

Bears, Boats and the First Snow

This week our busy schedules were interlaced with some fun surprises. As Chris was running an errand one evening he saw a pair of eyes on the side of the road. Once he realized it was a bear he pulled over so he could get a better look at his furry friend attempting to hop the fence. Going full tourist mode he was snapping pictures when a taxi pulled over with its hazards on. The driver got out and kindly asked Chris if he could help with anything, and when he realized Chris was just taking pictures of a bear he indicated that Chris must not be from around here. It doesn't matter that we've lived here since May and wear our Southeast sneakers, we still can't fool the locals. We're just too amazed at all the beauty around us to look like the regular Juneau folk!

Some of the high quality shots Chris took for you. 

This bear has x-ray vision. Superbear maybe? 

Saturday was a blast as we had the opportunity to get out on the ocean. A kind man and his sweet wife come to the B&B often for dinner, and they offered to take us out fishing. When our schedules finally aligned it was too late in the season for salmon, but we went out anyways and had a blast. We loved hearing stories from his past and getting to know him better. (After we got home Chris and I were mulling over how many friends we've made here who are our parents age and older. Look at us - adulting so hard!). He taught Chris all about his sonar and GPS gadgets, and even let him captain the ship for a while. As we were headed back to the bay a light snow started to fall.

We loved how beautiful the B&B looked in the first snowfall. Winter is finally hitting Alaska, and we know we're in for all sorts of new adventures as the days continually get shorter and the snow piles higher. 

When we left our apartment for church on Sunday, we noticed a dumpster across the parking lot that had been knocked over and garbage strewn everywhere. It turns out a bear had wandered over during the night and found a tasty pre-hibernation meal left by the bakery. All the trashcans and dumpsters in Juneau have bear-proof locks, but some people are evidently a little casual in securing the lids.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

Hoping it'll rain a sunny day

Whelp, you haven't heard from us because there's really not much to hear about. Dani's been loving her second job, but it makes for long days (ACSA + the B&B = 13 hour work day). I'm grateful to have such a hard working wife. I keep busy with homework while she is at work in the mornings. The days are getting darker (with daylight savings it's now dark at 4:30pm), not to mention colder, windier, and wetter. I'm convinced Creedence Clearwater Revival were visiting southeast Alaska in the fall when they wrote their songs, "Have You Ever Seen the Rain," and "Who'll Stop the Rain." And apparently this October was less wet than average for Juneau!

It's partly exciting and partly depressing to see the snow come lower and lower on the mountains around us. I'm stoked for snowshoe trips and playing in the snow, but I'm also bummed that some of the places we've enjoyed so much this summer won't be hikable for us anymore.

These pictures are from short walks we've been able to squeeze in around work.

Ugly little tide-pool sculpin

 XtraTuf rainboots are to SE Alaska what Chacos are to Moab--everyone has them and wears them for (almost) everything: fishing, hiking, work, just hanging out...

When we finally get a sunny day it's like crawling out of a cave and seeing the light again.

Last week Dani caught the cold that's been going around at work and it put her out of commission for a few days.

The big guns.