The last cabin...

For our final week in Alaska, Dani and I topped it off with a night at THE LAST FOREST SERVICE CABIN accessible by foot: the Dan Moller cabin on Douglas Island. We've talked about someday building our own backcountry abodes in Utah and donating them to the Forest Service when we're older and have the means, but for now, we've certainly enjoyed our "Rustic Cabins of Southeast Alaska" tour. This one is by far the best built and roomy-est cabin, in part because the Juneau Snowmobile Club goes up there every winter and has made some big improvements on it. A massive four-bed loft, second-story balcony, and an effective propane heater made it pretty comfy up there.

We had a light rain at sea level, but after hiking into the mountains we we amazed by how much snow was still on the ground!

In the bowl behind Dan Moller.

Our favorite part of the afternoon.

We could overlook the valley approach from the front porch. 

This weekend we also did a quick bike/hike to Salmon Creek Reservoir before work. We hiked the ridge loop around this lake last summer, so it was cool to see what it looked like up close. Despite the snow in the mountain-tops, it's starting to feel like spring in Alaska!

Everything feels like it's coming to life with the moss getting greener.

This week was the perfect end to our wonderful stay in Juneau. My dad informed me of an opening as a medical assistant at his doctor's office, so I'll be working there as a student intern this summer while we wait for nursing school to start in August. Dani got her job as a riverguide back, and although I'm extremely jealous that she'll be on the water nearly every day, I'm so glad that I'll have this valuable opportunity in the medical field, especially because I'll get to learn from such a talented physician.

We're looking forward to lots of sun in Moab, but we'll sure miss our rainforest home in Juneau. We've made some unforgettable friends here and this place will always hold a special place in our heart as our "year-long honeymoon."

A Lovers' Week

Hey guys, I'm back! There's no particular reason why Chris took over the blog the last few weeks and although he's done a fabulous job at writing, I've decided to reclaim my position of lead author. So here it goes...

We finally had a chance to go on another camping trip. Our last camping trip was Christmas Eve, and we have both been itching like crazy to get out again. Since we've enjoyed the forest service cabins so much, and knowing there's nothing like them back in Utah, we decided to make the most of them while we are still here. As an early Valentine's date we hiked out to Windfall Lake Cabin and spent the night. We previously hiked this trail back in May (our first month here) and it was a rainy, wet, "adventure" of a night as we tried to find somewhere to pitch our tent. After seeing the cabin renters in the morning well rested and cheery, we promised ourselves that we'd come back and stay in the cabin for real.

Black and white Windfall Lake from the porch of the cabin.

Herbert River

We stayed warm and dry in the perfectly clean cabin. Chris boiled some water so we could have a hot meal, and we spent the night being cozy and reading through the cabin's sign-in book (basically a giant journal where everyone details the events of their trip). We slept in a little in the morning, and took a lot of time to enjoy the beautiful lakeside we were nestled in.

Late-night cabin entertainment from the entries of the logbook

We took advantage of the non-rainy days the rest of the week with morning runs and walks with friends.

On Saturday we met up with the Schlecters and walked the airport trail. Camille and I had fun chatting while Ben and Chris kept stopping to take photos. Chris has really enjoyed learning more about photography from Ben.

After church on Sunday we got together with the Lange's and explored Sandy Beach on Douglas Island. Fun fact - the beaches around Juneau and Douglas are all rocky, and there is only one sandy beach around here. The sand on this beach is the tailings from the Treadwell Mine. In the early 1900's the Treadwell Mine had a little city of it's own, but after a cave-in this part of Douglas Island turned into a bit of a ghost town. Now when you walk around there are only a few buildings left, and some of the mossy ruins look much more ancient.

Sunday evening we celebrated Valentines Day with a wonderful homemade fondue dinner. Here's the best part - Chris made it all by himself! I never knew he could cook something so fancy,  but once he started he had my full affection and confidence in his ability (that is you discount my one moment of concern when he asks from the kitchen "are cream of tartar and mustard powder the same thing?"). Dinner was divine and I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to have a husband who loves me so perfectly and thank my Heavenly Father everyday that I get to keep this perfect man as my own for time and all eternity.

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

Since the wedding we....

enjoyed a concert,

went hiking,

took off camping,

slept in our truck,

went climbing,

hiked some more,

did some spelunking,

hiked even more,

found a Christmas tree,

ate the "World's best corndogs" (congratulations!),

celebrated Christmas with a shepherd's dinner,

served in the temple,

went climbing again,

used a bidet (not recommended),

played dress-up,

[Chris] did the annual Sheboygan Polar Bear Plunge (aka swam in frozen-cold-icy Lake Michigan),

practiced our skills on the ice,

helped my dad paint,

spent 6 hours in the Denver airport (we didn't want to remember this one, so there's no picture evidence),

and somehow managed to move into our apartment and began settling in. It's been a whirlwind these last few weeks, but things are finally shaping into a normal schedule (so hopefully that means we can be more consistent with blog updates). Chris has started back on another semester at USU while working at Olive Garden, and I'm still a substitute for the schools around here. Between school, work, and unpacking we've been able to  go on runs, catch up with friends, visit the Brigham City Temple, and finish purchasing the last few items to make our house a home. We love being married, are enjoying every minute, and are looking forward to all the adventures in our future!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew