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.

Orcas in the Channel

Let's start this week's post with the "boring" stuff:

• Christopher is KILLING it in his classes. On top of working full-time he is taking 7 credits split between math and statistics, and he's being the smartest-mostattractivest-nerd in class. He took an exam in each class this week and scored 100% on both! I'm one proud wife.
• I'm loving my second job working for the Alaska Council of School Administrators. I go in four days a week in the morning before we head to the B&B for our regular job. The ladies who I work with in the office are super sweet, and it's definitely a great experience to build my resume. Plus, I have a lot of fun traveling downtown as I see between 3-6 bald eagles along the way every time.
• Our scheduling at the B&B has been a little confusing for us lately. There has been a lot of back-and-forth over how many days we will be working the rest of our time here. We have our solid five days a week, and every Tuesday it becomes anybody's guess of whether they will tell us we are going to finally have Wednesdays back on or if we are still going to have it off. Instead of getting frustrated by this situation we are taking it in stride, and Tuesday nights have become fun as we plan last minute adventures if we do have the day off.

Now time for the "good" stuff:

• In our Tuesday night scramble for a Wednesday adventure we were able to plan a double date with our friends Ben and Camille. Juneau has been in a constant state of rain lately (as in we legitimately had hurricane warnings this week.... it's SO wet!), so we chose some indoor activities - primarily rock climbing in a gym. Ben picked us up and on our way downtown we saw some orcas swimming in Gastineau Channel! Holy amazing! A lot of Juneauites driving down the highway stopped, and we joined them on the side of the road and watched the killer whales in a state of utter reverence (pardon the grainy phone pictures). Ben is a Juneau local and has worked on whale watching boats for years. He said judging by their movements and the large amount of seagulls flying around that the whales had just finished a hunt and were eating, probably a sea lion. After our free orca show we walked around some local shops, tired out our muscles climbing til our fingers were exhausted, and then went out for dinner.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

The Cabin Fever Lives On

When Chris and I originally switched to five days of work a week instead of six back in June we agreed with management that it would be temporary so we could have extra time to adventure, and then would switch back to six days a week in October. However, all of management went to a conference in Hawaii for a week so they forgot to confirm this with the woman who had been working Wednesdays for us. We were planning on working Wednesday up until Tuesday night when we learned we would have the day off! Of course we didn't complain too much (yah you caught us, we didn't complain at all) and jumped on the opportunity to explore more of this beautiful land we are blessed to live in.

We had so much fun on our cabin outing last week that we decided we wanted to spend the night in yet another forest service cabin. This time we hiked out to Peterson Lake Cabin. The trail was pretty easy in comparison to what we're used to, so we had a lot of fun just hiking and laughing together. 

Boardwalk follows the old horse-tram track through the muskeg to the Peterson mill.

All the beautiful boardwalk trails in Juneau are aesthetically appealing, and seem like a blessing when you don't have to walk on the muskeg (that's the formal name for the bog-like meadows of water, decomposing vegetation, and moss--but I call it Sponge Ground. Every time you step you sink and your shoe fills with water!). However, when it rains these boardwalks are SLICK! Chris and I have both taken quite a few spills on our many hikes, the difference between us is when he slips I always ask if he's ok and offer him a hand up, and when I slip he laughs and makes sure to document it for all of you...

...Yah, that was a faceplant.

Anyways, the last half mile of the trail follows the edge of a pristine lake and we quickly got goosebumps of excitement as we knew we were nearing our destination. When we arrived at our cabin we were blown away with the stillness and peace of this perfect destination. 

We tossed our packs aside and headed straight to the dock where there was a metal rowboat we could play in. I was so happy to be rowing a boat again I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. Chris was likewise affected by the exuberance of holding oars and feeling the pull of the water against them. We've missed the river SO MUCH - SOOOOO MUCH! Though we weren't spoiled with rapids and it wasn't a raft, we still loved the opportunity to row around the beautiful lake together. And let's be honest, we were on a secluded lake in one of the prettiest places on earth alone, it was super romantic. 

To top off our perfect evening, after we had dinner we noticed the northern lights were once again out. How I wish you could all see them! The Auroras dancing across the sky are the most awe-inspiring thing either of us have ever seen. Unfortunately we still don't have a picture for you at this time, so you'll just have to settle for a picture of Chris making a fire in the wood burning stove in our cabin. (P.S. there were no critters or zombies in this cabin - it really was a perfect night!)

On Saturday we biked to the church building to help clean it. It's our ward's month to keep it clean, and we are grateful for the opportunity we have to serve. As we were cleaning a bathroom a sister from the ward popped her head in to tell us we sounded like we were having way too much fun spending our Saturday morning cleaning - I guess life is just as fun as you make it!

This week I also got an offer for a part time job, which I accepted. I will be working in an office downtown a few days a week while Chris is doing his schoolwork. This job came out of the blue, and happened really fast (I'm starting Monday!), but we both feel as if it's been an answer to prayers.

Well it's a long letter this week, props if you made it all the way to the end! Love you all!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

Cabin Fever

The National Forest Service is really great here in Alaska. They have cabins located throughout the state that are very cheap to rent for a night, and free to use during the day. We've played at a few of these cabins during the day, but decided that it was time to hike out to one and spend the night. This was probably one of our greatest ideas, and we only wish we would have started taking advantage of these cabins sooner. We hiked a rocky and wet 5 1/2 miles out to Eagle Glacier Cabin on Wednesday and were greeted with the most spectacular view of the glacier, the glacier's river, and looming snow-capped mountains. The cabin's front porch overlooked this natural beauty, and the inside of the cabin was clean and cozy.

Fall hiking here is the best.

The BIGGEST mushroom we've ever seen.

 The cabin was equipped with a propane heater (fuel included), a wood-burning stove, table, cupboards, bunks, and our favorite part--a loft with a window overlooking the lake and glacier. The deck was spacious and there was a secluded outhouse not far from the cabin.

Our original intentions had been to keep hiking and exploring around once we got to the cabin, but we were so taken aback by the splendor of our new front yard that we opted for a lazy evening and hung our hammock up on the front porch. (For all those of you who wish we lived closer, the truth is we still aren't out of the mushy-gushy, loveyou-loveyoumore newlywed stage. As much as we love hiking, cuddling is sometimes better. You're welcome for moving away so we don't have to subject you to this).

Eagle Glacier and the lake in front of the cabin

Close-up of Eagle Glacier

After dinner we thought it would be fun to play some card games, as we found cards in a cupboard next to the logbook. We lit some candles for light and sat down to play. It didn't take long to realize neither of us could remember a how to play a card game with just two people! Maybe we should stop avoiding invites to "game-nights" as if they were the plague...

The warm cabin would have provided us with a perfect night's rest if it hadn't been for the loud scratching-clawing noise. We were sleeping in the loft and not long after we cuddled up we heard this loud scratching sound. Chris swore it was "just a mouse munching on insulation inside the walls" (cause that is comforting), but I wasn't half convinced it was as small as a tiny innocent mouse. It for sure was a large family of mice that were about to break through the wall and storm us, or a huge rat with rabies that was seconds away from eating through the wall and running into our sleeping bags, or perhaps it was a brain-eating zombie who had been trapped inside and was hungry and ready to get out. Whatever IT was, it was not just a mouse, and you can bet I did not sleep well that night, in between the noise and the nightmares of what was really scratching at the wall. 

However, the morning light was breathtaking, and our hike out was even better than the hike in. The trailhead was pretty far out the road, and without a car we weren't certain how we were going to get back to work in time. Luckily our thumbs and smiles were nice enough that our hitchhiking attempts worked, and a rad guy named Dylan picked us up. He was headed towards the local campus, so he wasn't able to get us all the way home but he got us far enough that we could walk home with plenty of time before work. When we walked past Auke Lake we were greeted with an amazing rainbow in the sky. All in all it was a 99% perfect trip (rabid rats and zombie not included).

Reflections.

On Friday night we saw the northern lights for the first time! The nights are finally getting dark, and it was clear enough for Lady Aurora to shine through. They were too faint to pick up without a fancy camera, so unfortunately we don't have any pictures for you. But we have a full winter ahead to continually search the skies for these majestic lights, and hopefully will one night have colors bright enough that even our amateur cameras can bring some pretty pictures your way.

We loved watching General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. Luckily with the time zone difference we were able to watch all of it live except for the last 15 minutes of Saturday afternoon due to work. We even upheld the Andrew family tradition of hoagie sandwiches, chips, and grapes for lunch! But more important than our full stomachs was being able to hear the testimonies of the three new apostles and have it confirmed through the Spirit that they are indeed called of God. Every General Conference weekend is full of the Spirit, but there was definitely something special this time. I don't think either of us can pick a favorite talk, as there were just too many to love. The speakers were very relevant with all that is going on in the world today, and we thank the Lord for the guidance he is giving us through these troubled times.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew