Mitch and Anchorage

Two posts in one, because I am behind, as usual. (How do you spell the abbreviated form of "usual?" Ushhh. Usxh. Us. You know what I'm talking about.)

Lish's dad came out for a few days a couple weekends ago. We didn't do much while he was here, besides enjoy the sunshine and some yummy eats. It was the weekend of mine and Lish's 5th anniversary (Happy 5 to us!) and it was Mother's Day (Happy Mom's Day to me and all the other mom's and soon-to-bes and will-be-somedays), so Mitch made sure I had enough ice cream to last a lifetime. Or at least the duration of a weekend. I love me some ice cream. It was lovely.

Then we had a few days before we boarded a plane to Minneapolis, then Anchorage.

(Sidenote: Somewhere along those flights I lost my camera. If you found it, please give it back because I miss it dearly. And I want to continue taking pictures and documenting our simple, happy life.)

(Sidenote number 2: Can you believe we flew through Minneapolis? It didn't take much longer in the long run because our layover was shorter than it would of been had we flown through Salt Lake.)

We spent almost a week with my brother and his wife. It was wonderful. We loved being up there with them and getting to see a little of the state. We spent a majority of our time in Anchorage, but we went into Girdwood, tried to see a glacier that was still covered in snow, and took a beautiful drive along the coast.

While in Anchorage, we went to an amazingly huge park, played disc golf (as is the proper name for frisbee golf), went to the Chugach State Park (which had an incredible view), would have gone on a hike if it wasn't still covered in snow, visited the zoo, saw the largest known chocolate fountain, saw a moose grazing on the side of the road, visited Troy and Beth's places of employment, played a lot of games and beat Troy in most of them.

When we got off the plane and met up with Troy and Beth, they had made a sign for us that had a list of things for us to check off as our trip progressed. We checked everything off that list, except seeing Russia. We didn't get to do that. I know. Bummer. I would have taken a picture of the sign, but if you read what I just wrote, I can't. And that makes me sad.

Moment of silence.

Moving on.

We are so glad we were able to do that vacation. We loved getting to spend all that time with them. They are good people. And Alaska is beautiful. The pictures, of course, don't do it justice. Thanks for hosting us guys! We can't wait to host you someday. Or better yet, be neighbors!

Decking 101

The first thing you should know about redoing your deck is that it's hard. Hard and time consuming. Especially when you are really redoing it. We are so, so grateful to our neighbors who helped us tear the awful, original deck down, and so, SO grateful for Scott and Karen who came down to help us rebuild.

Go figure I didn't get any great "before" shots, nor any really great "during" shots, since Yale and I were out of town for the major deck weekend for another special event. So, enjoy the pictures I do have. And if you saw the deck before, then you really know what we were dealing with.

I found this before picture online. 

Not too easy to see what a mess it was, but you can see how big it was.

Enjoying our new deck!

It's so nice to sit out there and not be afraid you're going to fall through.

4/5 Graduated

My little brother graduated last weekend. I'm so proud of him! This means that four out of the five of us siblings have graduated college, and the last will graduate in December.

Yale and I had the opportunity to go up to his ceremony and spend time with him. My brother, Brian, also came out for the party, and it was really fun to see and spend time with him. I'm so glad we got to go up! Definitely worth the trip!

(A look into our future with this little one? Uh-oh.)