Slacklining and Panning for Gold

On Friday night we set up the slackline. It took me a while to remember how to set it up, and there were tons of mosquitoes, but it was still really fun. 

Samuel

Joseph

Quince and Jen even did it :) 

Mary

I love this picture :) 

On Saturday, Quince took me gold mining and we panned for gold. I couldn't do it for a living. I would be too impatient. But it was super fun :) 

Before...

and after! 

 I got $6!

And I got to see the Alyeska Pipeline. It pipes oil. In case you are like me and didn't know ;) 

Right now I'm in the Seattle airport heading back home. I excited to get home, but I'm sad I had to say goodbye to Quince and Jen and their family. I loved the time I was able to spend up there and definitely learned a whole lot. Thanks guys!

My birfday

 I woke up on my birthday...

I'M TWENTY ONE!! 

I started looking bad when I got to Alaska apparently... 

I killed one of Alaska's horrid mosquitoes...

 Yes, I know. I have a lovely double chin. 

I got wonderful decorations and a balloon from Jen and lovely hugs and birthday wishes from these two chillins...

 Opened my present from Quince and Jen...

The Anatomy of Peace 

Had a delicious birthday dinner,

and ate this lovely cake! 

 It was good. 

Thanks Quince, Jen, Joseph, Mary, Samuel, Kal, and Kip for celebrating with me! Thanks to all who wished me happy birthday. It was a great one :)

And...pictures :)

I have never been a big fisher. Actually, I can only remember going fishing once with the youth in my ward before this Alaska trip. Thus, I was excited when Jen and Quince said we could go fishing! 

On our way... (Joseph wanted to take this picture of me) 

Look at this amazing family! 5 kids 5 yrs old and under :) 

This was the lake we fished in. It was so beautiful! Pictures never do it justice. 

Samuel was a little bit tired of not being able to play in the water. 

I don't think Mary loved fishing much either. 

Sadly, although we went fishing 2 days in a row (I even bought a temporary fishing license for it) we didn't catch any fish. The second day we were in the boat and they were jumping out of the water all around is. They were mocking our lack of success I think. It was quite frustrating. I believe I am bad luck when it comes to fishing. I still have to say that I've never caught a fish. But it was fun nonetheless :)



On the way back we stopped at the Knotty Shop. Before I saw the sign, Jen told me I was allowed to go because I was now 21. I wasn't quite sure what this shop was until she explained :)

Although not this big, they do have some pretty large, obnoxious mosquitoes up here in Alaska. 

These next pictures are super blurry and it's making me frustrated with my camera! I just bought a nice new one and it gives me blurry pictures. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem? But here are these cute kids anyways:

We also went to the North Pole. It was kinda cool to realize that the twin pole of the one I am standing next to was actually dropped right above the actual North Pole.

And then we stopped at Santa Clause house...

And got to see his reindeer... 

And even got to meet him in person! 

It was awesome. I'm so grateful that Jen and Quince let me come up and stay with them! :)

21 in Alaska!

First of all, I just have to say that I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever :) 

Me and Violet

Ivy-She is growing so fast! 

Nate and Ivy :) 

After flying from Boise to Seattle I had several hours to kill. I read some Les Mis, ate Wendy's, watched Avatar until my comp died, found an outlet in starbucks and decided it was worth going for the first time to finish the avatar episode :), bought my first vanilla bean frappuccino (don't worry, it was caffeine free), and then boarded my flight for Alaska! I was super nervous the whole time I was waiting that I would miss it, but I didn't :)

Flying out of Seattle was beautiful. It was just getting dark when the plane took off and I was able to see gorgeous fireworks across the whole city. It was fun being above them instead of below like usual. These pictures don't do it justice at all. Seattle is stunning at night. (It also looks way brighter in this picture than it really was. It was dark when we left).

I took a bunch of pictures as we took off and then realized that it would be too dark to take any more. However, when I woke up from about a 30 min nap on the plane I realized it was lighter than when we left. We were going to Alaska, after all :) 

This was the sun rise? Set? Just the view as I was flying towards Alaska at midnight. 

I wanted to be brave and give away a Book of Mormon, or even just talk about the church, but I didn't. At least I read it on the way, right?

 I know this picture of me is super unattractive, but this was my last picture as a 20 yr old and this is how light it was outside my window at midnight.

I woke up as a 21 year old taking care of three chillins ;) Jen decorated for me and bought me a super yummy cake. And Quince and Jen got me the book, The Anatomy of Peace. I'm pretty excited to read it.


 And I just love these kiddos so much! The more time I spend with them, the more I love them.

This is Kal-

And this is Kip-

 Aren't they beautiful?