Update

Haven't blogged in a while.  Nicole is growing everyday more and more.  She is constantly talking and almost seems like she never stops.  Everyday we practice our numbers and counting.  She can count to ten but always has an issue with four.   She likes to count the airplanes and the tractors on the way to "school" in the morning.  We recently made an offer on a house and are starting to get excited to move again.  Base housing is just too small for us.  We should close around December 7th and I plan to move in the same day.  haha  We are starting to look at Christmas already and looking at what to get Nicole.  I think her big thing will be a new swing set for the house, we are already looking around at those.

The base here offers spouse incentive flights on all the aircraft assigned.  I have never seen something like this and took advantage of it.  I asked to fly on the CV22, that is the plane that can turn its wings to fly like a helicopter and turn them back to fly like a plane.  It was a great ride nice and smooth.  Taking off scared me a little, we took off like a helicopter and then transitioned to a plane in the air.  It was kind of neat to see.  They let all of us walk out to the tail of the aircraft and look out the back.  I was so scared while doing this but knew I would regret it if I didn't go back and see.  Some ladies that I flew with said the 130 was fun to fly on last year, I told them I flew on one from Alaska to Afghanistan and back and didn't really need to see one up close again for a while.  Cant wait to fly on something again next year.

Jake is getting into the grove of work here.  He is the NCOIC of debrief for a year and then we will see what happens next.  He is waiting to see when he will deploy, we expect it to be next year sometime.  He sure is missing fishing.  The closest fishing around here is over two hours away and he hasn't met anyone to fish with yet.  I think he needs to find a new hobby for our time here.

Day 3

Day 3 found us leaving Whitehorse and heading for Liard Hot Springs.  The drive was long and boring.  We made it about 400 miles or so I think.  We did get to see some animals which was exciting. We saw a single black bear walking along the road and then we saw a herd of buffalo on the highway. We made it to Liard Hot Springs and decided to take Nicole swimming/soaking.  Dad and Nana wanted no part in this adventure and watched.  I thought for sure that Nicole would hate it so I didn't even grab my suit.  But of course she loved it.  Kind of smelly but oh well.  Gas during this portion of the rive was 6.01 a gallon, wowoowowoowow.

On the road day two

We started our day a little later than we thought we would.  On our first day to Tok we lost the cover for the propane bottles in the front of the trailer.  So when we got started on the 31st we were lucky and found Napa open at 0830, Jake said it was the same price for a battery cover as it would have been in Anchorage, so that was good.

The plan was to make it to Whitehorse. Which we did with a few slow downs along the way.  From Tok to the border the roads were good the last 15 to the border started to get really bad, but prior to that we got stuck behind to motorhomes doing 40 for about 30 minutes, so that slowed us down.  When we got to the crossing we were kind of anxious but had all our papers lined up and ready, we never got searched and passed on through.

Just before the border we saw the leaving Alaska Welcome to Canada signs so lucky for us it  wasn't raining and we got some good pictures.

The next 120 miles to Destruction Bay were the worse roads ever.  It took over three hrs just to drive the 120 miles.  We were excited to see Destruction Bay and had a nice lunch their at the Motel.  Tomorrow we start cooking at home.  The last 200 lies to Tok flew right by.  Not sure why but when you know that you are about 60 miles from stopping those miles are the longest.

So now we are in Whitehorse and plan to get on the road tomorrow.  We hope to do about 350 miles each day and hopefully that can shave a day off the 6 we had planned to get from Anchorage to Tacoma.  We will see what the next few days brings us.

Sleepy girl

Leaving Alaska Day One

 Jake had to out process the base before we could leave on Monday the 30th.  We didn't get on the road until noon the first day.  The plan was to head to Tok about 286 miles away, we made it there in about 6 hours or so.  Took a quick break in Glennallen along the way.  We didn't see anything exciting along the way, except for a motor home pulling a jeep and a boat at the same time.  Pictures below show the trip so far.  Nicole was such a good girl, she never got fussy or whined at all.

                                                       Nicole getting ready to leave

                                                                  Almost ready

                                                             Kind of crazy to me

                                                               Such a good girl

                                                                       Tok, AK

2nd Birthday

Yesterday was Nicole's birthday and I cannot believe she is two year old already.  Wow the time sure flies.  On her first birthday we celebrated in the travel trailer and it seems its becoming a ritual because this year we are in the trailer again.  Camping long term this time around.

We aren't doing a party this year so we were trying to make the day special for her.  We started our day by getting her two year appt completed.  Unfortunately she had to get some shots but she was a trooper.  She is 29.6 lbs (89th percentile), 35.125 inches tall (80th percentile).  Such a big girl.

We thought we would take Nicole to the zoo for the first time.  She was not very interested in it.  She did enjoy the petting zoo but that was about it.  Hopefully when we go to Washington next month she will like the Point Defiance Zoo more.

Then we had our favorite pizza and went to get her cake at the store.  Jake got her a light saber, I think he was more excited over it then her.  The cake we got was not the best.  But I have it on good authority that Aunt Jan is making up a special chocolate cake for her when we get to Oregon.

Well time is flying by for all of us now.  Jakes mom will be here next week to begin our journey to the "lower 48"  It should be a good time.  I am ready to get on the road and start our new adventure.

We are planning to get to Washington as quickly as possible, beside the gas prices in Canada we are excited to see my nephew, my sister and my mom.  From there we will go to Oregon for a few days and see Aunt Jan and Uncle Oscar.  Then its on to California where we will be seeing lots of people I am sure, to many to list here.

My plan is to blog each day, (haha) hopefully.  and to post sometime when we get to internet.  I am sure between me and Terri we will have tons of pictures to show.

Big Dates Ahead

Big dates are coming up for us. 

July 6th we move out of our house 25 days
July 6th move into the travel trailer-Tminus 25 days
July 10th Sell the house and sign all the papers. Tminus 29 days
July 13th my last day at work and Nicole's last day at school.  Tminus 32 days
July 16th Nicole turns TWO.-Tminus 35 days
July 29th Terri is coming to town to drive the ALCAN with us Tminus 47 days
July 30th Jake is going to "Final out" the base 48 days
July 31st get on the road, so excited.  Tminus 49 days

Mini Update

Just realized its been since XMAS when I last posted a blog, so a mini update.  We are leaving Alaska in 108 days not that we are counting.  The past two weeks we have been doing nothing but house stuff trying to get it ready to be put on the market.  Hopefully we can list it on Monday.  We are ready to start our next adventure.  Nicole has been so good thru the whole moving process even though it hasn't really started yet.  She is a firecracker and her favorite word is "no"  to everything.  Its hilarious.  She is looking more and more like Jake everyday. 

When we leave here we are going to be driving out and pulling the trailer.  We are stopping in Washington, Oregon and California on the way to New Mexico.  Hopefully we are able to see alot of the family on the way to our new home.