Counting Stars

I wanna be scared, don't wanna know why

Wanna feel good, don't have to be right

The world makes all kinds of rules for love

I say you gotta let it do what it does

I don't want just another hug and a kiss goodnight

Catchin' up calls and a date sometimes

I love that we're rebels, and we still believe

We're the kind of crazy people wish that they could be, yeah

But I don't want "good" and I don't want "good enough"

I want "can't sleep, can't breathe without your love"

Front porch and one more kiss, it doesn't make sense to anybody else

Who cares if you're all I think about,

I've searched the world and I know now,

It ain't right if you ain't lost your mind

Yeah, I don't want easy, I want crazy

Smiley Faces

Brian got back from his hunting trip sadly sans moose. Not sure of what the weather was planning on doing as the sun played hide and seek with the clouds, Brian & I pulled out our new GPS and set out to do some urban geocaching. As nerdy as this game is (yes, we're rather big nerds), geocaching is a phenomenal way to explore a city. There are so many of the 'little things' in life we walk by every day in the hustle and bustle of it all. 

So with our GPS in hand we set out across the city for several little smiley faces and one DNF.

Our adventures brought us not only all over downtown Anchorage, but to what is believed to be the worlds largest chocolate waterfall. I was never one for chocolate, but the smell in that place was amazing!

28th Anniversary of the Incident of 1986

Where, oh where, has the last year gone? It feels like just yesterday I was standing barefoot on the sharp, slimy rocks of Wild Goose Island humming 'Happy Birthday' to myself. Since then I've had someone incredibly special walk back into my life, fell in love, traveled to the 50th state (2 more down, only a handful of states left!), fulfilled some Bucket List travels/sights/adventures, traveled the country, married the most phenomenal man in an amazing wooded elopement ceremony, been adopted into a whole new family of amazing in-laws, said goodbye to Missoula, been stranded in another country, moved to Alaska!, said goodbye to Mi Baja, adopted a Bucket Cat, & SO MUCH MORE! I've laughed, I've cried, I've said goodbye to many amazing people but welcomed many new ones. I've experienced some of the happiest times of my life but was also challenged by some of my personal demons & was stared in the face by the meaning of my own journey in this world.

This year, to celebrate, Bosco & I headed to one of the peaks overlooking Anchorage to admire our new home. It's been one hell of a year and I can only imagine what the next one has in store.

Here's to another beautiful year. *cheers*

Holy Cow

I received an early birthday gift from the lovely Lydia in the mail this week. Normally I wait to open all cards/gifts until my actual birthday, but since the USPS had already opened it half way, I finished the job the day I got it.

Feeling so loved already.

Removing the Middle Man

Brian just got home from a fishing trip. Now our freezer is full of the freshest silver salmon a girl could ask for! Yum!

Hopefully he comes home with a moose next week after his hunting trip! *fingers crossed* I passed my hunters safety course in July and will hopefully get my chance to head out for some sort of large game sometime in September. Although if you know me, all that might happen is a lot of tears. Updates on that to follow as events unfold.

Middle Earth

     Once the rain finally decided to stop (have I mentioned before that it rains a LOT here in Anchorage?) Bosco & I headed to Kincaid Park for my first ride w/ the Novara, aka KittyHawk, on a single track. We saw a few moose on the trail and I managed to not throw myself off my bike so I'm calling that a win.

     Here's us enjoying our post ride drinks. I would have rather have had a cold brew, but Bosco forgot his ID.

Matanuska Glacier

I've always wanted to walk on a glacier. Even with my numerous hours spent exploring the inner workings of Glacier National Park, this dream has seemed to elude me. Thankfully, Alaska has several glaciers with in a days drive of Anchorage to help make this a reality.


For me, birthdays are about doing things, not getting things. So I've been planning a trip to the Matanuska Glacier off the Glenn Highway for some time now. In an effort to "do something I've never done but [have always] wanted to do" yet again for my birthday this year, the day I had chosen to make this particular drive was going to be August 26th. Then I found out my husband had the opportunity to head to Tok on a hunting trip that week. Not wanting him to miss this adventure, we found ourselves with nothing to do and decently good weather for a change. So after lunch we gassed up the Subaru & headed north.


The drive is beautiful and I was happy to do it again in broad daylight and was much, MUCH less stressed, as this was the last section of my disastrous drive into Anchorage w/ the U-Haul.

Sadly, the only way to quickly reach this magnificent hunk of ice is by paying a fee of $20 per person to pass through the private land that blocks access to the glacier. As much as it pained me to part w/ this money to explore nature, it was well worth the experience and I'd recommend anyone hesitating on this part to bite the bullet and do it. You won't regret it once you get out on the ice. As far as the guiding services go, save the money & equip yourself with some crampons and pickaxes as we did and the average sturdy footed hiker will be plenty fine for trekking across the ice. After paying our fees, we passed through the gates and headed down a dusty road.


It only takes about 5-10 minutes to hike to the glacier itself. Thankfully we were equipped with some amount of our own gear and quickly left the crowds behind to delve deeper into the inner workings of this beauty. We spend a couple of hours slowly & carefully meandering around Matanuska Glacier, including finding numerous waterfalls and lakes. Yes, glacier water tastes as good as they said it would.

Practice Makes Perfect

Like most of us who aren't extremely gifted in one thing or another, I've had to work (sometimes hard) for most things in my life. Although I am a huge believe in the fact that things happen for a reason and will sometimes allow something not going as planned to ultimately sway my course, I've never been afraid struggling along to get what I want either.

I worked hard at basketball in high school. I usually never walked away w/ the MVP trophy (although once I did!), but Most Improved Player had my name on it year after year. Despite A's coming easy for me in high school, college was a different story. I was usually putting in significantly more hours of study time than that of my peers. And although my ultimate career dream is for me to be working with animals, I've spent the last few years breaking into the medical field to take home a bigger paycheck and ultimately dig myself (& now my husband too) entirely out of all debts by my 30th birthday.

A combination of being newly married to a very picky eater and taking advantage of all that Anchorage has to offer, which includes MANY rainy days, has brought me to dusting off my cooking skills and revamping my personal recipe book. I love to cook, so this challenge has been a fun one. Baking however, is a completely different story. Having always wanted to bake like my grandmother, but never having the time (or nerve) to start is no longer an excuse. I've spent the last few weeks tackling a few smaller baking challenges. Early this week I decided to tackle a more difficult one, my maternal grandmother's gob recipe. Patience may not be one of my strong suits, but thankfully this lesson in patience and practice is a tasty one! 

My husband is also tackling a new challenge. He bought a violin while on his last tour of duty in Afghanistan, but it's been sitting in it's pretty little case ever since. Tuesday night I surprised him with his first violin lesson. He's got a natural ear for music. Which I'm grateful for because it means he's already progressing quickly and the sound of someone learning to play a difficult instrument is much more tolerable in our house.