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We thought we would share our latest snow storm with all of you. The storm that stranded everyone in Seattle has arrived in Juneau. Since Friday we have received so much snow our fence in the front yard has disappeared! I am sure we have received over two feet in the last 48 hours. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what we started with and what we have now.
This is our front yard on Christmas day. We got another 8 inches or so right after this, but nothing more.
The storm got here really early Friday morning and this is what it looked like by Friday night.
As of this afternoon this is what the front yard looks like. We are grateful to have a snowblower, it sure makes shoveling the driveway much easier! Our poor mailbox and fence are completely covered now and we have to keep a path cleared for the dogs. It doesn't seem like the snow is ever going to stop, but they say the storm has almost moved out.
Today we went to the doctors and they gave us some new ultrasound pictures of the baby. You can kind of make out the head and face in this image. Overall, the little baby is doing great and is a wiggler. Anyhow, just wanted to pass along this picture.
We just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy New Year. Below are some pictures of Megan and I (not the most flattering picture, but at least it shows the pregnant belly) and of Buxton and Suma sporting their Christmas sweaters that Megan’s mom got for them.
Well, I realized it has been some time since we have posted anything about the pups, our two Boston Terriers. We obtained them both about two and a half years ago while living in Virginia from a rescue organization, Boston Terrier Rescue of North Carolina. Anyhow, they are both cute and are up to doing the things dogs do. Their main activities include eating, sleeping (and plenty of that), playing, pooping, and sometimes puking (yes, a story is provided below). Anyhow, here are some pictures of what the dogs often do. Buxton, our one eyed dog (his eye had to be taken out because his previous owners treated him so bad), often loves to lay by the wood burning stove and stay roasty warm. He lays there until he gets so hot he as to get up, panting, and lay someplace else. The picture shows him panting, and his one eye, or as we say, 'he's always winking'. And below the pictures of Buxton by the fire, one of Suma chomping on a toy bone, and another of her smiling (yes, she smiles, and the below image captures her smile) in her pink camouflage coat. Suma loves to chew on her toys and play games; she loves to play tugg-o-war.
As for the story, and previous hint about puking, well, here's how it goes. For the last little while Buxton has picked up the bad habit of eating his own poop. Yea, it must be a dog thing. He doesn't quite get the phrase 'tastes like crap'. Anyhow, we've tried a handful of things to get him to stop. They have these special treats that you feed dogs that make their poops taste bad, rather spicy also, but not even that phased Buxton--even when we tipple dosed him. We joke that he likes 'Thai poops' (since Thai food is sometimes spicy), since they are spicy. Anyhow, the other day he was acting funny, like he was feeling sick, and sure enough, he started puking. We tossed him outside, then he would come back in and start puking again. This pattern repeted a few times. We had about five piles around the house when all was said and done, and it wasn't pretty. In short, he had eaten a poop and it had made him sick. How did we know he had eaten a poop, you may ask? Because we could smell the poop from the puke piles. Megan, of course, put me, Zach, on clean up duty (Yipeee!). So I went around scooping poop-pukes, swearing, gagging, dry-heaving, near puking myself, throughout the whole cleanup event. Nothing quite like scrubbing a puke pile that reeks of fresh dog poop. And it was wafting strong! Anyhow, to make a long story short, after a few near pukes on my part, the mess was cleaned up.
Well, last night was our last game of the season. We got knocked out of the double elimination playoffs, but it was still a ton of fun. I wouldn't trade it for the world and have already signed up for next season. Hockey is such good exercise and its a great release. Below are a few photos capturing me in action (# 11).
For the Thanksgiving holiday we flew home to spend it with family in Utah. It was great to see all the family and friends that we miss. Below are a handful of pictures from our visit.
I liked this picture because it captures Megan's family posing for a photo. Of importance, it captures Brett holding his Christmas present, the football, which he felt should be in the family photo. I'll have you know he slept with the football that night like it was a new teddy-bear.
This was just a cute picture of Megan and Aleene from when we went and shot skeet at Newton Dam.
This photo captured a good shot of Zach's family, or at least the brother, his wife, and little sister.
But, the crown jewel of them all, this picture captured the Jones family girls, but importantly, a snapshot of mom. Importantly, mom is camera shy, she loves to take pictures, but isn't a fan of being photographed. This picture captures her with a great smile, but also giving those 'mom eyes' because she does not like being photographed.
Although it has been snowing off and on, snowshoeing is an option, and we love ice hockey (btw, Zach broke his finger playing hockey last week!), we've been getting fishing fever again. We miss the summer months of reeling in the big ones. I was looking through some old pictures and crossed these two. The top one captures Megan on the reel, and Zach getting ready to pull the pliers from his back pocket to unhook that big incoming salmon. The other shows Zach with a near 20 pounder on, also bending the pole rod. That was a fun day.
Just wanted to let everyone know we are headed home for the Thanksgiving Holiday! We are very excited to go home! If anyone else will be in Logan for the holiday-please let us know. We would love to see anyone we can. Happy Thanksgiving!
Today we went to the doctor to learn if we are having a boy or a girl (Zach authoring this post). And it looks like our voters were correct; we’re having a boy! Yup, our first youngling will be an Alaskan boy. Time to start buying toddler fishing kits and red-rider bb guns! Anyhow, we are super excited and humbled by this great event in our lives. Whether this one had been a boy or girl didn’t matter, we’re just glad that so far everything has checked out on the little fella’s health. And Megan is doing great; she’s a trooper for carrying this little cuss around in her belly notwithstanding the discomfort it sometimes brings. We promise to post a picture of Megan once her belly starts poking out a bit more, we’d do so now but there’s not much to show at this point. So for today, we figured a scan from today's visit would suffice; in short, this shows our little man on the grow. We’ll keep some updates coming and thanks to everyone for your support.
This last weekend, after a fresh snow, we decided to take the dogs for a short walk in the woods. We took the West Glacier Trail, a trail that goes up to Mendenhall Glacier, which is about a five minute drive from our house. While we didn't go all the way, we did enjoy getting out and just enjoying the beauty of nature. Toward the beginning of our walk I stopped and took a couple pictures, such as of Mendenhall Glacier and of Skater's Cabin--a great place to roast marshmallows over a fire before going for an iceskate in mid winter.
At our last game someone from the local newspaper came down and took some pictures of our team playing and wrote a short summary of the game. (we are in the white jerseys, and yes, sadly we didn't win this game) And although I wasn't photographed (dang!) I figured I'd post a link to the featured 20 or so pictures and to the short report. Hockey is the best!
This past week I (Zach) went out clam digging with a co-worker. We went to a secret spot here in the area and within an hour the five of us had more than enough to eat. While it wasn’t as good of digging as last year, we still made a good haul. Sadly, I had to fly to Anchorage the next day for work and wasn’t able to have the traditional next-day clam steam and feast. However, my co-worker generously brought some to work a few days later and I got to sample the tasty and buttery little buggers. Yum, yum, yum, fresh clams sure are good. The picture (not by me) shows a bowlful of Steamer Clams, one species that we looked for.
I (Zach) just wanted to provide a slight hockey update. In short, things are going great with our team and I am having a blast playing this season for JAHA. Thus far we have had four games (click here to see our schedule), we have won two, tied one, and lost one. Overall our team has good sportsmanship and we are really learning to play as a team. We have a good team, with a handful of good players, so it’s been great. It looks as though I’ll be playing the position of Center for the season, which is just fine with me. It’s a lot of work to play Center, but I really enjoy it. All in all, I couldn’t be more pleased. Hockey is just the best!
Well, I wanted to let everyone know that hockey season started on Sept. 29. I am playing on a co-ed team via the Juneau Adult Hockey Association. I played last winter as well, and I just loved it. Last year I played forward, but I am open to any position. Last Monday was our first game and we won 8 to 0, and I was lucky enough to score one goal, playing center. All in all its a blast and I would not trade the experience for anything. The picture is of me (number 11) playing last winter.
I (Megan) was going through some pictures on the computer of this past summer with Brett and Chelsea and found this little video clip. A little backgroud before you watch it...
When Brett first arrived here in Juneau he didn't quite know what to think of the dogs, especially the fact that they live in the house. Well after a few weeks, Suma had Brett under her little spell and by the end of the summer he was ready to take her home (see photo above). Well a few nights before they left we caught Brett singing to Suma--as he VERY often did during his stay, only this time we caught it on video. On this particular night he was singing a song he lovingly came up with and sang frequently to her as they cuddled. Now, Brett made Chelsea swear on her life that it would never go on their blog, but I made no such promises. Tonight as I was looking at pictures of the summer and missing both Brett and Chelsea, I thought of no better way to tell them we miss them than to pay tribute to Brett's beautiful vocal chords. So this goes out to you Brett! (Make sure your volume is turned up!)
Well, we figured we’d post a couple pictures of the ‘flip-this-house’ work we’ve been doing. After that we’ll lay off the house pictures for a while and start talking about other stuff (though if you want to see some pretty pictures of Juneau click to see the Juneau Daily Photo Blog). Anyhow, we’ve been tackling the living room and dining room these past few weeks. Though we still have some finishing touches to do, it’s moving toward completion. Notice the ‘beautiful’ brownish-yellow patterned wallpaper that we took down before we painted (in the dining area). The before pictures taken are of the day we moved in (notice the junk that was left behind! Arrh!). Sorry if the images are a bit pixelish, our good camera is broke and the movie camera doesn’t take the sharpest photos (though it does great for movie footage). It is a lot of work to paint, but we’ve really enjoyed our house.
Well, this past month we also bought a house. Yea, it’s been busy for us. Sadly, our digital camera is broke and we haven’t quite got a new one, and thus, we don’t have a picture to show you the outside of the house. But in short, we bought a nice little three bed two bathroom house in a good location. We got the house cheaper than what most houses like it sell for since a dirty old bachelor had been living in it and had painted the outside trim bright yellow. Yikes! Yes, of course, we made him paint over the yellow before he moved out so the house doesn’t look so silly (but it luckily scared other buyers away and drove the price down). We looked lots of houses in the Juneau area and saw this one as something in a good neighborhood, re-sellable, something that would look a lot better with just some new paint (and sell for more after we put some sweat into it), and something affordable (for Juneau). But the purchase wasn’t without its bumps: as shown in these pictures. You may wonder why we have a picture of the fridge posted here. Good question, eh? Well, when this dirty old bachelor moved out he left us a huge mess. This picture shows how he left fridge when we moved in. The whole place was dirty as can be, it was a disaster, and took some serious deep cleaning. He left, all in all, a dumptruck load of junk. The picture of the side of the house shows some of the other junk he left. (these pictures were taken the morning we moved in). In short, the previous owner’s last name, Gensler, has become a bad word around our house. The other day I was in the backyard and stepped in some dog poop. I thought to myself, whoops, I have some Gensler on my shoe! There really is a long and daunting story about the whole process of getting and cleaning the house, but its too long of a story to tell here. But in all seriousness, we love our home and it’s quite exciting to make it our own. It is a fixer-uper, and we’ve been painting and shining things up. It’s really starting to look great. Once we get some pictures I’ll provide some more updates.
And importantly, thanks to everyone who posted on our last blog and for those who have also shown support. ZRJ
So I guess we should go a head and make it official....
WE ARE EXPECTING A BABY!!!
I am just about 10 weeks along, which means in about another week and a half I will be done with the first trimester! Yeah! Things have been going well, I haven't been too sick, but I have to keep food in my stomach. Zach is really excited and lovingly refers to the baby as an "amoeba" that is until we officially know what it is. This is the first baby on both sides of our families, so you can imagine the excitement! We will try to keep you posted as we find out more info.
We also bought a house on the 18th of August. I am a little late on that news, but we have been so busy getting moved in and settled that we haven't had much time to blog. I will get pics up when I can-our camera is currently dead. We are really excited about the house-it is definitely a fixer-upper, but there isn't much to be had on the Juneau market, so we couldn't be too choosy. We have a lot of work to do, mostly painting and flooring, which shouldn't prove to be too hard.
Mom-I promise to get pictures on here or to you as soon as I can-Chelsea has video of the house she can show you for now. Brett and Chelsea-the dogs miss you dearly!
As I (Zach) mentioned in the past post, we spent the weekend at Windfall Lake Cabin. It was a beautiful hike in, mostly along a raging river veiled in fog. The cabin was great, set right on the edge of the lake. It felt great to get away and spend some time in the mountains. All this said, on the hike in the dogs learned an important lesson about porcupines. Yep, they thought they were invincible, tough and able to take on anything--boy were they wrong. As we were walking along the trail all of a sudden they darted into the foliage and began barking and snarling. We, of course, couldn't really see them because the forest floor is so overgrown and dense (its technically a rainforest here). We started yelling for them wondering if it was a bear. I pulled out my pistol and headed off into the woods after them. As I got closer I heard a couple yelps and then the dogs quit barking entirely. Sure enough, they came running to me as I got close, and they were stuck full with porcupine quills. So for the next half hour we pulled quills. Luckily all the quills came out easy, the barbs were small. The quills hurt the dogs when we pulled them out, but hopefully they learned an important lesson from all this. It was scary at first, but everything worked out ok in the end. From the pictures you can see how Suma got the lesser of the battle, while Buxton reeks of defeat with lots of quills in his foot and face. It was quite the adventure.
We just wanted to let everyone know that this weekend we are going to Windfall Lake Cabin. We hope to catch fish, see some bears, and enjoy the great outdoors. After returning we should be moving into our new house. We'll try and provide pictures of the trip and of the house once we settle in. Anyhow, life is great and have a great weekend. Image is from the deck of the cabin.
Last night we drove up the road to a nearby cove and had a fun evening. We first had a nice campfire and hotdog roast overlooking the water. While cooking our hotdogs we watched the coastline to see if any salmon were jumping. Sure enough, we spotted a stretch where the fish kept leaping in and out of the water. Of course, we marched over there after our dinner and began snagging. These were pink salmon and we were catching one about every cast. We ended up keeping three that looked fresh and silver, but likely turned 50 or more loose. All in all it was a beautiful place to have fun and spend our Saturday night. Pictures include Brett reeling one in and myself posing by the three fish we kept--two caught by me and one by Megan.
When we went fishing a few weeks back one of our friends came out with us, a guy with a sharp eye for photography. Anyhow, he took some pictures of us while we were snagging that day. The two included here are from his batch. The rest were added to our online album, at the end of it, and can be viewed by clicking here.
This past weekend we stayed at another cabin here in Juneau-Peterson Lake- and had a great time. Of course, Brett and Chelsea came with us, along with the pups. We had a great time hiking in the MUD-what an experience. Meg's shoes are really a lime green-although you can not tell from the picture. We were soaked to our knees and the dogs were filthy-especially after I tried to wash Suma off in a "puddle of water" which was really a puddle of mud. Let's just say I accidentally dropped her and she fell in clear over her back-just before it was time to get in the car and head home! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
The lake was beautiful-the fish were tiny, but easy to catch, so that made for some great entertainment. We had a great time and can't wait until our next cabin in August! Who couldn't love it here! We just wish the sun would have come out to join us. It was a rainy weekend, but still beautiful!
For our5th anniversary Zach and I decided to get away for a few days and enjoy some time together. It was great to get away for and see a new part of the country. Seattle is a very busy city with a lot of great places to eat and shop. We arrived in Seattle on our anniversary and found it only fitting to head straight to the temple. It was wonderful to be there and reflect back on the beginning of our marriage. It was a great way to start off our trip.
We ate at some really neat places, listened to some great music at a neat jazz club, wandered through Pike Place Market (just like a huge farmers market) saw some beautiful fireworks, visited some neat museums and did a lot of walking! All in all we had a wonderful weekend! Thanks Ali, Zane and Brit for all your insight on Seattle!! (Check out more pics on our web album)
