GUESS WHO'S BACK!!
I wish I could adequately tell you how busy I have been and how fast the past year seemed to fly by for us. It has been just over a year since my last post (which is embarrassing) so my plan is to give you a year in review with my favorite picture from each month from September 2015 to August 2016. Then, it is my goal to update my blog monthly, which is more realistic than my previous weekly updates. Anyway, here we go!

September, 2015:

Jim's parents made their first trip to Wrangell! It is always exciting to have visitors, but especially first time visitors that are seeing our home for the first time. We love showing Wrangell off. 

October, 2015: 

I got my first view of the Northern Lights, which I think is on everyone's "bucket list". They do not disappoint and are definitely one of the best things about the darker days in Wrangell. 

November, 2015: 

I made my first trip "down south" to North Carolina since our move. It was awesome to see family and friends that I had been missing for 11 months. I spent two weeks trying to visit and fit everyone in and realized just how great it is to have people who love you all across the country. Distance did not change a thing!

December, 2015: 

I returned to Wrangell for the holidays. We spent our first Thanksgiving and Christmas in our new house. We (and when I say we, I mean Jim) chopped down our Christmas tree, which added the perfect touch to our cabin decor. 

January, 2016: 

I spent January learning to quilt, thanks to my friend Mindy. It's dark, rainy/snowy, and cold out so I loved getting crafty with our wood stove burning and coffee brewing. 

February, 2016: 

We always did our best to attend home basketball games at Wrangell High School, but we would have never missed the Homecoming game when Kevin was crowned Homecoming King of Wrangell High School, 2016. It was so fun to watch him accept his crown to the sound of the Imperial March playing by the background by the high school band. Go, little bro! I love this town!

March, 2016: 

I could not pick just one picture for March - sorry, not sorry. Jim and I traveled to North Carolina and Virginia together to be showered with love and gifts from family and friends at two different showers on Easter weekend. I also met my best friends first born, Geoffrey (love at first sight does exist) and found out my little sister and her husband are expecting their first sweet baby girl (love at first thought exists too)! 

April, 2016: 

I spent a weekend in April bettering my self as a Speech-Language Pathologist by attending a Vital Stim course in Seattle. This is a modality which uses neuromuscular electric stimulation to strengthen and re-education swallowing muscles to do their thing! I can't describe how weird this felt...

May, 2016: 

The salmon derby opens in Wrangell during the month of May and this past derby I caught my first King Salmon! You can bet I took my fish proudly to the scales to enter it in for the derby and swear the scales were broken. I am still proud of my (barely legal size) 10.5 lb fish. 

June, 2016: 

We celebrated Jim's 30th birthday and my mom's 60th birthday (but don't tell her I told you) during the month of June. With the help of many others, I successfully pulled off a surprise cookout party. Jim also experienced his first commercial crabbing season opening the day after his birthday. I am always proud of him and his enthusiasm towards learning new things. 

July, 2016: 

July was spent in last minute preparation for the wedding and embracing the last few "legally single" date nights, fishing trips, and adventures we could. Every piece of our wedding fell into place beautifully and I am so thankful for all the support and help we received. 

August, 2016: 

We had the best day EVER on August 6, 2016! We said our "I do's" at 11 that Saturday morning and spent the afternoon eating yummy food and cake (thanks Tammy and Sherri) and celebrating with our friends and family. We were blessed with the best weather you could imagine and safe travel for all of our out of town guests. We are so lucky!

So now here we are in September, 2016, still loving everything about this beautiful life and learning more and more as we go. Beatrice the beagle is still doing well and will be gaining a friend this month - another beagle named Tobias/"Toby". I can't wait to meet him in just a few weeks!

Stay tuned for next month's update which is sure to include an unhealthy amount of beagle pictures. :)

My monthly "God thing": 

A lot of sad news has come across our media in the past year. The more I hear and see, the more I would like to disconnect from all the propaganda. Then I was reminded by this song (link below) this morning that we should continue to do what we are all called to do as Christians and continue to Love. I purposefully capitalize Love to give specificity to the word and not use it loosely. When I say Love, I mean to Love as we are commanded, as Christ has loved us. His Love is unconditional and the realist thing out there. 

#wheresthelove?

I am sitting a waiting for my dad and brother to get off the ferry and officially arrive in Wrangell as new residents. It is an awesome, surreal feeling after thinking about it for months, and talking with them to make plans, and preparing our home for two more guests. In the meantime, during all this preparation, we have been EXTREMELY busy. In the past month we have done continuous work on the house, made our first road trip through Alaska and Canada to Anchorage, celebrated the 4th of July Wrangell style, picked up our boat, continued to catch salmon, made new friends and said goodbye, and visited Anan Creek Bear Observatory. I also have added a new "title" by becoming a fitness instructor of a class (once a week) with Wrangell Parks and Recreation. My weekly commutes to Petersburg continue, and my caseload there is full! Jim is still working hard (or hardly working!) at Wrangell Medical Center. Our house continues to feel more like a home. Our porch is now a lovely blue and the two hammocks on the front porch are frequently used. I have become somewhat better at keeping our potted flowers alive, but Jim maintains the title of "green thumb" here.

Jim caught yet another King Salmon... no big deal. 

Enjoying time with my salmon sister, Brooke, before she left Wrangell. 

Let me just tell you - Wrangell, Alaska knows how to through a proper 4th of July celebration. Seriously, if any of you are looking for a fun summer vacation for the 4th of July week, this is the place to be. The town was hopping for an entire week with competitions, a parade, a talent show, an egg toss contest, and an AMAZING fireworks show. We were lucky enough to be asked to participate in the parade through the Hospice Care of Wrangell. It was so fun! It was also crazy to look out at the crowd from the parade and realize how many great people we have met and built awesome relationships with in such a short time. This town has such a strong bond and it is refreshing.

Parade participants

Jim, with our friend Don, before the parade began.

Jim tried to climb that greased pole to get to money at the end... he fell. 

Aaron tried to climb the pole too... he also fell. 

The bagpipes sounded great!

A few days after the 4th of July celebrations ended, we hopped on the Alaska Marine Highway again with Jim's truck and rode it up to Haines. From Haines, we drove to Anchorage to pick up his boat (and trailer). The best route to take took us through parts of the Yukon Territory, through Canada, up to Tok (in Alaska), and then back down southwest to Anchorage. I am almost sure the road going through Canada is the original highway put in with gravel and it had not been updated. It was so rough that we were traveling 15 mph in a 4 wheel drive truck. It was basically a road of potholes. We were told that we would see lots of wildlife: elk, moose, deer, bear, eagles, hawks, rabbits, and weasels. Of course, we were both excited to see a big moose or bear so we were watching the road side intently. We drove all the way to Anchorage, stayed in Anchorage 4 days (a day longer than expected - but that's next paragraph), and drove half way back before we saw a moose. We were jokingly saying that it was a conspiracy, practical joke, or that we were going to see Big Foot before we saw a moose. However, we did see 6 total during the last of our drive. They were HUGE and I could not believe how fast they could move. I never did get a decent picture or even video - partly because they were so fast and good at hiding, but also because the road was so bumpy and awful.

The Canadian boarder house was super official looking. 

I had to have I Hop while we were in Anchorage. Okay, I had to have I Hop twice while we were in Anchorage.

Getting on the Ferry!

Exploring Haines, AK. 

This was not part of the terrible, Canadian road. This was back in Alaska nearing Anchorage. 

Sleeping in the truck was difficult - this was as dark as it got up north and the temperature dropped below freezing!

These were the fancy rest areas along the Alaska Highway. 

A BEAUTIFUL lake in Canada. Pictures just do not do it justice. 

Untouched land. 

Haines, AK

So the story of our extended stay: the boat came with a trailer and we had been told by multiple people that you need to have the bearings checked on the trailer before getting on that rocky, terrible road. The man that had been keeping the boat and trailer hooked us up with a great mechanic who took one look at the bearings and said, "the front ones are shot but I think the back bearings will get you there." So he got on the phone to order parts and couldn't find anything in the state of Alaska. The best he could do was call Seattle Monday morning and try to overnight ship parts to arrive on Tuesday. We were planning to leave Monday morning, but Jim had extended the trip by a couple days about a month before hand (following a gut feeling) and we had some time to spare. We bought a few extra tires, waiting for the mechanic to finish his job, crossed our fingers, and left Tuesday afternoon around 4. We drove straight through (not stopping a night to relax) just to save time incase we did have any difficulty with the car or trailer. Okay, okay, Jim drove straight through. I did get to sleep... for a lot of the time. We pulled off a few times on the side of the road at little rest areas, which were all latrine style out houses, and he slept when needed. It was an 18 hour trip on the way back, so he is a real champ.

Oh my goodness - we went on an awesome little day trip to Anan Creek Bear Observatory last weekend. It was so unbelievable! Basically, the park is set up for you to hike to an observation deck that is situated on a creek full of salmon, so naturally there are lots of bears there feeding on the salmon. We saw both brown and black bears and I think the pictures speak for themselves on how close we were to them. At times, a bear would walk right up to the deck or under the deck. There were also lots of eagles around that would come clean up fish carcasses that the bears would leave behind. Then smaller birds would come clean up after the eagles. Nothing was wasted. It was amazing to see! I even got a video of a brown bear pulling a salmon right from the creek!

So now, until next time I find to write. I am going to continue enjoying this life, the place I live, and the people I live it with. My dad and brother arrived safely to Wrangell and have been busy unpacking and adjusting to a new environment. So far, so good! I am so happy they are here with us.

My "God thing":
There have been so many God things to happen in the past month that it is hard to know where to even begin. First off, my dad and Brother traveled all the way across the continent with no major issues to arise. They were lucky enough to experience the beauty that is still fresh in my mind from traveling across the USA. We also got to experience more of the trip by driving through the Yukon and more of Alaska. We drove on a road that was so deserted that you would go an hour or more between towns of 100-200 residents. So much of the territory we covered was untouched. It was almost like stepping into a time machine and getting a glimpse of the world before we put our mark on His creation. He gave us such an incredible planet to live on - and we definitely do not deserve it. His creations are so beautiful and perfect.