Paul Wall & Shug Knight

Sheep

2012-01-11T21:01:00.004-09:00

On Monday we decided to get out of town. We went for a drive down Turnagain Arm to Girdwood for some of the most violent sledding of our entire lives. The scenery was great and the sledding aftermath was incredibly painful. Today my elbow didn't work at all. This picture is from the drive, not the sledding.

When I first moved up here for my internship, my supervisor Diana told me that Alaska was 15 minutes outside of Anchorage. Love it. Every time we drive down this road, we assign a value or prize to different animal sightings. If anyone sees a bald eagle, they get a quarter. Dall Sheep are ice cream. Bears are a cheeseburger or something like that. Belugas are a five course dinner. (I wish.) Every once in a while we have a nice spotting. Sheep are pretty rare and usually high up, looking like white specks that are probably snow.

Well, this Monday we hit the sheep jackpot. We found this little family just a ways up from the road, right at a pull-off.

I liked that we could see their tracks up to their nice cozy nesting place.

On our way home after our kamikaze sledding incident, we rounded a corner and this little gipper was trotting along the road.

He got off the road pretty quickly. I enjoyed watching him scamper through the snow.

Here he's thinking about going home.

What We Do In The Winter

2012-01-11T20:44:00.002-09:00

Last year mom gave us a candy thermometer for Christmas. Thanks Mom! This year Paul gave me a long longed for yogurt maker for my birthday. Thanks Paul! Combine the two and what do you get?

Delicious yogurt.

With all the Christmassing going on around here, I took a slight hiatus from making bread. With the new scale and meat/bread thermometer from Paul's parents (Thanks Jeff & Kathy!) I made my best batch yet!

We also found our bird feeder a little askew after this weekend's snow. I guess Anchorage has topped its all-time record for snow to date at this point in the winter. We have had more than double the average. This year so far we've had 81.3 inches with more coming! Ilove it! (Especially since sweet Paul does the shovelling!)

All the pictures are thanks to my Dad for our new lenses! Thanks Dad!

Happy Solstice

2011-12-21T16:03:00.004-09:00

Just in case you're wondering, we're still alive. Today is the shortest day of the year. Tomorrow (the 22nd) is my birthday! Yep, I'm turning 21. Again. For the rest of my life.

Our life gets a lot less...blogable in the winter I guess. Mostly I would be posting pictures of Paul sitting on the couch doing homework or me sitting on the couch working on seminary. Not so picturesque. As the winter was settling in, Paul went on one more campout with the scouts.

We do still have some fun. Like doing dishes in the Christmas apron my mom sent me while I was in Georgia.

And making delicious pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving.

It must have been in October that we finally harvested our bumper crop of carrots.

After not emerging from our house in months, we finally trekked out to cut down our Chrsitmas tree. Our 2nd Christmas tree. Yup, we bought one on the corner from a guy without any teeth earlier because I didn't want to wait until we had time to go get one to start feeling Christmassy. So now we have two. I started out hacking at it with a hatchet. It was awesome to get out some winter angst.

Yep, you counted correctly...exactly 5 working lightbulbs on those two strings of lights.

This is my hot moutain man husband, complete with beard.

Mini Revolution

2011-10-23T20:20:00.004-08:00

So, remember when Griff had her revolution? Remember how she stopped being addicted to checking her email and blogs? (I'm paraphrasing...hope you don't mind, Griff.) Well, I recently had a little tiny revolution of my own. Enough with the incessant checking of blogs and email. Let's be honest, I get an email from a friend maybe once or twice a week. The rest are travel offers and recipes from Saveur that I delete without even looking at them. Sure, it only takes a couple of seconds, but all day those seconds add up. I love the feeling of coming back from vacation and realizing that I've broken the habit of wanting to check my email, but usually I settle right back into it because there's always a computer around. Well, no more! I now check my email in the morning when I get to work and when I get home from work. By now, maybe 2 weeks in, I forget to check my email when I get home. I did it! I changed my life! I check blogs on Sunday afternoon, and it's nice because there's always something new to read from someone. Hooray for less wasted time in my life. Next step, smashing up all the computers in my life. Might have to wait for Paul to be done with school to accomplish that one. And I'm not sure my boss would appreciate that...

This new way of life, combined with approaching winter has resulted in the recent dearth of posts on my own blog. We're keeping busy as usual, but the things we are involved in are much less picturesque than in the summertime. Though I have decided that September is now my favorite month. I really love love loved autumn this year.

Here are some out of date pictures of the last month or so. A beautiful salad from our garden this year. I was really fond of the nasturtiums. They are edible flowers that have a peppery taste at first which is followed by sweet honey notes.

The biggest pea I have ever seen in my entire life. We had the best strawberry crop yet. They just kept coming and coming and they were so so sweet.

We were also happy with our first successful zuccini.

Paul cooking halibut and hot dogs for those of us with slightly less refined taste.

We had a pitiful blueberry harvest this year. We have committed a friend to show us his family's secret spot next year. But we can't post any pictures of that because it's TOP SECRET and his parents must never know. In fact, I hear he has to blindfold us on the way.

I made Razamatazz bars. This is a Griff recipe that she fed me when I visited her once in NJ. Amazing!

Paul left me to go elk hunting with his family in Colorado. They were super successful and got as many elk as they had tags for. He had fun with his family and came home and made delicious jerky. He's a good one.

While he was away, I invited some work friends over to make bread and keep me company. That night Chris showed up with a garbage bag full of basil from his parents. It was the most basil I've ever seen in my life. He and Gilia proceeded to whip up about a million batches of pesto that they left in my freezer. I was startled when I checked later and saw how huge the pile was. They started the evening claiming to be purists, but by the end of the night I had apple picante pesto, red pepper pesto and a loaf of pesto cheese swirl bread.

And then when Paul came home I had a nice little loaf of craisin orange bread waiting for him.

So now we're settling in for the winter. No snow yet, but it's a-comin. Paul's busy with school and I'm doing seminary so there is much less time for shenanigans. This is the time of year when all our picturues start to feature only the food we're cooking. Too bad we didn't get a picture of last night's salmon pickle dish.

2011-09-11T19:50:00.012-08:00

Ah yes, the beginning of fall has come and gone, marked as always by...you guessed it...THE ALASKA STATE FAIR!

Remember when I hated fairs? And then I married Paul and he lugged me along to enjoy one of his favorite childhood memories. Every year I have enjoyed it more and more. This was the BEST FAIR EVER!!!! We stayed way longer than we usually do and STILL didn't see everything. We totally missed the kangaroos.

They had awesome shows this year.
BMX bike demonstration.

The annual favorite: Lumberjack Show

Circus Acts

Fun Activities for all ages.

And the Food. This food is why I start getting excited for the fair in February.

Paul with his Rhubarb Lemonade.

Me with the other annual favorite: A Denali Creampuff.

Next year my plan is to enter something in the contests. The other part of my plan is that I'm going to WIN!

Free Stuff

2011-08-28T16:25:00.003-08:00

Yesterday we enjoyed some back to school festivities on campus at UAA. We went because we heard there was free food and prizes. And there was. There was actually an amazing amount of free stuff. Half way through our wanderings, we realized it was like Halloween. We had a huge seawolf (that's the UAA mascot) laundry bag that we just kept throwing everything into. Not only did we score a huge stash of candy and assorted other goodies, we got nine (yes NINE!) free shirts! I get pretty amped if I score one free t-shirt per any event. So this was epic. And only 1 of them is XXL. That is pretty remarkable considering the usual percentage of XXL shirts in the free pile. We got home and spread out our loot into piles, just like on Halloween. Within minutes we found out that Paul had won a drawing for 2 free movie tickets! Sometimes he goes to movies for work, so they will come in handy. Then we rested up for our midnight trip to the grocery store. It was open from midnight until 2 am just for UAA students. They had a sound system blaring all that crazy club music and were giving away hotdogs and everything was on sale. We saved a bunch on our regular groceries and scored a couple bags of freebies. All in all, a well-spent Saturday evening. Not as impressive as Ben & Kelsey's hundreds of dollars jackpot, but not shabby at all. And tomorrow...THE FAIR!!!

Harvesting

2011-08-26T10:49:00.002-08:00

No pictures, unfortunately, but we made supper last night. I will tell you the ingredients and their sources.

Elk - From Jeff and Kathy's 2010 hunt in CO.
Rhubarb - From Mark's Garden
Snap Peas - From our Garden
Blueberries - We gathered from Hatcher Pass
pineapples - Costco
and a bunch of spices etc etc.

It was a delicious sweet and sour elk dish served over brown basmati rice. It's always fun this time of year to eat the bounty of the land!

My friends Gilia and Chris have definitely done well this year.

Their harvest:
1200 Clams
34 pounds of Blueberries
22 Fish
A ton of Basil (which became 5 pound of pesto)

And soon we are expecting
Gilia-1 caribou
Chris-1 moose

And hopefully Paul will bring some elk home from his hunt in Co with his Dad and Bro.

Yay Alaska!

Brittany Thailand

2011-08-15T20:43:00.013-08:00

Once, a long long time ago (okay it was the beginning of July) our good friend Brittany Thailand came to visit. We heart Brittany. Here are the reasons why:
1.) She's a party.
2.) She's really pretty. (Don't you think it's nice to have pretty friends? I do, since you have to look at them all the time.)
3.) She's really smart. I feel like I learn a lot when I talk to her. I met her in Paris and she was super good at speaking French. She still is. And she is also perfectly fluent in Thai. And she taught me all about George W Bush when we were at the Louvre. Or else we were supposed to be at the Louvre and instead we were somewhere else, talking about George W Bush. And renewable energy.
4.) We've been friends for nearly a decade. That's a long time.
5.) She has soulful eyes.

We did a lot of hiking when she was here. We did a hike called Devil's Pass, which was the milquetoastiest hike ever, contrary to its name. It was nice to have a level hike. Except Brittany kept wanting to run because (6.) she's a marathoner. We made her go our pace. (And by "our", I mean "my".) It was great.

One reason why I love Paul is because he likes my friends. Good job Paul.

We made her go dipnetting with us because my friend Chris said the reds were in. But then he said no one was catching anything. Too late, we were already in the fishing mood. Paul of course caught a bundle. (By the way...our family fish count is up to Paul-26, Shug-1.)

On July 4th we hiked up to Crow Pass. It's such a sweet hike.

Brittany is not a fan of hiking through snow water. Strange.

Oh yes (7.) Brittany's really good at building fires. And (8.) She's always game.

We made her watch videos of Paul's single brother Peter. We thought maybe she would want to marry him after watching "Cockpit Chillin." Apparently our plan had some flaws.

Probably you are all thinking, Man, I wish I/we could go visit Paul and Shug and have some lovely Alaskan adventures. Well guess what...you can! Come visit! We love having visitors. Brittany would like you all to know how nice our air mattress is.

And in case you were wondering, a life flight for 168 miles will cost you $34,920.

The Big Vacation

2011-08-07T20:35:00.024-08:00

Yes, you may be thinking we have taken an awful lot of vacations this summer. And you are right. But I think this one may just qualify as the "Big" vacation. The reason will soon be clear. We went to Colorado to visit Paul's family because his little bro Eric was getting married to the lovely Ashley. This trip has been much anticipated by us and the rest of the Rigg clan. Yes, the wedding was exciting, but the plan was to spend the weekend before the wedding at LAKE POWELL! This is something that the Riggs have done often in their growing up summers. I remember when Paul and I were first dating and he told me how someday I would come to Lake Powell with his family. I have never really been to a lake. Not like that. Not with a boat. Not with wakeboards and tubes and skis and houseboats and ton of delicious food. So I didn't really know what to expect.

We finally got to Fruita where Paul's parents live at 3:30 in the AM after a frustrating missed flight and a generous rescue by April. She drove us from SLC through the night to Fruita. I'm not quite sure how to make that long story short. Let's just say, she ended up getting her heart broken by Peter, Paul's younger and very available brother. (Don't worry, we'll get some pictures of him in here for those single friends of mine who may be interested.)

Like I said, we arrived at 3:30 and left at 4:30. We laugh in the face of sleep.

We got all set up on the houseboat, cruised out to where we were going to dock/camp and started off for the first tubing adventure of the weekend. We were all having a blast. I was deciding that I too was developing a deep love for Lake Powell. I had never been there before and pictured it kind of dry and ugly. Well guess what. It's one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my entire life. Then Paul and Eric (the brother getting married the next weekend) decided to go on one last ride on the Delta Double, a two-seater tube. They got some air, flew out of the tube, and landed on each other's heads. And this was the result about 12 hours later.

Yes, that is my sweet Paul in the ICU in Grand Junction. When they had their accident Paul was knocked unconcious. I saw him floating face down in the water. That was the scariest moment of my life. Eric was still concious and able to turn him over. We in the boat got back to them with a quickness and Peter (the available brother) jumped out and got Paul back in the boat. Paul was seizing and as Pete lifted him out of the water to hand him to Paul's Dad and brother-in-law, I saw a huge tube of blood shoot out of his head. That's when I gave myself a talking to to calm down, because I was about to lose it. Eric climbed himself back into the boat before we noticed he was bleeding a ton out of his head too.

After dropping off some of the crew at the houseboat, Jeff and Peter giving them blessings, and the longest 30 minute boatride of my life we got them back to the marina area. Paul was concious but not with-it at all. They both had mostly stopped bleeding, which was great. Paul kept asking the same questions over and over and then got mostly unresponsive and a little angry. There was an ambulance at the marina and a ton of EMTs appeared. They got Eric off the boat and onto a board while the rest of the responders fought with Paul. He told one of the EMTs that he was going to hit him if he didn't let go of his head as they were trying to get a neck brace on him.

They took him and Eric to a little clinic, got Paul stabalized and called for a Life Flight to take him to the hospital in Grand Junction. They pretty much paralyzed him and put a breathing tube in because he was being so fiesty. There was no room for me in the helicopter, so I stayed with the rest of them while Eric got his 15 staples in his head and big bottle of pain medicine. Ashley (the brave fiance) drove me (still sleepless) and Eric back to Grand Junction where I left them at Paul's parents house and I went to the hospital.

Paul's Grandpa Bob and his wife Karen had met Paul at the hospital and stayed with him until I got there. They told me Paul had his stomache pumped, got a CAT scan and had his head stapled up before I got there. I was so glad they were there when I got there. It was pretty scary seeing Paul all tubed up and still unconcious. I got tucked in on a little couch in his room and slept for about an hour before the Dr came in in the morning to say Paul's breathing tube could come out. Before they could take it out though, Mr Fiesty pulled it out himself. The nurses came a-runnin', none too happy with Mr Pullerouter, but he was fine.

He gradually woke up and became more and more able to remember things. He eventually got unhooked from all his tubes and moved to a regular room.

These are the staples in his head.

This is him resting peacefully in the new room on the regular neuro trauma unit.

This is Paul so incredibly happy to have his stupid neck brace off.

He got to the hospital Friday night and was out of the hospital on Sunday morning.
Paul is fine fine fine now. Lots of things happened just right so that nothing more serious happened. I definitely prayed a lot and know that I wasn't the only one praying for my sweet husband. I am sure that he was looked out for.

I know some of you are thinking, "Oh man. Paul doesn't have any insurance." You are right. But thankfully the boat insurance is going to cover all of his medical bills! That is another huge blessing.

So the rest of our week was a little tamer than we had originally planned, but still incredible. It was so nice to spend time with family. It felt like we were ther FOREVER, in a really good way.

I think this picture is hilarious. We went for a drive Sunday night after everyone was back home together. We drove up on the monument, which is beautiful. But here are poor Eric and Paul, hurting, while the rest of us enjoy the view.

We went up to the Grand Mesa where we saw some views, had a picnic and fished. Yup, I caught my first fish of the summer. A nice little Brook Trout. Kathy, Ashley and I were the only ones to catch anything. I told them all how my friend Brittany had never roasted a hotdog before she came to visit us this summer. Everyone was properly amazed. Then Ashley admitted this was her first roasted hotdog ever! So Brittany, you're not alone.

We went out to eat and played with the nephews Oliver and Everett.

We got to go for a flight with Jeff. Paul got some sweet pictures. We flew over Arches National Park.

We went to Denver for the wedding. It was super fun to get together with the extended Rigg family. That is a group of people who are always ready for a good time.

Ashley was beautiful and Eric was stylish. 'Twas a blast. Paul got some serious food poisoning. Again, he is better now.

And now I have used up all but 24 hours of my Paid Time Off.

Pop Quiz for our readers. How much does it cost to be Life-Flighted 168 miles? We'll let you know in our next post.

Rigg Family Fish Count 2011

2011-07-17T20:24:00.001-08:00

Paul - 25
Shug - 0

Good thing what's mine is yours and what's yours is mine!

Paul went dipnetting this weekend for the Men & Boys camp with our ward. My friends at work had been down there and told me that the fishing was REAL slow. No one was catching anything, so I was happy when I talked to Paul later that day and he had caught 4 fish. Better than nothing, right? Well, the next day while I was at work, rumor reached us that the 2nd run of Reds had come in that very next tide. The fishing went from super super slow to people catching 2 at a time. The water was thick with fish, just waiting to get scooped up by Paul.

He got home late last night and we started fileting them around midnight. We set up our operation outside since the kitchen tends to get a little cramped when we try to do it in there. When the fish are that big, you need some elbow room. We were out there while it got a little dim because the sun dipped below the horizon, and we were still there when it came back up a couple hours later. We finished around 5:30 this morning. We've been glad that it's a rainy day today, because it feels like the perfect day to catch up on some sleep.

The Beare Family

2011-07-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

We flew back to Sydney and caught a train to Berry where my Aunt Mary lives. My cousin Kaitlin met us at the train station so we got to visit with her for the whole ride. Kaitlin just finished her PhD in chemistry. She's a genius. It was super fun to visit with Uncle Steve. He, unfortunately, had to leave on an unexpected business trip so we only got one evening with him. Paul really liked him and picked his brain with all the quesitons that had been brewing in Paul's inquisitive little mind as we'd been seeing new things.

We arrived at night and had that feeling of having no idea where you are, because it's so dark. When we woke up in the morning we were greeted with a breathtaking view. Yep, that's the ocean in the distance. They have a beautiful home in a beautiful spot. It was so nice to be taken care of and pampered after staying in tents and other not-so comfortable situations.

My Aunt Mary is a terrific cook and a great hostess. They made us feel so welcome and so special. This is one of the many meals we enjoyed at the Beare Spa Resort.

Aunt Mary kept us entertained the whole time with thoughtfully planned outings for our enjoyement.

This was the whitest sand I have ever seen. It squeaked.

Paul spotted a wallaby and took off after it.

This is Steve's mom, Ernie, who is friends with my Grandma, Kaitlin, Me and Mary. Ernie was a 5th grade teacher in Palo Alto, where she taught Aunt Mary AND my Dad! She said my Dad was a handsome kid. I was trying to get her to tell me all the trouble he got in, but she wouldn't divulge. We were glad she was there because she's really fun to be around.

Waves crashing on rocks.

Don't worry. He's just pretending to fall off the deadly cliff.

Aunt Mary took us on a canopy walk in the treetops. They were tall tall trees, so it was cool to be up that high.

There were gorgeous views.

Then we went to another beach where Aunt Mary and Paul played throw the stick and go get it, or something like that.

At one of our last stops, Paul found some pelicans. He had previously made friends with a flock of seagulls who loved to eat his chips. So he thought I should make friends with this big guy. He kept telling me to get closer. That was close enough for me.

Our last night there we made passionfruit gelato. And we were in heaven.

And then we flew home. You may think we look happy in this picture because we are looking forward to coming home...but actually we're excited to watch a million more hours of movies!

These are our shoes with red Australia dirt on them.

Dr. Kim & The Animals

2011-07-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

This is Richter. She was my best friend all growing up in YG. That girl is funny and I really like her. I have probably laughed more with her than with anyone else in my life. Years and years we laughed and laughed. She's a good person too. When we were 18 and it was time for us to move on, she threw me a gowing away party and walking home from her house that night, through the backyard, was one of the most emotional experiences of my life. I went to BYU in Utah and she went to the U of Waterloo in Ontario. She is now a chiropracter living in Australia and I am a homeless worker in Alaksa.

She took us on a little hike up a hill and that overlooked Townsville.

Yet another cool tree.

So here's where it gets good. I love this picture of Paul. It is 100% honest enthusiasm. What is Paul so excitedly pointing out, you ask? Why, animals of course. Apparently Richter and Paul are both animal lovers? I guess I should have known that from when Richter would send a good chunk of her allowance to PETA every month when we were in Grade 7. But I honestly had no idea Paul would be so excited.

We went to the Billabong Sanctuary on our last day with Richter. We fed the kangaroos and I watched Paul and Kim be absolutely giddy.

A Dingo.

A Cassowary

These are the wombats. I heart wombats. There was a lot of damage to this sanctuary during the cyclone, so they closed for a while. During that time the wombat on the right got real sick. He started losing weight, was listless...they took him to doctors to try to find out what was wrong with him and nothing was wrong. No one could find anything wrong but he kept losing weight. Finally they took him to a Dr who finally thought that maybe he was depressed. Yep, he hadn't had all the interaction of the visitors. He wasn't getting his pats. So they started giving him more attention and he got better quickly.

Paul, the Kangaroo Whisperer.

A weird lizard.

Crocodiles. Paul and Kim kept throwing things at them to try to get them to move. Then they started throwing things in their mouths to try to get them to bite down. I thought they were being quite rude. The crocodiles didn't seem to mind though. They didn't even move. We thought they were fake. But they weren't.

Weird crocodiles.

A water buffalo.

Apparently koalas are quite vicious. When they're awake. They sleep for 20-22 hours/day. Then they eat when they're awake. Slowly. Eucalyptus leaves act as a sedative. So, in preparation for our koala encounter, the staff instructed us all on the method of our pat, so as not to get mauled by Ray Charles here. Yes, he's blind.

And then we went to the airport.

Driving Down the Coast

2011-07-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

After we finished in Port Douglas we drove down the road looking for a place to pitch out tent. Here's the thing. We were not interested in paying for somewhere to pitch out tent. So we found a pull off and helped ourselves to a little piece of beachside land. This is what I learned about myself. On one hand I make a really good hippie because I can brush my teeth out of a car for weeks and really enjoy it. You may have noticed in some of these pictures that my hair is a little...unkempt. It really doesn't bother me. But on the other hand, I make a really bad hippie because I'm always afraid I'm going to get in trouble. I was scared we were camping illegally (obviously) and that we'd get thrown into some horribly 3rd world Australian prison and never see the light of day. Good news is, we didn't get arrested and had a lovely night's sleep.

One of the nicer places I've woken up in my life.

And then we were on our way to Townsville. We took the long way. We stopped at a little market in Cairns so I could take pictures of food!

Next stop: Babinda Boulders. Tiny little cool cool town that you drive up the hill to find this little spot where a river has carved out huge boulders and is special to the aboriginal people. I forget the story. Sorry. We went for a little dip and let me tell you what. That is the cleanest, purest water I have ever been in in my entire life. It was breathtakingly refreshing. It wasn't super cold, just nice and it was so clean. There's no describing it. I felt like a new person, clarified. I think I'll always remember how clean clean clean that water was.

Then we kept going.

In case anyone is still reading this...
Then we went to Jospehine Falls.

We loved the signs there. They were so graphic. People getting eaten by rocks and other dangers

We drove past a lot of banana plantations that had been decimated during the cyclones. Banana prices were astronomical. We just thought that was how much bananas cost here, so we got them and ate them and were so glad we did because they were DELICIOUS!!! Absolutely uncomparable to the stuff we eat.

At this point we're really just driving around. We ended up going quite a ways out of our way but saw some beautiful pastoral land...Australia's Tropical Dairyland. I would live there. Strangely no pictures though.

We kept driving until we got to Townsville where my good friend Richter from YG is living.

Great Barrier Reef

2011-07-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Remember how we went to Canada on our way to Australia. While home I was looking through some old journals and found not only a Grade 3 report on Australia, but I found a list of goals I had made and one of them was to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. Who knew?

This was Paul's birthday present this year.

We did three different spots. Paul scuba dived the first two and snorkeled the last one with me. This is a giant clam.

I thought it would be kind of neat, but it was REALLY neat. There were a billion fish, super colorful, billions of different kinds. BILLIONS!!!

Embarrasing fact: The whole time I was in the water all I could think about was how I wanted to watch Finding Nemo.

Back in Port Douglas we had oysters and hot dogs for supper. Oysters for Paul, hot dogs for me! I know. I'm classy.

Daintree

2011-07-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

On Noah's Beach in the Daintree Rainforest we ate pineapple/passionfruit/mango jelly sandwiches. Delicious. We relaxed a lot. We would watch the sunset, go to bed because it was pitch black and wake up for the sunrise. Rested. What an amazing feeling. That stood out to me as one of the best parts of our vacation. Feeling rested.

I think all boys, when on a beach, feel compelled to find a coconut.

And break it open.

We wandered around some and found some AWESOME foliage.

One of my favorite new-learned facts. There is a tree called a "Strangler Fig." What happens is, a seed gets caught in the limbs of full grown tree. The seed then sends its roots down the tree, reaching for the ground. Eventually the roots of the Strangler Fig will strangle the host tree until it is dead. That tree then eventually decays, leaving a hollow looking webby tree standing there. Cool.

On and On...

2011-06-18T20:17:00.000-08:00

While I feel like I should quit blogging about our little trip since NO ONE IS COMMENTING and there is an apparent general feeling of disgust among our readers regarding our flagrant brandishing about of pictures (please, please comment. Positive reinforcement is so effective.) I do intend to finish this particular part of our family history project. So.

From Sydney we flew up to Cairns. I do not wish to rehash at this time the horrific experience we had in the airport of learning that the Australian government does not allow tent pegs or poles to be in carry-on baggage. We picked up our little rental car at the airport...a Holden Barina.Our 2 backpacks filled up the entire back. Our whole trip I kept going to get in on the wrong side of the car. When we got home and went to the post office, I had to remind Paul that he was driving on the wrong side of the road!

We drove north to the Daintree Rainforest. It was the an amazing drive. At one point we said "This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen." Then we both felt guilty because Alaska is the most beautiful place in the world. I guess there are just different kinds of beauty. We drove along the coast and there was white sand beaches RIGHT beside you with rainforest on the other side. And very windy. Paul did a great job of driving on the other side of the road. What a champ. You have to take a ferry across a river at one point and after that the road is quite narrow.

Some views after we crossed the river.

We found our little campsite and set up our tent. Dad, we love this tent. Every time we set it up, we're glad it's so perfect.

This is the path to the beach from our site.

The trees were so red.

This was our beach. I love the feeling of walking out onto a beach from a jungle. It has such finality to it; like you have arrived. It is instantly calming.

More Sydney

2011-06-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

Paul was introduced to gelato on this trip. Let's just say...he's a fan. I think our favorite flavor, after much deliberation, was passionfruit.

Yup, you may be beginning to notice a very handsome beard appearing in some of these pictures.

We found our way out into the suburbs to go to the temple there. That was nice.

So I don't know if you guys know this about me, but I'm way street. Because I'm so street I love breakdancing. Well, to be more exact, I love watching other people breakdance. So I was pretty thrilled to happen across these guys on a street corner one night. They were super talented. At one point the guy was spinning on his head with no hands! Then he was doing a SLIDING headstand. What???

First Catch

2011-06-15T22:14:00.000-08:00

We'll have to break up our Australia pics because life just keeps happening and I can't quite keep up.

So Paul has been going to Ship Creek, which is right below downtown, a lot lately. It's called Ship Creek because that's where the port is. Everything that we have in this town comes through that port. Anchorage was, after all, developed because it was the easiest port of entry back in the days of the territory. Paul's been learning how to fish for kings. It's nice because he can ride his bike. Well, this week he invited me, figuring he might need a little of my good luck. So we hopped on our bikes and rode down to the port on Monday morning, bright and early. I feel like I'm about 12 years old when we ride our bikes with backpacks full of fishing poles. I also feel quite brave in some parts because one wrong move and you would end up in the rushing river. There is this group of about 15 men that are there EVERY DAY. They're super funny and make for some pretty interesting people watching.

ANYWAY, Monday I got one on my line that got away. I think it must have been about 100 pounds or so at least. But it definitely whet my appetite. So we went back on Tuesday morning before work. We got there at high tide, which is ideal. The tide was super high that day. So high infact that the same trails we had ridden our bikes on before were now covered in several feet of water. So we rode our bikes right through them. Again, feeling 12, quite courageous, and having so much fun at 6 am before work.

Paul is the best looking fisherman I have ever seen in my entire life.

The entire bank where we stand to fish from was covered in water. So we leaned our bikes up against each other and set up our poles and started fishing. I had to leave for work before I caught one, but Paul stayed behind wishin' and hopin'.

Well, I got a call at work about an hour later. There were train whistles in the background and Paul's jubilant voice saying, "Shug! I got one!" What a monster.

And then we ate it. Some of it. Because it's huge! We smoked some and barbecued some. Delicious.

Life is good.

Australia - Part I

2011-06-14T17:05:00.000-08:00

We flew to Australia. We loved flying to Australia. At the end of the flight we both were thinking how excited we were that we still had the return flight to look forward to. Why, you ask? Well, the seats are bigger, more leg room, there was no one in our row so we could cuddle up, I slept soundly for 7 hours, they fed us THREE (!!) times, UNLIMITED MOVIES (!!) that you could choose which one you wanted to watch on the monitor in the back of the seat in front of you. After long foodless, entertainmentless flights from AK, this was heaven. We would start our movies at the same time so we could enjoy them together. We don't usually watch a lot of movies, so this felt like a super holiday already. I think what I liked most about the flight was that it felt like a great big slumber party with a bunch of strangers. Everyone was all sleep-eyed and tossled. So cozy.

When we got to Sydney we couldn't check into our hostel for a couple hours, so we wandered around Paul's old neighborhood. This was mostly why we wanted to come to Australia, so he could show me where he lived when he had some pretty significant experiences.

Our first stop:
This is Hyde Park where he spent a lot of time.

I love love loved the trees in the park. I've never seen anything like them. I learned later in our trip that these are "buttressed" trunks. Sydney has beautiful green spaces.

This is his old house.

I don't know if you know this, but we're obsessed with our wok. We love it. And so when we saw a genuine wok shop in chinatown, we were pretty thrilled.

Paul's very favorite place to eat when he lived in Sydney was a place called Burgerlicious. It was still there! I think that's the first place Paul ever said he wanted to take me to eat. Mission accomplished.

On this burger is: 100% angus beef patty, free range fried egg, beet (DELICIOUS. A good chunk of our garden is dedicated to beets thanks to this burger.), jalepeno relish, cheese, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, bacon, onion.

We saw the Royal Botanical Gardens. This is Paul making friends with a cockatu.

On this trip we realized how much Paul loves animals. I, however, love other things.

This is a tree full of fruit bats.

At the end of the botanical gardens is this tree and the harbor with the Opera House sitting there, all rosy in the sunset. It was a really nice peaceful time of day, when you could feel the city getting ready to be out and about at night. We could see waiters flinging out white tablecloths and filling up glasses. Lovely.

Safe in our luxury suite.

There is more. Stay tuned.

Wolverine Peak

2011-06-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went on a hike recommended by Quasar last summer that we never got to. It's sweet because the trailhead is up on hillside, meaning we don't have to drive very far at all. When you get to the top there are great views of A-town on one side and unsullied wilderness on the other. Delightful.

Yes, that's a fanny pack. But not just any fanny pack. A Gameboy fanny pack.

One mile and a half section of the trail was dotted with alarmingly frequent, alarmingly huge piles of alarmingly fresh bear scat.

Home Again

2011-06-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

We played with my parents and siblings around Julie's wedding. We always have so much fun when we get together. What good people.

So, my mom doesn't really have crayons at her house...so the kids colored with Sharpees. It was quite fragrant.

Home

Me and Noah

Ben and Kelsey.

Me, EXCITED for the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD!!! I'm serious.

Paul is kind of obsessed...ummm, interested in the spare houses on my parents farm. Yeah, I guess it's kind of weird that my dad keeps buying houses for $10 and moving them to the farm to store things like billions of the Clarine's decoys. A prize for anyone who can find Paul in this picture! Effective little decoys, aren't they?

And of course, no trip to visit family would be complete without a good old fashioned skeet shoot. What a blast.

My dad, the pyrotechnician, got a ton of fireworks for Julie's reception. Unfortunately it was too stormy that night to set them off. I was interested that the explosives come packaged in rice husks.

Ashley, Eric, Paul and Me outside of Perkins in Minot ND. Yep, weird meeting place. Strange that we all happened to be so close to the middle of nowhere at the same time. We were about an hour late meeting them because we forgot about the time change over the border. The border where they pulled Paul and I into separate rooms and interrogated us...nothing like a warm welcome back to the States. Ashley and Eric are getting married in a month! I'm really glad because I really like Ashley. She's super cool. (And Eric's fun too. He gets bloody noses!)

Julie's Wedding. (And Tony's)

2011-05-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

My little sister got married. Marriage is such a good idea. I'm glad she found somebody that seems to be pretty neat, and smart. I happen to think Julie is the sweetest/best person I know and I am so glad she let us be there when she got sealed. They were sealed in the Regina Saskatchewan temple, which is cool cause that's where we grew up. The rest of us got married in far off places, so it was nice to have a significant family event happen in the temple that is pretty special to us all.

This is Julie and Tony.

Me and my little sister outside the temple.

This is me and my love. He loves me, honest.

Julie is SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

Cake

Noah (nephew), Levi (brother) and Dad (Dad). Noah's THE BEST!!!

This is Hayley. She's Levi and Jen's youngest daughter. She too is THE BEST!!!

My Latest Book

2011-04-19T16:07:00.001-08:00

Sunday Dinner

2011-04-17T20:56:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many of you know this...but Paul and I really like food. We love to cook and we love to eat. So it's a really sad thing when we run out of food. It happens every now and then as we really only go grocery shopping on Mondays. We try to get enough food for two weeks, so sometimes at the end of the two weeks we're running a little short on fresh produce in the fridge. Such was the case today. We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes before church that felt a little like a last meal. We knew the only things we had in the fridge waiting for us after church were a jar of peppercinis, what was left of a container of yogurt and a bunch of bottles of sauce we got from David and Caroline when they moved. Well, while I talked to my Mom and Dad today on the phone after church, Paul was coming up with a genius plan for some of the canned food and pantry staples we had lying around. And this was what he came up with...

Sticky rice with a delicious black bean concoction and peach salsa. Yes!

The Best Spot In The House

2011-04-17T20:33:00.000-08:00

We have a sweet house. One of the best things about it is the window in our bedroom. I'm sure there's a name for it, but I don't know what it is. It sticks out from the wall of the house, like a bay window. There a lovely green tiled surface that usually we crowd with green growing plants, thriving off the best warmest sun in the house. It's the same window we seal up in the winter with saran wrap because it's kind of (super) drafty. Well, one of the best things about spring is when it's warm in that window again. I move the plants and crawl in for a good warm-puddle-of-sun nap. It's the best. It reminds me of sleeping behind the couch in the Raintree apartments where I lived in Provo with Nat and Mandy. I would grab a blanket and sleep in the sun between the couch and the sliding glass doors. (Yes, I do a lot of sleeping during the day...) Today after church I gleefully pulled down all the winter plastic like a mad-woman. I like spring. It makes me feel mad! And sleepy...

"Calzizza"

2011-04-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

It's April 7th and it's snowing. Just a little, but still. I rode my bike to work today for the first time this year. It's officially time to be active again, whether or not the weather is going to cooperate.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm going to mention it again...Paul is a genius. He had the great idea today when he got home from school for us to make a giant calzone, as big as our stone. So we got to steppin and whipped up one of our greatest creations yet.

DOUGH: (by Shug-with Paul's suggestions for additional ingredients)
Williams-Sonoma basic pizza dough, doubled
oregano
dried potato flakes
we suggest trying some fresh orange zest, the we did not tonight

SAUCE: (by Paul)
a hummus-like mixture compiled of
1 can Garbonzo beans-thoroughly drained
approx 1/3 cup sundried tomatoes with it's own oil.
1/4 yellow bell pepper
3-4 large garlic cloves roughly smashed and cut
1/2 serrano pepper (SEEDS INCLUDED!)
heaping tablespoon green curry paste
3 peppercinis, juices drained
salt/fresh ground pepper/cayanne pepper/lemon pepper
Puree all ingredients in a food processor

PIZZA TOPPINGS/FILLINGS: (chopped by Shug, woked by Paul)
broccoli
mushrooms
red onions
zuccini

Once we had all these ingredients prepared we rolled out 1/2 the dough on the peel. We then layered the following ingredients:
1/2 of total hummus, acting as pizza sauce
shredded pepperjack cheese
all sauteed vegetables
thai basil
light drizzle of Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce
3 slices havarti cheese
remaining hummus

We then sealed the deal with another layer of dough, pinching the edges shut tight.

It was now ready to go onto the preheated stone in the 500-550 degree oven. Good luck shoving it off the peel onto the stone. You've got to do it with conviction. Be ready to adjust edges back onto the stone in case of over-shoving. Reduce oven to 375. Cook for 15 minutes, making sure to check on it so you can properly marvel at the beautiful browning spots on the crust. Then, if you think you're up to it, you've got to flip it. We accomplished this by pulling it off the stone onto the peel. Then we covered it with a cutting board, joined forces to steady it as we flipped the whole deal upside down. Shove it back into the oven to finish cooking for about 10 more minutes.

We pulled it out and didn't flip it back over. We were a little concerned about how much flipping our little meal could take. We wish we would have flipped it over this one last time because it was smooth and golden like nothing I've ever seen before on what was our "bottom."

Then we marvelled and marvelled at it.

Then we ate it.

The only problem in this whole scenario is that you get full well before it's gone and you just want to keep eating and eating. Either you do, and end up with one very full tummy, or you don't and you are haunted by the thought of MORE!

We promise to feed this to you if you come visit us.

We spent the whole dining experience trying to decide what to call this creation. Paul likes "Calzizza" while I prefer "Pizone." Let us know what you think.

This is the peel that my work friend Chris made me last year. I burned it and am very happy with how it turned out. His first attempt had a ski pole handle and was painted with streaks of white paint on a green background and had the word "Rage" in the bottom corner. Good friend. Maybe I'll take him some leftovers.

And yes, that's Paul doing the dishes. He learned that from Ben. Thanks Ben!

First Hike

2011-03-28T21:23:00.001-08:00

We went to Hope during spring break for our first hike of the year. The highlight (besides the warmth of the sun) was our trail snack.

Snowy

2011-03-28T21:19:00.001-08:00

This is our friend Snowy. He's graced our front yard for a few months. It's been fun watching him shrink and shrink. His head is nearly entirely gone now. It was quite the feat getting all those huge balls of snow stacked up. Definitely the most exercise I got all winter. The anatomy of a snowman is no laughing matter.

Hockey Game

2011-03-28T21:05:00.000-08:00

We went to our very first hockey game a while ago. It was the annual Governor's Cup battle between Anchorage and Fairbanks university teams. I decided it's weird watching a hockey game without knowing anyone who is playing.

Favorite Parts:
1.) Some club was having a barbecue outside the stadium. They were also giving out subway sandwiches. It was such a cold night that the sandwiches were frozen absolutely solid.

2.)These kids. Notice their rapt attention. (Yes, there are video games being clutched by each one of them.)

3.)Notice my rapt attention.

We're Getting A DOG!

2011-03-28T20:50:00.001-08:00

This is Paul and Chief. Paul has made best friends with Chief while volunteering at the animal shelter with one of the clients he works with. So we decided to get a nice Pit Bull. Chief is the same dog that...well...he kind of bit Paul about a month ago. There was a small fiasco while Paul was taking him out to be walked. Chief got a little excited when he saw the other dogs being walked and he ended up barking on Paul's leg. Later Paul saw blood on his pant leg and realized that Chief had broken his skin with a nice little puncture wound. Good times at the animal shelter.

This is what we've learned about Pit Bulls.
1.) Even if a dog is "dog agressive" it does not mean they are "people agressive." They can be very friendly dogs.
2.) Pit Bulls are bread to never stop fighting. So once they get in a fight, they're going to finish the job. (I must have a little Pit in me!)
3.) Pits Bulls are bread for the pit. This means they have a high tolerance for pain. They do well with little kids for this reason, handling "abuse" like champs.
4.) The belief that Pits' jaws lock is FALSE.

And no, we're not really getting a dog. But Paul really does like Chief.

2011-03-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

We've been mostly hunkering down, sticking it out through the rest of the winter. The light is returning, so that's pretty sweet. With Daylight Savings it's light out until 8:30 or so.

We've been eating some great food. I got a new camera for Christmas. One of the reasons I most wanted it was to take pictures of Paul's face. Cause it's beautiful. Another main reason was beacause I want to take beautiful pictures of our food. We eat so well here and everyday I want the whole world to know how amazing our food turns out. So here's a little peak. (Still learning how to use the camera, but making progress.)

This was one of our experiments in the wok that Mom gave us for Christmas. It's definitely an adventure cooking with that beast. We've made some delicious meals but I'm not sure if we've yet captured the elusive "wok hay." Yes, we set one gigantor plate and both took a fork to it. It's bok choi with tomatoes and mushrooms.

I like that you can see the steam rising off the plate.

Then there was the french toast made with homemade cinnamon raisin bread topped with vanilla yogurt, blueberries and your favorite and mine...syrup. (Man I love syrup.)

Talking

2011-02-05T21:55:00.000-09:00

I’m a talker. Not the kind of talker who you can’t get a word in edgewise with, but I like to be close to people through conversation. I like to share what I’m thinking, and often I figure out what I’m thinking through the words I share. It’s how I process. It’s how I feel connected with people. It’s how I learn to love. It’s how I share love and how I feel loved; through words. But there are some sweet moments, like tonight, when it is silent. We cooked a delicious fajita meal sharing only simple words of instruction and explanation, “chop the tomatoes, bring the garlic, cube the potatoes.” As I was scrubbing out the sink after washing the dishes and Paul was sweeping the floor, we were quiet. It was nice. There was nothing artificial or almost. There was nothing being misunderstood or misrepresented. There was only a sink getting clean and a floor being swept. It was only us, being together in our home. If we make it to heaven, I expect it will feel familiar because of moments like this.

Christmas and Birthday

2011-01-24T18:00:00.000-09:00

I don't know if you're going to believe this or not, but yes, I am 29. I had a birthday. Paul made me my annually requested no bake cheesecake. There is no comparable product. And he decorated it beautifully.

This is me modelling all my birthday presents. Paul got me a new phone (yes, a landline) becuase the buttons on the old one had stopped working. Kathy got me the softest warmest ... softee blanket (like a snuggie, but better!) for my birthday. I have to fight Paul for it daily.

2 days later it was Christmas Eve. This was our feast that we had with thoughts of Santa headed our way. Our food is AMAZING!

This is my new rain coat and homemade wheat bag bed warmer that Paul custom ordered from my mom. It is AMAZING! Stays warm until morning.

This is Paul showing off one of the shirts I spray painted him. It says Long Gone. He loves them. He loves me.

Then after we opened up our presents Paul dropped me off at work where I had one of the BEST Christmas mornings ever. It was so so so wonderful. I love that place.

I ate myself silly at work and then came home to this beautiful cornish game hen feast that Paul prepared. What a guy.

We had the most amazing Christmas season this year. It felt like such a long and luxurious vacation. We had so much fun spending time with each other. I really enjoyed basking in the glow of the Chrismtas tree. So much so that it really made me a little sad to take it down. Guess we'll have to get some paper lanterns to make our living room glow.

Now we are solidly in the New Year and still having fun (though with less of a vacation feel.) There will be enough of that later this year.

Thanksgiving

2011-01-23T16:46:00.000-09:00

So what happened is that I stopped being able to upload more than one picture at a time, so I quit. I didn't really quit, I just never got around to it again. That and a growing aversion to spending any more time on the computer than is absolutely required. I'm looking forward to whittling it down to zero time outside of work. It will be good. Anyway, here are a few select pictures of our last few months' adventures. We started off our Thanksgiving with an annual visit to the Sullivan Arena for the Carrs-Safeway Great Alaska Shootout. Natalie and Mitch came with us and brought baby Charlotte out on her very first basketball outing. Then we ran from that to that airport to head to Colorado to spend some time with Paul's family. Ollie loved meeting Peter's doggie Deacon. And then we went shooting. Peter's sawed-off shot gun was quite the blast. We had Thanksgiving dinner with about 80 million of Paul's relatives. Good times. Delicious times. And then we went shooting again. And then we ate again. And then we went shooting again. Then we all got together for an 80th birthday celebration for Paul's Grandpa Bob. It was a big deal. You'll never guess what we did to celebrate...we ate. This is Paul's siblings (Plus Erin's husband Craig and me) with Grandpa Bob. Peter was pretty excited. Then we fished at Bob and Karen's pond on the Rigg River Ranch with Ben and Mindy looking on. We definitely had a good time.

Cake and Punch

2010-11-07T19:17:00.001-09:00

Paul's scout troop hosted a cake auction for a fundraiser. It's was a blasty. Paul ordered some pumpkin whoopie pies (courtesy of Griff's blog) and cream puffs. So I baked up an army of them.

It was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. It was really fun to see the boys squirm in front of everyone as they auctioned off the desserts.

The big seller of the evening was the silent auction. The winner of the silent auction got to smash a whipped cream pie into the face of the scout of his or her choosing. The winner was the mother of one of the girls in the ward. That girl happens to be dating one of the boys in the ward. You'll never guess who the mom chose to smash the pie into!

For Halloween we watched our annual movie. This year we chose Hook. I wanted to do something special for Paul, so I made up a batch of punch and spooked it out with some dry ice. Good times.

Catching Up

2010-10-25T15:07:00.001-08:00

We'll just give you the quick rundown of what's been going on in our life.

Dan and Tamma came to visit with darling Emma and Megan. What a blast. We wish they lived here.

We picked raspberries in Kincaid Park, right off the trail.

We got a cast iron skillet and have used it a billion times since. We heart that skillet.

We went to the Alaska State Fair and had the best time I've ever had there. This is the only picture we got though. The Birdman of Las Vegas. This bird flew away and the guy had to run after it. I liked that part.

Some mediocre hiking.

When we went home to YG, I completed the project of cleaning out my closet. I kept wanting to throw stuff away that Paul would save. He grabbed this hammock and initiated it into our backyard.

Our garden was a smashing success. The potatoes were my favorite part this year. They didn't get very big, but they were so soft and tender.

We FINALLY got our Christmas lights up nice and snug after two years of them hanging down pitifully. That was a good day. That was an old rickety ladder.

There's Paul, merrily blackening salmon that is as big as he is.

We went hiking in Girdwood, looking for Real Estate.

The trumpeter Swans gather at Potter's Marsh before the migration. They're huge and beautiful.

And last but not least, Paul's rabbit (excuse me, Arctic Hare) hunting trip with Marky Mark. Not only has Paul mastered the skill of marksmanship, he also has mastered this classic French technique for preparing the most succulent meats you'll ever taste. It's called a Papiollte. He's pretty much the best. And yes, those are vegetables out of our garden!

Which brings us to today. Today I went to the dentist and didn't have a single cavity! And Paul is going to post a computer he picked up on craigslist. Wish us luck!

Fame

2010-08-29T17:42:00.001-08:00

That's right. You can all now say that you know "The" drumming Paul of youtube fame.

He's so good. Thanks again to Paul's mom and dad, the mysterious pilot, and Mr. Kissel.

Griff and Ben

2010-08-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

Griff and Ben came a few weeks ago. Griff and I were roommates freshman year at BYU. We quickly became fast friends and lived together until I went on my mission and she got married. They live in Boston now and don't seem to want to trade Ben's Harvard education for UAA. Even though we don't see each other very often we had a blasty.

We went to Hatcher's Pass to climb upwards.

Then we forced them into slave labor and got a ton of fireweed blossoms for jelly.

We went to the hand tram in Girdwood where Paul and I had one of our first dates.

This is them, way out in the middle. (They're kissing. Tee hee.)

This is the raging river the tram goes over.

This is what it looks like if you look down.

More Girdwood pictures.

Ben playing in the river near the Crow Pass trailhead.

We went fishing.

We made jelly out of the fireweed blossoms.

We went fishing again.

This is me being helpful.

This is Griff being helpful...or Willow.

Exit Glacier near Seward.

Making buttons with my birthday present button maker.

We made supper. A lot. We ate a ton of delicious food. Griff spoiled us with several batches of cookies.

We went to Eklutna lake.

Which is where we kayaked in some terrific winds.

Mostly though, we played Catan, every single night. Paul's a little addicted. (Okay, okay...I may have a slight problem as well.)

And then we dropped them off at the airport with our trip to Boston in the planning stages. Can't wait to see them again.

Garden Update

2010-08-16T15:35:00.000-08:00

So we're approaching harvest. We've been so stoked about all the strawberry blossoms all summer, just imagining the bounty. When we got back from Canada, there they were. The long awaited little beauties. Lo and behold...our strawberries have stretch marks. Have you ever seen such a thing? Any ideas why this would happen? Ben Iverson thinks it's because there's more gravity near the poles than there is around the equator and that gravity extra pulls on the strawberries.

Our nice little orderly rows.

And.....our peas. Not quite sure what happened here. They're even huger now. It's quite absurd. But funny. It's this ginormous tidal wave of peas right outside our bedroom window. Good times.

A Poem

2010-08-11T22:14:00.001-08:00

My dad asked me to write a poem for Family Home Evening while we were home. This is what I came up with.

The Farm

Upon return, our feet set solid
On this unbroken ground,
That stretches with the reach of salvation
From sky to sky to sky.

Greeted by slowly boiling thunder,
Quick corner of the eye lightening,
A mother and father,
We know we are home.

This time the sun and the lifting,
The hauling and feeding,
The straw bales falling,
Recall the work that’s been done here.

The efforts of hours and days,
Through years and decades,
Bending the will of the soil to our own,
We meekly inherit this earth.

Together in this hallowed place
Formed by this god-promised land,
We gather our growing families
And know we are bound.

This is our prairie home
It has taken a while to get here.
A patchwork of green
Dotted by sloughs
And tree circled yards
No matter how far we are flung
One of these squares is ours.

The Farm

2010-08-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

WARNING: This is the longest post ever.

We just had one of the funnest vacations of our life. We went to the farm and played with my family. It was a non-stop party from the second we got there until we left. I was surprised at the thing that I enjoyed the most...playing with my neices and nephews. I always thought they would be fun and cute...but I had no idea how much I would actually ENJOY their company. Those guys are a riot. We did absolutely every fun thing you can think of...and a lot more. And we managed to squeeze in some work too. We cleaned the chicken coops, gardened, moved railroad ties, etc etc etc. We managed to work until we were overheated, and then cooled off by swimming in the dugouts. That combined with multiple servings of icecream, doughnuts, pies, cookies and angel food cake every day (not to mention endless hot dogs and pizza) made for perfection.

We flew on airplanes.

We hit baseballs.

This is where we hit the baseballs.

This is the barn and the chicken coops.

The grain bins, train cars and sheds.

I loved being outside while the sun was setting.

We barbecued bison steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, halibut and brats.

We all went to the Regina temple together. That was definitely a highlight.

Dan (my parents hunting friend) brought billions of Tim Horton's doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches for breaksfast every day. That's my brother Ben trying to decide where to start.

That's Paul on the old tractor my dad drove when he first came to Canada to farm with Uncle Jim. Levi, Paul and Dad are setting up the hayrides for the Pioneer Day Picnic for our stake.

There's my mom mowing the makeshift RV park set up for some of their million guests. We were very lucky to get a bedroom.

We shot clay pigeons. Paul did great. I think he missed the first two and then didn't miss one after that. I always thought I didn't like shooting shot guns, but I must have had a different gun this time or something, because I rocked it! And thouroughly enjoyed it. We also shot 22s but the pigeons were more enjoyable. This is Paul and Ben racing to shoot 2 at the same time.

Dad and Ben shooting.

This is Hayley and Noah shooting. We thought we'd include these pictures just because we knew how much Brittany and Griff would appreciate them.

Swimming at the dugout. I don't especially like this pictures, but it's the best one showing the dugout.

Dad and Hayley

The millions of us getting out as quickly as possible so as not to get eaten alive by the mosquitoes.

Emma and Hayley in their pioneer dresses that grandma (mom) made for them.

Paul with sleeping baby Lucy. Good job Paul.

Everyone gathering for the Pioneer Picnic before the festivities begin.

There was nail pounding...

Pillow fights...

Log sawing...

Tug of war...

Family picture taking...

Pies gallore... (all the leftovers stayed at our house! Which is a good thing because we quickly ran out of the 16 dozen (!) cookies my mom had made.)

Dan being spiritually uplifted during the fireside...

and finally fireworks.

We went to church.

We ate strawberries and icecream on our angel food cake.

Beautiful.

Me and Jen with the best pizza in the whole entire world.

The garden.

Paul patching up a window in the barn.

Playing in the hayloft while Levi patches holes in the roof.

Emma driving the truck while Paul and Levi start the grain auger.

Awwww.

These kids would yell, "Faster! Faster!" every time Paul took them out. And believe you me...he was going plenty fast.

Me trying not to get sucked into the tire.

Canoeing in the dugout.

There was a huge lightening storm the morning we left for the airport. That's good for my soul.

Mom and Julie spent the morning with us in Regina after dropping Grandma and Dad off for their earlier flight to California.

The patchwork of fields from the sky as we flew home.

Paul just got home and told me to "make it short and sweet". Too late! Sorry.

Long Gone

2010-07-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

Long Gone is not so gone anymore. At least their drummer has made a comeback. Here's what happened. When Paul was 14 he received the rank of Eagle Scout. Pretty amazing, am I right? Well, the thing was...he had some extrinsic motivation. His parents promised to get him a drum set when he got his Eagle. With that kind of motivation, how could he fail? He still remembers the day he got to go to the music store to pick out whichever set he wanted. He picked out a fancy raven black Stage Custom Yamaha set, made for truly wicked drummers. He loved that set and played on it for years and years, slowly adding piece by piece each time he had a birthday or Christmas. He played with a band named Long Gone. They rocked. Well, he had to leave that set behind when he moved away from home and came up to Alaska many years ago. He's been playing on a cheap set he picked up from someone up here. Well, Paul's family has a mysterious pilot friend who comes up to AK sometimes with an empty plane. Last week the stars aligned and the drum set got put on the plane and flown up to A-town, cowbell and all. Our good friend Eric picked them up at the airport for us, as we were out of town. Paul is happy like a little kid. And I am thrilled to get to listen to him. Thanks Jeff, Kathy and Grandpa Bob for arranging this. Thanks Eric for picking it up at the airport. And most of all, thank you mysterious pilot friend.

You may notice some woodland critters around the bottom of the drums. They're Long Gone's most loyal fans.

Dipnetting 2010

2010-07-18T19:58:00.001-08:00

So we're thinking of changing the name of our blog to "Fish R' Us." What do you think? We went dipnetting last week and had some success. We missed the big start of the 2nd run of reds by about 12 hours. Blast. We got wet and cold cold cold. Paul's definitely a lot tougher than me out there. But I sure look cute in my greens. I thought I was going to die from hypothermia. Paul didn't seem so worried. It sure is fun to be part of such a unique activity. These people are crazy about their dipnetting. We were remembering our first year as we drove back into town how a car on the freeway rolled down their window and yelled over to us as we were driving to see how the fishing had been. This time of year it seems like every car out of town has a dipnet strapped to the top. The old timers have their set ups nicely figured out. They wheel out folding tables to do their filleting on and have wagons for their coolers. Very nice. We're learning. The ones we did catch were huge.

dipnet from Shug Rigg on Vimeo.

Fishhead soup

2010-07-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

Paul was smart and kept the heads of the halibut he caught with the young men instead of throwing them back to the sea for the seagulls to feast on. We made delicious fishhead soup.

He got the fish cut into steaks instead of fillets like we usually do. Tasty on the barbecue. Accompanied by fresh radishes and spinache from our garden.

High Adventure

2010-07-18T19:13:00.000-08:00

That's what they call it when the young men do a campout. Paul went with the priests down to Katchemak Bay. They took a water taxi from Homer to the other side and camped over there. On their last day they did a halibut charter and caught some more fish to stuff our freezer with. Yes! I sure was glad when he got back home.

Grant & His Dad

2010-07-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

Grant and his dad (hereafter referred to by his christian name "Orrin") came to Alaska!
We took them fishing on the mighty Russian River. We just missed the first run of reds (Sockeye salmon) but still managed to find a few fish in the stream to play with. The first day we didn't land a thing. It was still good times though. On the way back to our campsite, we stopped to look at the falls...and there was a huge Grizzly chasing after fish. We stood safely on the overlook to watch while Grant clambered down to get a little closer. The crazy. This was definitely a highlight. I also loved watching the hordes of salmon at the bottom of the falls (where you are not allowed to fish) swim UP the waterfalls. It looked fake. But it was real. Then as we were hiking back there was a black bear cub RIGHT besdie the trail. We got out of there pretty quickly, not wanting to meet his mom.

We camped that night in a site generously donated by our next-door neighbors who asked over the fence if we happened to need a campsite for the 4th of July weekend when all the campsites would be booked. Yes please. Thank Ken and Donna.

We made tinfoil dinners and used some of the elk that Paul's parents sent us for Christmas. What a treat.

The next morning we woke up at 3:00 and got on the trail to the fishing spot by 3:30. It was light out. Orrin and Paul both landed nice ones. We all had some on though. Even me for a second.(Okay, okay. This one is of Paul the Monday before they came up, but I like how it shows how fast the water is moving.)

Once we were done fishing, we hiked out to Lower Russian Lake, where we heard some kind of bear disturbance on the other side. I'm glad it was on the OTHER side.

Sunday we went to church and hung out here, eating fish and playing music and chatting. At one point the conversation (inevitably) turned to tales of pranks pulled. Grant (with great glee) recited the ol'flour in the vents tale of yore. When it came Paul's turn he sheepishly shared a couple of stories of straight vandalism before the conversation awkwardly moved on. I love it.

On Monday, they ventured off on their own while Paul went to Young Men's camp and I stayed home to hold down the fort.

I feel like it's cheating to include these pictures, since we weren't there, but they're too good to leave out. They hiked out to Exit Glacier. That speck on the lower right hand side is Grant. And he's big.

This gives it a little perspective. And no, you're not allowed to climb on the glacier.

Because it's dangerous.

They fished a little on their way to Soldotna where they hooked up with a guide. Grant contributed 50% of the species they caught on their trip. Good job Grant!

I think this picture does a great job of showing how bright bright blue the glacier lakes are.

Orrin caught a 51 pound king salmon. This is as big as they get!

Thanks guys!

Barn Doors

2010-06-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

When people catch huge 400 pound halibuts, they call them Barn Doors. The little guys are called chickens. We decided to take ourselves on a charter to catch some halibut. Halibut is delicious. And we appreciate being close to the source of our food. And neither of us had ever done a charter before. So, the day after we got back from our backpacking trip we drove down to Homer and got ourselves a campsite for the night. Bright and early the next morning (not like it gets dark) we hopped aboard The Sizzler for a day of halibut slaying in Katchemak Bay. I think I enjoyed watching the other people on the boat as much as I did the fishing. It made me think about my Grandpa Shug a lot and how much he would have enjoyed being there with us. After we were done, Paul did the math and all the costs of our excursion still ended up with the fish costing less per pound than it would in the store. So that's nice too, for a couple of thrifty folks like us.

Our bait was chuncks of sardines.

This is where we were.

You just dropped your line with its 2 pound weight and let it go until it hit the ocean floor.

Then when your line got a bite, you reeled and reeled and reeled.

Then you caught a fish. Just like that.

Paul's last catch was so big the crew man took one look at it, and then grabbed his big gaffe hook to stab it up out of the water. That's it on that guy's stick.

That's the boat captain Paul. That must be good luck or something. (Did you know you're not allowed to bring bananas on the boat, or even to talk about them, as they are considered bad luck? Apparently it's a pretty serious offense.)

This fish is flopping on top of the hold where they throw all the keepers before filleting them on the way home.

This is a puffin.

These are our fish. They are heavy.

Somebody put this handsome guy in an Outdoor Life magazine.

They clip them together with your number so as to keep straigh whose is whose.

Did you know that the left eye of the halibut migrates across its head during its lifetime?

This is not halibut but salmon. It is a great example of just what kinds of delicious things may happen to this fish in the future.

Crow Pass Traverse

2010-06-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

This is my face as Carolyn dropped us off and drove away. She left us at the trailhead in the rain and the clouds were thick up where we were headed. And there was snow in the tops of the mountains. Were we headed into snow with no way home except to walk through it for the next 3 days?

This is Paul's face...chillin. This boy doesn't worry about anything.

This is us both calm, cool and collected. Ready to go! (Yes, we match and yes, the first person we met on the trail called out to us with glee, "You match!")-Side Note- Whenever we hike here, we never see ANYONE. It's nice. We saw one grandma with her 2 hardcore granddaughters, all of 5 and 9 years old, coming down the pass that first day. That night 2 different people and a platoon of soldiers passed our campsite and that was pretty much it the whole trip. It's nice, like I said, and also a little scary.

This is part of the iditarod trail. These were some old mining ruins.

All of the elevation gain was done the first half of the first day. But it was not nearly as intense as Pioneer Ridge, so we felt like we were doing pretty well.

This was the first of the snow, of which there was much that day. Later on after we crossed the pass, there were a lot of avalanche gullies that were super steep and it was the most scared I have ever been for my life. I thought I was a goner. One misplaced step and I would have been. The snow started to get a little hardpacked in the middle of the widest/steepest patch of snow. Our poor little feet, begging for a little bit of hold on the cold uncaring snow. There are no picutres of that because it was very delicate maneuvering.

We've climbed up into the pass. There's a public use cabin behind me you can't see, which would be cool to stay in.

Yet another great example of summertime fun in Alaska.

Right as you're coming out of the pass there's this cool glacier.

More hiking pictures.

Our campsite. Paul did a genius job of rigging (Ha! RIGGing...get it?) up the tarp to keep us dry. It rained a lot that day. We were pretty wet and cold by the end of the day. But that crazy tarp flapped LOUDLY in the wind ALL NIGHT. I swear I didn't sleep a wink while Paul was dreaming about herds of Zebras and Rhinos attacking. I made him hang up the food bag when I was already warm inside my sleeping bag so I bear wouldn't get it. I saw him try to hang it up and yelled at him to go further away. All alone. In bear country. He's nice.

This picture is just too good not to include. Waking up outside.

More glaciers the second day. We descended into the valley the second day and the rest was pretty flat.

This was situation 2 where I really thought I was going to die. We crossed that river. This is a picture of Paul after we had crossed and changed into dry clothes. This river is fresh off a glacier, so it's pretty cold. And it was wide and strong. It came up to our shirts. It was pretty sketchy in the middle because it was so strong and so deep. We sure were glad to get to the other side, as evidenced by the grin on Paul's face.

So we kept walking. We saw some waterfalls.

And we set up camp by the river.

We were pretty worried about bears the whole time. We saw lots of...poop...and by the river we saw prints in the muddy sand. We had Quasar's bear spray and hoped that would be enough. We never did see a bear. Thank goodness.

The last day we walked along this river until we came to the end. Then Claire and Eddie that I work with came and picked us up and took us home.

Just one last classic shot of Paul, appreciating nature. Or something like that.

Pioneer Ridge

2010-06-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

4.5 miles one way. 5000 ft elevation gain. That's pretty much straight up. And then it's pretty much straight down when you come back. We did this one Monday recently. I figured, hey, I'm young, I may not be in the best shape, but I can do this. I did. And then I could barely walk for a few days afterwards. Every hike we do I always think is the most intense hike of my life. This was no exception. And I think it might take the cake for a while. We are learning to trust our little guide book when it says, "Very Strenuous." We also nearly ran into a bear, but it turned out to be a couple moose. Anyone who is planning on visiting us, do not plan on doing this hike. But if you really want to do it, we'd be happy to drop you off and wait for you to finish.

Garden Start

2010-06-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

In the beginning we took pictures of our barely growing out of the ground peas and our fledgling potatoes. They are much bigger now and we'll get some of those pictures up soon. These are the strawberries we planted last year that champed through the winter and are now knee-high. Have you ever seen knee high STRAWBERRY plants? They are covered in blossoms now which will hopefully miraculously turn into ripe red fruit.

These round barrels are holding our potatoes. Yes, they used to hold hazardous chemicals. We're hoping we don't grow fins or extra appendages after eating these potatoes, which are turning out quite nicely so far.

We have an upside down tomatoe plant hanging and thriving with some cilantro growing right side up on top of it. We also have more flowers this year, which is lovely for our viewing pleasure.

Waterfalls & Mushrooms

2010-06-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

On Memorial Day we went to Thunderbird Falls with Eric and Marcella, our compatriots in adventure. It was a miniature hike, but fun. A highlight was the unexpected find of morrel mushrooms. Marcella found one and then Paul found one. We played hackysack on the end of the trail platform and tried to not kick it off.

This is Marcella morrel hunting.

Addendum

2010-05-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

This film was taken a couple days before the pictures in the last post. This is our neighbor's front yard and then our front yard. Same moose. What's funny is that later that day Paul had to watch a video clip for his class of behavioral studies of moose that showed a moose attacking someone.

Untitled from Shug Rigg on Vimeo.

Pests

2010-05-23T18:15:00.000-08:00

We have a new neighbor. This is him across the street.

And this is him eating our greenery and flowers.

We banged on the window to no avail. My boss says she has a big walking stick that she uses to smack the moose on the butt when he's eating her flowers. He's been here several times this week. I came home from work one day and he was sitting in front of our neighbor's house in the shade, like a big dog. Some gardners have to worry about bugs. We have to worry about moose. Apparently spraying wolf or lion's urine around your garden keeps the moose away. Strangely enough, we don't have any of that on hand.

Birthday

2010-05-23T17:46:00.003-08:00

This post is late late late as Paul's b-day was over a month ago, but here are some lovely picutres of our celebration breakfast anyway.

Yes, I know you're thinking...breakfast? Are those roasted potatoes and an artichoke? Yup. But on your birthday you get whatever you want for breakfast.

And this is the pie I made him that was...rather soupy.

He got a new set of bongos in that big box and a big thank you goes out to our parents for hooking him up with some extra spending money.

Hope

2010-05-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Lucy Love

2010-05-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

My little brother Ben and his wife Kelsey had a baby! Her name is Lucy Love and she's smart and good. The best part of all of it is that I get to hold her in July! She'll be so tiny still!

7 Years Ago

2010-05-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

I entered the MTC with sweet sweet Sister Robinson as my companion who put up a picture of her sheep in the mountains right next to my picture of the farm.

Happenings and Hopings

2010-05-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

People have been clamoring for a post. (Okay, okay, it was only Robinson. But I know the rest of you are dying along with her for want of info on Shug and Paul's life.) Here's a list of the most exciting things going on with us lately.

1.) Paul's birthday! Celebrated with blueberry pie (that I apparently forgot to put enough cornstarch in...I'm losing my mind, much to my mom's vindication. Still delicious, though. And you may not know this, but it's true: Pie makes an excellent smoothie ingredient.) and a trip to Sourdough Mining Company where we ate a ton of legendary corn fritters. Paul got a lovely set of Bongos that are my favorite new toy. (I'm quite good. I like to think of my style as "unorthodox.")

2.) My last paystub confirmed that I have 187.5 hours of paid time off saved up. Right on schedule for our upcoming summer of fun.

3.) We've decided on which island to stay at while we're in Thailand. Yes, we're keeping up on the news and the tavel advisories, but Brittany's friends in Thailand swear it's fine and my well-travelled friends make fun of me for being overly concerned. I want to start practicing Nerts (Pounce, for the Rigg side of the family) to get on top of my game for the mad playing that will be done in our our little hut.

4.) Grant and his Dad are coming to visit us this summer. Okay, okay, they are coming to fish, but we all pretend they're coming to visit us too!

5.) We've got our tickets home to YG for the end of July. Levi and Julie and Grandma are going to be there. I'm so stoked to be home on the farm in the summertime. I'm really looking forward to showing the farm to Paul who doesn't yet know that part of my life (and consequently, me.)

6.)Griff and Ben are coming here in August!!! I didn't think it would ever happen, but they're coming! We're going to talk and hike and talk and camp and talk and eat and talk and I'm really looking forward to it.

7.) One more week of seminary!

8.) Paul's last class of the semester was yesterday! He's practically a genius at signing now.

9.) Which brings us to our next exciting news. Paul has a new job as an Individual Service Provider for someone who is deaf. That'll be an adventure.

10.)The sun is rising at 5:52 am and setting at 10:04. And the days are only getting longer and longer!

11.) I'm getting really good at hackey sack.

12.) I've learned a new game with the youth in the ward. It's called Ninja and it's really really fun. I'm getting better all the time, but they pretty much smoke me for the most part.

All in all, all is well.

Spring Break

2010-03-13T16:38:00.000-09:00

For a long while now it's felt like spring (or as they say in Alaska, Break Up). We all knew it wasn't spring in our heads, but our hearts were convinced. Until last Tuesday. It snowed again. A ton! This is our neighbor's car after the snow.

Not to be outdone by last year's spring break adventures, we decided to brave the cold and fly our kites out on Turnagain Arm. We went to the same spot several times last summer but haven't been out since it snowed. It's a totally different place. It looks martian or something. Luckily, we found one area of unbroken ice to serve as our runway, otherwise it would have been pretty treacherous walking backwards on all those chunked up peices of ice, looking at the sky. It was beautiful. All sunny and blue skies, the bright spots of color kites against all that white white snow. All alone in the world. Beautiful.

(It's hard to work a camera with enormous gloves on.)

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this is how you sign "a person walking up a spiral staircase.

Fur Rondy

2010-03-13T16:22:00.000-09:00

Something you may or may not be familiar with is the grand spectacle of Fur Rondy. It happens in the coldest part of the winter in Anchorage. It originally was the time when all the fur traders would come into town to trade their furs, Fur Rondezvous. It has turned into a winter carnival and there's tons of stuff going on all around town. It marks the beginning of the Iditarod (the last great race), furs are sported by EVERYONE, and there's a full blown carnival with rides and fair food. People will ride that ferris wheel in the freezing cold, snowy weather. Paul and I ventured downtown to catch some of the spectacle. We particiapted in the blanket toss, an Alaska Native tradition. There's a huge blanket of sewn together skins that someone sits on. Everyone else stands around the outside of the circle and pulls out at the same time to send them rocketing up into the air. Good times. This is a picture of them folding up the blanket after it was all done. Probably the least spectacular this picture could have possibly been, but it shows the cool blanket anyway.

Then we went to the museum because it was free. We didn't make it through much of the museum, but what we did see we enjoyed. Paul especially loved the diaramas of the old native hunting scenes. He's captured some here for you to enjoy. Some of the youth that I work with still participate in whale hunting, pretty much just like this. Intense.

I decided that if I ever have to hunt muskox, I will just stare them down. I'm pretty scary.

The long awaited...

2010-03-08T20:11:00.000-09:00

I know you're all dying to find out the answers to the poll.

A dash of cheetahs.
A bask of crocodiles.
An ugly of walruses. (My personal favorite!)
Now, the ducks were a trick question as it depends on what they're doing.
A dopping of diving ducks.
A plump of flying ducks.
A paddling of ducks on the water.
A brace of ducks.
Flush, raft, and team are also appropriate for a group of ducks.

I also like a whoop of gorillas.
A flamboyance of flamingoes.
It goes on and on.

We Like Making Things

2010-03-01T16:24:00.000-09:00

This is Paul cooking up our first attempt at tortillas. Decent, but left something to be desired. We'll keep trying.

This is the most beautiful bread I've ever made. It's an orange/craisin/raisin/fig/walnut celbration braid.

These are enormous calzones we made. We had a bunch of friends over for calzone making and I was impressed/amazed with how everyone finished their whole thing.

This was a spelt dish we tried as we've been attempting to incorporate a wider variety of grains into our diet. I tried to make amaranth for our curry this weekend. It's weird.

These are the first buttons we made with the button maker Paul got me for my Birthday. I've been longing for a button maker since I was 15 or so. A good 13 years ago! Well, now I've finally got it. I can't bring myself to give away any of our buttons, because I love them all so much. I think the little lamb is my favorite.

Terms of Venery

2010-03-01T16:06:00.001-09:00

This has absolutely blown my mind. Maybe you all already know of these amazing terms, but I just learned a bunch on Saturday. Please indicate your answers in our poll, but NO SEARCH ENGINES ALLOWED.

In Case You're Wondering...

2010-02-16T20:26:00.000-09:00

...the reason I haven't posted anything lately is that it would consist of more chemistry, or maybe math. I could regale you with tales of my workplace with my supervisor gone, leaving me in charge, or tales of our daydreams of coming summer, or ... yep...that's about it. That and all the fabulous food we cook. Man, we eat well. I have created an AMAZING smoothie that I like to call Lickety Split. Clever, as it is made of bananas, p-butter and soy milk.

Geniuses...Geniui?

2010-02-01T16:19:00.000-09:00

The one class I never figured out in highschool was chemistry. It might have something to do with the fact that I had already been accepted to my college of choice before I ever finished that class, so my motivation was a bit lacking. (Much to my mom's horror...where was my work ethic? Where was my sense of finishing what I start?) Well, here I am, a good 10 years later and my husband is in school, taking a chemistry class of all things. Sometimes I do his homework with him, and guess what...I am absolutely loving it! I haven't used my brain like that is YEARS!!! (10, to be exact.) You can practically smell the smoke coming out of our ears as we form a ton of brand-new neural pathways. I heart learning! I can still hear Mr B's voice explaining covalent bonds and balancing equations and something about orbitals and valence electrons. Too bad the memory of his voice is fuzzy and I can't recall hardly anything specific. Lots of relearning but it's a party. Especially since I'm not being graded on anything. Yet, I feel this strange urgency to actually understand the questions and answers so I can keep up with what comes next. Might have to take a leave of absence from social working to go ahead and get a chemistry degree!

Don't Tell My Mom

2010-01-18T17:34:00.000-09:00

Knowing full well that my mom reads this blog now, I will tell this story anyway. Everyone knows that the #1 rule of life is not to play on traintracks. All those assemblies at school where they bring in the body bags and play videos of trains smashing into things...did this really only happen in Yellow Grass? Well, they did a good job of instilling the fear into me. I've never played on the traintracks...until I met Paul. Last week we went for a little walk and placed some coins on the tracks and then came back to find them squished into perfect pringles. Pretty fun, but it feels illegal. Is this illegal? Paul says he did it with a primary leader, so it can't be that bad, right?

The sun never actually comes in the window, but sometimes it bounces off the other buildings as it hangs low over the horizon all day.

Birdees

2010-01-18T13:36:00.000-09:00

Remember when Paul made me a birdhouse? Well, they've come! We had a horrific few windy days when the birdseed was scattered all over the yard, but after it calmed down, the seed sits nicely and waits for the birds. It's like Paul got us pets, except we don't have to take care of them, and they're different all the time. Pretty sweet. We can watch them right from our dining room.

Santa's Workshop

2009-12-27T14:23:00.000-09:00

This year we decided to make our Christmas Presents. We made them all except for what I sent to Brittany, which I'm not sure if she's gotten yet, so I will not mention it here. I had to wait patiently until after Christmas to post this so as not to spoil the surprise. I don't think my parents have gotten theirs yet, but I'm pretty sure they don't really check our blog so I don't think I'm spoiling their surprise. Anyway, I took a couple days off in mid December to solely focus on this project. I made books for our family members. In total, I made 10 books, which is quite the feat. I worked from well before sun-up to late in the night 2 days straight, barely finishing in time for mutual on day 2. It was a blast. And I was really happy with how they turned out. I think Peter's was my favorite. The red floral design on his is raised and very fuzzy. Good times.

We also hosted a crepe party at our house for the Mia Maids. It was a lovely Christmas feast and I think they had a great time. No need to provide entertainment, just get them together and let them talk and talk and talk. It was great. There was definitely no shortage of choices of fillings for our crepes. We put in the extra leaf of our table and covered the whole thing. Janelle came later after we had taken pictures already, but that's Jamie, Lily and Mary. They're WONDERFUL!

Paul's parents sent us some elk meat. Needless to say, Paul's pretty stoked in this picture.

Paul took me out for my very first sushi for my birthday, among many other incredibly fun activities. (Including a death defying sledding trip that left us too sore to try it again the next day. We drove up a road 3 miles, then sledded down in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night. Since it was so dark, there was no way to tell how fast we were going, aside from the wind in our face. We kept a sharp eye out for oncoming traffic, bailing out of the road whenever they approached. We both had bruises as big as grapefruit from that stunt. Laughed pretty hard.) We spent the night in a condo in Girdwood, a nearby ski town. It was nice to get out of town and have a little mini vacation. He's so good to me. He got me a button-maker for my birthday that I've been wanting since I was 14. (A good 14 years ago!) That's me with my new flannel shirt from Heidi and a towel warming rack from Paul's parents. Something they always wanted when they lived up here.

I had my very first successful venture with the sewing maching Heidi gave me last year for my birthday. I made these fetching headbands. Then I gave them to Heidi for her Christmas present.

Our Christmas Eve meal was a tribute to the Shugart tradition of snacky foods on Christmas Eve. Delicious. Then for Christmas Day Paul made an absolutely scrumptious meal of scallops, shrimp and salmon. I think it's the best meal ever made in our house. And that's saying something.

For the grand finale...
We made a deal to make each others Christmas presents this year. Paul made me a beautiful birdhouse. I made him a chess set. We're both really happy with how they turned out. I was most excited for him to open his present Chrismtas morning. That's a nice feeling. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful, thoughtful gifts. We've had a lovely Christmas season and look forward to starting a brand new year. Especially glad that we are gaining more and more light every day.

True Story

2009-12-18T15:32:00.000-09:00

Front page news of the Anchorage Daily News: (complete with picture)

"The sun broke through the clouds above downtown Anchorage Wednesday afternoon."

The best part about that "newsflash" was that every single person in this town was aware of the 5 minutes of sunlight that showed up on Wednesday.

We love it here!

Feasting!

2009-12-18T10:48:00.000-09:00

mango
banana
pommegranate
persimmon
pear
kiwi
blueberry
strawberry
peach yogurt
cherry yogurt
whipped cream
maple syrup
boisenberry syrup
cream cheese frosting
peanut butter
apple butter
almond butter
honey ham
mesquite turkey
mozzerella cheese
feta cheese

The toppings for the Christmas Crepe Feast we had at our house last night with the Mia Maids. A Party!

Snow

2009-12-17T21:33:00.000-09:00

The freshly fallen snow on our footprints in the old snow makes our yard look like focaccia bread.

Holy, Holy, Holy

2009-12-17T10:22:00.000-09:00

Sufjean Steven's song Holy, Holy, Holy makes me want to be a better person.

Holy, Holy, Holy by Sufjan Stevens

More Sufjan Stevens music on iLike

Christmas!

2009-12-13T20:02:00.000-09:00

Mom sent us up this advent calendar that was much beloved in my household growing up. Come to find out, Paul's family had the exact same calendar. The little stuffed bear moves from room to room of the house looking for Christmas. Today he looked in the toybox. It wasn't there. It doesn't feel like we can get properly merry without it. And the moose draft blocker from Paul's mom last year. Works like a charm.

The nativity set from Paul's mom last year. I'm so glad we have one to set up right next to our tree. Thanks Kathy! Notice the book of Christmas songs next to the table. I found it in a used book store up here and it's the same book that graced our piano during the holidays of my childhood.

Our beautiful tree. Complete with all of Paul's decorations he received from his Grandma each year for Christmas. Plus the makeshift decorations we picked up at Salvation Army last year.

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-13T19:31:00.000-09:00

It's been foggy here...thich fog...for a week straight. At first the leafless trees were frosted over like always happens when it's foggy. It was beautiful. We loved it. Then it kept being foggy. And then it was still foggy. Everything...EVERYTHING has inches of frost on top of frost. Even the evergreen trees are white. The antennas on our cars are an inch and a half around. I've never seen anything like it. We love it here.

Soap Making

2009-11-30T16:55:00.001-09:00

(Paul makes fun of me for all the product placements on our blog.)I made laundry soap today! (Of course when I told my mom, she assumed I had learned how to use beef lard and lye to make soap...Not quite.) We had an enrichment project a while ago where they showed us how. It's quite easy and very economical. You just use Fels Naptha, shred it, boil it in water to melt it, add Borax, Washing Soda and water and there you have it.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T20:53:00.000-09:00

Since moving to the states, Thanksgiving has risen exponentially on my list of favorite holidays. It was always kind of a non-holiday in my family, so I never feel like I am missing anything by being away from them. So whatever happens always feels like that Thanksgiving is the Best Thanksgiving Ever. This year was no exception. It finally snowed a ton the day before while Paul and I were enjoying our annual jaunt to the Carrs Safeway Great Alaska Shootout college preseason basketball tournament. It's a longstanding Rigg Family tradition and we like to carry it on. For Thanksgiving we were invited to eat with the Walthers, an older couple from church. They invited all the young couples over, so we got to hang out with a bunch of our friends. It was really really fun. Great conversation, easy warm people to be around, delicious food, LOTS of delicious food. Good times.

All this snow is from while we were at the game.

This is the fabulous rabbit pot pie Paul made for our contribution to the feast.

This is what happens when Paul gets tired. He'll fall asleep wherever is, even if he's upside down on the couch. Poor poor tired Paul.

I just realized that this is a picture of me on the night that our heater was broken. There was a plumber under our house with our landlady for hours. Lots of freezing hours. So Paul bundled me up to my neck the multitude of blankets we have. The white one was a wedding gift, beautifully made by my Grandma and the green plaid looking one was a wedding gift lovingly quilted by my mom and the ladies in the Weyburn branch that I grew up in.

Chinook

2009-11-24T07:23:00.000-09:00

I don't know if you know this...but weather forecasts lie. I know, I know...most of you have that figured out by now. But still, I feel gypped. There has been zero snow since my last posting. Zero. I'm aching for it. It did warm up though, with a fierceness. With a chinook, actually. The online dictionary I just looked at defines it as "A warm dry wind blowing down the eastern face of the rockies." Well, there are chinooks other places too, like Anchorage. It rained last night and this morning it's still above freezing.

Weather

2009-11-18T07:22:00.000-09:00

It's been consistently around or below 0 for the last while here. I looked at the 10 day forecast this morning, wondering where the snow is. Don't worry. For 8 out of the next 10 days there are snow showers predicted. Thank goodness. And the temps go from 0 to 28. Yes!

For Griff

2009-10-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

I thought of Griff a lot this year when the peaches were round and fat and juicy. This is one of my favorite poems that I burned onto an old crate I found in the garbage. It's from a book she gave me, so I'm sure she knows it. But I'm going to post it anyway because I'm in charge of celebrations and I would like to celebrate the end of summer, since it is the end of fall. And Missy's poetry inspired me.

From Blossoms - Li-Young Lee
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peahces
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at teh roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background:from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

The Mother Load

2009-09-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

We pretty much scored in our garden this year. More lettuce than anyone could possibly handle, a windowsill full of tomatoes, a million baby carrots (I will thin them better next year), peas all summer, approximately 6 beans, onions, swisschard, 5 sunflower plants that never got to blooming, and a passle of potatoes. Beautiful red round potatoes. Please notice the one triumphant zuccini that outlasted the awful horrible slugs that ate up every other zuccini we had thanks to Paul's diligent slug hunting efforts.

Just So You Know...

2009-09-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

I, your very own 'Jen Rigg,' have been awarded for the second time (drumroll please) EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER!!! That's right. This is no piddly Employee of the Month award. This is for the entire QUARTER. My lovely workplace has given me $50 and a paid day off, plus another certificate for the fridge. Sweet.

Magic

2009-09-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

I have used that word before to describe our life. And well...it's just right. We went to the Alaska State Fair for the 2nd time in our two years of marriage. Paul is like a little kid there...pure glee. Which is good times. Again we saw the lumberjack competition and again, we ate whatever we wanted. It was sweet.

For Labor Day we went to Whittier, which is only accessible through a tunnel that opens every half hour. This tunnel is cut through the bottom of a mountain. It's the mountain on the left of the picture below. It's pretty crazy. The ceiling of the tunnel is not far above your car, it's one skinny lane and you drive on the train tracks as the tunnel is also for the railroad. The ceiling and walls of the 2 miles+ tunnel is jagged rock which looks as if it was freshly blown. It's enough to make even the stout-hearted a little glad to get out of it when you Finally come to the other side. Especially when the cave drips water onto your windshield.

Once we got to the Whittier side of the tunnel, it felt like we were very very far away. It was foggy and there were glaciers in every mountain top. We hiked the single most intense hike of my entire life. And it was beautiful. We climbed over the mountain we just came under and saw the glacier from behind. A big full beautiful view. It felt like we were in every adventure book we've ever read. It seemed like a dragon would fly out of the fog.

What this picture doesn't quite capture is the absolute DROP of death into the valley where the glacier lake is. We went down a completely overgrown "trail" on the way down. It turned into what looked like an old river bed or snow run-off or something which consisted of round smooth slippery wet rocks which we clambered over while battling the thick alder bushes blocking our faces and bodies while we headed straight down the mountain. We decided to take the active riverbed's path back up, because even though we had to battle water, we didn't have to battle the bushes. We probably saved about 3 hours going that way. (It was Paul's idea!) And besides, once you're wet, the stakes don't seem nearly so high for not falling off the rocks! You can really only get so wet.

When we were back in the car eating the best peach of our life, Paul points out that my face is turning blue. I didn't believe him until I looked in the mirror. Yup, like a blueberry. (Which were plentiful and huge at the summit. HUGE! Those are blueberries in Paul's smile. So that was neat.

I didn't die. We did something hard. It was great. Perfect.

And yes, I made that touque I'm wearing!

AND we saw a whole pod of beluga whales surfacing right next to the road on the drive down. We've been looking for belugas there since we first met and this is the first time we've seen them. Beautiful. They are my new favorite.

AND we shared the biggest best sweet roll I've ever tasted. It blew my mind. It made me want to share it with everyone I know. Instantly. Like Lehi. So...you all must come! Just for the sweet roll.

Sweet Elixer

2009-08-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

Paul came back to Alaska in the dead of winter almost 2 years ago. He brought with him something amazing. He called it..."Hot Tang." Oh dang. It was a gift from his mission president's wife, Sister Sonne. She would always coyly avoid answering pleas for recipes by saying, "Oh, it's just Tang and some spices." When you drink it, you feel funny inside. I had some this morning to ease the pain from the wracking cough that's ripping apart my lungs inside of me.

When we make it we just add "some spices." Usually allspice, cloves, nutmeg...you know. Try it!

My New Favorite Picture of Paul

2009-08-18T22:23:00.001-08:00

Beautiful.

Hatcher's Pass

2009-08-18T22:03:00.001-08:00

We went blueberry picking in one of my favorite places in the world, Hatcher's Pass. That's the freshest air I've ever tasted in my life. We also plucked some fireweed blossoms to make jelly out of. That was tied for the most beautiful gathering experience of my life. Imagine, gathering blossoms from flowers to make food out of! Our very first attempt at canning. Everything sealed, but only 2 jars of the jelly actually set. Looks like we have a year's storage of fireweed syrup! Sweet.

In Season

2009-08-18T17:03:00.000-08:00

MMmmm. Look at the size of those peas!

2009-08-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

We went fishing again at Sheep Creek. I LOVED it because I had about a million fish on my line. Seriously. They just kept biting and biting and swimming around fiercely with my little hook in their mouth. Then they would spit it out and I wouldn't have to be left to get them off the hook. Didn't bring home any, but had a blast.

Living the Dream

2009-07-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

After some less successful attempts at gathering a ludicrous amount of fish (like this day we went to the Eklutna Trailrace with Eric and Marcella and caught nothing!)

...we finally hit the jackpot. We went to the Copper River near Chitina last weekend and went dipnetting. Every time we told someone where we were going, their eyes clouded over and they would all ominously say, "The Copper River will kill ya. Make sure to rope off." I, of course, was dubious. Paul was not. So we went with some really good rope and an evening of knot tying under our belts.

Turns out our dipnet is too short for the mighty Copper River (which actually is quite fast paced and huge, though we did not tie off). We caught 3 lovely, though somewhat disappointing fish while the men next to us caught something pretty much every time they put their really long net out. After an evening of this they eventually, thanks to the sugggestion of their wives on the bank let us use their really long and really successful net. Paul began raking them in. (I was quite pooped by that point. Hard work...who knew?) We ended up taking home somthing like 17 salmon, which is well within our limit. This is the spot we were fishing in and an example of the really long net. You just put it in upstream of you and walk along the bank with it as the current carries it. When it's pushed out of the current downstream of you, you pull it out and do it all again. I think my favorite part was when we would throw the sometimes still flopping fish into our huge cooler and they would bounce until the lid popped open. So we're super thankful for those people who were so kind to share with us.

Another method used for harvesting the salmon is to use a fishwheel. It is powered by the current and dips huge cages into the river and dumps any caught fish into a holding tank until you get back to check on it.

We spent the night in a sweet campsite and then drove the 5 hours back home. The scenery is breathtaking and included some beautiful glaciers.

And yes, we are still in love.

Then came the fun part of taking care of all the fish. We filleted (sp?) all them last night, some of them are being vacuumed packed for our freezer and Paul is smoking the rest of it. We love it all, but the smoked salmon is our favorite.

A close second is this beauty that Paul made when I got back from Young Women's Camp. We had fresh salmon with swisschard and broccoli from our garden. This is a beautiful life.

And now I am going to go make butter.

Scout Camp

2009-07-27T16:30:00.000-08:00

Paul took his Scouts to Skilak Lake and from there they rode their bikes about 100 miles to Homer. They had a blasty.

They were right across the inlet from Mt Redoubt, still putting out ash.

Harvest

2009-06-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Paul called me from work at 2:30 and said, "Let's go fishing!" So we did. We drove down to the Kenai River and joined in our very first combat fishing adventure. I feel successful in that I didn't hook anyone. Paul not only didn't hook anyone, but he did hook a ton of fish. He landed a couple of beautiful salmon. It was a gorgeous experience.

After gearing up Paul said to me..."Shug. You look like a dude." Nice.

These are the fancy chest waders that were a Christmas present for Paul from Chris and Alex that I work with. They worked a double shift so they could afford them.

It was raining all the way down there, but the sun came out when we got in the water and stayed out all night. These are the guys that I am proud for not hooking them in the face. There were so many fish! They would jump out of the water and flash their silver sides. Very very enjoyable.

They saw a bear on the other bank of the river.

It looks dark out the kitchen window, but really it was just twilight-blue-darkish at about 3 am.

This is the beautiful fillet we were going to barbecue tonight for supper. Instead, we had a long nap. It's nice to figure out how to harvest the bounty of this incredible place. We can't wait to go back. (But we'll have to because Paul's asleep right now.)

Fruits!

2009-06-21T16:53:00.000-08:00

Well, vegetables really. For the most part. Our plants are growing food!

Our lone strawberry. Mom says you're supposed to pick all the blossoms the first year, but we couldn't do it. We want fruit!

This is where I spilled the radish seeds. We got a little impatient yesterday and plucked one. It was a little skinny, but it tasted like radish, so that's good.

Our pepper plant. Still waiting.

We had 6 little tomatoes growing the last time we counted and a ton of blossoms promising more.

Our little pea army. Makes us proud.

Yay Us.

2009-06-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

1 whole year. We celebrated our anniversary by enjoying the traditional top of our year old cake. While I made the bottom two layers, Lorna, the cook at my work, created us the masterpiece top layer. I've been excited for a year because I knew there was a hunk of cake in our freezer made out of nearly pure frosting. It did not disappoint! Dad would have loved it. I'm not so sure Paul felt the same.