Back to Alaska!!!

We have recently had the privileged of going back to Alaska to visit some friends and remember the good ole days.

Back in 1995, soon after Jeromy and I began to get to know each other, he headed off to school at UAA on a running scholarship. After about a week we realized we couldn't live without each other. In Oct. began dating via the phone and letters and I visited him in Anchorage in March. He proposed to me out on a frozen lake at Portage Glacier.

After we got married we drove to Alaska in 4 1/2 days in our little Geo Metro. We got our first apartment and survived the neighbors. We both worked at the University and spent a lot of time there. We spent lots of time with Grace, Danny and Elizabeth, studying, running and just hanging out. Yes back in those days even I gave running a try. 6 miles was my max.

Then we fell in love with Girdwood and moved there the next spring. We both got jobs at the local resort. Alyeska! We lived at the base of the ski mountain and got free passes to ski because we worked at the resort. Oh, the life of newly weds.

I was extremely homesick and I convinced Jeromy to move back to Idaho. I wanted to be with our families. I missed mine and I hadn't had the chance to get to know his family very well. So back to Idaho we went. We love it here and truth be told we will probably be here for ever, but we do love and miss Alaska. We have almost moved back many times and if God ever calls us there we will be there in a second. But finding contentment where we are is a blessing.

So we went back for 5 days and relived our 1st 2 years together. We reconnected with many great friends and we came home with no moving plans.

First we surprised Jeremy and Amanda. Oops! I typed in our flight arrival at 3:34 instead of 1:34. Well we showed up 2 hours earlier then what they expected. They were so gracious and we had a wonderful time hanging out with them and their beautiful family.
They began dating the same time we did, so needless to say when we lived in AK. we were all a little smitten and didn't spend a lot of time together, but Amanda and I have gotten in touch via FB and blogging and we have so much in common. They are passionate about Jesus and they are passionate about adoption. They have a beautiful family and I can't wait for our kids to get to hang out. I love how God can bond people together even over many miles.

(Jeromy and I with our friends Jeremy and Amanda and one of their precious 5 )

Jeromy squeezed in breakfast with his former college rummie, Jason. Jason and his wife live wayyyy up north. He is a social worker in Nome and just "happened" to be in town the same time we were. God is so good to allow us to keep in touch.

Next we headed to Grace and Travis's house. We met Grace's husband for the first time and I am so excited to say "Grace you found a wonderful man". Travis and Grace have two wonderful little guys. We had an awesome time being with them. We all hiked the backside of Flattop and survived. The guys packed the kids and the girls packed the cameras. Except, I stole the baby for half the way down.

We hustled back down to begin our journey to Kenai. What a trip down memory lane driving the Turnagain Arm and I didn't even take pictures because I was stuffing my face with a very messy Carl's Jr. burger.

We arrived at Danny and Elizabeth's late but stayed up and caught up a bit. Elizabeth is an amazing decorator and has done some really creative bedrooms for her kids. I forgot to get pics but too cute they were. Danny is a nurse and it was so fun to see his love for The Lord and his passion for nursing. What a neat family, and super cute kids.

We all drove out to the Captian Cook Inlet and had a wonderful time on the beach looking for precious stones. We even saw 3 moose in someones front yard on the trip over. We (Jeromy and I) being tourists and all had to stop and grab some pics.

(Elizabeth, Grace, baby Trace, Amanda and Stacy)










(Jeromy and Danny out searching for precious stones)

















(David, Danny, Vince, and Amanda looking over the amazingly beautiful Cook Inlet)





On our way back to Anchorage Jeromy and I stopped at Girdwood. We stayed the night at our beloved Hotel Alyeska. It was more beautiful then I remembered and it was fun to be there as guests this time.
Jeromy was also able to squeeze in a visit with his old buddy from highschool. Matt and Jeromy were on the highschool team that went to state. They have many great memories together and hopefully we can continue to make many more.











While Jeromy was out with Grace and I got a little girls time doing some errands. Then the next night her and I went out for dessert. Yummy!! What a nice time just getting to be girls. One our way we saw some commotion in the intersection. Low and behold a moose had just crossed via the crosswalk and was standing at the corner waiting to cross New Seward highway. The honking cars caused it to change direction and it then meandered down the side of the road.

One thing I love about Anchorage is all the moose. We rarely see them in Idaho and I love their crazy big heads. Just for old time sake I have to tell a couple of moose stories.
*We have actually gotten off the ski lift to look up and see a moose running straight toward us. It ran past us while some kids skied behind it.
*We also actually saw a moose in the Mc Donald drive through in Homer. I guess it was tired of weeds.

So, we are planning another trip for next summer to take the kids to enjoy Alaska. While we were gone they watched our Alaska videos and Gavin was convinced we were still driving a little red Geo and I was still wearing my red Alyeska Ski jacket. We missed them so much while we were gone and everything we did we said Oh, the kids would love this. Time away is so good for our marriage and it is nice to have time to be stress free, but the kids add so much joy and for some reason with this trip we really missed the kids. I can't wait to show them where life started for the Jeromy Scheel family.