Anniversary Fun

Well.... since a lot of you all have seen this in person, I figured it was time to spill the beans to the rest of you. The desire to get a tattoo has been around for me for a long time, but I was always a little worried of the pain involved and worried about what people would think. I started toying with the idea with a little more determination to actually get one back on my birthday (May 1st)...but of course we couldn't get in anywhere to do it...unbeknownst to us a LOT of people are getting tattoos these days. I waited a week or so and then finally stopped by the tattoo shop in Wauseon and made an appointment. It would be almost a month till I could get in because he was that booked up! I made the appointment for the night of June 8th (Matt would have killed me if he couldn't go along to watch). The night before our 9th wedding anniversary - we headed out to the tattoo shop! Did it hurt?! YES.... duh! It was done in about a hour. Then the next day it just felt like a sunburn, it has healed up great and in a short time. The location of my tattoo allows me to be able to show it or keep it covered up...which is nice. I mostly get one of 2 reactions when people see it - 1. That's Awesome or 2. Why would you do that to your body!?

Alaskan Adventure

OK, we have a measly 1,600 photos from the trip to Alaska... I have 30 of them posted on Facebook. Megan, please logon and show those to Jay since he won't get his own account.

Apparently, no one believes that we took these photos so we might have an issue printing them out at Wal-Mart if the photo warden is working.

The boat excursion down in Seward was just breath taking... every time we'd see something amazing we'd say that we'd be happy if that was all we saw for the rest of the day and then we'd see something even better. I just loved this shot of the shoreline with the mountain range in the background.


This was the mamma humpback whale. The pilot was trying to be careful with the baby calf in the water so we never swung around behind for that "money" tail shot.


Here is a shot of Holgate glacier as we were entering the bay. This is a tidewater glacier that breaks off into the water as it moves.


The sounds that come from the glacier as it calves and falls into the bay are amazing too...


Julie wanted to scoop these little guys up and take them home with her.


Mamma bear was just across the creek from us grazing when we took this shot.


James, our guide, estimated that this "little" guy was probably on his own for the first time. We caught him clamming on the beach and he decided to move in closer to check us out.


We saw this big boy from the safety of the tour bus on the ride through Denali. I got scolded by the driver for hanging out the window too far.


You may not believe it but you should feel lucky to see a photo of my Johanan actually looking at the camera and smiling... he fought me the whole time with that.


I took on the dynamic duo in a cut-throat game of memory cards. I'm pretty sure I won but somehow ended up with the fewest cards.


Getting ready to ride the train at Pioneer Park again... I'm not sure who was more excited... Johanan or Julie.


Johanan, look at the camera... c'mon Johanan... look over here...


No caption is really needed for this...


I had to do all the work...


I've got a pointy head...


Waiting on deck just before the riverboat cruise.


Julie wouldn't let me post the other photo of her with her tongue out.


All bundled up on the 8 hour boat tour... by the end Julie was ready to be back on solid ground.


Dinner with Julie... "Duck" I'm cracking into these bad boys.


Seward was gorgeous... we took a little stroll one night after Julie finished spraying me with her crab leg dinner.


Julie rode shotgun on the flight out to Silver Salmon Creek to see the bears. She was ok till Gabe pulled a tight spin to show us some whales below.


Believe it or not, I was a little overdressed for the flight up to the glacier. I thought it was going to be a lot colder but with the sun reflecting off of the snow it was actually beautiful weather. You have absolutely no depth perception inside the Ruth Amphitheater because of the size it is.


I had to see how chilly the water was... yup... pretty freakin' cold.


On the train from Fairbanks to Denali. It's a great way to see the surroundings.


Julie got the most gold (and the most help... other than Sophia). I think I dumped most of my gold out. It sure is harder than it looks.


Grrrrrrrrrr.....


I just had to post this one... check out the front porch. Now that's some ingenuity.


Sophia and Anuie at the Pipeline.


I was surprised to hear that about 50% of the pipeline is underground... I would have thought with all the permafrost that more of it would have to be above the ground.