Heather's Engaged!!

To see the story you should check out my sister-in-law Kara's adorable blog post!

http://karasheets.blogspot.com/

I am so excited for Heather and Chris! Matt and I haven't gotten to meet Chris yet and won't get to until a couple of days before their wedding...but we are so excited for both of them and can't wait to meet Chris!

The rest of the pics...

I don't know what happened to that picture. :)

The sunset was beautiful while we were camping!


Mama caught some fish eggs. :) She also caught a humpy. A humpy is a kind of salmon...but we were told by the locals that it is not any good to eat...so we threw all the humpies back.

Me and Mama fishing.

Me and Papa taking a break from fishing.

Papa caught a humpy too. He also caught two pink salmon!

Devin and Sarah had a great trailer that Devin built...it was so nice of them to come along and let us use their trailer. It has a great little kitchen area!

Me holding the humpy that I caught. I also caught a 22" silver salmon.

Four Days Full of Activity

Mama and Papa came to visit me! They got here on Tuesday just as I was getting off work and left early Sunday morning. I had all of the days off while they were here. My schedule worked out perfectly! The day after they got here, we (Mama, Papa, Devin, Sarah and I) drove up to Willow Creek. We camped for the night and did some salmon fishing on the river. Papa caught two pink salmon, I caught a silver salmon and Devin caught a pink salmon. We also caught some fish called "humpies". Everyone hooked at least a few of those. But we were told by the locals that they are not worth keeping because they don't taste very good. They are very ugly fish! But, they were very fun to catch! We made s'mores, homemade donuts, and hot chocolate and enjoyed sitting by the fire and playing scrabble as well. It was a great time.

Then the next day we drove back to Anchorage and took showers and got ready to go to Seward. We got to Seward late Thursday night and stayed the night there. Got up early Friday morning and went on a deep sea fishing charter to fish for halibut and silver salmon. It was so fun! The limit on halibut is two per person. So that is all we could keep, but we each reeled in between 3-7 halibut! It was a lot of fun reeling those in. We also caught rock fish, which are very fast and aggressive fish. It was really fun to catch them because they would pull your line all over the place after being hooked. We had perfect weather that day! It was sunny, about 65 degrees and no wind. We couldn't have asked for a better day!

Today we went down to the Anchorage Farmers Market and Flea Market. We ate reindeer corndogs, halibut, and jams that were made from wild Alaskan berries.

We had a great time with my parents here, and I am definitely very sad to see them go! I am so thankful that they were able to come up and visit! We did find out that Matt is coming home 3 days later then planned. But it is still only 25 days away! I really am about beside myself with excitement. I cannot wait to have him here at home with me everyday.

...blogger won't let me upload all my pics right now...so I'll have to finish posting them tomorrow.

Matthew = Staff Sergeant

This is a picture from when Matthew was stationed at Luke.
I was able to have a taxi ride in one of the F-16's!

Anyway...that is not what this post is about...I just wanted to have a picture of Matthew and I on the post.

Matthew is a maintainer on the F-22 avionics systems in the Air Force. He is a Senior Airman in rank right now. Back in early May, just before he left for Guam, he tested for Staff Sergeant. Two days ago, he found out that he made Staff Sergeant! So congratulations to Matthew!!

Since I've Been Home

Devin and Sarah arrived in Alaska while I was in Guam. They moved here from Arizona. They were friends of Matt and mine when we lived there. And I have thoroughly enjoyed having them here. They are living with me until Matthew gets home, and I am so thankful that they are. Since they have been here we have been on a couple of hikes. Here are a few pictures from those hikes:

This was taken when Sarah and Devin and I hiked Rendezvous. It was their first hike in Alaska! :)

Us wishing that Matthew was with us. Only 34 more days until he is home!!!!

The beautiful view of Anchorage.

Sarah using the correct binocular technique. :)

The view of the Eagle River valley on the other side of the peak.

Then Sarah and I hiked Flat Top with Anna and Megan on Wednesday morning. It was a little windy that day...but otherwise a great hike.

Sarah and me with the view of Anchorage in the background.

How beautiful is that?!!

These pictures are actually in reverse order. This was the view as soon as we arrived at the trailhead.
Sarah and me taking a water and picture break! :)
Sarah, Anna, Megan enjoying the view.