Physical Science lesson for today...

Sure, Fairbanks is south of the arctic circle, so you would think that if the sun sets at 12:30 AM and rises again at 3am, you would have some darkness. Well, the sun is barely below the horizon those three hours, so it always very light. This was me taking out the garbage at 2 AM - no sun but plenty light to take a picture - With no flash!

It was not party night at Aimee's - We got in late from Chena hot spring, and didn't want to forget the garbage in the "morning". When its light all the time, you don't have any restriction to get things done before it's night time. It puts a funny spin on your life - of course it also puts a funny spin on your sleep habits too!

Stay sunny side up cats!

Aimee's new boots!

Aren't they cute?!? She got them on sale this evening at Big Ray's, downtown Fairbanks!

Rafting the yellowstone!

My friend Ben and I spent the weekend in Gardiner, Montana, the northern entrance to yellowstone national park. Its about a 6 hour drive (8 hours with rush hour traffic, we learned). One of Ben's skier friends (NCAA all-american) is a guide with Montana Whitewater in gardiner, so we stayed in his trailer with a bunch of other raft guides. We got to ride for free! We rode a "mini-me" which is a small 8 foot dinghy, an inflatable kyak called a duckie, and a regular raft on the more technical rapids. I got to go for a swim on the first ride. Kevin, our guide, accidently took us into whats called an eddy drift. They're little currents off to the side of big rivers that flow opposite to the flow of the river, so we just stopped right in our tracks, I was unprepared and thrown off the raft. It really wasn't as bad as it sounds, we pulled over to let the bigger raft pass us. It was still a bit shocking. What a rush, though. Its always amazing to watch the water raging down those big rivers in the mountains. I've always thought rafting was about flying down the river and trying to avoid rocks. Thats part of it, but not all the water flows straight down the river. Sometimes you need to power through waves, sometimes you need to take the appropriate "line" through or around rapids. Its a lot of fun! I've decided I'd like to move to montana, too :) .

Love you guys!

-Walter B.

Perfecting the self portrait

We spent a lot of time on the bus today. The bus is the only way to get thru denali to see the mountain. I couldn't believe how big it was. We were really lucky to see it at all. Only 30% of visitors to denali get to see the mountain. It is many times covered by clouds.

Any who, Shawn and I worked on our self portrature - and I think this one turned out pretty good!

Tuck your chin cats! (Thats what you have to do when you take a self portrait)

Hi from Alaska!!!

Here are a couple pictures from Denali National Park. The first one is Mt. McKinley, aka Denali. We were so lucky to see it! The park is so beautiful! And so huge! It is the size of the state of Massachusetts with only one road, mostly dirt that goes for about 90 miles. We spent most of the day on the Park Service bus, took a hike and marveled at the beautiful scenery. Incredible!

Hi from Washington!

How's it going, Everybody?

These pictures are from a hiking trip we took last weekend. At the bottom of the hike, it was 90 degrees, and at the top (only two miles) there was all kinds of snow! The kids had a blast. Jett was complaining the whole way, "Can we never do this again?" But then it was all worth it when we got to the snow!

Boeing is really fun. My first week was like a field trip every day. I got to walk around in a 777 freighter that was being built. That was really cool. Then I got to go to a meeting with Continental Airlines and see one of the guys from my group give a presentation. Wow! I felt like I was on "The Apprentice" or something. It sure is a different world than watching Spongebob all day with Jett!

Well, I just thought I'd practice blogging to get ready for when Andrea comes out to wisit. That will be a lot of fun!

-Candy

this is easier than i thought

its time for me to post on here...i love reading what everyone is up to now its time for me to join in the fun!

we enjoyed our trip to Michigan in June. then back home and back to work.

i just started my 3 days off, and I'm off for the 4th of July but i have to be to work on Saturday morning. YUCK! our friends are having a blue crab party, it starts during the day time then goes until probably long after the fireworks are over, but i can assure you that i wont be there that long!

that's all for now...promise I'll be better at this!

love to all!

Liz