Company

the Niednagel family at Crow Creek Mine


Jonathan, Peter, John Mark and Ben heading out to bear hunt


husky pups at the Iditarod Museum


sledding in the few patches of snow that were left


hiking at Hatcher's Pass





paddle boat races at a friend's cabin in Big Lake


Stephanie, Annie, Benjamin and Daniel at the glacier


Luke's bear




The end of May and beginning of June was a fun filled busy time with guests, guests and more guests. After my cousin Beth left to go back to Seattle to prep for her deployment some friends of ours, the Niednagels, from Los Angeles came up for nine days to visit.

This trip originally started as three fathers and their oldest sons coming up for a week to bear hunt with Ben. We talked the Niednagel crew in to an entire family vacation though! Soooo, The Niednagels came for 9 days and crashed with us at our place. It worked perfect, the parents took our spare bedroom and their 5 awesome kiddos crashed up stairs in the youth room that is filled with 12+ couches. They loved it!

Jonathan (the dad) and his two oldest sons spent a good part of their time out in Willow bear hunting baits Ben set up weeks prior. Stephanie and I took the younger three kiddos and toured around the area hitting Matanuska Glacier, Sutton fossil mines, Hatchers sledding and hiking, and the Iditorod Museum. The bummer part for the Niednagels is they did not end up getting a bear but two other groups that came up did. We did sneak in some family trips one to Crow Creek Mine, one to the AK Wilderness Center out past Girdwood and a day out fishing.

Rick Holland another friend from LA and a Rick G. from Kansas both came with their sons as well during the same week (arriving and leaving at various times). Rick G., his son and Rick Holland's son Luke all got bears so they were pretty pumped! Ben and I also got to take Rick H. and Luke out on a successful King fishing trip the day they flew out. It was a whirlwind couple of weeks but we loved having time with everybody! Hopefully they will come again and soak up even more of AK!

surprise party!

very cool, thanks Jim and Lynn


John and Tammi sent a very cool scrapbook with pics and Scripture and a HILLARIOUS "feline" picture pillow with pom poms . . . Beth will be sure to put a pic of Cleo in it :)


the 30+ crowd


the two 30 year olds in the group, Ben's 30th was in April

My cousin Beth is up visiting this week before she heads out on her second deployment to the Middle East. Last time was to Iraq and this time to Afghanistan. She is an ICU nurse for the Army.

This past winter she was transferred from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC. We prayed for a transfer to Fort Richardson in Anchorage BUT to our dismay that didn't come through . . . HOWEVER, she did make it to Madigan Army Medical Center in Seattle, WA. That's as close to AK as you can get w/out being here. We were pumped to have her close for the next three year stint and soak in some long weekends together. Shortly after her transfer she was given the news of a pending deployment, bummer. Big bummer. But we will pray her through this deployment as well.

After some begging and twisting her arm we (Ben and I) got her to spend some of her precious pre deployment leave in AK before she leaves. Beth turns the big 3-0 on June 8th so we had a surprise Burdine birthday party for her Saturday night. Some of the other cousins, aunts and uncles mailed b-day packages to my parents for her to open to celebrate together across the miles.

Beth is my cousin from my mom's side of the family . . . the family that does HUGE triennial reunions all over the country. I LOVE that our family is close like this and pulls together to do special things for each other even across the miles. Thanks Burdines! And thanks Beth for spending some of your time off with US! We are LOVING IT!!

Graduation

It's high school graduation week! Here are a couple pics from Houston High's graduation this past Wednesday. Garrett Elder, one of our youth guys was the valedictorian for HHS. For those WBC people looking at this you'll recognize Heidi Doner with him. Garrett is commercial fishing this summer at Clam Gulch with Peter and the Doner clan. Small world. :)

ballet

Emma, me, Cheyanne





the Stahle crew


Connie, Hannah, Grandma Hogan

This morning I went to a ballet recital in Anchorage that one of my youth girls, Cheyanne was performing in. I actually ended up knowing several girls in the recital some from FBF and some from WBC.

Years ago I was in ballet and I LOVED it. I'm not artsy in many aspects of life but I love, absolutely love music and dance. One of my favorite "fun" things to do is go to performing arts events and recitals. My parents and I drove in to Anchorage together b/c they wanted to see the Hannah Stahle and Emma Burris perform.

Cheyanne, one of my girls here at FBF is going to Utah for two months this summer to a ballet academy to study ballet with professionals and do some performances. Yep, she is AMAZING, leaps and bounds better than I ever was. Emma and Hannah are incredible too. It was a morning well spent!

This is a random after thought, as I was posting I remembered a time when I used to baby sit Hannah and her older brother Wade when they were first born. Now Hannah is just shy of 6'0" and is a junior in HIGH SCHOOL! When did that happen? She is a beautiful, accomplished young lady. I can't believe she will be graduating next year!

green thumb?

So I am attempting my first garden this summer. I'm optimistic but not setting my hopes too high because I kill most house plants. My one bonus to doing it is there are several people at FBF (my church) who are master gardeners and they have promised to help answer my questions and give pointers as I set out the end of this month to move it all outside.

Not wanting to out do myself my first shot at it I started my plants inside the beginning of April but I'm cheating and planning on buying flowers from a green house to put out in the yard. I have three beds around our house (youth building) that supposedly do really well. Two of the beds are south facing and get tons of day light all summer. Soooooo, we'll see!

The pics are of my winter squash selection (butternut and spaghetti squash) and tomato plants. I'm also planning on planting summer squash, zucchini and lettuce along with an herb garden.

Sunday shooting . . .

Alyssa and Colton


my handsome hubby

A couple of Sunday's ago Ben and I spent the afternoon with his relatives in Willow shooting. His cousin Luke bought a new place that is being "remodeled" gutted and rebuilt is more descriptive, but right now it is the perfect place to go shooting b/c there is no one out there and you can shoot into a gravel pit 500 yards out. We had a great time sighting in a mass artillery all the Conner cousins, aunt, uncle and grandmother were there. It's rare to have the whole crew together with work schedules and slope jobs. We loved our time together!

Girl's Retreat!

This past weekend we had a high school girl's retreat at the Sunset View B&B in Big Lake. It was awesome!! Vangie and I got the idea this winter and we ran with it. I actually based a lot of it off a one day retreat we did years ago at WBC. We had 4 sessions: Home and Hospitality, Friendship, Purity/Dating, Faith and Life.

Linda and Vangie did a fantastic job presenting on things from setting a table, cooking a meal, etiquette (I learned a lot) and welcoming friends in your home (even if it's just to sleep over). Amy Elder and I did the session on Friendship and we talked about 4 seasons of friendships (spring, summer, fall, winter) and how to break out of cliques and/or stop putting up walls that hinder friendships from happening. Kathy, Courtney and Cheryl did an excellent talk on Purity. A highlight being an anonymous Q&A session they did with our youth guys on what they look for in a godly woman and what they do and don't appreciate about how girls present themselves (i.e. pursuing, being desperate, dress, etc.). Anita Bacon and I wrapped the weekend up with a session on Faith and Life. I emphasized the importance of worship and being immersed in the WORD of God and Anita B. did her usual bang up job of how to share the Gospel. Anita Bacon is one of the most evangelistic minded people I have ever met. She did a really neat short study getting the girls to DRAW out their 3-5 minute testimony and then had them share.

In retrospect it was a bit of a whirlwind weekend, very packed with LOTS of good info! When we do it again next year I think we'll leave a little more down time in the schedule but the girls LOVED it. That was the hope, that they would be loved on, encouraged and challenged in their walk with the Lord. Thank you Lord for a blessed weekend!

I only got pics were of the first session b/c my camera battery died. If I get more group pics I'll post them later.

finishing touches . . .

"Give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love" Psalm 107:8








"May all who enter as guests, leave as friends"

Today we wrapped up the finishing touches on my living room make over project. I bought some wall shelves at Target a couple weeks ago and we got those hung and decorated this morning. The vinyl sign on the wall "May those who enter as guests, leave as friends" was a gift from Ben's mom a couple of Christmases ago. I loved the idea but hadn't hung it yet because I knew we would be moving out of California where we were at the time. It is the perfect addition to my make over project! Thanks Dorothy!

Other "finishing touches" came from a Blessings Unlimited party I had at my house when Ben was gone to his conference in Los Angeles. For those who are not familiar Blessings Unlimited is like a Pampered Chef business but the products are things for your house that have Scripture on them. The idea behind the business is to get Scripture in your home in different ways. With most Christian book stores being closed now online shopping or this business is one of the only ways to get this type of stuff.

The vase with the red flowers came with two signs one says "Peace" and the other one says "Light," both have a different verse written on the flip side. Another great feature about the vase is that you can flip it upside down and it doubles as a candle stand/holder! Love it! The table runner was another Blessings Unlimited product, this one my mom bought me. Thanks mom it is PERFECT with our living room theme, okay maybe it's more MY theme than Ben's but he loves the final outcome.

All in all I am enjoying the finished product and feel like it is much more homey now.

pillow project

As part of my living room make over I decided to copy Pottery Barn's pillow case pattern to recover some of the throw pillows on our couches. The colors of our living room are green, brown, cream/tan and red as the accent color. Back in the fall I looked into buying two pillow case covers from PBarn only to find that they would cost $30 on sale and charge an additional $30 to ship to AK. Really, $30 shipping for 8 oz. of weight? No way. Ridiculous. Another true confession I am not a seamstress. In fact I think I've sewn something with guidance using a sewing machine two times in my life.

For this simple but technical project for a non-sew-er I went to the professionals for assistance, Pam and Marlene Kroon. As luck would have it they were having a quilting, sewing week together so my sewing idea fit right in with their plans. Wednesday I went over to Pam's house to meet with my seamstress mentors and we wipped out a pattern in a few minutes and a couple hours later I was driving home with two new pillow cases that cost me approximately $7.00 a piece to make. Not bad. It feels great to make something you really want or like and save a ton of $$ in the process. Thanks Pam and Marlene for your assistance! The pillows fit perfect with my living room make over!

introducing my Ruger 308 . . .

Here my friends and family are the looooooong awaited pictures of my Christmas present this year. Ben bought me my own personalized rifle. By personalized I mean it fits me like a glove! For those who don't shoot or own their own guns, shooting with a gun that doesn't fit your body is like running a marathon with shoes that are way too big. The specs you ask? I have my very own compact, Ruger, model 77, 308, stainless laminate rifle. Even I am learning a bit about ballistics. :) I'm already in the running to be the next Annie Oakley. Okay, maybe not THAT good yet.

This past week was my spring break and Ben and I went out to Willow to go shooting. We . . . by we I mean Ben sited in our rifles. He took his 3006 and I had my 308. I LOVE shooting my gun it makes all the difference in the world to shoot a gun that fits perfect! Due to my competitive nature we HAD to have a shoot off. I know, REALLY compete with a man who has been shooting since he was 4 years old (no lie) and yours truly has been shooting half a dozen times in my LIFE. I wasn't afraid of failure I wanted to see how close I could get to Mr. Shootist himself. Take a look at the groups that were on the target. Ben shot the two right handed diamonds and I shot the two left handed diamonds. We both got 5 shots per target. Two of my top shots went right through each other. Three of his were overlaid. The middle grouping was a free shoot of mine after the competition was over.

living room make-over . . .

So I have had a bee in my bonnet this spring to remodel our living room. It started with wanting to paint it to make it warmer and more homey which then led to many other ideas. :) A couple of months ago we settled on a color, Athenian Green and I took a Tuesday off (Ben's day off) to stay home and have a painting party. I thought about surprising Ben and painting one one of his trips this Feb/March but being that he professionally painted for years I figured it would be better to do it together and have it look really nice . . . professional. I LOVE being married to a handy man!

We also, as you will see in this post, got a print framed that we got a couple of years ago with wedding money. I've been wanting to hang the picture for several months but knowing we were in transition moving to CA and back to AK I waited. Ben LOVES the picture as any serious hunter would. I've done other work this week to "remake" the room but I will post that a little later. I'm not a Joani Kroon/Curtis or an Amanda Bacon the home making queens but it is fun to test the creative juices and make your home feel more welcoming and more like us!