Our Surprise Trip To Oregon!!

Jas and Me on a ship wreckage in Astoria, Oregon

My parents are the cutest! This is their Oregon Coast look, which is my favorite one:)

Jason and his favorite little one. This is Kennedy, Jenny's darling little girl!!

Surprises Are The Best!!

For the last month every time I had a chance to talk to my darling mother she would excitedly tell me all about the plans for the annual Andersen family vacation. Our trip to the Oregon Coast this year had been planned since December. The excitement and anticipation was wonderful to hear about. The only problem was that the trip was going to include the entire family, all 18 of them, except for Jason and I.:( But Alaska is a long way away from everywhere and so expensive to leave. You can imagine how sad I was to be stuck on an island so far away knowing I was missing out on so many wonderful memories. My fabulous and sweet and thoughtful husband wasn't about to let me be sad for long. He quickly got on the web and searched for flights and the excitement began. On May 30th the Andersen's left Utah. Their first destination was Pasco Washington where they spent time with Grandma and Grandad Andersen and 60 something cousins! Unfortunately we missed out on that party. But on June 3rd Jason and I caught a plane to Seattle. We then rented a car and drove, undercover, to Netarts Bay. All the while talking on the phone with my mom as she described the fresh crab they caught and had just finished eating. Little did anyone know that we were now typing the address in our GPS. Ten minutes later we snuck down the small path to our favorite tide pools. We didn't say a word, just walked out onto the beach holding hands. It only took a second to hear Jenny scream "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!" Then all eyes turned and we heard screaming from every direction, followed by loud sobbing. And you know I was involved in the tears. Everyone was so surprised, all of our hard work and little white lies had payed off. It was heaven on earth to be united with our family again, if only for a few days! What a wonderful blessing families are! I love and miss them all dearly, but I would have payed a million dollars for the memories we made with our fun little surprise:)

I finally was able to afford a watermelon in Ketchikan as the price dropped to $.38 per lbs. I was in heaven, and my husband thought I was crazy with all the weird noises I was making while enjoying the wonderful red creation!!

When we were in Seattle at the corporate offices, prior to coming to Ketchikan, we ate dinner at the Crab Bucket. They brought out a whole bucket of food, dumped it in front of us, and we enjoyed the wonderful seafood!
At the end of April, the city of Ketchikan, USGC, Holland America/Princess, and many other organizations teamed up and put on a mass rescue operation. The simulated event was a cruise ship running aground. Jason took part in this event and was very excited as he just finished his degree in emergency management. This is also where his passion truely lies. (emergency response)
A few weeks ago we went out to the beach and found what were some of the best tide pools I have ever seen. We found these cute little star fish, and had a wonderful day on the beach in Ketchikan. Believe it or not, it was actually 78 degrees!!
This is one of many huge trees here in the Tongass National Forest.

Sorry for the delay

This is a shot of Kethcikan and Deer Mountain, Deer Mountain is the worlds largest barometer, its said that if you can't see the top of Deer Mountain it's raining. If you can see the top, it's going to rain.
We may be stuck on a island, but if we do want to leave, at least we know how to get there?
Inside passage. The islands of Pennock, Grevina, and Revillagagato (Ketchikan)
One year ago at the free annual Lumbar Jack show Jason and I had just started dating. Now here we are one year later at the same show, newly weds and Happy as ever!

This is a rare, but beautiful sunset in Ketchikan on May 22!

Jason has been coaching Team Ketchikan AKA "The Ravens" Special Olympics basketball team since February. At the awards luncheon today he was given this trophy to thank him for helping these incredible athletes!

Beautiful Sunny Sabbath

Refuge Cove was gorgeous today! Its about
the only beach we have on this rocky island.

We have been in Ketchikan for about six weeks now. Three of those weeks have been bright, sunny, and beautiful! That means that we have already experienced about one more week of sunshine than we had for the entire last summer. Wow! It sure is beautiful here when the sun comes out:)