"The Coldest state with the hottest governor"

The day we set out for Alaska was the day McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate....a day to be written in the history books. This was on Friday, August 29th. First thing we do when we get to The Historic Anchorage Hotel is shop around. Jason finds a bumper sticker that states the title of this post, "Alaska- coldest state with the hottest governor". The clerk says they have had a huge stack of those very bumper stickers for months but they started flying off the shelf that day. GO SARAH PALIN!!! So that was our introduction to Alaska. We stayed in this great hotel the first night that was literally two blocks from the start line of the yearly Iditarod trail dogsled race. It was a breezy, clear, beautiful 65 degrees when we got there. Here is the most pictures I have ever posted...if you don't want to look, don't! I know it's long. So here goes...the chronicles of the Allreds in Alaska. Sorry about the detail and longevity of it all!


On Saturday morning we drove about two hours south to the fishing town of Seward. We went on a tour of the Kenai peninsula. This is the first glacier I ever laid eyes on...Bear Glacier. It was breathtaking. I wanted to take this pic b/c I loved the contrast of the green mountains right next to the glacier. It wasn't even cold, and there right in front of me was a glacier. Wow. It was a beautiful 70 degrees and sunny (they said it was the prettiest day Alaska had had in YEARS).



A closer look at Bear Glacier....and Jason and I for that matter. In case you forget what we looked like. :) Right as we were taking this close-up we heard a thunderous sound and turned around. Sure enough, a chunk of the glacier broke off and crashed into the sea. The sound was so thunderous you would've thought there was an avalanche.


I think we were pressing our luck with those first two beautiful days of weather. Mother nature came down laughing and gave us two HORRIBLE days of rain, cold, and 10-14 foot swells out in the sea. These guys had a deep sea fishing trip planned for this day, but b/c of the swells and danger, they didn't get out as far as they would've liked. Regardless, they had some good catches. The guide told them that they would be lucky to get a 15 LB halibut b/c of the weather and their location...Bob reeled in a 42 pounder. Okay, let me state that more accurately. Bob baited his pole, the halibut bit and Jordan reeled in his line. It was a joint effort!


Jason caught this enormous Lingcod fish that unfortunately he had to throw back because of some rule about catching this particular fish in the bay. The guide carries this club on the boat with him. I didn't understand why clubbing a fish would be necessary...but apparently some man got KILLED by a Halibut flapping around on the boat. So this is Jason, pretending to club his cod that he couldn't keep. Bummer. His brother Josh caught something even more unfortunate. A thirteen legged starfish and a Mantaray. Seriously.


The cutest bird in the world, the puffin. Alaska's state bird.

Steller seals that we saw on our tour. These animals can survive in this climate b/c of their blubber. How come that didn't work for me? I WAS FREEZING!!! The males can be up to 4000 LBS.

Whenever I think of Alaska I think of glaciers and icebergs. Well, Alaska is very green in the summer and very beautiful. These are some of the islands of the Kenai Peninsula. It reminded both Jason and I A LOT of the islands in Japan.

Another cute litte sea creature...the otter. They were ALL over the place, just laying back in the water and enjoying the nice freezing temperature. Just looking at them in their environment made me shiver. They are so cute though. So here's a little trivia for you. These creatures have a very fast metabolism that keeps them warm. They weight around 100 lbs and have to eat 1/4 of their body weight every day to keep up with their metabolism. Oh, and another warming mechanism- they have 600,000 hairs per square inch (a different tour said 250,000....so let's just say some where between the two numbers).

This is Aialiak Glacier.



These two pics are from the airplane. They turned out better than we thought. They are so beautiful and really give you and aerial view of what's going on down there. The first one is of an ice field. Those feed into glaciers as I'm told. the second one is interesting because you can really see the glacier and how it moves into the sea and the contrast where it meets the sea.

Jason's fro. This is Alaska's state flower and it was everywhere in these hanging pots on the streets of Anchorage.

Before I say anything else, I am not pregnant. This pic is not doing me any favors and neither are the horizontal stripes of my sweater. UGH. But the harbor in Seward was so captivating, I couldn't resist putting this picture on. We loved walking around looking at the all the boats. Jason said he would name his boat "Sugar" after me. Aw.

This is the Kenai Fjords tour boat we rode around on.

All over on these tours were these beautiful green mountains covered in waterfalls from the melting snow. They were so pretty. Kind of reminded me of Hawaii.

Seals get on the icebergs to stay warm. That's right, to stay warm. A hot bath is what I prefer folks.

The last of the Eskimos. Doesn't Jason look like an Eskimo in this picture? He had on my sister-in-law's wig. HILARIOUS.


We had way too much fun playing with her wigs. Jason demanded that he grow out a beard for our trip so that he could really take on the persona of a mountain man. It really added to the effect of this homeless pic. The wig, the beard, the holey jeans and him begging for starburst from his brother. Classic.

We took another boat tour of Prince William Sound on Monday. It's another region filled with islands, glaciers, and icebergs...oh, and wildlife. So we drove to the town if Whittier Alaska and boarded the boat for a very CHOPPY, COLD ride.






These pics are of Surprise Glacier, which was the bluest glacier we saw. It was so beautiful. And I loved the marbling black. That's actually dirt that has been pushed for years by the glacier and the gathered layers give it the marbled look. Oh and the galciers aren't actually blue. We all learned this in elementary school, but here's a refresher...I hope I get this right. So you know how white is the absence of all color and black is the presence of all color. Well, these white glaciers seem so blue b/c they reflect all the colors except for blue. Blue is the most energetic color and these glaciers cannot absorb it. That's what the guide said.

This is an island we passed where all the seals were hanging out. Evidently, it's a pretty happening place.

More pics from the boat. You can see the wake of our boat at the bottom.

These three glaciers actually used to be a lot further out and they were once connected. That's not a political statement. No, I don't believe in global warming...silly politicians.



Anyone for a dip....look's inviting right?

Birds and the Bees 101

Converstion with Ella as were having dinenr with our friends. They have a little five month old baby.
Ella: Mom, where did she get her baby from? The store? (She asks me this similar question every time I have anything...shoes, groceries etc. and usually the answer is, "the store".)
Me: No, Ella. She got her baby from her tummy. (I am not wanting to go into detials at this point in her fragile 3 year old life).
Ella: Mom, can I have a baby in my tummy?
Mom: No Ella. Not for a long time. Not until you're big.
Ella: But I am a big girl mommy. ( I assure her of this every time she goes to the bathroom in the toilet.)
Mom: Yes you are. But not big enough.

Five Years to the Day...minus one

Jason and I went to a session last night at the Atlanta temple and I couldn't help but remember and reflect upon the day, five years ago (exactly TODAY, minus one day yesterday) when we were sealed and married in that very temple. Not the most glorious temple in the eyes of the beholder...but great in my eyes. I know I have already blogged about our anniversay trip to Gatlinburg...but this on'es for my sweetie....HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I love you.......forever.

Twilight Disappointment

I got on my sister's blog (click on Bell Fam) today and my bro-in-law has written a hilarious parody on the Twilight series. It's a must-read. I must admit I would have been a little annoyed if I had read that post several months ago, after completing (with an addiction like obsession) the reading of the first installment, "Twilight". Us Twilight fans take Bella and her vampire very seriously. Not to be made fun of. Although, when my husband finally confronted me wanting to know why I had been an absent wife/mother for two weeks due to the reading of these big black books I was admittedly embarrassed when I confided in him that the books were about vampires. Such foolishness! On I read, despite Jason's teasing. What adult reads about vampires?
Now don't get mad readers and Twilight superfans, but after reading the fourth and final installment, I am all for the parody. The fourth was a little...uh....dragging and unexciting until the last 200 pages. But for a 750 page book, that says a lot. I found myself asking the question, "Why am I reading this? It's so dumb". But I still turned the pages. Those books have some kind of power over the reader. Well, at least me. After finishing it I had a similar feeling as to that of finishing an episode of "The Hills"- wow, I am dumber for watching/reading that. Although it is a wholesome form of enteratinment, I was disappointed with the last book. Disagree all you want.

Big Trouble in Little Zebulon

Coming at ya again for another round of events from the Allred household. Mostly these are just come cute pics from the week. We had a nice evening in the comfort (right) of the lower 90's this week. We thought we'd take advantage of the limited sweating instead of the usual dripping and go outside to play a little ball. Notice Lincoln's game face. Are you intimidated? I am. He is serious about playing ball and he would growl if anyone got near the ball he was chasing, which was all of them. He was actually suprisingly good at connecting the ball and bat. I was surprised. And earlier in the week I gave him a haircut. I LOVE the "before" pic with him in the brown towel. I tell him to smile and this is what we get. This boy has SO many facial expressions. This one is our favorite. Seriously, could he be any cuter? Then the next pic is the "after". This is his "Griffin face". for all of you who have ever been to Griffin, you know what I'm talking about. He's a thug. Dr. Allred has already ordered the gold teeth and the gold chain with a dollar sign on it is coming for Christmas.


Now for the featured section of the week: "Big Trouble in Little Zebulon". When Jason and I first got married in 2003, we drove a newly purchased "flying machine" from Utah (where we were living at the time) to Georgia. I say "flying machine" because that's the only thing I have ever heard it called. My Father-in-law has this thing with names....if he gives something a nickname it's permanent. He doesn't bother with formalities or correct terms. If he thinks the title fits to the object, that shall be it's title thereforth. Anyway, so the purchase of his first "flying machine", as Bob calls it, was first in 2003. Right away he starts taking lessons to learn how to fly this. All you men out there reading this, just bear with me becasue I am going to describe this machine in ladie's terms. So, it's basically a go cart type machine with a propellor in the back and then it's connected to basically a parachute. Got the image? There's no protective casing around the driver and/or passenger. RED ALERT!!! You are flying in a go cart!!! It's the strangest contraption. So Bob buys another. He's a collector of things...mostly machines of some sort....vettes, boats, non-running vehicles, whatever. I've actually never seen him fly this "flying machine" because he usually does it in a supervised airport type place with a teacher. He decides that this weekend is the weekend when he will bring the contraption home to their compound in Zebulon, and give Jason and whomever else rides. Jason tells me I should go. Right off the bat I said, "YES!". Then I started to think about it. It was a million degrees outside and I was dripping with sweat just watching them try and start the engine. Then I see the helmet I would have to wear that looks like it might raise your body temperature 10 degrees at least. No thanks. I thought I would wait for a cooler day. Seemingly dumb reason....but I was the smart one. Jason decides he wants a ride. They strap themselves in and off they go. Right when they take off, a gust of wind comes along. Bob has to go with it and turns....heading striaght for a line of trees. He pulls up and barely clips the tops of them. Clipping the first treeline slows them down, thus taking them lower. Another treeline coming up....SMACK! They are going through a forest pretty much. The wheel ends up getting stuck right on this branch and it is 20 feet up in a tree. In the ruccus, Bob fell twenty feet to the forest floor, while Jason is still up in the tree with the propellor going. All this time we were all up at the house. A friend alerts us that the boys were stuck in a tree. I go outside to look and I hear something....is it screaming/crying or laughing? One of the two. Laughing. Yes, they were laughing. Phew....a relief. At least there was no major injury if someone's laughing. We drive up to the accident site (in their backyard) only to see Bob mangled, bloody laughing, and slightly out of sorts and Jason stuck up in the tree. To make a long story short, Bob had a few injuries (perhaps one or two cracked ribs), Jason climbed down the tree, and they retrieved the machine the next day by cutting down the life-saving branch. Apparently this was accident number two for Bob. My advice to you Bob: get your money back from your lessons! Doesn't getting into two accidents say something about your teacher? So, are you waiting for the good ending? Conclusion: Bob is selling his "flying machines" and switching hobbies to something a little less risky and more age-appropriate -- like base jumping. Just kidding. You gotta admire the man, he really lives life!









Lincoln going to the bottle. It was a stressful day. He just couldn't handle the near-death experience thing.

HAPPY FIVE YEARS! WE SURVIVED!

Happy five years to us! Well, not technically yet. On August 23th. We celebrated early this year as we will be in Alaska around that time. We drive up to Gatlinburg ,TN for some good hillbilly fun. Seriously, we really stuck out in that town. At least I think/hope we did. All the stores were decked out in "redneck woman", John Deere and rebel flag paraphernalia. The scenery was beautiful and the town is so fun. There are about 5 "Ripley's" things to do. There's a Ripley's haunted adventure, Ripley's believe it or not museum, Ripley's putt-putt.....you get the idea. I swear, Ripley (whoever that is) owns that place. Personally, my favorite thing to do was to people watch. There are some redneck people there that are very interesting to look at and watch. I even found myself picking up my own dialect of "hillbilly talk".

This is at the "Ripley's" aquarium. I believed everything I saw. Ripley- you didn't fool me! This shark is just eyeing me. Probably salivating like we do when we see a good meal. I think it probably guesstimated that I had some good meat on my bones. Think: rump roast.

This is on the town trolley. Coolest thing- this trolley will take you anywhere you need to go for only fifty cents. As long as you have unlimited amount of time, no schedule, endless patience and an inclination to be squished (check out the man behind me with two kids on his lap)....it's perfect!



These two (blurry) pics are from the Ripley's Haunted adventure. This guy stands outside of the place on the sidewalk as people walk by and convinces people to come in by stalking them and dragging a shovel loudly behind him, glaring evilly. Totally in character. We rode this rickety elevator shaft type thing up to the entrance.

My other favorite thing to do (besides people watching) was playing putt-putt. We found this place called hillbilly golf. You ride this incline up the mountain and then play putt-putt on some greens placed strategically up and down the side of the mountain. It was really fun. Especially b/c I was beating Jason for the first half of the game. I lost it on a Par 2...I shot a 6. Ouch. Jason won by four. He wanted to take a pic of my stance. I know what your thinking..."with that stance how could she lose?". I was distracted by the sexy man on the tractor making eyes at me. "She thinks my tractor's sexy....". Yes, I do babe!