Easter Weekend...

I absolutely love having great neighbors who are also friends. Mindyn, Brian Clarke & Andrew McMurray all helped to put together an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. I stayed inside and got some cleaning done...while they were happy playing outside. The kids loved it!

 Konrad- I am good...but sure if you tell me too I will find some eggs.

Bren & Katy team up

On Sunday Great G-ma & Pa Krieger spoiled them cute kiddies with fun/loaded Easter baskets...ok we got one too, so spoiled. I don't think anyone ever grows up. We also had a wonderful dinner.

Katy laying out all of her goodies on the step...setting up her "store"

Konrad, really really into the candy

Everyone just hanging out...or taking a nap

When we got home the next day we found this!!! Is spring ever coming around here?

My little characters!





Finally I get to go!

 I was jealous that Kacy was having all these adventures in Alaska while I stayed home with the kids! I also wanted to make sure it was the right place for us, before we moved there. So Kacy talked to University of Alaska to pay for a trip up to Anchorage. We wanted it to be a fun last get away for us...since we really don't trust anyone watching our kids for a length of time besides family. Any grandparents want to move to Alaska? So the dates and get-aways will be niltch for a while when we get up there. Kacy was so busy working on his thesis and planned on working on it most of the time we were in Anchorage. Finally after pouting, I was like..."what is this all for?" Is the thesis going to get finished even if he worked on it the entire time? We had a long discussion and the conclusion was that even if he worked on it everyday as much as he could...he wouldn't get it done in time to graduate in the spring 2011. He was putting in lots of long hours and hard work, but it was taking longer than planned. We came to the conclusion that Kacy would get his draft done in the spring and come back to Pocatello to present his thesis and finish things up to graduate in the summer 2011. This meant a fun week in Anchorage for us!!



Holly at University of Anchorage really helped us out by recommending us a bed and breakfast to stay at...which is a funny story. We are not the Bed and Breakfast sort of people. Glenda Bach has a house she made into a "Bed and Breakfast" by using her extra rooms and loft to accommodate people. When I called to make reservations she talked to me for over 30 minutes...about everything. She also asked us what we ate and we were warned by Holly that she always wants to feed you, but the food is good. I was really hesitant about this...I like my privacy and I don't want to feel like a teenager having to check in.



Bed & Breakfast

We are blessed to have wonderful parents that love their grand kids enough to take them for a week. I have never left the kids for so long...and therefore being my organize freaky self made a box of stuff needed for each parent, stayed up organizing their clothes so that during the week the right parent would have the right # of outfits and pjs.  I also sent snacks and a very long list of things to expect. I am sure it was a little anal, but I didn't expect them to stick to a schedule. My parents and Kacy's parents split up the days...Nikki was also in town for some of them and that meant cousin fun. Besides the dreams of Konrad jumping into Grandma Burners "stream" (more like a fast flowing canal) and finding him drowned at the end of the waterfall that comes off the canal...or Konrad running up the driveway into the busy street of Poleline...I wasn't much worried about their safety. Just mentioned to not leave them alone about...oh a handful of times. Katy is still afraid of almost everything, probably because I tell her the unsafe things about everything, so I wasn't too worried about her running into trouble. Anyhow, I trusted them and the kids had a lot of fun. My mom mentioned that they went to the bounce house with the cousins and loved it! Pam mentioned that they went to Artic Circle w/the play area and Katy still talks about both fondly.

Rainbow between the clouds, seen from Airplane

We drove to Boise and flew from there to Portland to Seattle and then to Anchorage for the way there, on the way back we got to skip the extra Portland flight. It was a long day both there and back, and we had to sleep in the airport or at least get naps. I can't really sleep on the airplane rides, nor in the airport so I was really tired. I found looking at magazines and goofy stuff in a store in the Seattle Airport to be very entertaining. When we got to Anchorage we planned on getting a rental car, which would be some cool compact car...and ended up driving away in a mini-van. I have only 2 kids, and they aren't even with me and I have to drive a mini-van! That was the joke. Then we got to the Bed and Breakfast, in which we had the loft to ourselves thankfully, but it was like 11:00 pm Anchorage time...so like 1:00 am our time and Glenda had the table set out and dinner all ready for us. She wanted to talk to us...and for us to actually eat. I pulled the big eye look to Kacy...like what have we got ourselves into! I chatted nicely and picked at my dinner before I had to make the move and tell her I was just too tired to eat.      

The next day we drove around a lot to see if we felt good about Anchorage. Surprisingly it felt a lot like home. It is a lot like Idaho, just with tons of Birch trees. The weather is similar to Idaho, just a bit wetter and cooler in the summers. People told us we were coming up at the ugliest time of year, and we thought it was beautiful. I was a little disturbed about the quick sand where the tide goes in and out quickly...I can't remember what they call the place. My mind kept seeing Konrad running out onto it thinking SAND what fun, and sinking before I could get to him. Kacy said, "when are we going to just walk around that area and not be right next to him"...um never, ok.

Teton like mountains everywhere

Holly took us on a tour of the good neighborhoods in the city. The city is very easy to navigate and I am not sure if it had to do with always getting on google.maps to check out homes for sale or apartments for rent by satellite pictures, or if I was comparing it to Seattle...but everything looked familiar and easily drivable from one side of the city to the other. The housing is ridiculous! When I say ridiculous I mean priced high for what you get...and not a lot to choose from. Everyday housing seemed more hopeless then before. We weren't going to find a place to live on this trip...I was pretty sure of it. I was right. 

Touring the school also felt really right. I loved the library and sat in one of the comfy chairs by a large window and fell asleep in the sun. It is better than Barnes & Noble...I will be spending a lot of relaxing time there. I never got to see the art department. There is a hospital across the street and I keep thinking that I will try to find a job there.

So we made some friends, a funny German girl, Kim, that I clicked with. Holly is about my sister Tawnya's age, and has a boy about a year younger than Konrad and is really into art, we have a lot in common, plus she lived in Pocatello with her husband for a while and so they know where we are coming from. Lil & Dave, Dave and Kacy are two peas in a pod...he isn't real social and wants to live in the remote, likes hiking/outdoor everything, and they have similar educational goals. Last but not least Glenda who has the Bed & Breakfast, after figuring out to write notes when we will be returning or if we will be needing food made that night, much like having a mother...we became friends. She has really been helpful to us in so many ways.

In one week I do believe we really came to the conclusion that Alaska is the right place for us. I believe that every person and everywhere that we go in our lives teaches us something or helps us in some way.

Fur is big there...can you tell

What is left of the ice sculptures

random dino man walking down the street...I am not sure what his purpose was





Preparing- Craiglist and I

There is nothing like two organize freaks in a family. We started planning, um in January. Our first thing on the list of preparations was, stop buying!  This was a hard one for me, because shopping is therapeutic. I turned that therapy around into selling...everything I could, and started in February. It was fun at first, a little heart wrenching at times as I watched people take my stuff that held so many memories away, but was erased somewhat when I was handed money. I didn't budge very much on my prices, usually selling for half of its selling price...although I didn't pay that price! I ended up making money on several items, oh well that's business. I knew someone would come along willing to pay the price I asked, I knew that we would both be getting a good deal. The annoying things about Craigslist are the constant scams, people crying poor, or people asking you to do ridiculous things...um I don't need to sell it that bad. It was easy for me to do that when I had several months to sell the items. The hard ones were the car, kitchen table, kids crib, rocking chair...I rocked my babies in that! Stuff that was part of many many memorize. Katy didn't want to sell the orange tent or Durango...that was her hard items...but she was actually pretty good about everything else...even coming up to me and saying, "can we sell this". Konrad cried about everything everyone took, even if he didn't know what it was. He is really big into what is mine is mine...but you can have what is yours and I know what is yours (thankfully he doesn't take toys from other kids all the time). I came to realize I really didn't need so much stuff and in fact we weren't really missing so much...until we sold the kitchen table.

= Thousands of $$, thanks to my brief addiction to selling on Craigslist.com

The hardest item to sell was that dang Durango, it was a love hate relationship. The Durango was up in the air for a while, do we take it or not. I was pretty worried about its dependability. I love everything about the Durango...its a good vehicle...but trucks are pretty cool too and we really could use a truck to haul our stuff. So I started looking on Craigslist and it took 2 days and I had found the truck I wanted (I should add I talked them down to $11,000 for an $18,000 easily vehicle, only 6 years old and low miles, +perks in the inside & tow package)...ok Kacy was a little hesitant, but I knew it was a good deal. Kacy was worried that it hadn't been inspected and we would walk away with a vehicle that needed $$$ put into it and he thought we should look around much longer than a couple days. We asked Cameron Roberts (because it was in Boise...long drive) to look at it, and then we decided to put a deposit on it and drive it ourselves.  I had a good feeling that because it was a auctioned vehicle, the seller knew nothing about the vehicle and he really didn't know its worth. The vehicle also had good ratings, I chose a Ford because of the reliability, Kacy's dad had the same vehicle we were looking at and liked it....and we like Ford because they are actually a responsible company that we didn't have to bail out! So we got our cash (yes cash, we believe in the Dave Ramsey way...we had saved for a long, long time) ...and went up to Boise and got it...that was too fast of a buy for my dear ol' Kacy. Good thing he likes to keep the wife happy, and I was pretty good at convincing him we NEEDED it. So afterwards I had buyers remorse when I was STUCK with a Durango that was not selling because I got it inspected and found out the ABS was out and the front end needed to be redone. Now I really had to sell the Durango!! I was so happy when finally after months on Craigslist the Durango was sold the day before we were going to take it to Twin Falls and see if it would sell there. I cried when the nice young girl (only the young would drive away with a problem vehicle, while paying too much for it...and still be happy) drove it away and I knew I would no longer see it again. Like I said, love-hate relationship...boys don't really understand. Kacy- "I thought you were glad to sell the Durango"...yes, now leave me alone.

We didn't sell everything on Craigslist, we ended up giving a lot away in the end. Although I am glad we didn't give away everything...as guilty as it felt...we need the money to start all over in Alaska. I guess it sorta is like the pioneers, I am sure they had it much worse...and they didn't have Craigslist.

Alaska Calling

When you follow life, it always leads you somewhere. Each little choice to even big choices ultimately get us there. When Kacy was asked where he would love to go on vacation, "Alaska!" was his answer. He even put that on a questionnaire he filled out for Ashley's bridal shower and Katy's baby shower. It started out for him young....and the desire never left. He did research in Alaska for Idaho State University in the summer of 2009 and 2010, fueling his dream even more. He went twice in 2010, once in late June and early July and later in August. Leaving me behind with 2 very young kids for much of the summer, but I managed with help from family and friends. At this point I think maybe it was preparing me for something. Somehow, his being there made me want to go too!

Kacy's research has been in permafrost geomorphology, looking at the history of landscape change in the Arctic using high resolution surface imaging (LiDAR). During his research, he had a few close calls. During his first trip, he was stranded 35 miles from the field station one night because of fog and an August blizzard. Helicopters could not reach him to pick him up (there are no roads or trails, and you don't just "hike out" overnight). He had to overnight it on the tundra with another girl trying to keep warm in bear country. Kacy wasn't too shaken up, just cold, although as the helicopter picked him up the next morning they saw nine grizzlies within two miles of where they spent the night. This was the first time researchers at Toolik Field Station spent an unplanned night in the field. In the end, his little survival experience turned a few heads, reaching government leaders in DC, and altering the way research is done in the Arctic. Field sites now have bear barrels, tents, sleeping bags, food, water, and other survival items Kacy wished he had back in 2009. We figure, if he could survive that...we could survive living in Alaska. (It happened again in 2010, but that time he had more food, water, sleeping bags, and wasn't as long.)

Wrapping up his Master's degree by what we thought would be spring 2011, we started to REALLY look for jobs in November of 2010. There wasn't a lot, nor did we get a lot of response back when applying. Of course I was really pushing him to look in Alaska, Idaho, and the Northwest. By January we had a choice between Moscow, Idaho-Kacy doing the similar research to what he had been doing, and Anchorage, Alaska where Kacy had more choice of what we wanted to work and continue his education in, both wanting to pay for him to get his PhD. Kacy didn't want to continue onto a PhD, he was tired of school at this point and I was tired of him being in school. Although every time we talked about it, I got that good chest tight feeling about him continuing. Not to mention that even though it has been hard getting my husband through school and watching my friends and family all settle down and get homes. I know that education is more important than things and that Kacy has a talent for research & teaching and ultimately I was not going to push his talents back for the things I wanted. I understand that we all have callings in life and I see Kacy's talents and strong points and how educating himself is important for him to do what Heavenly Father wants him to do. For me it wasn't so hard seeing where we needed to go with this decision, and so we were going to Alaska!