An End to the Summer

Today marks the last night that we will be playing on the Princess Cruise ships this summer. We are excited to leave for our Fall tour (This coming Sunday evening! It's almost here!), but playing on the Princess Cruise ships has been absolutely wonderful!

A few key things we will be missing:

1.) The FOOD - Paul especially has loved filling a plate (or two...or three...) every night (and yes, sometimes at lunch too) before a show. We just wish Melissa had let us go up and try the ice cream and milkshakes, but sadly, dairy like that just isn't good for the voice before a show. 

2.) The stage crews - Wow! If we could talk a few of the people we've come to know this summer into traveling with us, we would never have to set up, take down, do sound or our own lighting ever again! It would be heaven... One of the best things about playing on the ships was being able to show up, practice a little bit, and step right on stage. They had everything done for us.

3.) The BIG fancy stages -  After working lots and lots of summers at the Mount Roberts Tramway (which we adore for different reasons), a big stage to really move around on was extra special and made us feel like rock stars (even when only eight people showed up for the show - YES, that really happened).

One thing we will NOT miss:

1.) The evil looks we got from security when we were late getting off the ship because they scheduled our show right before departure leaving us no time to get paid or pack up - One guy DID look like Hugh Jackman though, so that was sort of a consolation prize...

We thought we would show you a little bit of a look at the Coral Princess Cruise ship as we get on to play our last show. Hope you enjoy it!

An Evening of Music

   Not too long ago, we heard the sad news that our dear friends the Truitts were going to be moving away from Juneau. This called for a going-away party filled with music and yummy desserts (I mean...dinner). 

   Lots of our friends came over for the evening to wish the Truitts off on their new adventure, and the evening ended wonderfully with home-made raspberry pie (made by Quinn and I from our very heavy raspberry bushes). 

Now, we need to clear something up with you. 

Very often in our travels (and sometimes even here in Juneau), people will come up to us after a show and they seem to think all we do in our free time is sit in front of our fireplace on cold winter evenings and play music happily together. 

And that's sort of true...

Yes, there are lots of cold winter evenings.

Yes, there is a lot music played in front of the fireplace.

But no. We are practicing. 

We very seldom just get together and play for fun.

(though yes, practice is a lot of fun sometimes)

Getting together with friends and just playing music seldom happens outside of Folk Fest week here in our house, so this evening spent with four guitars, two fiddles, a banjo, a bass and a piano was absolutely wonderful.

The night turned into a worship service/talent show, and we filmed parts of it to capture the moments we shared with everyone. 

We hope you like this little look into a very special evening:

"For where two or three gather in my name,

 there am I with them."

Matthew 18:20

A Day Spent Out in the Boat

Juneau has really been blessed with warm weather this summer. Last week it got up to 85 degrees! 

And in our book, that's water-skiing weather!

And that's just what we did:

I know what you're thinking. 

You're thinking, "Emily, I don't see you in any of these pictures!" 

Yep, you're right. That's because I was in the boat, taking pictures and video, with NO bathing suit on. Unlike this new family I have married into, I'm not completely crazy. 

That water is COLD.

To prove my point, here's the face Abigail made when she put on the soaking wet and very cold life jacket before climbing out of the boat. 

That's not a happy face.







Here's Paul getting out of the water, and boy is he happy to do so!

Because of the warm weather, everyone dried off pretty quick in the boat, so they didn't have long to shiver once they got out.




Later that evening, we performed on a Princess Cruise ship. I think the audience was a bit mystified when we told them we had gone water-skiing earlier that day...

Like me, they must have known how cold the water was!


Here's Abigail waiting for us to swing back around with the boat and get her after a fall:

Notice how she's up on the surf board? Yep, it was cold, but I think Abby, Quinn, and Paul would say that the water temperature was worth the fun!

I made a short little video to capture the chilling fun. You'll want to see Quinn and Abby jumping off the boat dock, and Paul's (wearing a wet suite, the cheater) water skiing skill!

A Walk Through The Garden

After a month of sunshine, the rain has finally come back (much to the disappointment of everyone). The garden however, is very happy with the change in the weather...

 Rain drops collect on the flowers and leaves, causing the patches of color to sparkle even more against the lush green of Juneau's temperate rainforest. 

Not only are Melissa's flowers and Paul's vegetables doing well, the wildflowers are blooming all over our yard. Buttercups, forget-me-knots, and the white dogwood flowers brighten the patches of yard that Melissa hasn't yet been able to plant garden of her own.

To capture this beauty, Quinn and I made a video tour through Melissa and Paul's lovely gardens. We hope you enjoy a close-up look at the pretty flowers and the large leafy greens they've been working so hard to grow. 

Our crosses from Easter are still firmly planted in the crook of an old stump.
But since summer has come, dogwood flowers have grown up around them,
making the sight an even prettier and happy reminder of Jesus's love for us.

Making a Splash into Cedar Lake

Here's Abigail jumping for joy at the beauty surrounding her!

One thing Alaskans will never get tired of is having a sunny weekend.

Yes, it's true.

This last Saturday dawned fair and bright and super hot (for Juneau standards) at about 78 degrees. 

After a very full and busy week of work, Quinn and I decided a hike and a swim was in order.

Gathering a group of siblings and friends together, we headed off 'out the road' to the Point Bridget trail.

First we had to wait for the other friends to show up though, and that took a little while...

So after setting off a few fireworks and playing a few rounds of baseball with a rock and a log, we decided just to start without them. 

They had said they would catch up with us later.

The trail wasn't too long, just two miles to a cute cabin, and very flat and pretty.

The only downside? 

The bugs!

My sister Valerie would love to tell you all about the terrible and horrible bugs she saw on the trail, but it would take a while. 

Thankfully we remembered the bug spray (and for BIGGER things, the bear spray), so we were mostly safe.

Mostly.

Even with the bugs though, the lovely views could not have been beaten. Buttercups, irises, lupine, and pink shooting stars dotted the fields that we walked through.

Valerie's favorite flower, the chocolate lily, was also in bloom.

Don't let the name fool you! 

These flowers may look pretty (and have a scrumptious sounding name) but they smell absolutely terrible!

We don't recommend putting them in your floral arrangements...

Once we reached the two mile mark at the cabin, we took a break. The rest of our friends hadn't been far behind us, and together we started up the last .7 miles up to Cedar Lake!

Doesn't my brother Henry there in front look sooooo excited to be there?

He had plenty of fun, don't worry.

The last .7 miles were harder then the first two. 

For one thing, it was all up a mountain, but the first view of water had us all excited, and we eagerly sped up our pace!

We'd been hiking for most of the morning, and we were hungry. But all it took was one glance at the sparkling water for all of us to suit up and swing in!

When Paul was still working for the Forest Service, he put up the rope swing here at the lake. He climbed up the tree with a chainsaw and the rope and cut his way back down so that the rope would hang and swing freely. 

We were all pretty thankful he did.

We put a silly video together of all the best rope swing jumps and the one time we all piled on top of the raft (and the inevitable flip-over). 

We hope you enjoy watching it!

At the Carnival!

Can you see Abigail and Quinn in this action shot?
(Quinn is in white, and Abby has blue pants on!)

Everyone in Juneau (including us of course) turned out for something that only comes once a year:

The Carnival!

After a winter of having nothing to do, we were ready for some fun. 

The spin-on-"The Rave"-till-you-get-sick-and-dizzy kind of fun! 

Although the carnival was here last summer (for the first time EVER), Quinn and I never got to go visit (we were buried under wedding plans), so we made sure to spend as much time as possible on the rides!

It was hard to choose a favorite thing about the carnival...the funnel cakes? The high-flying rides? The sunshine!?

That's right. 

It was sunny every day the carnival was here. 

Melissa won these two cuties after winning
a frog-fishing game! Sadly, to Quinn's disappointment,
they weren't real frogs...

We spent quite a few afternoons and evenings in the Nugget Mall parking lot this last week, and we got some pretty hilarious footage on Quinn's camera. We thought we'd share a look into our dizzying lives with the following video (we don't recommended watching it if you get dizzy easily). 

Sledless Sledding

A week or so ago, I had just gotten up out of bed to find sunshine streaming through our windows. The day was already lovely, and we had a morning of practicing out in the sun to look forward to. Quinn and I were just sitting down to eat some cereal, when he got a phone call. Paul and Abigail had went for an early hike up Eaglecrest not long before, and they had run into a friend of theirs...

The whole ski area (normally very quiet during the summer months) seemed a buzz with people! Upon asking, Paul and Abby learned that Lands End, the clothing line, was doing it's winter photo shoot up on top of the mountain! 

Long story short, someone was not feeling well. No one from the Lands End party could be spared to go all the way into town to get medicine, and so Paul called Quinn asking if he could run up some cold medicine from the house to help someone out for a free ride up the mountain on the chair lift!

Well of course Quinn and I both jumped at the chance to ride up the chair lift during the summer (something that is very unheard of!), so we quickly got the medicine and up the mountain we drove!

After a short wait (and a very thankful man who was NOT feeling well) we were on the chair lift and whisked away! Not being a skier, I had never rode the chair lift - in summer or winter - but Quinn and Abigail had never heard of anyone ever being able to go up it during the summer. It was a real treat!

Quinn had a lot of fun pointing out all his favorite ski spots to me. He couldn't believe how different the mountain looked with hardly any snow on it!

Once up at the top, the view was beautiful, and the lodge was packed full of models, makeup and hair stylists, and racks and rows of clothes and shoes for the photo shoot. We had a lot of fun hanging around and watching the photographers take photos. We didn't want to be in their way though, and since Paul and Abby had wanted to HIKE the mountain (and hadn't yet) we hiked a bit farther from the chair lift to the very tip top - where two summers ago we filmed parts of our Alaska Odyssey DVD. 

Abigail wasn't satisfied with the hike though. 

The snow was soft from the warm sunshine, and the slopes were steep. 

She wanted to go sledding!

Well. We hadn't exactly planned ahead. 

No sleds were to be found, but we made do:

As you can see, we had lots of fun.

Our pants and shorts were totally soaked through and freezing cold, but thankfully the warm sun on our backs helped warm us up on the hike back down the mountain.

It was certainly a day and an experience we wont be forgetting anytime soon. And we look forward to seeing our beloved Eaglecrest in the winter catalog of Lands End!

The Taking of a Late Honeymoon

We're back!

Yep, a whole week to ourselves. No practice, no work, and lots and lots of sunshine!

Also lots and lots of beach!

Quinn was definitely a happy camper.

I was happy to use my parasol that Quinn had gotten me for Christmas (there hadn't been a whole lot of sunny days to use it back home...).

We made a little video with some of the highlights from our trip, and we thought we'd share it with you! We used our only Hawaiian tune, Mele Kalikimaka (Yes, it is a Christmas song, but I love it so much I sing it all year!), as the song for the video. We hope you enjoy this little look into our vacation!

Quinn and I both agree one of the best highlights was hiking four miles to Hanakapi'ai Falls. We were able to swim in the cold pool underneath it; talk about invigorating! 

We were also able to go to the National Tropical Botanical Garden! Besides seeing the biggest spider ever right outside the bathrooms (Quinn may have almost had a heart-attack), we got to explore the lovely native (and non-native) Hawaiian plant garden. 

Quinn's favorite part?

No, not the spider...

Getting to see these amazing ficus trees! This is where they filmed part of the first Jurassic Park movie. We looked all over for some raptors, but wild roosters were all we saw.

Thank you all so much for all the kind words you left us! We both had an amazing time and we're so happy we got to finally go on our honeymoon.

And yes, we both agreed that we would never move away from Juneau (we love our own mountains and beaches too much...even if there isn't nearly enough sunshine!).

This little break away from home was nice, but now we're ready and looking forward to a summer full of shows and new exciting adventures!