Mt. Redoubt is still erupting, but we are not in any danger of ash...at least right now. Unless the wind changes, Anchorage is not getting ash fall. Evan finally made it back from cool school. His plane was delayed several hours because of the ash fall but he did finally make it back. Yay!! Anyway, lazy weekend for us. Hope everyone has a good one!
~Jess

I guess it has been a while...Sorry...I am a slacker! Sorry Lindsey!! Lots of things have happened lately. On the first Sunday of my spring break, we went to Willow to watch the start of the Iditarod. That was lots of fun. We watched 30 something mushers (about half of the ones that were in the actual race.) start the race. They all started one at a time with one minute in between each one. We were standing on the side of the trail. The mushers came right in front of us. It was really very cool. We saw lots of dogs and dog sled teams. Definiely a unique Alaskan experience. It was fun and we really enjoyed it and were glad we went.
On Tuesday night, we left for Colorado to visit Evan's family. We arrived Wednesday afternoon and went to visit Evan's grandmother. When we walked into the facility where she lives and asked for her, we were told that she had been asking about us all day. We visited with her for about 2 1/2 hours. That was fun. I really enjoyed getting to meet her and learn stories from her past and learn more about Evan's family. We had a nice visit with her. When we left her (it was time for her to go have dinner!), we drove to Evan's Aunt Jacqueline's house. We ate dinner with Jacqueline, David, and Joey. We ate and drank wine and just visited. It was very nice. We spent the night at their house and really enjoyed the time with them. The next day(Thursday), we got up and drove to Colorado Springs to the Air Force Academy (That is where Evan went to school.) We walked around and Evan told me about his life at the Academy...what day to day life was like, what he liked to do, where he liked to go, and various other stories from his time there. We saw the campus, the chapel (at least from the outside, the inside was being rennovated and we couldnt go in.), the visitor's center, and the pool. Evan said that was where he spent most of his time...the pool! I really enjoyed our time there. It was very neat to see that part of Evan's life. When we left there, we drove to Winter Park to meet Evan's parents, his sister, and her boyfriend. Thursday night, we went to dinner with his family and some of his parents friends. It was quite the dinner! Full of good food, lots of wine, and plenty of laughter. We thoroghly enjoyed dinner. When we went back to the condo, we continued to drink with his family. By the end of the night, we had all drank alot, laughed alot, and worn a moustache of sorts....thanks Ryan!! Those were great! The pictures are fun too! On Friday, we got up early and went skiing. Let me clarify...Evan, his dad, Lindsey, and Ryan skiied. Evan's mom snowboarded. And I fell/tumbled/rolled/slid/skidded down the mountain in a most ungraceful manner. After about 2-3 hours, I had had enough and went to the coffee shop that Evan's parents' friends own. There I found Evan's mom. Apparently she had had enough too. She and I spent several hours just hanging out and sipping hot chocolate/coffee and enjoying each other's company. I had fun skiing but I was glad for a place to hang out (and someone to hang out with!) when I got tired. That night, Lindsey and Ryan wanted to go out for sushi. I really have a problem with raw fish. That was a new experience for me. Lindsey helped me to find sushi that was cooked and so that was a fun new experience. I even found some of the sushi (the cooked kind!) that I liked! I couldn't bring myself to try the raw kind. But I was full when we left so that was a good thing. Thanks Lindsey for making me try the sushi! On Saturday, we went to eat lunch at one of Evan's favorite places to eat in Colorado. It was a restaurant called Beau Jo's. They serve pizza...go figure. No big surprise that Evan loves it then. But it was good. The pizza was quite yummy. When lunch was over, we drove back to Denver and hung out for a few hours with one of Evan's old friends, Kelly. We had a good time just hanging out, eating ice cream, and talking. That was really fun and I really enjoyed meeting Kelly. I know Evan was glad to see her too. On Saturday night, we went over to Jacqueline and David's other house and the extended family came over and we had dinner. I had soooo much fun that night. I had only met most of those people at our wedding and I really didnt have time to sit down and chat with anyone that weekend. I loved the opportunity to just relax and get to know them all a little better. I talked and talked and talked to many many people that night. It was a great time. I know Evan enjoyed the evening too. Sunday morning we got up early and went to the airport to come back to Alaska. It was a truly great trip and we really really enjoyed ourselves. I am so glad we went and got to spend the time with Evan's family and I got to see that part of Evan's life. The best part of the trip however, would have to be the fact that it was 60+ degrees for most of the time (except when we were skiing but that was ok!!) I really really really enjoyed having some warm weather!!
When we got back to Alaska, (it was COLD!!!), life resumed as normal. We both went back to work and there was nothing too exciting going on. Last weekend, we went to Alyeska for the squadron ski weekend. Friday night we hung out in town at a restaurant with everyone that was already at Alyeska. Saturday morning, we got up early and went skiing. Somehow, Evan convinced me to go to the top of the mountain with him. I had a pretty miserable experience. This skiing was alot harder than in Colorado. It was much much steeper and I was less sure of myself here. As Evan and I were coming down the mountain, I fell quite a few times. I think I spent more time on my butt than I did on my skis. Also, my skis kept popping off. I was sliding down the mountain on my butt and my ski came off and stopped sliding. So, my ski is halfway up the mountain. I am sliding down on my butt. I am in tears. Evan is halfway down the mountain and I am hopeless and helpless. Needless to say, I was miserable and done skiing. I was quite ready for a rest and some hot chocolate. I went back to the ski lodge and Evan went to ski. Later that day, I did at least go ski on the green slopes with some of the other wives. I have decided that Evan and I do better when we arent skiing together. He has more fun and so do I. That evening, our honorary squadron commander threw a party for all of us. It was fun. Lots of free food and drinks. When the party was over, we all went upstairs to the bar where we hung out for the next few hours. Sunday morning we got up and had a nice breakfast with several other couples/families. Shortly after breakfast, we needed to leave Alyeska. Evan had to dig our car out of the snow before we could leave. It had snowed a foot and a half over night! That was exciting. We finally left Alyeska and we went straight to the airport. Evan had to catch a flight out of here headed for cool school. He has been gone all week and will be back tomorrow night...hopefully.
The other exciting news from Alaska is that Mt. Redoubt, a volcano about 100-150 miles from Anchorage has been erupting all week. They are worried about the ash fall but so far, no ash has landed in Anchorage. It has landed in the surrounding areas but not in Anchorage. Hopefully, it will stay that way. Everyone here has been all a twitter about the volcano and everyone is taking precautions in case the wind changes and starts blowing ash here. Hopefully, that wont happen. I am just hopeful that Evan's flight will take off tomorrow night. They can't fly planes through the ash because it will kill the engines causing a potential plane crash. At any rate, I am hoping that Evan will be able to come home tomorrow. I know he is hoping the same thing. I am sorry that this post was so long. I havent been keeping up with writing so I had a lot to say. I will try to do better in the future. I hope you all have a good rest of the week and lets all hope that Evan comes home tomorrow!
~Jess

Well, Evan didnt have to go to cool school this week. For some reason, he wasnt signed up to go. So now, he is going to be gone the last week of March. Last weekend, we had a lot of fun. We were outside pretty much all weekend. We went to the base and went skiing on Saturday. It was reallly cold and it was snowing. But we had a good time. I was definitely out of practice. I guess it was a good thing that we went so that I could practice before we go to Colorado next week. After we went skiing, we went to the fair that is in town for Fur Rondy. That was fun. We stayed there and watched the fireworks that night. What fun! On Sunday, we went and got a sled dog ride and then went to lunch. It was fun to ride in a dog sled. We had a good time with that. Definitely an experience we could probably only get in Alaska! After lunch, I was in the Running of the Reindeer. I ran with some of the other wives from our squadron. We dressed up in flight suits and pink boas. We also had a big target on our behinds. It was fun. It was also really really really cold!! We did actually run with reindeer. They were chasing us. At least for a little bit. Then they passed us. Those were some fast little suckers! Turns out that we were doing more chasing of the reindeer. Once again, this was a truly Alaskan experience. It was a fun weekend.
This week, Evan and I have both been sick and fighting off a cold. It has been pretty bad at our house this week. But we finally made it through the week and now I am on spring break! Woo Hoo!! We are going to Colorado on Tuesday night to visit Evan's family. We will be gone from Tuesday until Sunday. That should be fun. We are excited. It will be nice to see his family and spend time with them. One day we are supposed to go skiing. That should be fun too! Anyway, hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!