Alaska State Fair

Yesterday, the kids and I loaded up and went to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. The fair was awesome. It was set in the valley surrounded by the mountains. It was so awesome to walk around and everywhere you look was beautiful mountains. The kids were so good for me! I pushed Lexie in the stroller most of the time and Lance walked. He stayed rite by me and listened so good.
Since we went during the daytime and in the middle of the week it wasn't crowded at all, and the kids didn't have to wait long for rides. Lance was so excited to get on some rides. I never imagined that Lexie at just 19 months would be so excited to ride too. She loved it!! maybe as much as Lance!! There were little kids that were 4 and 5 crying not wanting to ride. Not my kids! They were mad because they had to get off.
We walked around and checked out all the cool vendors and ate TONS of food. I looked and looked everywhere for fried oreos but that isn't something that has made its way to Alaska yet. The big difference between the fairs in Missouri and the fair in Alaska is fried food. Missouri loves its fried food where as it seems Alaska loves smoked food (mainly fish).

We had a great day and were extremely tuckered out after spending all day there. We hadn't even gotten out of the parking lot and both kids were fast asleep!
The only thing we missed was the giant pumpkins that Alaska grows. We were too early in the week and they hadn't brought them yet. Alaska is know for growing pumpkins that weigh over 1,000 pounds. We will definitely have to check that out next year!

Alaska Zoo

With Andrew's work he will have to travel some. Today he headed to Fairbanks. It was just supposed to be for a week but the day he got back is when the kids and I are headed back to Missouri for my sister's wedding so he ask to stay two weeks. Before Andrew left we got to spend the day with him. We ate at a local restaurant called Moose's Tooth then we went to the zoo. The zoo was lots of fun. It was nice just hanging out with Andrew before he left. It mainly had animals native to Alaska and a few other cold weather animals like penguins.

Since Andrew is going to be gone I called and moved our flights up so we could spend an extra week back in Missouri.  So Sunday the kids and I will be heading out. We are looking forward to seeing mama and papa. They are used to seeing them every Sunday so they have started missing them. Being around papa really helps Lance not miss daddy so much.

Weekend Exploring

We had a great weekend exploring everywhere! A couple of my favorite places near the house in Thunderbird Falls and Mirror Lake.
Thunderbird was is an easy 2 mile beautiful hike. Lance walked the whole hike and we took turns carrying Lexie off and on. There were a few spots that the edge of the trail was a steep drop off, so we really had to keep an eye on the kids.
Mirror Lake was so pretty! It is appropriately named since the mountains reflect off the water.

Something's fishy

We had said that for Lance's birthday we were going to get him a fish tank. We decided to hold since we would be closing on our house the beginning of June. Well since everything fell through with the house getting fish was put off again. Daddy decided the time was rite since we are all settled in our new place. We made a trip to PetCo and we each picked out a fish. Lexie picked out an aquatic frog. The kids love their new fish and frog. Even Happy loves having the fish tank.

Ice Cream Social

I made it a goal to keep my Pampered Chef  business going once we moved. I heard an interesting fact; Alaskans eat more Ice Cream per person that any other state. So i decided that having a neighborhood Ice cream Social was the best way to meet the neighbors and kick of my Pampered Chef business. I spent the week going door to door passing our flyers and inviting my neighbors over to eat ice cream.
Today was such a beautiful day so I decided to open up the garage and set up outside. I had a pretty good tunrout. Two of my neighbors decided to do catalog shows and a couple more are still thinking about hosting a cooking show.

I love Pampered Chef and am determined to start getting shows booked. I love the free products, the extra money, but most of all I love having a night out meeting new people and having adult conversation.

Blue berry festival!

Lance and Lexie loves blueberries so when Andrew and I heard about the blueberry festival we knew we had to go. It was pretty awesome. The blue berry festival is an annual even held at the Alyeska Ski Resort. They had live music, venders and tons of food. Andrew sampled some different kinds of salsa (they even had a blueberry salsa). I had my eye on something a little different, a smoked salmon quesedilla!

Lance and I took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain while Andrew and Lexie walked (they said Lexie was too small to ride the ski lift). It was kind of funny because the ski lift went so slow that Andrew and Lexie actaully arrived at the top at the same time as me and Lance. We had so much fun climbing through the bushes picking blueberries.

Just Stuff

Today our stuff finally came! for the past week we have been been eating out, sleeping on an air matress and rotating the same two outfits because the moving company took a week long that expected to get out stuff from Southeast Missourit to our new home in Alaska.
It was so nice to get all of our stuff. I can't wait to get our bed set up and have my dishes so we can actually cook!

The kids were pretty happy too! They loved playing in the boxes that all their stuff was packed in.

7 years!

Today is Mine and Andrew's 7th wedding anniversary! I can't beleive it has been that long. We were just young crazy teenagers when we got married and now here we are still crazy in love but with two adorable kids!

We always said that we were going to go to Alaska for our 10th anniversary. We never dreamed we would actually be living here. We will have to think of something different for our 10th now, Maybe Australia!!

Exploring

We had spent a whole day resting up and then decided the next day we all wanted to go exploring our new home!!! When we arrived at 2 am in had just gotten dark so we didn't get to see much, so we were definitely curious about or new home, but first we had to go buiy some coats! When we left Southeast Missouri the temperature was 105 and it has been one of the dryest summers that Missouri had had in a long time. When we arrived in Anchorage it was 51 and raining. Talk about a shock!
The reason we didn't have all the warm stuff was because the moving company had not brought our stuff yet. They were going to be a week longer than promised.
We headed down past anchorage along the coast. It was so beautiful! We even seen some beluga whales! the weather was pretty raining so we didn't get to get out of the car much that day. So today we decided to make the trip again but make a few stops along the way. We went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Goddard. It was so neat! They had reindeer, which we learned were domesticated caribou, musk on, bison, bears, moose, and all other animals. We all loved it!

So far, we are really enjoying Alaska Life!

Get Caught up

To catch up to speed as to what's all went on and going on, I first have to start back at May 18. Andrew came home early with an aweful look on his face. I know something was wrong and when I ask what happened he said "I got fired!"
We really don't know the reason. Everytime his boss was asked it was a different reason. We will just go with things were slowing down and Andrew was the last guy hired on so he was the first to be let go. We thought it was the end of the world. We were just a few short days away from closing on what we thought was the perfect house in the perfect location for our family!
Andrew searched and searched for a new job but their wasn't anything around Southeast Missouri for us. We started broading our search and Andrew found 5 different places that wanted him but they were all in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. We spent two weeks on the road interviewing and visiting the Conway Families out there, but it just didn't feel like anywhere we could home.
Andrew and I had always dreamed about going to Alaska. We had always said that we would go for our 10th wedding anniversay. We never imagined this is where we would call home!
Early in July Andrew applied for a job in Alaska. It wasn't 45 minutes after he applied that the place called him back and wanted to do a phone interview. After talking with the company for a bit they sent him a job offer, We was surprised at the offer! The pay was awesome plus they were going to pay for up to $10,000 of moving expenses and a $4,000 bonus.
We prayed about it and after much thought we decided that we were going to just do it. Our kids are young enought that they will adjust to the change easy. I mean we arent pulling them out of school or anything.
The month of July was so busy for us. We wanted to spend as much time with family and friends as possible yet we still had so much planning to do. We had to find a place to live, buy warmer clothes, pack up, rent a Uhaul trailer, paperwork for the guns since Andrew would be transporting them through Canada, take our dog, Happy, to the vet and so much more.
The month flew by and before we knew it was time for Andrew to head out on his 4,100 mile journey. Andrew left for Alaska on July 21st. The first couple days of the journey I was able to talk to him quite a bit, but once he got up into Canada he was in no mans land. He didn't have cell service at all. I was getting pretty worried about him, and his family was texting me asking for up dates.
After thinking it through I decided to call our bank. I called and just ask where and if any transactions were going through. The lady told me yes he just made a purchase at a gas station in a town that i now don't remember the name of. I was so happy!! I quickly ran to my dad and we pulled out the Atlas and found the little town. He was just a few miles away from Alaska. After 7 full days of driving Andrew and Happy made it to Anchorage Alaska.

On July 31st (my 25th birthday) the kids and I made our one way flight to Anchorage. We were so happy to see Andrew. This was the longest that Lance and Lexie had ever went without seeing daddy.