5/2/2009

The boys and I took the quad to the motocross park today.  The motocross park is inside of Kincaid Park out near the Anchorage airport.  The motocross park consists of a large motocross track that is probably one mile or so long with lots of bumps, turns, and jumps.  There is also a large relatively flat area for young kids and inexperienced riders.  We had a great time and we will go back again.  Check out the pictures here.

5/3/2009

I joined a softball team last week and today we had a practice game.  My team had just come in from the field after the first inning and the other team was getting ready to go out when a mother black bear and her two cubs decided to leisurely walk through the outfield.  They just sort of appeared from the trees along the left field line and took their time as they walked completely across the outfield and then across the outfield of the adjacent field.  It was pretty amazing to watch.  It was a little frightening too because everyone says that encountering a mother with her cubs is about the most dangerous scenario you can imagine when encountering a bear.  The three of them completed their journey across both fields without incident and we continued the game as if nothing had happened.  Alaska is different!

5/4/2009

Rhonda felt what seemed to be kicks from the baby this morning!  She is starting to show a little right now.  I guess when we get back to PA in a few weeks, there will be no doubt that she is expecting.  We are all really excited about our new arrival.

5/10/2009

We had a really nice mother's day today.  The boys made gifts for Rhonda at school and I also helped them to download a bunch of Christian music (that they chose) to make CDs for Rhonda.  Rhonda really appreciated the "home made" gifts.

After church we went out the Alaska Native Heritage Center.  They had a special opening day celebration and admission was free.  It was just a beautiful day to be outside and we had fun learning about the different native cultures here in Alaska.

5/12/2009

Rhonda blossomed all of a sudden this week.  She is now a little over 4 months pregnant and she now looks pregnant.  She just has this little belly sticking out.  She looks great.  She has the "glow".

It is becoming more and more real every day.  We are all really excited about welcoming the new little one into our family!

5/13/2009

I accompanied Andrew's class on a field trip to Seward today.  The class visited the Seward Sea Life Center.  It s basically an aquarium, but it focuses on rescue and rehabilitation of local marine life.  It was a fun day.

5/14/2009

One thing that unfortunately I will take home with me from Alaska is that I will remember that this is where I officially became old.  I joined a men's softball team up here.  I have never felt the body aches and pains that I have felt so far this season.  Also, I am so easily out of breath.  I don't know what happened.  The last time I played softball was about 2 or 3 years ago for the church.  When I played for the church I definitely noticed that I lost a step or two from when I was younger, but I did not really have any pain or soreness, and I could at least make it around the bases without too much trouble.  Now ... forget about it.

I hear these young guys on the team talking about taking ibuprofen before the game and being winded.  I think to myself, man if you are complaining now, then when you guys get old like me you should just put yourself in a old folks home and play backgammon all day long.

Anyway, it seems to be a pretty good team.  So far we are 2-0.  Fortunately I am playing pretty well, and hopefully the younger guys are not thinking that I am dragging them down.

5/16/2009

We went out to Bird Creek state park on Saturday to ride the quad.  This is a park where many grizzlies have been spotted on a regular basis,.  As a matter of fact, a friend of mine said that he saw fresh tracks from a grizzly last week.  He said that each foot print was wider than his hand is long.  Wow! That is like a 7 or 8 inch wide footprint.

Anyway, I expected there to be a lot of people there since it was such a beautiful day.  As long as there are a lot of people, then the danger from bears is greatly reduced.  However, we pulled into the parking lot and we were the only ones there.  I will tell you that you really feel what it is like to be isolated here in Alaska.  We were only two miles or so off of the highway, but there were no other people around, no houses, and thick (I mean thick) woods all around us.  I can't say that it was peaceful knowing that we were in the middle of bear country.

We spent a couple of hours riding the quad near the parking lot.  I did not have the guts to venture out too far from the parking lot considering the surroundings.  Even though we were not far from the parking lot, Andrew managed to find a large rock to slam the quad into.  He was not hurt ... but the quad was.  He bent the front bumper pretty bad and scraped up the front wheel.  Oh well .. it was ... as they say .. a teachable moment.