A Little Update on Everything (Tok & Anchorage)

I realize I have been slacking a little in the updating department, but nothing very excited has happened to us since we were in Haines. We left Haines yesterday, March 27th. We were told to expect for the drive from Haines to Tok to take anywhere from 7-12 hours, all depending on how the roads were. We made it in about 8, and the roads for the most part were easy to drive. We hit a spot where there was a lot of snow/ice on the road and did hit one spot of black ice, which was scary, but other than that, the drive was great. It was absolutely beautiful! When I have the energy I will upload some pictures, but this whole trip is really starting to wear on me! We crossed into Canada, where it was white as far as you could see! We saw a group of people skiing down the mountains, with a snowmobile taking them up instead of a ski lift (pretty hard core!). All through out Canada we hit these insane bumps/potholes, which we later found out are called "freeze waves". We tried so hard to miss them, or slow down as much as possible, but we still bottomed out several times! Once we crossed back into Alaska, we were about 90 miles from Tok.

In Tok we stayed at Burnt Paw Cabins, which is the cutest place ever! We had our own individual log cabin (I could kick myself in the butt because I never got a picture of it!). The theme of it was very "Alaskan" and had moose stuff all on the walls. Bill and Nancy are the owners of Burnt Paw, and were some of the sweetest people I have ever met. There was a little gift shop, which is where we also had our breakfast. In there, there was a bulletin board, which explained how Bill, Nancy, and their two kids built that buildings themselves! From cutting the logs down, the putting on the roof, they did it all by hand back in 1977! They have only have to replace the rood once, back in 2005, and it actually has grass on it! They have a picture of someone actually mowing their roof! Bill was a big time sled dog racer, and a lot of the decor was based around this. Sadly, there were not any puppies when we were there, but they will be having some in May. There was a big sled dog race in Tok that weekend which they were super excited about, and I was so disappointed it started the day we left. While we were there is was VERY cold! The first night they were anticipating for it to get to about -15 degrees! When we woke up Friday morning it was 9 degrees, and the warmest it ever got was 18!

We left Saturday, March 28th to head to Anchorage. It took us about 5 hours to get there, and sadly, that was not a very pretty drive compared to everything else we have seen. I've been pretty disappointed that we haven't seen any wildlife yet! We did see a Caribou on the side of the road, but we passed it by so fast we didn't get to really enjoy our "first"!
We checked into our hotel, relaxed a little, then went and had dinner at a restaurant that several people recommended to us. It is called Moose's Tooth, and it is a pizza place and pub. They only serve Alaskan made beers, which Kevin was super pumped about. The pizza was awesome, so much so, that we ended up eating WAY more than we expected we would! Other than that, it has been a pretty relaxing time. We ventured out to Target and the movies today, and hope to do a few more "big city" things tomorrow before we head to Homer. It's crazy to think that tomorrow will be the last day we are able to go to any sort of large corporate store (with the exception of Wal-Mart).

Thankfully the end is in sight! It still seems unreal that we will FINALLY be in Kodiak this week!! Can it be Friday already, PLEASE!! Although the majority of the driving is over, these days in between where we have nothing to do, are getting really old! We are trying not to spend a lot on touristy stuff, since we know there will be a ton of things we need to get once we move into our house, so we really have been bored out of our minds! We plan on calling the housing office tomorrow to see if they can give us any sort of idea on how long it will take to get into a house, but I'm expecting the worst (which will be about a month). I'm so tired of living out of a suitcase! And all of the eating out is killing me! I never would have thought I would be so ready to eat healthy and to COOK! I can't wait to get to Kodiak, where I can go to the gym and try to work all this off, since I know I have gained probably 10 pounds! Kevin and I have been talking, and I think we are going to finally bite the bullet and buy P90X. We have heard nothing but good things about it, so once it comes in I will probably start a separate blog that will follow my progress throughout those 90 days! :)

In the TTC world, this month is pretty much a bust. I took ovulation prediction tests the first week Kevin was back from A-school, since this was when my anticipated ovulation was. I never did see a positive, but was hoping that maybe somehow I ovulated before/after my 7 tests ran out. My period was due Thursday, March 25. I took a home pregnancy test the Wednesday prior, and one today...both came out negative. I think I knew this would be the result, but my body was giving me some hints that really had me convinced that we had some luck this month. I still haven't started my period, but I have a feeling that between the stress of getting everything together for this move, and the move itself, my body is all out of whack. It's frustrating because without a period this month, I will have no clue when to expect ovulation next month, so the possibility of getting pregnant in April is somewhat shot too. So for right now I'm trying to stay positive, and just focus on getting to Kodiak and getting settled in.

I will try to get the pictures posted tomorrow, and let all of you know if we hear anything exciting from the housing office! Have a great week!