Just another day in Paradise

On Monday I had the day off so I decided to take the dog for a nice long walk across the street. Last couple of walks I'd post holed my way through about 3 feet of snow, so I put on the snow shoes and we took off. The sun was out bright which raised the temp to almost 20 and with the deep snow i worked up a major sweat. While on the walk we crossed the creek many times on ice bridges, found a random swing, and followed a couple of animal tracks for a while for fun. Kenai did fall in the stream once while crossing the stream on a log, but i fished her out real quick. I'm sure going to miss this place!

Anyhow, Kari and I are starting to pack up stuff, fix some cracks and other minor things so we can get our condo sold...moving is fun!

Hatcher Pass

We love this place! Hatcher is our most favorite area to play. Last week we went camping and snowboarding on a clear moderately cold night. The stars were out, the dog was calm, and Kari stayed warm...it was a great trip. This was our first time sleeping with the dog in the tent and she did remarkably well, except for in the morning she decided that she would be warmer if she was inside my sleeping bag :) After i went out to use the bathroom I came back and found Kenai inside my bag. It was a little difficult to fit everything inside the Jeep, but somehow that little thing swallows camping gear. Anyhow we had some great snow to snowboard on and a wonderful time in the mountains.

Where we won't be this Fall

I got my first ever rejection letter today from the University of Washington (UW). So we won't be moving to Seattle...who needs all that rain anyhow? We would have liked to have lived closer to family and friends, but if Obama can build those lighting fast railways then maybe it wont be much of an issue to visit where ever we live...unless its overseas, Alaska or Hawaii...
Although I got rejected by the 4th best public health school in the nation (UW) I did get accepted into the school tied for 2nd (UNC-Chapel Hill). So if you've wanted to visit Alaska you'd better do it fast. We still haven't heard from John Hopkins or San Diego State University but we're likely moving to NC this Fall.

Snow Cave

Friday I went up to Hatcher Pass to do some snow boarding. Once up to the parking lot I decided to dig a snow cave and sleep in it rather than pitch my tent. The evening was crisp and clear but not terrible cold (I think it was about 10 degrees). After I dug the cave I glazed it with a candle to set it then moved my tarp and bag in. In the morning I grabbed my snow board and hit the hills. The snow was about 4 feet deep so I had to work hard even with snow shoes. The runs were, soft and smooth but difficult to see due to lack of contrast. Great weekend.

A Happy Dog Day Care

This past week we found out that Kari's 4runner has a leaking head gasket, which sucks because we like it and now are getting rid of it. As a result we are down to one car and carpooling. Kenai is a little young still to stay home alone all day so we enrolled her in puppy care. She is now on day two, and she loves to sniff butts, and play with other dogs all day long. When I pick her up she almost immediately falls asleep in the car. Aside from eating, drinking, and pooping she basically sleeps the rest of the evening. We love puppy care!!!!

Ears

We took a couple of pictures of Kenai recently and she is all ears! So long as we take her for daily walks she is a wonderful dog. She can now sit, stay, fetch, give, come, kennel, lets go, potty, ring a bell to go outside to go potty, and catch a Frisbee in the air. She is getting better at down, no biting, and leave it.

It's a SNUGGIE Christmas!

The whole family got snuggies for Christmas thanks Marty and Mark! We had a great morning with lots a gifts and some wonderful conversations with family. Merry Christmas!

Kenai

Jeff wanted some pictures of Kenai so here are two recent ones of her. The one of her under the orange vest is after we cut down our Christmas Tree and she was a cold little girl. The other is her in the bathtub. She loves to drink from the tub and take baths.

He is real...

Earlier this week Kari and I were enjoying lunch offered by her Work Christmas Party at the Alaska Club. When all of a sudden arose such a clatter, I walked over to see what was the matter. To my surprise and delight I beheld Santa coming into my sight. It wasn't long before I convinced Kari to go with my to sit on his lap and tell him what I'd like for Christmas...and what is it that I want? We'll for all my family and friends to be happy and to know that we miss them...also for our little alligator (I mean puppy) to stop biting!

We haven't really set up our house much for Christmas due to the puppy. Just this last weekend we finally went and cut down our tree, and that was an experience! It was about 10 below and Kari was sick. We walked for a little while through the deep snow using our snowshoes while Kenia played, but once we stopped Kenia realized just how cold it was and started shivering...so basically we made a quick decision on a tree huffed it back to the 4runner and put her under some blankets where she stayed for the entire 2-hour drive back home. Fun times. Anyhow we still haven't decorated the tree and it's up in our spare bedroom because puppy loves to bite it. what a Christmas. Ho Ho Ho

So we went down a hill

This past Saturday it warmed up into the 20's so we took the dog out for a little adventure. We'd taken Kenai sledding down a really small hill at the elementary school in our neighborhood and she loved it, so we decided to take her to a little bigger hill where we could really pick up some speed. We got to the hill and I jumped in the sled, Kari sat in front and then Kenai jumped on her lap and away we went. She has a lot of adventure in her so I think she'll fit right in with us!

What 0 degrees looks like

When you've got to take the dog out to pee in the cold you got to look good!

Sleep, eat, poop, and bite

Our little dog is sure growing fast! When she arrived in Alaska she only weighted 12lbs and now she's nearly 30lbs...what a fatty! She has put on some winter fur so she can stay outside a little longer, which is nice because she has a lot of wiggles for a tiny condo. She is super smart and is almost completely house trained; when she needs to go potty she will ring a bell we have hanging from the door...what a good girl. The other day she found her bark which is super cute, but we'd better watch it so it doesn't get out-of-hand. She got a new kennel, ate up part of her dog bed...but she didn't rip it open she un-zipped the zipper to get in. Anyhow back to work tomorrow.

Turkey Day

Gobble Gobble, lets eat some turkey! Kari and I decided to have a low key Thanksgiving this year and enjoy the puppy. Kari made a great dinner with lots of food and some wonderful pie, which caused me a lot of stomach pain from eating so much it hurt to breath. Before all the cooking we were coerced into participating in the local Turkey Trot. It was short 5k, but it was snowing so Kari and I ran together with her friend Kathy and just enjoyed playing in the snow. Kari ran a great race considering the conditions. Happy Turkey Day

Zombie Run

Last weekend Kari and I participated in the Zombie run here in Anchorage. Kari ran the 1/2 marathon with her friend and co-worker Kathy. Kari hadn't really put in the training for this one like the other one she did, but she had experience on her side this time. The course was kind of a killer because it had a major hill the whole last mile. Her race started at 10am and ran from goose lake to kincaid park. Kari was about 15min slower this race but it was a lot harder, colder, and she wasn't as prepared so really she did tons better.

I ran the 50k with my friend Mike. I was tricked into this one. I share an office with Mike and one day we were working and he asks "hey Jared, what's your date of birth?" so I tell him, then after a few moments I say hey why'd you want my DOB, and he say's "I just entered you to be my partner in a 50k in 10weeks. What happened is that his original partner got hurt and couldn't run and for this run you have to run with a partner for the first 1/2 marathon (safety concerns for the dark and animals). Ok...so i started training.

The run was nice and the first part was exceptionally slow. Mike had a plan to run for 25 min then walk for 5. This ended up putting our pace just under 10min per mile. After I reached mile 18 with Mike and I realized I only had a half marathon left so I opened up and averaged around 7min pace the rest of the way and 6:45 pace the last 5 miles. Needless to say I was able to finish really strong, passed a bunch of people on the hills and dropped a couple of 6min miles around mile 29 and 30. It sure felt good to be able to run that distance and feel that great at the end. I took 6th place time of 4hrs 30 min... I think I should run a marathon for time sometime soon, I'd like to see if I could get under 3:20 and closer to 3:10 (which is my Boston Qualification time)

anyhow laters.

Kenai

At 3:45pm yesterday our life completely changed. Kenai, the daughter of Mike and Mary's dog Mocha made a journey from Wenatchee Washington to Anchorage Alaska. The original plan was for her to accompany me home after my trip to WA last week, however that just didn't happen because she got sick. Now when I say sick I mean really sick that had super bad diarrhea and vomiting. Kenai ended up staying the night at the vet to figure out if she had Parvo.

Anyhow we decided that we wanted to get her up hear so we shipped her up her cargo with a lot of help from Mike, Mary, and Mom...thanks. Because Mom and Mary were going over to Seattle already taking Kenai wasn't a huge inconvenience. She traveled fine in the car and great on the plane.

So have you ever started something that you think to yourself, "what did I do" well that was what Kari and I were thinking last night when we couldn't figure out how to get her to pee or poop in a place other than the carpet. Good thing she is super cute because otherwise I might have dropped her off at the shelter. I think Kari got about 2 hours of sleep last night, and I got about 4. Today she (or we) did a lot better, she only had one real accident and has been a major cuddle bug all day!

She is a great addition to our family.

Pumpkin

We carved some pumpkins tonight, watched some scary simpsons episodes and ate carmel apples.

Vienna sausage

Two weeks ago, I think it was a Wednesday Mike called me to tell that they (Mike, Jeff, and Dad) were going hunting to Dugout Mountain or as Jeff puts it "Skunkout" on the following Friday. I asked why I wasn't invited...we'll you do live in Alaska Jared so you weren't really considered for a weekend hunt. Throwing caution, obligations, and work aside I booked a ticket for the next day (thanks Kari). After we (now this is important WE) booked the ticket we both realized that we'd be spending our 9th anniversary apart...oops. So off to Washington I flew leaving 19 degree winter-like weather to beautiful fall.
I stayed the first night with Jeff and Ruth, went for a nice 10 mile run the next morning and then Jeff and I took off for Wenatchee to meet up with Mike. Now I must diverge here for a moment, for years Parrish hunting trips were synonymous with Jethro (which is the name of the pop-up camper). Jethro however had an accident in Montana and really wasn't fit for another hunt, so Mike did some sleuthing through Craigslist and found Jethro's twin brother aka Jethro II. Now Jethro II wasn't really in the best condition, but it was workable, so Mike worked hard to resurrect this "new" Jethro to life.
Once we got Jethro II ready to go we drove a couple of hours north and hung a right and as always we set up camp in the dark, but it didn’t matter cause all the Parrish men were together on Dugout! Although we didn’t get anything we saw some deer and had a great time being together on a hunt in a place that has history for us. Jeff (the meal planner) decided to bring all the best food for lunches which consisted of Vienna sausage, Kipper Snacks and Smoked oysters…wow it doesn’t get any better than that. I can’t wait until next year!

Hawaii

Yep I knew I'd slack at this and now I have to do some "catch-up". So to start I'll give a short re-cap on our trip to Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. About 9 months ago I submited an abstract to the International Child Abuse and Neglect Conference which was accepted for a 20 min. oral presentation. This year the conference was held in the USA(occurs about once every 5 years), so it was feasable to go...and it didn't hurt that it was in Hawaii. My travel was sponsered by the state and we got a killer deal on a ticket for Kari, so we decided to extend the trip beyond the 4 days of the conference to hang at the beach, play with the Alsops and our friend Rachael. First the conference was great, and I made a lot of contacts that will hopefully "pay-off". Second the surf was up and the weather was well...sunny in fact a got a sun burn to prove it, you'd think I'd know better after having lived there!

A short weekend

Just thought I'd give a quick update about a recent hike that we went on. A couple of weeks ago we finally got a weekend to ourselves and we decided that if the weather was going to be sunny we'd head on down to Seward and hike up Harding Ice field. So on Sunday after church, meetings, and dinner we decided to load up the 4runner and drive on down to Seward (it's a couple hours). Rather than make it a big deal we decided that we'd just sleep in the back to avoid pitching a tent.
By the time we arrived it was starting to get dark, but we found a little pull-out near exit glacier with the most spectacular view. As we got ready for bed we fired up the camp stove to make some delicious hot chocolate, which truly hit the spot.
After a restful nights sleep we arose to a beautifully clear and sunny day, we made a little breakfast, packed our day packs and drove the few miles to the trail head.
The hike is basically up a mountain that hikes the moraine of exit glacier up to the ice field and you gain about 4,000 feet in 4 miles, so it's a leg burner on the way up and a knee and ankle buster coming down.
About midway up we spotted a sow and two cubs eating berries just off the trial, we watched them for a few moments then continued on our way. We kept a nice steady pace all the way up and even through the precipice and had energy to hike down to the ice field to say we've touched it (in Kari's case stood on it). The view was spectacular and pulchritudinous. Oh what a place to live!

Moving towards winter

Well I haven't posted in a while so I figured I take a moment to update you all on a few of the things we've been doing over the past month. Kari made it back from her trip to Idaho for her Grandmas funeral, which she said was a really nice event given the circumstances. The day after Kari got home Mom came up to Alaska to visit us and then up to Prudhoe bay to visit Larry. We had a great time visiting (staying up late). We also went to the downtown Saturday market, looked around then picked some fresh unique blueberries up in the mountains.

We also had some good friends move out of Alaska so we went on a last hike with them up to one of our favorite places in Hatcher Pass called Reed Lakes. We got lucky with the weather (it wasn't raining) and we had a great hike up into some very rugged looking mountains. On the way up we found some really big blueberries that were high bush unlike the ones we picked with mom (low bush) and these ones were so much bigger. We will miss Neil, Emily, Abe and Banjo the dog and we wish them the best in Washington.

Lastly, we are once again training for a race the end of October called the Zombie fun run. Kari will be running the 1/2 marathon, and I'll be running the 50k. This run requires you to run with a partner for the first 1/2 so I was kind or coerced into this one. So anyhow we've been running, running, and running some more. It's amazing at how you can get your body to push it's limits when you have a goal, expectations, and someone else relying on you to perform.