Bethel, Alaska

For those of you that don't know, I'm able to travel throughout my country with my job. I work for a consulting company that assists the Children's Bureau in running the federally mandated child welfare reviews. A few weeks ago my work took me to a unique place that I'll never forget.
Bethel, Alaska is a small town about 400 miles from Anchorage and 400 miles from Russia. It's a small fishing village on the Kuskokwin River that empties out into the Bering Sea. It's nothing like I pictured Alaska to be. It's a muddy, wet tundra area, with about 6,000 people.

I was able to find an LDS church in town and truly enjoyed the people. They were instantly so friendly and so interested in what I was doing. Throughout the week I say several of them in town and I loved it.
Work was very interesting throughout the week as we learned about the many things these people deal with on a day to day basic and the fascinating lives they live. Some of the workers there told us about how the only way to travel to visit their families in neighboring villages is to fly or take a boat. There are no roads! These same workers take their annual leave every year to go hunt for the coming winter. They hunt, fish for hundreds of fish and pick berries for two weeks. They then smoke and can every inch of every fish in order to live off it for the coming year. I was amazed!Things are very expensive in Bethel as everything must be flown in or brought in by plane. A gallon of milk is about $10, ice cream $9. I could go on and on with the fascinating things from this trip.

Undoubtedly my favorite part of the trip was on Thursday, the Mayor, Thor, took us on his boat to a neighboring village. This is one of the closest villages and can only be reach by the river. In the winter the river freezes over and they are able to actually drive down to the village or taking their snowmobiles. We were literally out in the rough of Alaska. It was so beautiful and so interesting. I wish I had a picture of Thor, he was so great! (As I'm sure you can tell by his name alone.)

Can you say Heisman Trophy Nominee?

Okay, maybe not yet, but for those of you that missed the BYU game on Saturday, you missed out. My brother in law Jeff Bell tackled the Wyoming quarterback and caused a fumble. Holla! It was so great to be able to see Jeff play and to make such a great tackle. It was even greater to see how excited his family got when he did it. I just thought I needed to give a little shout out to Jeff. We look forward to many more great plays by him.

3 Months

I just want to give a little shout out to Peter and I, we've officially made it through three months of marriage. Who would have thought?! It certainly has been a busy and very different last three months. We've been busy with school, trainings, work, traveling, moving in, adjusting to marriage, etc. I've enjoyed so much getting to spend so much time with Peter. It's the best thing to not have to get up and go home at night. When we're done with our night we can just go into our room and go to bed!

I love getting to know more and more of Peter's little quirks. He's become quite the singer (and song writer) in our house these days. His latest is titled, "Smooching is allowed". Those of you that know Peter, can picture this perfectly I'm sure.

Yesterday was our official three month mark and we happened to have to speak in Church about families. As I spoke I was overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude, realizing that I too am starting my family and these same blessings and responsibilities we're speaking about are ours. I'm beyond excited to be able to share the rest of my life with Peter and start a family of our own soon.

Briar Woods Volleyball

One of the best things about living in Virginia is that we are able to attend Peter's sisters high school events. Kimmy and Katie are Juniors at Briar Woods and are involved in basketball, drama, and volleyball. And it's so fun! I adore those girls and love that we get to see them often. Volleyball season has just started and the Falcons beat Dominion last week. Kim even slammed the ball so hard at a girl, it broke her finger and she limped off the court wailing. It sadly, funny.

This is what you get

when you try to be a good little wife. That's right. The other day I was cooking a special meal for Peter and I went and cut my finger. Yeah, like a fourth of my nail chopped right off. I'm obviously really talented with the knife. That's the last time I'll try cooking for my lover boy again. Haha.

On a better note, here are some sneek peak pictures of our new place. We still have a lot to do, but it's really starting to come together. Fun for us!

The Cougs...

have started again! Peter and I love this time of year, the weather is beautiful and college football has begun. There isn't much better than spending your Saturday watching football. (I really do mean that, I'm not just faking it.) This last Saturday the BYU Cougars played their first game of the season. We beat Northern Iowa and started the year off right. Well sort of, minus the not so great 3rd quarter of the game.

Thanks to Peter's dad we are able to watch all of the games this year! Go Cougs!