Arizona Craziness :)

Hola from AZ. It's a cool 106 F, a mere 40F warmer than we're used to in the A-K. Clay-Clay was getting in the car this afternoon and he said "How come it can't be like Alaska when we're in Arizona?" Kara informed me she couldn't get in the car until it was cooled off... I had to tell her that that also isn't an option. However, even as I type, my kids are frolicking in the backyard, playing in the water and they're adapting quite well.

We're looking forward to a super-fun couple weeks down here in the lower 48. It seems like we're already "squeezing" things into the trip..but that would happen even if we were here for a month :)

Fun with Botox

So today is the 2 week mark for this stupid deployment (you might notice that my language becomes more like a first grader as I get more tired during deployments).  Honestly, it doesn't seem possible that Clayton left only 2 weeks ago! (again, probably getting tired of hearing that on this blog..but if you knew the ground we've covered around here!!!!)  Only 5 weeks left.  Yes, I know that "it's not so bad".. and "at least he's not in Iraq".  Just let me whine for a minute.

See, I feel better already.

We have a busy week ahead of us, here at the Johnson Zoo.  We are going to have 2 visitors at once!  One is a friend from Texas who is actually moving to Bethel, AK.  She'll be visiting "the big city" for a few days before she goes NW to Bethel.  If you want to google Bethel, you'll see why Anchorage would be considered a metropolitan city.  Seriously.  

The other visitor is my friend Karen from Denver (yes, this is where the Botox fun comes into play).   We're going to do some serious Alaska-type living while she's here.. hiking, biking, looking semi-homeless, not shaving our legs.  No.  Really :)  I think Karen will love it up here. At least I hope she loves it enough so that she feels compelled to make return (touch-up) visits every 4-6 months :)  

About 4 hours after Karen leaves us, the kids and I will board our now standard red-eye flight to Phoenix!  We are all really excited to see the family (and meet new baby Evie) and hang out in an oven.  It's been like 70's here (which is BOILING for Anchorage..their all-time recorded high temp is only like 83) and my kids are complaining that they're hot.  I am seriously considering turning on the oven and making them stand in front of it for 60 seconds to prepare them for AZ at its finest.  Myself, I'm looking forward to good sales on summer sweaters, a spa day, dinner at a winebar, seeing my friend Jackie (who lives in Anchorage.. we can't seem to hook up in town but we'll see each other in AZ), seeing my other friends who I don't see nearly enough.... and on and on.  There won't be enough time.... 

I'll leave you with a "before Karen's visit" recent photo of myself.. and what I hope she can achieve in a few tiny pokes of a needle and some deadly poison..

Me, after 1 short year with the Raptor as "the other woman"....

Me after Botox... I CAN HOPE!  Besides, we both have blonde hair and brown eyes....

Fantastic Fourth!

Thinking back on the last week, I come up with a lot of words but the only one I'll use for this post is "rare".  Last week was rare... and not in a particularly good way.  Clayton left last Sunday and it seems like he's been gone a month already at least.  It's hard for me to believe that we've traveled as much road in such a short time.  There were some bright spots, however, not the least of which was a very last minute trip to Alaska for my sister Amy.  Since she's been in town, the days haven't seemed quite as long and the kids have someone else to entertain them.  

We had a really fun 4th of July!  We spent the day with Clayton's mom Anne's first cousin's family, Carol and Jim, out at their cabin in Wasilla, AK (no, we couldn't see Russia).  It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day out on the lake and my kids had a great time swimming, playing with big kids and watching fireworks under full-sun (yes, at 10:00pm, it was still BRIGHT DAYLIGHT).  It was a long day, getting home at 11:00pm, but great fun.  We are grateful to have extended family in Alaska, for sure.

I'll leave you with some photos of our festivities.  Here's hoping this next week is infinitely smoother sailing than the last....

The view of the lake behind Jim and Carol's house... temps in the low 70's.  A regular heatwave for AK.

Clay being lazy.

Amy and Kara

Jim taking Clay on a canoe ride... both the kids LOVED going on the canoe.

Kara swimming (with required life jacket) in the freezing lake.

Clay is shaping up to be a regular pyro... he was all about the fireworks.  Now, before you go saying "Why waste all those fireworks during the daylight".. I say to you: this was about 9:00pm.  Still no official nighttime for us.

Anne's first cousin Carol Fincher.. her dad is brothers with Dr McFadyen.  Carol thought Clay would go to sleep if he sat on her lap.. anyone care to guess if that worked or not?  No, of course it didn't.  This was at 10:00pm, just before we headed home.  It was a great day.

The Hills Are Alive, With the Sound of....

Whining kids.  What else?  Ha! (well, it would be funny if it weren't true)  We only have about a day and a half with Clayton before he goes to play war in Guam.  Obviously, we're thankful Iraq trips are a thing of the past (for now) but we hate to send Daddy off for 6 weeks :(   Clayton has been away from home a lot already this year so this is an especially dreaded TDY for me.  The kids and I will get to AZ late in July and some friends are coming to visit earlier in the month. SO, hopefully, the time will fly by.

Meanwhile, we try to do fun things before Clayton leaves.  Today, we went hiking on Mount Majestic.  It is only about a 15 minute drive to the trailhead from our house and it was awesome!! The uphill part is UPHILL, and the hike down is DOWNHILL.  But, Kara hiked the whole thing on her own.  Not surprisingly, Clay-Clay rode most of the way on Clayton's shoulders.  We didn't have our bear bell (really) today but Clay's whining was an even better substitute.  Honestly, we get going on these "hikes" and I'm ready to go wait in the car about 10 minutes in.   We just keep luring him up the hill with promises of "snacks".  Don't laugh, it works.  I'm going to have t-shirts made for my kids that say "Will hike for food".  

We've got a few more adventures lined up before Clayton leaves on Sunday.  I'll post pictures as they're available.  

The "false" summit.  It's as far as we made it today...the rain was on its way.

"Come on, Kara.  If you get up here, you can have a juice box"

The big white mountain behind Clayton is actually Eagle Glacier.  

Oh sure, it's all smiles now that you know we're not climbing any farther..

Getting out the snacks from Clay's lunch box... 

That Darn Yard

So, it's finished!  We have yards.  One in the front and one in the back!  And, if I do say so myself (which I can, because I had nothing to do with this whatsoever), they are the nicest on the street!! Big Thank-Yous go out to Timberline Landscaping and Excavation (Jim and Carol).  We love it!!!

The front yard and a mountain.

Everything is different in Alaska...it's good to remember that when you're reading about life up here.  Here's an example: we have lots of utility boxes and junk in our yards.  In fact, in the middle of this planting bed is a cover that the utility people actually climb into and work all day, basically in a hole in our front yard.

Our pretty river rocks... they are really beautiful when they're wet..

Alaska grown.  We buy local.

The bluff... down to the river (about 200 yards).  Moose, bears, lynx....

The patio... getting furniture sometime.  Maybe not until next summer...when you, dear readers, come visit ;)

Major Fokker

So Clayton pinned major about 3 weeks ago... and about a week ago, there was a pinning ceremony at the 302nd FS.  It is customary for the person promoting to provide the food/beer for the festivities. SO, last Thursday, for the 3rd week in a row, I made food for another party. Fortunately (for Kamdon, at least), the squadron took care of the cake.  I scrambled for the better part of 2 days getting food together and I think it turned out yummy.  The folks at the squadron ate most of it, so I was glad about that...  It was pretty cool that my friend Jackie's husband, Brian Silkey, emceed the pinning.  He was one of the IPs when Clayton did his F16 training at Luke.  He said some nice things about Clayton and he also passed on one of his major rank pins to Clayton which Clayton thought was really cool.  Obviously, when two separate friends offered to keep Kara and Clay for the occasion, I fully took advantage of their offers.  HOWEVER, when I showed up w/out my kids, Brian says "Well, who is going to pin Fokker's other shoulder?  We had Kara down for that."  I looked at him and said "I don't know?  You??"!!  SEE, this is why Clayton should always tell me exactly what/who to bring and how  much!!!!  Anyway, the whole thing went quickly and well.  I laugh when I think of Major Fokker... once, when Clayton found out he was going to pin, he was skyping w/Troy and I could hear Troy laughing going "You're going to be Major Fokker.  HA HA HA HA HAHA".  Funny ;)

Major Fokker and spouse (the PC Air Force term for little woman).

I hate this picture.. it is SO unflattering but it does show us doing our Johnson-ghetto style of pinning (actually untaping the old captain bars).

Congratulations to Clayton :)

In other news...

The biking saga continues.  After being scared off from a back-woods hike by signs warning of a "very aggressive momma grisly bear who is charging people on this trail", Clayton finally relented and bought a cheapo trailer for his bike.  Kara is a good little bike rider but she is not ready for 10 mile and longer rides... as for Clay-Clay, he is still pretty lazy so there is NO CHANCE of him biking even 3 miles ;)  Now, we can bike together as a family (cough, cough).  After much fanfare and unnecessary ado, we headed out on our first Griswold.. I mean Johnson...family bike ride on Saturday afternoon.  Clayton thought we should ride to Target from our house, a little longer ride than Kamdon and I did on Monday.  I wasn't sure that was a good idea but we headed out.  Clayton was riding his muy expensivo bike he bought on Ebay last summer for the first time.... when we were about 5 miles from home, his handle bars came loose.. too loose for him to continue riding.  What did that mean?!  It meant that mom, me, had to ride home the rest of the way, get some tools (not a good idea) and bring the Tahoe back to pick up Clark, Rusty and Audrey.  I rode as fast as my jello legs would go, but it wasn't fast enough for Clark... I mean Clayton.  Oh well, we'll try again another time.  I'll leave you with pics of my new bike and Clayton's new bike... for no particular reason except to give you visual proof that I actually am riding a bike now ;)

My new wheels

Clayton's Ebay deal

Our ghetto trailer that is nearly too small for both our kids.. their butts are almost dragging the bottom when we're riding!  And you parents out there can imagine the bickering that occurs in such a confined space.  JOY!! BLISS!!!

The Yard and a 20 mile bike ride

So, apart from birthday parties and trips to Hawaii, what have the Johnsons been up to??  Well, for starters.. we're having our yards (front and back) put in.  One of Anne's first cousins and her family live in Anchorage... interestingly enough, Jim has a side business doing landscaping.  That was good for us because we didn't have to get a bunch of bids, we just signed on with them basically when we moved here!  I think the yards are going to be awesome.  I'm particularly looking forward to a patio going in off the basement.  It goes all the way out to the bluff and we're going to put a fire pit out there (to lure the bears up.. NOT!) and some cool furniture.   (pictures to follow once it's all finished)

Additionally, I am now the proud owner of my friend Jen's old bike.  Everyone else in the fam has a bike that they ride.. I was left out!!  No longer.  I can't even remember the last time I rode a bike besides at the gym.  We went on a short ride Sunday to the park... that went well so my friend Kamdon and I decided we'd try a longer ride today since the kids (Kara, Clay and Ainsley) had VBS.  Here was the conversation between me and Kamdon...

Me:  Hey, we should go for a bike ride while the kids are at VBS.

K:  Sure!  Where should we go?

Me: (thinking).... we could ride on the bike paths towards the base?

K:  We could ride to Fort Rich (the Army base) and go to their Starbucks.

Me:  Sure!

Meanwhile, we get going on our ride and it seems really easy. So easy that we keep on trucking past Fort Rich, all the way to the new Target which is about 10 miles from Kamdon's house... we were feeling all smug about our apparent super-in-shapedness, talking about how "that wasn't so bad" over our iced teas.  When it was time to head back, had to be back to K's by 12:00 to drive to the church to get said kids, we were still kind of chuckling about our rock start status, first long bike ride.  WELL, all good things must come to an end, and our smugness came to a grinding halt when Kamdon says (about 10 minutes into the hour ride home... no one said we were fast) "Does this feel like it's all uphill?".   Sure enough... turns out "it wasn't so bad" because the majority of the ride to Target was DOWNHILL.  The ride home was not so easy and there was NO TRACE OF SMUG left by the time we made it back and got the kids home.   However, it was fun, great exercise and we encountered no errant rocks from cars, no moose and no bears!!