Back in AK

Mossburg 500

We want to do a lot of backpacking and camping this summer so we decided we should probably get a gun for bear safety purposes. We thought about bear spray, handguns, or shotguns and we really set on getting a Rugar or Glock handgun but settled on the Mossburg 500 12 gauge shotgun. It's super easy to load, we don't have to worry about jams, and you don't have to be super accurate when aiming which I'm sure facing down a charging bear I wouldn't be. We still would like to get the Glock 20 someday but we will settle for what we can get right now. 

We shot buckshot and it was fine, just a little kick, but Aaron wanted to test out the bear slug that we had bought for those just in case moments. He tried it and convinced me to try one as well. It hurt so bad! I might still have a bruise on my shoulder! I yelled at him and he said he knew I wouldn't have tried it if he told me it hurt. Little punk. We had a picnic out there by the water, and as we were hiking back found that the tide had come up and had to strip to our underwear to get across. Yikes.

Spa girls

Jamie took off for home and held a little bonfire get together so we took pictures of all the girls.

We had a party out at the flats with some other friends the same day.

Date night at Jack Sprats. Yum! Aaron always gets the ribeye and I get the Dol Sot Bibimbap which is a kind of stir-fry. Super delicious!

Northern Lights

The Northern Lights

For three days in a row the Northern Lights came out. The first night Aaron was riding his bike from work and looked up to see them. They were really faint at first, but around one in the morning out in Portage, away from the lights, they really cranked it up for us. I laid down on a picnic table and was just astounded at how interesting and beautiful the world is. Aaron took tons of pictures, but the cold finally drew us in. They kept going all night, all across the sky until sunrise. The other two days they were just faint blurry lines, but I'm glad we got to see one more fantastic light show before summer.

Vegas

Vegas!

We got dropped off the day before our flight and Justin showed us around. He showed us the temple grounds before we went out to breakfast. We had planned on catching a movie, but it was pretty close to our flight time, so we went to an arcade and then went bowling.

 I was super stoked for all these arcade coins I won. ;) Aaron managed to lose twenty bucks in a few minutes playing slots. I kicked Justin and Aaron's butts in Ski-ball, Aaron kicked our trash in basketball, and Justin kicked my booty in dance and car racing. Then he kicked butt in bowling. Aaron said loser paid for In n Out, and then he lost miserably after all the trash talking he did. Justin pulled out over a hundred both games. I averaged around seventy and Aaron hit a proud sixty. ha ha. It had been so long since we bowled. It was a blast!

Hiking

Gooseberry Mesa

While I was in Vegas at the WorldMark, Aaron and Melissa were out hiking and taking pictures at Gooseberry Mesa. It was a beautiful night and they played with some of the settings on their cameras and got some good night shots as well.

 Toquerville Falls

Aaron and I found ourselves alone one night and thought why not go to Toquerville Falls? It was a pretty night for a drive, but I forgot how awful that road is. We almost didn't make it up one hill, but Aaron has some mad awesome driving skills. The falls were gorgeous and it was nice to have the night to ourselves.