Old Faithful

Here she is...

(5/17/2010 at about 12:30'ish pm)

Now, how cool is that?

Photo Collection

I've added a link to the right of this page titled "Pictures from our trip to Alaska" that will bring you to a Shutterfly page that contains pictures and info. about our recent trip.

It is a work in progress; I need to add captions to pictures so that you will know what is where, etc. So far, I only have about 25 captions posted (but we're about to go do some more sightseeing, so I'll have to come back to the project later).

But for now, please enjoy...

Alaska Bound: We are DONE!

Well, here we are...in Fairbanks, Alaska!!!

We got here a little after lunchtime (we stopped in North Pole, AK to eat), went straight on Post to see if we could get lodging there, but we couldn't, soooooo we're staying at the Holiday Inn for...I don't know how long.

Tomorrow, we go back to Post to sign into Fort Wainwright, and then sign into Housing to get onto the waiting list for housing. Phillip doesn't have to sign into his company until after he "in-processes".

So far, we like what we see. (There's a Barnes and Noble here, so I'm happy.)

As far as the drive....We're TOTALLY glad we did it, because we saw so many beautiful things and got a whole new perspective on the lay of the land, and life in general, but next time...I'm flyin' out! Two weeks in the car to ANYWHERE is just a little too long for me!

Thanks to all who've wished us well, and a safe journey.

We are safely...home.

Alaska Bound: Day Fifteen

3,579 miles (with just a bit more for side trips) so far...

And remember, that's only 11 days of driving, but I say it's 15 (AK Bound) because we've been out of our house since May 9th.

The above map reads...Harker Heights, TX to Dallas...to Raton, New Mexico...to Englewood, CO...to Dubois, Wyoming...to Butte, Montana...to Calgary, Alberta...to Edmonton, Alberta...to Dawson Creek, British Columbia...to Fort Nelson, British Columbia...to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory...to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory this evening.

Tomorrow, we will hopefully be in Fairbanks, if not, then we may stop in Tok, Alaska or somewhere near there. We have until May 28th to officially report to Fort Wainwright, and we are way ahead of schedule, so we have been taking some short days/drives to give ourselves some rest from the road.

I know that I said that I'd post everyday if I could. The truth is, by the time we get into our hotel in the evening, we are a bit tired and I don't have the desire to tell you all that we've seen and done; and trust me, there's a lot to tell you! This has truly been the trip of a lifetime! I never thought that Gabe would be as excited as he is to see what there is to see; Sarah is so young, that she won't remember this, but I'll have lots of pictures to show her in the future. Both of them have been real troopers and we've only had a couple of very minor meltdowns from Sarah toward the end of a day.

When we get to Fairbanks, and I have more time, I will tell you more about the trip and post more pictures...

Until then,

Janet

Alaska Bound: Day Eleven

We are in Edmonton, Alberta tonight.

We left Calgary this morning and drove about 3 hours to the largest shopping mall in North America!

We're staying at the Fantasyland Hotel in the West Edmonton Mall; I sprung $50 more on our room reservation to surprise Gabe (and the rest of the family), and upgraded to a "Canadian Rail" room. We have a gigantic jacuzzi tub smack-dab in the middle of the room, and bunk beds for the kids; even the shower looks like it belongs in a sleeper car. The guys walked the lower half of the mall with Sarah and I, and then we separated so that they could enjoy the water park (in the mall).

Tomorrow, we stay in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and then wake up Friday morning to get our start on the ALCAN Highway...

We are a little more than halfway finished with the trip.

I'll do my best to post something tomorrow night.

Alaska Bound: Day Ten

Well, we are in Butte, Montana at the moment.

Yesterday was a FULL day. We woke up in Dubois, Wyoming (a charming little town in the middle of nowhere, it seems) and headed straight for Old Faithful.

I am keeping a small written journal in the car, so that I won't forget what is what...it's kinda all running together for me now. I will try to get back to you tonight with a more detailed description of what the past two days were like. Hopefully, we will be in at least Calgary, Alberta by this evening.

Oh, and the pictures from the road are amazing, if I do say so myself. This side of the United States is just BEAUTIFUL, I tell ya! I'll also try to post some more pictures so that you can see.

Wish us well!

Alaska Bound: Day Seven

We are just below Denver tonight.

We left the hotel in Raton, New Mexico this morning and headed north on I-25. My friend, Melanie, was not expecting us until late this afternoon, so we killed some time touring Fort Carson, Colorado and the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Wow! What a day! Gabe barely played with his Ipod Touch or watched the DVD player...he was loving the sights outside.

As for our visit, with Melanie and her family, it was so good to see all of them. We spent the afternoon at her house, drank some Shiraz, and had dinner at a nearby restaurant...I really do miss seeing her on a regular basis.

Tomorrow, we drive on toward Yellowstone National Park, about 550 miles from where we are now.

Here's some pics from the trip so far:

A bird outside of our hotel in New Mexico.

The Garden of the Gods.
(there's a whole lot more to it...)

Balancing Rock at the GOTG.

The view from the road (just getting into Colorado).

The Big Texan Challenge.

I'm off to bed now, and hoping that little Miss Sarah does not wake up at 5 am again tomorrow...

Alaska Bound: Days One and Two...and Three and Four...What day is this anyway?

We've arrived safely in Raton, New Mexico for the night.

Tomorrow, we push on toward Highlands Ranch, Colorado (just below Denver) to see my friend, Melanie; I'm so excited to see her, as she has been truly been a great friend for fifteen years now.

Our adventure started on Sunday night, when we checked into the Shiloh Inn in Killeen. I wanted to make sure that everything that was being packed up on Monday was clean and ready to be stored for however long it will take to get to us in Fairbanks (I'm thinking that we will be without our household goods for at least a month).

Sarah's allergies have been doing a number on her, and so I took her to the doctor on Monday to make sure that she was clear for take off, so to speak (we called Phil's parents an hour after they left our house on Sunday morning, and asked if they could come right back to help us, when I realized that she was sick enough for a doctor's visit; it turned out to be a very busy Monday... they were visiting for the weekend because Gabe made his First Communion on Saturday).

So, we packed up on Monday, and loaded up on Tuesday. By 4 pm on Tuesday, we'd cleaned out what was left in the house (stuff that the movers couldn't pack, etc.) and said our good-byes to what had been our home for the past five years. I tell ya, it wasn't easy to drive away.

Wednesday was a day for us to tie up loose ends. I spent what was left of some massage gift certificates, and Phillip got his truck serviced for the trip. For dinner, we went down to Round Rock, TX to eat at the Saltlick one last time.

Yesterday, we checked our mail, one last time, at the house, turned in our house and mail keys, checked Gabe out of school early, and were in Dallas by 2:30 to get my car shipped (Military Vehicle Processing Center). We met Connie at Aunt Wendy's house. While waiting on Wendy to finish an important meeting, we ate ONE LAST TIME at Campisi's and brought the leftovers home to Wendy.

This morning, we left Wendy's house at around 7:45 am and drove toward Amarillo. Our plan was to make it out to Palo Duro Canyon (south of Amarillo), but it rained all day so we decided against seeing the canyon. We had lunch at The Big Texan, canceled our hotel reservation in Amarillo, and pushed on to where we are now.

All in all, it's been an exciting, yet exhausting past few days...
I will do my best to post something every night. I realize that tonight's post is a little "choppy", but jeeeze I'm tired.

Wish us a safe journey, please, and take good care of yourselves, as well.

Janet

A note to my husband...

In regards to the previous post and map of the route that we COULD take to Fairbanks:

Nope, nothing is decided yet. This is a team effort, and we will decide together.

LOVE YA!!!

Central Texas to Fairbanks route (maybe...most probably...I dunno. Ask my husband.)

I'm posting this for a couple of reasons:

1. To give a visual on what route we most probably will take to get up to Fairbanks; many have asked about it.
2. To get my husband interested in stopping by a few places (since we'll be in the area).

We really haven't decided on a final route to take. We could take any number of routes to get up there. I mean, Las Vegas and Seattle are possibilities. So is the Grand Canyon. I'm reaching far on that last one.

All in all, it's about a 4200 mile trip that would take us about 9 days straight, of 8 hours a day, driving. But we really don't want to do that, because driving without long breaks to stretch our legs and rest our numb behinds, would be torture on all of us. And when would we ever be able to see some of these places again?

Here's a small rundown:

• We first have to stop off in Dallas to bring my car to the port that will ship it up to us in AK. We'll make time to say goodbye to family in that area.
• Then we stop off near Denver to spend some time with friends; it's a definite stop that's been planned for a while.
• We could make a stop off in the Jackson Hole/Yellowstone National Park area.
• We see that Montana doesn't have much to offer (that wouldn't take us too far off of the path). I had a doctor's appointment this morning and my doc said that Glacier National Park is really nice. He's the hunter/cowboy type and he got a little giddy telling me about how much he loves Wyoming and Montana.
  
• Then we get to the Calgary/Edmonton, Alberta area. Edmonton has the largest shopping mall in North America with a water park and amusement park inside. WhooHoooooo!!!!!
  
• We then head on through British Columbia and the Yukon territory along the ALCAN highway.
• There's too many things to mention on what we could possibly see on the ALCAN (different mining towns, etc.)
  
• And eventually, we reach Fairbanks.

Knowing us, we'll just start driving North and start and stop at will....go with the flow, take it as it comes. Stay tuned; because during the drive, I'm sure I'll have lots of cool things to talk about, and show you. I just hope that after all of that time in the car, any one member of our little family doesn't threaten to run-away.

Just a few more weeks here in Texas!

See ya later, Alligator!

We'll be saying "See ya later, Alligator!" to Texas in 66 days or less, and we'll be cruising the roads up to Fairbanks in Phillip's "new" truck. On March 1st, he bought this baby: a 2008 Ford F-150 Lariat 4x4. It was a Sa-Weet deal that he couldn't pass up, and we got 3x's more for the Taurus than we thought we would, so....we jumped on it.

He wasn't sure what he wanted, and so he's been spending the past few weekends test driving different vehicles. We've planned on this for a while, and we knew that we'd end getting something before we left for Alaska.

Congratulations, Baby! (I still think you should let me put our names on the back glass like Bud and Sissy did on Urban Cowboy...Yeeeeeehawwww!)



In other Lopez news:

• Gabe lost another tooth this past week.
• Phillip flew in from Ft. Rucker to spend this past weekend with us.
• We're still waiting for someone to buy our house!

Bullets and news...

Hello there!

Oooookay. Here we go.

I got a little put off on the whole blogging thing when I came to certain realizations; one being that it was too easy for some to come by and see what was up with us, and then they never bothered to use the phone for that human to human contact, and then there were the ones that complained that they didn't know much about us, but again were too busy to take a few seconds of their day to check the blog or...call. And there were other reasons, but....you're damned if ya do, you're damned if ya don't.

I realize that my attitude toward blogging lately is only hurting me, since as I've mentioned before, I use this as a journal for our family. I took a trip down memory lane yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures and videos, etc. Our family is constantly changing and growing, and what better way to document it than this blog? I should have been keeping up with things; there is so much missing from the past months.

And by the Grace of God, lots of great things have been happening to us lately. I need to get busy on this little project! I also mean to document our travels up to Alaska when the time comes, and so again, what better way to do it?

So in the next few posts, I plan to take things back a bit.

For now, here's a little of what's going on in our lives:

• Did your hear that the Saints won the SUPERBOWL?!
• Phillip is at the Maintenance Test Pilot's course right now until the end of April. I'm so very happy for him that he is doing something that he really enjoys. He's a great husband and father, and By Golly, he deserves this!
  
• Though we miss him (his leaving a few weeks ago hit us really hard, but we survived and are pulling through), we are able to meet him halfway in Lafayette when we get the chance...
• we saw him last weekend for Mardi Gras (it was our first Mardi Gras since we left Louisiana in 2001 and it was so fun to see Gabe experience his first; Sarah stayed home with Pa-Paw and Ya-Ya while we enjoyed the festivities...she's not ready yet).
• We'll travel to Fort Rucker, Alabama on our Spring Break to spend the week with Phillip. I can't wait to see how things have changed, visit with some friends, and show Gabe the very first home that he lived in.
  
• We plan to be out of Texas by May 14, so that means that Gabe will be checking out of school a few weeks early with the approval of his Principal and the school board. Whether he leaves 2nd grade with promotional status to the 3rd grade is up to him...
• but I really don't think we need to worry, because he has been an A/B Honor Roll kid all year...
  
• it's his chattiness, among other things, that get him into trouble conduct-wise.
• Oh, and we plan to be out of Texas by mid-May because we plan to drive up to Fairbanks. There are a couple of different ways to get up there, at least, and we are trying to decide now on just how we'll do it....take the ferry or not take the ferry.
  
• Sarah's 2nd birthday was on February 2nd. (I just realized that it's her lucky year!)....
• she has this thing about shoes, and will change her shoes at least 3-4 times an hour. So if you're looking for gift ideas, shoes it is!
• Her vocabulary is expanding by a couple of words a day. She amazes me with her ability to communicate, if she doesn't know the words. She amazes me, period.
  
• The house went up for sale a few weeks ago. We've had some really great showings and are anxiously anticipating an offer. I love my little home, and I sure do hope that the next person who moves into it will respect it and love it like we have.

That's it for now, Ya'll. I'll get back to postin' and bloggin' soon.

In the meantime, Have a great day!