Kayaking and Hiking makes the greatest Saturday

beautiful skirts

Two weeks ago we had Saturday off, which is very rare. We planned to sleep in and maybe go on a hike. However, the lovely Amanda Jensen called us at about 8AM to see if we wanted to go kayaking up in Fraser with her and her mom, Becky! We were told that they would come pick us up in about ASAP. We shot out of bed and got ready as fast as we could.

Before getting into the water

Becky and Amanda picked us up with delicious smoothies in hand for us. We then drove to Fraser which is the Canadian border and man it was so beautiful up there on the lake! It was WONDERFUL! Ashley got the privilege to do the peddling and paddling around was great. We went from one end of the lake tot he other. It was a couple of hours of paddling fun!

It was really cool to just relax and enjoy the scenery. We would occasionally stop paddling and soak it all in. We would chat with Amanda, Becky, and one of the tour guides. We had a pretty good tour group where everyone did their own thing but stayed all together.

All of us!

Afterwards, we came home and went out to to the Saturday market to get some of Rocky and Lil's homemade fry bread! It is so delicious. Amanda helped out and afterwards we went back with her to the border so we could go hike International Falls! International Falls is a hike through waterfalls and you basically go out as far as you want. It was nice weather, a little overcast but it was really nice out.

We went decided we wanted to go down to some of the waterfalls and  we got off the trail so getting back onto the trail was an adventure because we had to walk through the water and with the rocks being so slippery we had to find the perfect place to go walk through. It took a while but finally we just had to get into the water! Surprisingly,

it wasn't that cold, our only concern was not to fall in and get totally soaked.

Off the trail!

Overall, it was a great Saturday and with only a few left we hope to keep having these great adventures!

More Roommates!

Yes, you read that right! We have 3 new roommates! And some of us have started to leave. Adriana left on Sunday and (lil) Ashlee leaves on Thursday. It is really sad, because we can feel the season come to an end. But enough with the sadness. Meet our new roommates!!



First off we have Krysten! Krysten has been coming up for 4 summers and because she goes to BYU-Idaho she only comes up at the end of the season. She is from Blackfoot, Idaho. She moved into our room and she is a really cool gal! She is very loving and funny. She is studying biology with an emphasis in neuroscience and loves anything science-y. She will be graduating in the fall She works at the Klothes Rush and loves every minute of it (or does she..hahah). She is really good at going out and being active. She is a good motivator for us slackers.

Along with her, she invited her friend, Jake, to come up. He also goes to BYU-Idaho and is studying biology as well. He is from Henderson, Colorado and is a really chill guy who loves playing the guitar and going out into the wilderness. He hasn't been here for a full week but has been on so many hikes! He works at the Kone and Klothes Rush.After the season he will move to Tennessee to do what every good college student does and sell something to people.





And  last but not least, we have the infamous and classy Ben! Background, Ben is married to Jen and is only moved in until Thursday when he will leave to go back to Utah. He is the assistant manager at Duffs and is very knowledgeable from anything like cats to random facts about Robin Williams' acting career. He is going to school Utah State University and is studying Computer Science. Even though we are happy to have him around it just makes us miss Jen more than anything!


There you have it! Our 3 new roommates. Don't worry, we have had some awesome adventures lately but we figured we should catch up on the people we are sharing a roof with.

ALL ABOARD!

One thing you should know about Skagway is that not only is it the coolest town in all of Southeast Alaska, but it is also the home of the White Pass and Yukon Route. It links Skagway to the Great Yukon!

“The railroad began construction in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush as a means of reaching the goldfields. With its completion in 1900, it became the primary route to the interior of the Yukon, supplanting the Chilkoot Trail and other routes. The route continued operation until 1982, and in 1988 was partially revived as a heritage railway.” (Wikipedia)

There is so much history that goes with the train and if you are in Skagway you would be a fool to not ride it! A lot of people come here to specifically ride the train. On Saturday, we were invited by our friends, Tara and Riley, to ride the train. Tara is leaving to go back to Utah this next week and has never heard Riley (her husband, duh) give a tour so what a great way to spend a BEAUTIFUL Saturday! We took the 4 hour round-trip to the summit. Riley gave a wonderful tour!

One of Aisha’s favorite parts is the story of George Buchanan, a successful businessman, a coal merchant in Detroit. During the Depression he decided to help boys to get out of town and see Alaska. He would take 50-60 boys in the summer on a journey across Canada to Vancouver, sailed up the coast to Skagway, spent several weeks touring Alaska, climbing glaciers, panning for gold.Part of the deal was that their parents would donate 1/3 of the money, George would donate 1/3 of the money and the boy would work to raise the remaining 1/3.

On the rocks below the U.S. Customs Station are the words “On to Alaska with Buchanan” which was their motto and was painted as a tribute to Buchanan.

It is a really cool story and shows how there is such good people willing to reach out and help others. 

These pictures have a funny story behind it. We were in Riley's sound car, which is the car where the tour guide sits in so you don't just listen to them over the intercom. We sat right up front, behind Riley and Tara. About half way up there was a little boy that Riley soon became friends with. His name was Reid and 5 years old. A few things about Reid is that he did not know personal space and he LOVED Riley and Tara! He kept jumping all over them and pulling at them. His mother was really nice and tried to tell him not to do that but that did not work out. At some point she was back in her seat and Reid was all over them. It was so funny to watch. We kinda felt bad for Tara and Riley but they took it like champs, probably because they have so many nieces and nephews. 

We wanted to get a picture all together and of course Reid just has to be in it. The first one is cute because he is squeezing Tara and then in the second one he put his head on Riley's shoulder. Basically, it looks like they have a 5 year old kid! Ha!

Is it really August?!

Wow time is going by fast! It feels like we were just celebrating Christmas...oh wait because we did! Here in Skagway we celebrate Christmas in July. We get Secret Santa's and eat tasty goodies all week! Its very fun!

But before we get more into that we have to share the awesome work photo we took!

This is the lovely people we work with! The theme for work this year was the Olympics.

And if anyone knows Ashley and Aisha they know that we love to dress up. So of course this is what came to our mind when we were told we need to dress up as an Olympic Athlete:

yeah that is right! The ORIGINAL Olympians, with a little more clothing. haha. 

It was a lot of fun to dress up and see what other people came up with. For example: 

Our Branch President....We mean the manager for RadioShack.
Look how nice this Canadian weightlifter looks! She really wins the gold!

We started the week with saying goodbye to our leader, Jen. We miss her so much and work just isnt the same without her. For Christmas in July it lasted from July 21st were we got our secret santa names and ended with a delicious turkey/ham lunch FEAST! It made us so excited for Christmas time. It was also a great way to forget ourselves and serve those around us. We had to write notes to our people and so others would play elves to deliver the notes. It was cool to see how creative people could get. Lots of laughs!

It was also Pioneer Day and when you don't live in Utah or Idaho Pioneer Day is celebrated on the weekend. We gathered as a branch and ate yummy food and played some pioneer-ish games. The first game we played was the handcart pull. There was an obstacle course where you had to pull a handcart around and fill it with different items. Teams were made up of four and your were timed. Of course we couldnt be on the same team, it would be unfair to the others but in the end both our teams claimed victory!

Amanda, Aisha, Daniel, and Michael Bradley placed first

Lindsay, Ashley, Bryan, and Kyle placed second

There was also an egg toss that Michael and Calvin won. We also had some of Rocky and Lillian's homemade fry bread goodness. We are telling you,  we get too spoiled here!!

Some other random news:

Stephanie got engaged to Seth! yay! 

Ryan is sick. He went home to get better help but we miss him a lot here! Keep him in your prayers.

Aisha got sick this past week, its lame.

Ashley got promoted to being the new assistant manger! yay her!!

We got our new roommate, Krysten! More about her sooner than later.

We are going on the train tomorrow! WOOT WOOT!