Our Life in Alaska and Beyond

While I was living with my parents one day we decided to go to the BYU Museum of Art and the Roots of Knowledge display at UVU. The girls were at school, but we had a great time. We also met Avalon for lunch. (She's studying at UVU.) I loved the artwork at the MOA, and the stained glass at UVU was amazing! So fun! 

Nativity by Brian Kershisnik. Loved seeing this piece in person and how huge it is! (me for scale 😉)

During the summer of 2023 Scott and I talked about moving back to AK. A job came up at Scott's old workplace and he decided to apply, and he ended up getting it! It was very difficult telling our families, and putting our home up for sale, along with just the thought of moving thousands of miles away, again. But we truly believed it was what was best for ourselves and our girls, and went with it. (Now writing this over a year later, it has been so good, and we truly love being back in Alaska!) Everything happened so quick and before we knew it, our house was on the market and all our stuff was on its way to AK. With all of this going on, we tried to fit as much fun as we could into summer/fall, and spend as much time with family as we could before moving. 

This trip to Great Basin National Park is one of those things we really worked to fit in. We love visiting National Parks, and we had never been to Great Basin before (surprising because it's so close to Utah!) Chrissy also wanted to visit, so we planned a camping weekend trip for all of us to go together, and it was so fun! After visiting, I think Great Basin NP is very underrated. It is so beautiful and so amazing! And not crowded at all! I easily say I would love to go back and visit again! 

We left after work/school on Friday, and the drive really wasn't too bad. We got to the park right around sunset, and it was so beautiful! We camped in the Upper Lehman campground that night and it was so pretty! Our campsite was right next to Upper Lehman creek, and I loved listening to the babbling water, haha. We also had nice weather that night, and the kids loved tent camping! The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise, and then we checked out the visitor center, the girls became Jr. Rangers, and we took a tour of Lehman caves. It was cool, but honestly, I'm not (nor was anyone else in our group, lol) super into caves, and it got a little boring. I'd skip the cave next time, but I loved every other part of this park. There were also some apricot trees near the visitor center that were ripe, so it was fun to snack on those. 

That afternoon we drove further into the park. It was so beautiful! We had a reservation to camp that night at Wheeler Peak campground, so we explored the campground a bit, and then hiked the Bristlecone Trail, and the Alpine Lakes Loop. Noelle and Robyn weren't feeling the best, so Scott went with them a little early back to the campground, while Chrissy, Ruby, and I finished the loop.  We then had dinner at the campground, however, it started raining while we were hiking and eating, and then the littles still weren't feeling great, so we actually decided to head back home that night rather spend the night in a wet tent. It ended up raining a lot, so we were glad we took off, and then Noelle and Robyn both ended up throwing up too. We think it was altitude sickness that got to them (we were hiking at over 10,000'!). We ended up getting home pretty late Saturday night, but overall we still had such a wonderful trip! Enjoy these pics of beautiful Great Basin!

Arriving in Great Basin. Love this pic so much!

My friend Claire asked me to hike Ben Lomond with her, and of course I wanted to! This is a huge hike, (the longest I've ever done, nearly 16 miles!), but so beautiful too! We started super early in the morning, and it took us a little over 6 hours. It was a a big one, but so fun, and I'd love to hike it again! Claire is one of my friends from hygiene school, and I love that we've been able to stay in contact! So fun to spend some time together! 👯‍♀️🥾⛰️

Some of my very favorite photos ever I took on this hike. It was so pretty! 🤩😍

You gain a bit of elevation as you drive on the main Bryce Canyon road, and at the very end you're at about 9000'! We hiked the Bristlecone Loop Trail here and there was quite a bit of snow on most of the trail. (So glad we brought our snow pants and coats!) The loop was just about a mile, but took a bit longer with all the snow. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the girls were great hikers! Enjoy these pics!

There are several Bristlecone Pine trees near the trail and the oldest one in the park is estimated to be 1600 years old!