Gearing up for Alaska

I have officially moved out of this amazing Guest Cottage and am homeless/jobless AKA Funemployed for a few weeks again.

I have signed a contract to begin work in SE Alaska the second week of April, and now all of our focus is on making this a safe and enjoyable adventure! 

The good news is I have more time to take care of the mountains of paperwork and tasks required to begin a job up there. The bad news is, Brad does not have a lot more time as he will be working up until the last minute before we journey off. We are still finding time for fun tasks like shopping for new rain gear, outdoor survival gear and even getting in some good food before we head out of the South. 

This also means I have done a lot of my shopping online to be most efficient. Before I made it back up this direction, my pink fuzzy Alaska hat arrived in NB, and archer seems to be pretty fond of my choice :) 

When I got to Brad's parents home the end of last week, they all gave me my new fishing rod which was ordered by Brad piece by piece and built by his dear Father. His dad was not thrilled with the pink bling I repeatedly insisted upon, but somehow he was able to grit his teeth and make this beauty a reality! 

Me and Brad spent about 4 hours at Cabella's last weekend, and though I begged and pleaded for him to get this sexy hat, Brad insisted it was too silly. I am sure he will regret that decision one day soon... 

We both are now proud owners of rain suits. Of course we had to test them out to ensure they were in fact water-proof. Sadly I didnt get any pictures of the next couple of hours but it involved us in our new gear washing my car, then both of the dogs and then having an all out water war in the backyard like 5 year olds without any parental supervision. It was all fun and games until I switched to my flip flops and accidentally stood in a fire ant hill... Which quickly turned into me screeching and tearing off my pants and hollering at brad to continue to spray me to get the ants off. Having ants in your pants is not as fun as the childhood game made it sound!! 

So we are slowly checking off items from the to-do list and making sure we enjoy the process as much as the destination. 

Will try to keep y'all in the loop more, the past few months were just... rough for me. Nothing terrible, just glad I am getting to close that chapter of the book and grateful for the lessons I was able to learn. 

  

Fishing Day in Fremont Canyon, Wyoming

We headed out for another glorious early morning on the North Platte River. This time we headed down to a place called Fremont Canyon which I have been hearing about since we got here. I was not disappointed. In the middle of the high plains, the ground breaks away into an impressive canyon, known best by anglers and rock climbers.

We did some pretty decent climbing and hiking through a few areas to get down to the water so the waders were left behind. The weather did a swift swing from the low 50's when we got out there to the high 80's at noon by the time we left. Guess it's the beginning of Autumn here in Wyoming!! 

I experienced a couple fishing firsts today -caught my first brown trout and also set the hook on a fish that was big enough to break the line. I was able to land this gorgeous rainbow trout as well, one day maybe I'll figure out how to hold the fish so you can actually see it all and not look terrified in all the pictures;) 

Again, this is the guy responsible for helping me land the fish and getting the hooks safely out of the ones I caught. I love spending time with him in the wilderness, watching him come alive as he spends time in his natural element. His patience with me continues to amaze me.