My “Famous” Boys

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Jenny

This weekend we drove out to Wasilla – yes, that Wasilla. No, we didn’t see Sarah or any of the Palin bunch. We drove out to attend the Mat-Su Valley Outdoorsman Show. We wanted to get some ideas for fun things to do with the kids this summer. Todd also wanted to get more information on the hunting and fishing available in the area. We let the kids climb in a bunch of campers. We sampled cupcakes from a woman that has a mobile bakery – delish! Todd subscribed to the Alaska Fishing magazine. Just generally looked around.

Near the end of our wanderings up and down the aisles, Todd and Jack were looking at a Dall sheep mount. Turns out a photographer from the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman newspaper had taken their picture. The photographer was super nice and let Jack see the picture of himself. Sure enough it ended up in the Sunday paper. I don’t have a hardcopy, but found the photo in their online version. Here it is:

Todd and Jack check out the Dall sheep mount at the Mat Su Outdoorsman show.

On another note, I’d appreciate it if you kept my little guy, in your thoughts and prayers. We found out on Sunday that Jack has pneumonia. He’s currently on antibiotics and doing breathing treatments and seems to be on the mend. It hasn’t been a fun few days though.

Iditarod 2012 Update

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Jenny

I didn’t plan on it taking this long for me to post again. Life with 3 young children has kept me busy the past couple of weeks. I have a couple of ideas for my next posts. They should be up more quickly. I know all of you are waiting with baited breath….

My last post was about the ceremonial start to the Iditarod race. Todd and I were able to help lead Anjanette Steer’s team to the start line and it was a blast! The race is now over and I wanted to share the results with you.

Dallas Seavey (the musher Todd and I were able to take the super fun and cheesy picture with) won the 2012 Iditarod in nine days, four hours, 29 minutes and 26 seconds. At 25, he became the youngest musher to win the race. Aliy Zirkle came in one hour behind Seavey for a second place finish. Anjanette Steer, the rookie Todd and I were following, came in 26th place. Only one other rookie, Brent Sass, finished before her. Finally, capturing the Red Lantern award for the last musher in to Nome, was rookie Jan Steves.

It was fun to watch how the entire city of Anchorage was engrossed with following the Iditarod. Very different from Texas and football, but tons of fun anyway.

Iditarod 2012

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Jenny

As I get older, I value honesty and transparency more and more. So to be honest, nothing about a cross-country move is easy. There are days that have been quite difficult. I don’t write about it too much because I don’t want this to be a Debbie Downer, woe-is-me journal of how I’m finding it hard to adjust to my new surroundings. I try to keep it light and focus on all the incredible things our family is getting to experience. I’ll be having a hard day, then I have to go pick one of the girls up from school and the view is astounding. I’m surrounded by mountains. I’ve always wanted to live in the mountains, so I remember to say a prayer of gratitude for this opportunity.

Today was one of those days where I just had to say, “Wow! What an amazing thing I just got to experience!” It was a cross it off your bucket list kind of day. Our family attended the ceremonial start of the 40th Iditarod Race. Beyond attending the start, Todd and I got to be “musher handlers” this morning. That means we helped lead a dog team to the start line. I admit the name sounds odd. Seems to me the title should be “dog handlers”. We didn’t have to handle the musher at all. 🙂

We assisted Anjanette Steer with her team. Anjanette is a rookie to the Iditarod. Her husband, Zack, has run the race several times. Now it’s her turn.

Anjanette, Zack and their support team hooked the dogs up to their lines. The handlers then hooked onto the lines as well. I think the handlers are really just there to keep the dogs from completely taking off. The dogs are strong, fast and ready to race. It was all I could do to run in ankle deep snow and keep up with them. All the meanwhile thinking, “whatever I do, don’t step on the dogs feet!” We were very clearly told not to step on the dogs. You can imagine why – we don’t want to injure a dog’s foot before the race even begins.

With Anjanette up front, we led the team down 4th Avenue to the start line. After reaching the line, Anjanette boarded her sled, we unhooked our lines and waited for the count down. 3 – 2 – 1 – They were off! It’s absolutely amazing to watch these dogs run. They are incredible athletes.

Today’s portion of the race through Anchorage was ceremonial. The official start is tomorrow afternoon, March 4th, in the town of Willow. We’ll be following and cheering Anjanette on her nearly 1,000 mile journey. You can follow Anjanette and all the other mushers at iditarod.com