Hello Everyone!!
So even though I feel like I should be getting ready to go to the point for our annual two week family vacation on the ocean at my my grandmothers house that I've been to every year since before I was born, Alaska feels more like home every day! This time down I went zip-lining with Robert! OMG it was so much fun, It was a course through the woods over an abandoned pit mine with caves and delapidated buildings and old rusty pipes and plants that I've never seen in my life! leaves as big as some of the ruhbarb plants in mom and dad's garden! The course took us about 180 feet in the air the longest was 728 feet long and if you cannon balled instead of keeping your legs out straight you could reach speeds of over 50 mph!!!

Do More Happy Than Worry

Alright down to the last stretch.
I can't believe that I've been here for almsot two months! I'm not really sure whats going to happen when the season ends as of right now though. But as the title says I'm not going to, at least going to try really hard not to worry about anything until the time comes.
So this past week we had the family from hell come up to the ice... The most white trash family I've ever met. So at the LX (helicopter landing pad) we have a trail that leads away from the helicopter that we have people follow so that they won't get their heads taken off by the rotor blades. First of all I should start out that I was the one unloading the helicopter, and we use a step stool to get everyone in and out of the helicopter. I placed the stool down infront of the front door and got the two people in the front seat out. I stepped up and undid the latches on the back door and then stepped down bent over to move the stool to the back door and got kicked in the head by the dad that had been watching me the whole time but apparently didn't see me bend over right in front of him... ugh got the Dad and the other three boys out of the back seat only to look over and watch as the whole family didn't follow the trail and were taking their time getting thier jackets zipped up and not moving to where I had asked them to go. (over to the flag) By the time I reached the family and ushered them along the dad and the oldest son were throwing snow balls at the wheel dog (antelope) on Matt's team... Yelling at them I finally got them away from the poor dog who was cowering and scared as the two laughed at him I thought to myself "You've got to be kidding me!" Then they had the nerve to ask me if the dogs were friendly and I said "Yes but I have two rules: One NO RUNNING AROUND THE DOGS. TWO: NO THROWING SNOWBALLS" the reply I got made me want to smack him... "Oh HAHAHAHA" I took the mother the girl and the youngest boy and gave Robert the dad and the two older boys. You could tell that the girl had grown up with brothers by the way she took at least 5 ice snowballs to the face and just whiped her face of the stinging snow and went on her way. They threw poop covered snow at each other, layed down in the middle of the trail under the dogs getting themselves tangled in the lines, peed on the trail, went for a run jumping kravases, and then when we finally got back to the camp and their helicopter came for them the girl started running right at the helicopter! I couldn't catch her the pilot Eric was putting his hand up asking her to stop matt finally caught her and told her to walk back to me and I grabbed ahold of her and told her to stay put until I told her she could move. I told the whole family that they have to follow the trail to helicopter and when I finally said they could make their way down the youngest boy started running at the helicopter disregarding everything I told him. But this time I was able to catch him and took him by the shoulders and threw him at the trail! UGH None of us felt safe while they were still on the ground. And the fog was starting to come in too, If I had had to deal with them all night! I don't think so!

sorry its been a while

“What are the house’s that the dog’s live in called?” “Do you have electricity up here?” “Who names the dogs?” “see those huge cracks in the ice? Those average about 100-200 ft deep… - Do you let the dogs run around?” …. Its been a long few weeks of ridiculous questions! Haha I had a week of horrible tours, to the point that I was absolutely dreading the next unloading of people off the helicopter… Then you’ll get the most talkative, intelligent questions and you have a great time, This makes it all worth while! I am sore and tired, after shoveling ice and wet snow all day and running tours, we generally average about 20-50 people a day, Last Thursday we had 73 people!!! Omg that was a looooooooong day! The other frustrating thing is the rich snobs that come up… We had a guy and his wife bring his youngest of 6 kids with her 8 kids on their private jet to Alaska… They also brought their $1.7 mil helicopter to privately fly up to the ice and get a tour. Now they own Idaho Potatoes, and Husband and wife take one of their kids and their families (one with 13 kids) on a vacation every year rotating who gets to go, and continued to talk about how much money they have and how much they have spent, at the end of the 3 undivided attention hours on the ice, they got on the helicopter and said “Bye”… No tip, no Thanks… Rick, Matt and I were like… you’ve got to be kidding me! Ridiculous!!! What I’ve learned so far is that it’s the people who this is their one vacation that they’ve spent the entire year saving for that really can’t afford to tip you who hand you $20 at the end saying that this was great and the experience of a life time.I’ve decided not to go and work as a handler this winter. I cannot get myself more that 50% positive that this is what I want to do, If I’m going to handle for someone I want to go into it with 90% enthusiasm and want to do this. Being a handler for someone would give me the experience of a life time, but it’s a 24/7 lifestyle of early mornings, late nights, scooping poop, dog care, harnessing and running dogs for long miles, becoming attached to a dog one day and then it not being there the next. So I’m going to step back this winter and see if it is really something that I want to be a large part of my life. I know that I will probably always have a small rec. team starting with my girl Dre. We’ll see.I came down on Sunday early afternoon and met Brian (Pilot) and Matt at the Heritage drive thru coffee house near the apt and they were on their way to hike around downtown. So I ran back to the apt an got a quick shower in grabbed my water bottle and we headed off downtown the whole time joking about the stupid questions we get asked and laughing. Brian took us up the steepest hills down town past houses set in the hill side secluded from the busy tourist’s buying souvenirs, to the first road built in Juneau and the old gold mines and mills and shafts where they still get tourists to pay to pan for gold, and still find flakes here and there! We hikes up around Mt. Juneau and saw water –falls and streams the color of Caribbean bright blue sea water. I felt at home, and I would recommend everyone come visit because as Mumma predicted, I’ve most likely found my new home, at least for a whileJ