Here Comes the Bride!

THE photographer...Natasha!

The waiting groom.

Annie's mother lifts her veil. A few seconds later a bee found it's way up the back of the vale and flew around inside the veil the rest of the ceremony. Annie's sister Katie tried to get it out, but it liked it's little home. At one point another bee came on the outside to say hello to the bee underneath the veil. It made me nervous!

Instead of a unity candle they had two jars filled with different colored sand, which they poured together into one big jar.

SUNshine!

It was gorgeous!!


Chad (Mikaela's fiance) standing behind the chairs.

Annie's sister Katie.

Quent's "uncle" Mike. Quent and Nate came up to Alaska when they were teenagers with Mike at different times. It was these trips that stirred Alaska in Quent and Nate's heart.

Here are the guests. It was so bright that we had to wear sunglasses!

Middle of ceremony

Annie's nephew

And what is a maid of honor without Xtra-Tufs? Annie's sister wore them proudly!

Kiss

Everyone get your cameras ready because they are going to kiss!


Natasha in the background ready with her camera. Annie's mother in the foreground.

This was their first kiss!

Whoohoo!!

Photos after ceremony

I thought it was so awesome that the bride and groom wore Xtra-Tufs for their shoes. Now why didn't we think of that? Ha! This was pure Alaskan!

Coca-Cola

Quent came up with an idea the night of the rehearsal. So he bought 2 bottles of Coca-Cola and took these pictures. I love it!

This was precious. A lot of people came up to toast the bride and groom.

Cake

Leaving on a jet plane

And he whisks her away on an airplane and they fly into the sunset. I said, "No one can beat that!" What an amazing end of an amazing day!

Fishing for Silvers 8.29.09

Hello! It's been about 3 weeks since we last posted. After this post we are going to go out of order a bit with our pictures because Quent is going to post pictures of Nate & Annie's wedding.

But in the meantime, here are a few photos of when we went fishing with our friend Reid Stovall for silver salmon. The water was pretty choppy where we first tried to fish, so we moved to a much calmer area. We were probably out on the water for about 4 hours. I'm (Christina) always hesitant to buy a fishing license because we don't do much fishing these days, but it definitely came in handy because I was the only one who caught keepers. I was pretty proud of myself!

About halfway through our fishing trip, we picked up a guy from a fishing dock who was invited by Reid. I can't remember the fellow's name, but he worked on a cruise ship as a comedian. He was funny...imagine that! And we really enjoyed getting to know him. I asked him a few questions about what it was like to work on a cruise ship. He said that it was really nice to spend time with "normal" people.


Here is one of the fish I caught, but I don't like holding fish...so Quent held it for me and I took the picture. Max, the dog loves to lick the fish. It looked really disgusting, but he was enjoying himself. He would get really excited when I was pulling fish in.

Here I am with my fish.

I love my facial expression in this one. It doesn't look like I did much work, but I honestly did! One of the salmon really fought me when I was reeling it in. It was super hard, but really fun. I can see why it becomes addicting.

And here is Reid and Max. I can't wait to go out on the ocean again!

Deer Mountain Cabin

Well folks, it won't be long and you'll be tired of the title "Deer Mountain Cabin." Deer Mountain is the backyard mountain with some good skiing in the right conditions AND it has a wonderful little cabin. In other words, the "North Wrangell High Country Shelter" of Ketchikan but a lot more plush. This was my first trip up the mountain and I decided to make it an over-nighter just for fun. The weather wasn't all that great but the greens were lovely, especially if you were coming from outside SE AK.

This is actually the morning after my stay in the cabin. If you look closely, you should be able to make out the A-frame outhouse. The outhouse has seen better days, hopefully the recreation group will find a way to replace it. hint, hint :-) This day was much nicer than the evening before when the wind was blowing 40+ mph. The wind may have been a bit stronger than that. I tried every trick I knew to start the stove and keep it going but nothing worked (very strong back draft). It wasn't really that cold but it was cool enough that when the wind became calm the following morning, I was happy to start the stove and enjoy its warmth.

The cabin interior. Excellent workmanship. I was very impressed with the quality construction. Not a leak in the place even with driving rain. I even had the honor of being the first person to sign the log book after they completed the interior and placed the log book on the table.

Another angle of the cabin interior and the Xtratufs that got me there. For the camera folks out there, I brought a couple flashes with me to illuminate the interior. I was hoping to bounce the flash around but the wood was too red and gave the interior a noticable tint.