John and Tracie

It's Almost Baby Time!

2012-02-05T21:33:00.001-08:00

With only one month before the baby comes we

thought we should show off our progress. Here

is a monthly picture of Tracie and her growing

belly...

First Visit to the Doctor

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

Only 4 weeks left...

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

Since we have been out on our own for the last few years we have tried to continue some of our favorite traditions...

like a huge pot of home-made chicken noodle soup for Christmas eve dinner...

and dipped chocolates/nuts, buckeye balls...

chocolate pie, pumpkin cake and of course egg nog.

We had a wonderful quiet Christmas with just the two of us, but we wish we were back home with our loving families... Hopefully next year.

It's time for Christmas!

2011-12-18T21:32:00.000-08:00

Tracie wanted to go cut down a Christmas tree this year, but with our busy work schedules, and the fact that there is only about 5 hours of day light during the middle of each day, we decided it was easier to just buy one. But, instead of going to Home Depot, like we did last year, we bought one from a local man on the side of the road.

It is the perfect little tree, though our 2 strands of lights and 5 ornaments barely cover it! But we are ready for Christmas!

Work Christmas Parties

2011-12-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

Every year Dr. Johnson has a Christmas party at his house. Everyone that goes is supposed to take a wrapped gift for the gift exchange, and we usually eat a bunch of crab. This year was the same, minus the crab (a co-worker has an allergy to it).

Michelle, Jenn, and Tracie

Posing for a Christmas Card Picture

The next week we went to Dr. Nielsen's Christmas Party. We met at the office, where we got in the Hummer Limo that took us to his house for appetizers.

Jessica, Tateum, and Tracie

Sweet Ride

Dr. Nielsen finished building his house this last year, so he wanted to show it off. We were very impressed. Indoor basketball court and climbing wall, indoor pool and sauna... we could have stayed and played all night.

John testing out the wall

Instead, we rode to Sullivan's Steak House and had a very good meal, did a gift exchange and then ended up back at the office. It was a long, but fun night!

Most of the group!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

We realize it is almost Christmas, but we had some requests to post what we did for Thanksgiving (and to put more pictures of Tracie's belly on). We volunteered to make homemade root beer for a get together the weekend before and for Thanksgiving dinner. The Saturday night before we went to, or called, just about every store in Anchorage to see if they had dry ice and root beer extract. We found one store that had dry ice, so we rushed over there before they closed and bought $20 worth. Then we still had to get the flavoring... not one of the 6 stores we tried had it. So we weren't able to make the root beer for the get together. Pretty lame. We finally found root beer extract at Natural Pantry, but not until Monday, so we just kept the dry ice on the porch in the freezing temperatures for a few days until Thanksgiving. Thursday came, Tracie had made pies, John mixed up the root beer and we were ready to go, but when John grabbed the bag of dry ice from the porch....it was empty! It had evaporated (actually sublimated), leaving a bag of paper. Lame. Luckily, the one store that carried it was staying open until 3:00pm, so we hurried before it closed to buy more. And then it all worked out ok, and turned out delicious, but we definitely learned that making homemade rootbeer, in Alaska in the middle of the winter, is not an easy process!

now that this book is done, hopefully we will be regular about blogging

2011-12-10T18:42:00.001-08:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

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This is what we have been doing for the last 2 1/2 years...

2011-12-10T18:11:00.001-08:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a variety of layouts and cover options to choose from.

Three Years Later....

2011-12-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

It's true, we finally got our own internet! We figured with having a baby, John doing his last semester of online classes, and more home time (once the baby comes), we should probably break down and buy some internet. It still is the cheapest internet available, so don't expect daily blogs, but we will try to be better about keeping everyone updated- and post lots of pictures!

We are Alive

2010-10-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

Jana is making us update our blog - in fact she is updating it for us!

We are in Utah for the weekend and having a great time. We have been dying to go Yorbing and to meet our newest niece so here we are...

Yorbing at Rock Canyon!

With Benji and Packer in the party van!

Dinner Party at Texas Roadhouse!

Cali grubbing on the sweet Potatoes.

Our Favorite Nephews (Jk - don't get offended family)

Cali waking up from her nap.

Meeting Baby Rose.

Christmas

2009-12-17T19:36:00.001-08:00

We had really good intentions when we took these pictures back in September but since Christmas is in 6 days and we haven't even begun to make them into cards, this is as good as it's going to get. Merry Christmas.

The Road North

2009-08-25T18:19:00.001-07:00

Our drive up was pretty sweet. We went to Nate and Erica's house in Oregon on Monday, had dinner, played with the kids and spent the night. On Tuesday we stopped in Seattle and went to the "Pike Place Market" which is this huge farmers market type of place. (Its the place they throw the whole fish across the room when someone buys it.) We kept going back to the booths with fruit and honey samples. We even had some REALLY good smoked salmon to get us excited about Alaska. We crossed the border that night and and camped at some lakeside campground. The next several days all blend together because we drove between 10 and 12 hours each day and stopped every 250 miles in Canadian Towns we've never even heard of. We got rained on several nights in a row and off and on during the days. Each night we camped by a river or lake. We saw some cool things along the way, deer, caribou, bison, and 1 moose. Unfortunately we didn't see any bears.
We got to Alaska on Friday the 14 and spent the night by a beautiful lake that looked even better with the long sunset behind it. Maybe its our American pride that makes us have a biased opinion, but it was the most beautiful place we saw on our journey. On Saturday we went to Palmer (one of John's old mission areas) and spent the night with His grandmother's cousin that lives there. The ward he served in got split right after he was transferred so we had to go to 2 different wards on Sunday to see some of the families that he used to know.
On Sunday night we got to Anchorage and stayed with John's cousin Lindsay. We spent all day Monday calling and looking at apartments. On Tuesday we made our decision and moved in on Wednesday. Its a decent little one bedroom and it costs a little bit less then what we were expecting to pay. Most of all we like the location because it's right between out 2 jobs. (Its only a matter of time before John gets a job at Merrill Field.)
While looking for apartments online, We were also looking for a job for John. (On craigslist, all the pilot jobs are grouped in the "transportation" area.) So while looking for a pilot job we came across a job as a deckhand on a day cruise. The add said they where hiring several people to work full time till the end of September. At first we only joked about doing it but then decided to actually apply. Needless to say, we both got the job. (go to www.26glaciers.com to see more about the cruise.)
While we're working we live in a little town named Whittier and work 6 days a week going out on this boat. In the mornings we go down to the boat at about 9:00, set everything up and make sure that everything is ready for the day. Then we'll go home for an hour or so before coming back for the actual cruise. The boat leaves at about 1:00 and we quickly serve a lunch of fish, chips, coleslaw and applesauce. After cleaning up after lunch our job is to make sure that everyone is following the rules and being safe. We make several different stops at glaciers and wildlife like sea otters, sea lions, porpoises and whales (if we see them). Then its back to the doc at about 5:00. After everyone leaves we clean the whole boat and restock everything for the next day. It's a lot of work but it's pretty fun, and we get a lunch on the boat when we work.
So we're having fun and making a little money before we have to get serious and get real jobs.

G. I. Joe

2009-08-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

During our week at the cabin many of us went to the midnight showing of the new G.I.JOE movie. But we couldn't just go to the movie, Tracie's brother Josh insisted that we all dress up like the original figures. (If you aren't familiar with the characters, just look at his blog: http://joshmalrobertson.blogspot.com/) The movie was good and it was fun to see everyone's costumes. The best part was when we showed up to the movie as the ONLY ones dressed up... at least we all did it together.

Gung Ho

Shipwreck

"Yo Joe!"

The Crew

The Cabin!

2009-08-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

After moving out of Cedar City, we went to California for a week to spend some time with the Robertson gang. We went to Christy and Rob's cabin for the week and then spent the weekend at the parent's in Oroville. We loved spending time with the family hiking, kayaking and playing games.

2009-08-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yosemite Pictures!

Yosemite

2009-07-26T14:10:00.001-07:00

We were invited on the Oroville 1st Ward Super Activity. We spent the week in Yosemite with Dad, Joel and the boys. Though it may seem weird to have a girl on the trip, it really wasn't that bad. We hiked, climbed and froze in the river. Half Dome was awesome!

Old School

2009-07-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

As we were packing some of our belongings earlier this week, we came across the Easy Bake Oven. Yes, it is the same one I had when I was 10. Elizabeth found it at the house before our wedding and was kind enough to clean it and rewrap it for a wedding gift. I think it would have been thrown out if not for her. So, I got my cake mixes down from the cupboard and added the 2 tablespoons of water required to make one chocolate and one yellow cake. It even came with 2 different frosting mixes so that I could swirl them together. Before I started baking, I noticed that the Easy Bake was rattling a little. I couldn't see anything wrong with it until I tipped it just right and out came one of the old baking pans! Now I can make, not only cakes, but twinkies! The cakes didn't turn out very well, but I had fun and John and I definitely enjoyed eating them .

Since the New Camera...

2009-06-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

We got our new camera, have taken a lot of pictures....and that's all. So, here is what we have been doing the last 2 months (other than working and doing homework). We spent a week hiking near Buckskin Gulch. We spent the day in Zion, hiking to Deertrap Mountain, seeing the animals and getting Bumbleberry pie for our anniversary. We went fishing, caught a fish, and had it for dinner. We have been climbing, trying to get ready for Yosemite, and we finally hiked the Subway. It has been a fun and busy few months!

Buckskin Gulch

Cobra Arch

Deertrap Mountain

The biggest catch of the day!

Pocket Rocks

The Subway

Here we are 10 months later...

2009-05-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

We started a blog thinking that it would be a good way for people to keep track of us and see what we have been doing (apparently that's what married people do). We soon realized that in order to keep people interested we needed to include pictures also..... We finally got a camera, so now we can be official "bloggers"!

First Timers

2008-08-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

So we were sitting by ourselves at our ward activity the other night and we over heard some other couples talking about being "blog friends" and we decided that since we aren't any good at making real friends, maybe if we had a blog, we could have some "blog friends" of our own.