If you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression..

Like a lot of other people, I made a Dreamwidth account (same name). I don't think anything will happen to LJ (I would die!!), but a backup is always a good idea. I've been here since 2004 and would be devastated if I lost everything. I'll definitely keep using LJ though, it's the best! I'm sure the Russians would love my endless posts about Cherry LOL, so not too worried about security stuff either :P

Yesterday and today the weather was finally decent enough to go hiking! Yesterday we went to a place with giant boulders (I like that boulder. That is a nice boulder. Haha) and explored and found a couple geocaches (before that, we'd only found one on this trip! It's pretty hard to geocache when others in your group don't care about it lol)

Today we went to a place about an hour south of Payson. Mom decided to go down there because it's warmer and Ryan's super cold blooded (even today, in the 60 degree weather, his hands were still cold!). Except Ryan was like "I don't wanna drive and go out to eat and geocache etc etc." Ugh, he's one of the least fun people I've ever met..it's really frustrating! He just wants to stay home and watch TV. Meh. He did go anyway though. The weather was sunny and the perfect temperature for hiking. We were in the desert, and all the holes made by burrowing animals (snakes?) were creepy. O_o I kept feeling like something was going to bite me at any moment haha. It was a nice hike though (I think we did 3 or 4 miles maybe) and we found 13 geocaches!! (Sorry Ryan, we can't pass them up when they're right by the trail lol.) The mountains were so beautiful on the drive back to Payson. <3 So nice to see the sun again!!

( some pics )

Yesterday we arrived at Payson! Getting up at 5 something was totally fun..yuck (you know you've gotten up too early when you put your glasses on and your vision is still blurry LOL). I wish I could have seen Denali or something, but between the darkness, clouds and moisture on the window from the de-icer thingy, I could hardly see anything lol (yeah I know I've flown around it many times, but I never get tired of seeing it :P). When we landed in Anchorage we had to RUN to our next flight, since the plane arrived late in Fairbanks to begin with (they let everyone who was going on that flight get off first..thanks Alaska Airlines, you are awesome!!). I hadn't run that far in years LOL. We made it just in time, phew. The captain of this flight was a woman, heck yeah! She was super awesome and nice and funny. I looked for glaciers after we took off, but I only saw one for sure. I wish I knew which one it was (I couldn't get a good pic with my phone, booo)..it's so hard to tell when you're not exactly sure where you are and when everything's so snowy lol. It was pretty big and ended in water though, which was cool. I wanted to see more, but apparently when you fly directly to Phoenix you go over more of the ocean than land (direct to Phoenix is almost 5 hours from Anchorage). On the flight I watched Kubo and the Two Strings (very, VERY good movie) and Ice Age: Collision Course ("the ice is too icy" LOLOL)..pretty ridiculous but still amusing lol. After we landed and got the car and stuff we ate at a yummy barbecue place near Phoenix and then drove up to Payson..it was cool seeing everyone's Christmas lights! Sleeping was nice lol (Also after I opened Pokemon Go at the airport like 10 Pokemon showed up at once haha..lots of Ekans and Sandshrews here lol..I got at least two new ones, yay! At the BBQ place there were two Pokestops right on top of each other! I'd never seen that before :P)

Except for going to the store, today's been pretty lazy lol. Ryan has a cold, ouch. I hope he doesn't give it to us! Being sick on vacation is awful. The weather's cloudy and it's supposed to snow this weekend..noooo, I came here to ESCAPE the snow, not find more LOL

One thing I love about coming to Payson is reading stuff I wrote when I was a kid and stuff, even if I read it last time I was here lol (dad put a box by my room that had school binders in it..pretty sure I had written on every inch of those things haha). I found a school journal entry that I have to share here:

Feelings about The Diary of Anne Frank: I learned that you should have a positive attitude no matter what situation you are in. Anne Frank always had a positive attitude. Even when she was in the concentration camps she never gave up hope that she would get out of there. While she was in hiding, she never gave up hope that they would go back to their normal lives. I think everyone needs to have a positive attitude like Anne Frank had

Wow..WOW. That's deep for a middle schooler!! I guess I got my positivity from Anne Frank then..there aren't enough "wows" in the world to describe how I felt after reading that..

( lastly, some pics! )

Today mom and I saw Meru (a mountain climbing documentary) with Bonnie. I had never even heard of it till Bonnie texted mom asking if we wanted to see it (it's at one of those places where you can eat dinner and watch the movie at the same time). It was pretty good..Conrad Anker and his climbing partner were trying to climb a super hard route on Mt. Meru that had never been climbed before. It took like 20 years and at least 3 attempts, but they finally made it. I'd heard of Conrad (he found Mallory's body, who died trying to climb Everest), but I'd never heard of his attempts on Meru (that I can remember lol..I've read a lot of mountaineering books :P). Tomorrow we're gonna see The Martian..I hope it's as funny as the book!

Yesterday mom found a dead grouse that had flew into a window..Ryan was like "OMG let's cook it and eat it!!" So he plucked it, cleaned it and cooked it (Abby wanted some of the grouse too lol..she was trying to claw up Ryan's legs :P). Ryan has been wanting to do that for a LONG time..like when he was a kid in Texas he walked through the woods with a slingshot looking for rabbits, and one year up here he put squirrel snares out (he didn't get any though). He was so happy he finally got his chance now lol..I didn't have any, but mom said it was pretty good! Mom said they had window kill for dinner LOL

( 30 Day- A Screenshot showing how much memory you have left on your local disk )

This morning I woke up at 3 something and saw out the window that the light looked weird. I got up to see and there was this awesome rainbow!! Other people on Facebook saw it too..the News-Miner had a good pic of it also. Only in Alaska haha

Ryan and mom are going to Anchorage tomorrow so Ryan can have his laser eye surgery, and dad is leaving tonight to go to California I think, so I have to stay at my parents' house and look after the cats. Ryan and mom will come back Thursday afternoon, so it'll just be one night alone. Friday work is closed for the 4th of July weekend..I hope I don't get too bored haha

( 10:A song that makes you sad? )

JUNEAU, Alaska - A state Senate committee has advanced a bill that would exempt Alaska from daylight saving time.

The bill, from Sen. Anna MacKinnon, moved from the Senate State Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

It would exempt Alaska from the annual time change beginning in 2017. That means Alaska would be five hours behind the East Coast, instead of four hours behind, from about March to November.

MacKinnon told the committee that there are health impacts associated with changing the clocks each spring and fall, and she wants to help Alaskans avoid those. Those include increased rates of heart attacks, suicide and traffic accidents in the spring, she said

Good, I've always thought DST was pointless here. I hope it passes!!

Today's my brother's 23rd birthday..we're all getting old!! O_o Haha

( 21. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you? )

Today's trivia: Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo all mean "capital city" in their respective languages

kittyfaces gave me G!

Something I hate - Gravy
It's gross to me haha. The only gravy I like is from the restaurant Lavelle's..it doesn't look or taste like that nasty white stuff :P

Something I love - Glaciers (obviously :P)
Glaciers are so unique, pretty and amazing. They seem alive to me. One of the best feelings ever is standing in front of a tidewater glacier watching it calve..I will actually start shaking cause it's so awesome haha (I keep staring at my pic of Colony Glacier on my wall as I'm writing this haha). They are amazing and I'm so glad I live so close to them <3

Somewhere I would like to go - Germany
It seems so nice and pretty..and Tina's there lol :D

Someone I know - Gina
My crazy, funny, cat loving aunt ;)

Best movie - Glory
An epic American Civil War movie. I have always loved Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman, so that makes it even better haha

If you want to do this meme, let me know and I will give you a letter!

Today's Ryan's 22nd birthday..wow. Time just goes by so fast..

( Day 8: Five favourite TV shows )

Would you rather suck clean an unknown person's set of dentures or eat popcorn that has been blown out of an elephant's trunk? The popcorn

Today's trivia: Napoleon constructed his battle plans in a sandbox

A nice evening at Chena's Alaskan Grill! It was raining at mom's house, but luckily it stayed nice at the restaurant. We had a coupon (one reason why we went there in the first place) but we forgot to use it! D'oh. Haha

( one more )

Ryan made cupcakes last night! Too bad I was too full to eat any dessert. :P I think I'll have something today though..

( next meme: just random questions )

Today is Ryan's 21st birthday..wow haha. I wonder if he'll want to go out and get his first drink. Mom's gonna make him a chocolate cake hehe

We're having an awesome Chinook right now..it's 29 at my parents' house! It's supposed to stay warm all week too! It's gonna be nice walking to work haha

I don't know if it's a fluke but I feel SO much better since lowering my dose of Paxil (I'm on 10 right now). I've been happy for days. Maybe I don't need the Wellbutrin..I'll have to see. It feels awesome though :P

( 158. Lies )

Yesterday we went to the summit of Mauna Kea! Again we went in a van with other people and guides (you have to have 4 wheel drive to go up there). I was kinda nervous about the altitude since it's 13,803 feet. We had dinner at 7,000 feet so we could acclimate. There were other buses there and there was a couple from Fairbanks and another guy from Anchorage!! Awesomee haha..maybe I'll see them in Fred Meyer one day. :P As we were driving up it was foggy but once we got high enough we got out of the clouds. As we drove up the guide pointed out the TERMINAL MORAINE of a glacier that used to be on the volcano!! There was even PERMAFROST up there..OMG haha. We got up on the summit in time to see the sunset..nicee. The altitude made me feel WEIRD..like my eyes couldn't focus and I just felt..woozy or something. If I moved my head too fast it would just hurt. Weirdd. There are a bunch of telescopes up there..pretty cool. After the sun set we went down to 11,000 feet to stargaze! Mauna Kea is one of the best places to stargaze..there's less atmosphere, it's dark, the airflow is stable, etc. There were definitely a ton of stars! The sky just seemed to shimmer. I saw the Milky Way too! The guides pointed out constellations and told us the mythology behind them. We also saw Jupiter! Way cool. Now the stars at sea level just look washed out and blah haha. Eventually clouds started moving it so we went to check out the visitor's center at 9,000 feet. You could actually see the summit eruption of Kilauea from there!! SO awesome..it actually got pretty bright for awhile. I later read the lava had risen and overflowed the inner ledge of the caldera. Omggg..that is SUPER awesome and exciting!! After that we just drove back to the hotel..I had a headache from the altitude..ouch. It was interesting though

Today we went down to Kona and went shopping. Ryan spent over $200 on clothes at Macy's! Eesh..that store is super expensive. D: PJs for $50?! Yeah, no way. We also went over to Kmart..pants for $8, that's more like it. :P We ate dinner and looked around in more shops and now we're back at the hotel. Time to relax!

Yesterday after breakfast we went shopping at this little outdoor mall type place. I bought sandals (so lacking in summer stuff since moving to Alaska :P) and souvenirs for me and Dana. After shopping I think we played Pictionary..so fun and just nice. I think we ate dinner after that..I've realized how bad Fairbanks' restaurant food is since eating here. Here the flavors are amazing..Alaska needs better chefs. :P After eating we went to another shopping place just down the place from the first..mom and I rented snorkel gear. Then we went back to the hotel and went swimming..it was WINDY and that actually made it feel cold! Pathetic haha. We met this guy that told us where a good snorkel place was. I was the first one in bed..mom was amazed at how fast I fell asleep haha..being on vacation is tiring :P

This morning mom and I got up earlyish and went snorkeling! Ryan said when he went with dad before that the water was pretty cold..well the water wasn't super warm but not freezing either. I was fine..Ryan must have no tolerance to cold. :P We saw that same guy from last night! Nicee haha. My snorkel wasn't working right so I just had to hold my breath..annoying..and salt water tastes nasty. :P It was cool though..there were lots of cool colorful fish, an eel and FOUR turtles!! Awww. They just looked at us like "O HAI!" hahaha. They got so close to me I could have touched them. Awww that's so awesome. By now my ears were hurting so we went back, got dressed and had breakfast. After breakfast we drove to Waimea, this cowboy ranch town haha in the hills. I went there last time I was here with dad..I LOVED the green hills cause it reminded me of Scotland. I also remember it was cloudy/rainy there and at the hotel it was sunny..it's still like that..so weird! It's not THAT far from us. Every night I've seen clouds all around this area but it stays clear here..weirdd. We drove to this lookout place where you cloud see cliffs and a historical valley. You could go hiking but it was SUPER windy and cold and I didn't have a light jacket so we just drove back to Waimea and went shopping..at least two of the stores had cats! Omg haha..and to think I would see any cats while I was here. :P So cutee. I got a light jacket while I was there (I think it says "Parker Ranch Hawaii" on it..the ranch is on the outskirts of town). Before dinner we went back to the hotel and as we were going inside there was ANOTHER cat! All three of us just started squeeing haha. It meowed at us..aww. We had dinner and I traded my snorkel for another that'll hopefully work. Then it was Pictionary time again. Right now Ryan and mom are swimming but I just wanted to relax online. They have these fires lit in these lava rock pits which makes it cozy. So tiredd..I bet I'll sleep well tonight too :P