Surprises at home

I came home to see my hubby.   More than two months away has been hard on us both.  I also have never spent a birthday away from home and I know that Mom was a little heartbroken that it was about to happen.  Well fine then, we'll just make it not happen.  I wanted to see everyone and I knew they'd be happy to see me.  Or so I thought.

My flight home takes awhile because of the village flight so by the time I touched down in Portland, I was already exhausted.  It was alright as I was running on excitement and adrenaline.  A nice big hot chocolate from the Daily Buzz started the morning and Mom and I were off on our morning shuffle from place to place to surprise a few people.

The first person was Theresa, my dog grooming friend who, if she had springs for shoes, would have jumped over her counter when she saw me.  We had Mom go in and "try" to shut the door but fail as she talked to her about a fake appointment as I slid in the already open door.  It was great to see her reaction and Mom going to see the delight in her face when she saw me.  She had work to do though and I had more people to see.  While I said I'd get to see her again the weekend took over and I didn't get to see her before leaving.  :(  I guess we'll have to spend a bit of time at Christmas when I'll be home for a couple of weeks instead of a couple of days!

We then moved onto surprising Charlene.  As we drove up, I knew that she would still be asleep.  I was hoping she'd had forgotten to lock her doors and I could just walk in and surprise her but it wasn't my luck.  I also told Mom that if she did lock her doors, she'd wake up when I knock, peek through her blinds before going to the door and see her car.  I knew she'd think something was wrong with me and come shuffling out real quick in her robe.  HA.....only to find me at the door!  I'm not sure she really believed it but she did meet me with a huge hug and decided that since I was home, we had to immediately hit the doughnut shop.  So, we did.  *Yummy*

After that, I knew I needed a nap before the rest of the day continued.  I had been up for over 24 hours and before I saw the hubby, I wanted to be a little more awake and able to deal with the rest of the day.  A quick nap at Mom's house began with me on the couch and her starting to go into the other room to sit in her chair and "leave me alone."  Uh, no, please sit in here and keep me company, I've been alone for almost 3 months.  I don't care if you are just silent and reading a paper while I'm trying to fall asleep, just another breathing body in the room is good.  I almost called the dog up on the couch with me.  That would have been better than no one else again!

Phew, a quick nap and then onto surprise the hubby.  He didn't take it so well because he was caught so off guard.  He was very happy that I was home once the shock wore off.  I also think that he was happy when I was able to clean the house while he finished up his homework.  He got to focus and I got a little bit of therapy cleaning my own house.  Sounds weird I know, however, it was kinda nice.  A part of me liked it and a part of me didn't.  Now, coming home at Christmas, he knows I'm coming and I won't want to clean, I'll want to enjoy the festivities!  He's well aware!

Let's see.  So later that night we knew that a dinner with the whole family had been scheduled already.  I figured that I would just surprise my sister there.  It didn't really work out that way.  You see, I hid around the corner when I saw the lights pull into the driveway so I could walk up behind her and give her a hug.  I was expecting a pretty big jump and surprised reaction from her.  I kinda felt like it was like....ho, hum.  Ok, well whatever.  She held out an envelope from the picture people and told us that they had gotten new pictures taken.  Ok, I'll look.
*thinking*  "Man, ok, more pictures?  Didn't you guys just get some?"
-opens the envelope-
"OMG!"
*thinks* "Oh no, what  if Mom doesn't know yet"

Shopping ensued

-pulls it together and hands envelope to Mom.  Turns to sister and hugs her some more.

Picture inside envelope

So, shock and awe part of the weekend was over.  A few stops to see people happened.   I met a few babies that were born or came home from the hospitals while I was up here in Alaska and they are beautiful/handsome!  I enjoyed some quality time with the husband and some shopping time with the sissy.  She horsed around a bit though.  I'm sure she'll turn out to be a great role model for a soon to be son/daughter.  Well, we can hope at least!  Progress at this point seems to be about 9 weeks with a due date of May 29th.  I should be home from Alaska on their 10 year wedding anniversary.  May 20th.  Let's hope that little one stays in there long enough!

My how things can change

A trip home starts with a little tiny flight.  A flight you wait for in the village.  Be ready by 9:30 they say but we all know that the plane doesn't normally come until about noon.  It's ok, I could have been ready by 8am for a flight at 5pm if that's what they wanted.  I was stoked!  Pen-Air is the only place that does the flights around here and so we wait (patiently) for them to arrive.  Folks around here have a pet name for them, "when-air", whenever they get here - air.  That's pretty much the way it goes though they try to be on time.

9:30.....are you ready?  Yes.    Ok, I'll call you at 10:30 and we'll see where we are at.   

10:30....are you ready?  Yes, all ready to go.  Just call me when you know the plane is coming.

11:40...Dick is headed your way.  Ok, I'll be outside waiting!

11:45...Dick shows up, I'm outside waiting, toss my cargo into the van and we go to pick up the other travelers.  (6 of us flying out that day!)

12:05....on the plane headed out of town.  PHEW

Pen-Air in King Salmon

First stop...King Salmon, AK   Layover....7 hours....extended by an hour to 8 hours but it's ok I got one heck of a story out of a hunting guide.  He was working out in the area and his two co-workers left to retrieve something.  He walked along this ridge right into a bears bed area.  Opps!  Attacked.  Survivied with the scars to prove it.  He still wears the same watch from the 15 years or so ago with the teeth marks.  Pretty cool story, I won't go into much detail, it's much better if you saw the scars and I didn't take pictures of the guy.  Kinda figured that would be rude.  He did show me pictures from his most recent guides though and there were some fantastic looking bears.  The other gal sitting there with me just got the #2 in the books Dahl Sheep and it was day number 60 of drying time!  She was pretty stoked!

Second Stop.....Anchorage, AK.  Layover about 3.5 hours.  I was super excited for this one as I had not been in Anchorage since the beginning of August and I wanted to see some pretty mountains.  They were fabulous and though I only saw them from the air and from the windows of the airport, it's amazing how much things can change in the span of a few months!  The other part to this layover was that I got to see a dear friend of mine, Jaci.  We spent some time just chatting, catching up, learning about past guys, new guys, and new jobs.  As the evening hours slipped away, I checked in for my flight and she checked out for the evening.  I'll be back though, Christmas time will allow us a few days for some more friend time...and maybe some ice-skating!!!  Maybe we should do that AFTER the shopping trips so I don't kill myself before having to shop for the last 4 months up here.

Last stop......PDX  Portland, OR.....Home  (close enough to it that as soon as you see the lights, the city and hit the runway, you know you are home)  The red-eye flight was a bit to handle.  I was excited but oh so tired.  I think I got about half hour or so of sleep.  The exit row doesn't recline but I like the extra leg room.  I'm not sure even with a reclining seat it would have helped honestly.  First class might though....

Ah, then a nice hug and a car ride the rest of the way home.   Surprises begin.....with the next blog post!

On the map

I've been all over the map since my last post.  So much has happened I'm going to have to post a few in short order to catch everyone up.  It seems like time flew by so quickly and I had a BIG secret to keep so I couldn't say much anywhere.

The short of it:  Egegik to King Salmon to Anchorage to Portland to HOME.   Then Home to Portland to Seattle to Anchorage to King Salmon to Naknek to Egegik.

The long of it:  To follow but only Mom knew I was coming home.  More posts to follow.