Alaskan Summer

Alright, so our summer was pretty busy, so this is going to cover our whole summer!

June was pretty fun - Beth's little sister came and visited us all the way up in the frozen tundra.  We made trips to Girdwood, downtown Anchorage, and went to Girl's Camp on Porcupine Island.  It was an awesome time, and made Beth wish she could see Rachel more often!

Rachel was able to find out just how awesome we are, and admitted that Troy is her favorite brother in law, because he's SO funny.

July was great as well - Troy's Dad and Step-Mom came up and visited us over the fourth of July weekend.  They had a great time, and we went on a day-cruise out of Seward.  Alisia and I decided next time they come, we're sending them golfing and we're going to a spa!  :)  We also went and ate at Seven Glaciers, a four diamond restaurant in Girdwood.  The food was divine and the presentation was incredible.  We had no complaints there!

 Doug and Alisia (above) and Troy and I (below) at the top of Alyeska.

 

We also went to a Wildlife Reserve, and celbrated Troy's Birthday.  It was pretty awesome.

August was also TONS of fun.  Troy's littlest sister was getting married, so we made a trip to Utah, and had SO much fun with his family.  It made us realize just how far away we are, and just how much we love them and spending time with them!  It helped to seal the deal that we won't stay here more than the three years, as we just want to badly to be near our amazing families.

 Whitney and I were excited when we found out that we both still had our wedding dresses at Troy's mom's.  We decided to make the best of it, and since Courtney told us we could wear whatever we wanted to to the temple, we wanted to freak her out a bit.  Whitney and I put on our dresses so that when Courtney came home from her hair appointment, she'd come home to us.  We were in luck, because Alex came through the door just before her, and she came in to the above scene!  :)

We took family pictures, and this was one of the pictures of Troy and I.  We LOVE it.

Courtney on her wedding day!  Hooray!  :)

End of Summer, (sigh)

Can't wait for school to start around our house.  It seems like it has been one long summer and our kids are so ready to get back to see friends and "learn things".  We have had a fun summer though.  We went camping in June at Ponderosa Campground, enjoyed that but need to do it again soon for a longer period of time.  We had lots of fun when Jake and Serahna's Family came down in July.  I think we got our swimming fill in that week and as the week was winding down Emily and Max decided all we needed to make it better was Aunt Vici to come down for the family reunion (sorry Beth, guess that means you need to visit more frequently so they know how fun you and Troy can be too).  They were convinced that if Vici knew that it was only a 12 hour drive that she would hop in her car that day and come down.  They would take care of everything she needed when she got her, she just needed to bring her toothbrush and they would handle everything else.  

We have been getting Charlie ready to join the Navy Reserves in July and hopefully in the next month he will be official and have everything lined up to start.  He is very excited to have something different to do and not feel like he has the most boring job on the planet but actually do something more exciting too on the side.  We both keep having weird boat dreams.  Hopefully he gets through training and such quickly and won't be gone from us too long!

Emily and Max are busy getting ready for school.  Max is hoping not to get Ms. Crackwhip for 1st grade (Charlie has him convinced that there is a mean teacher with this name in 1st grade).  Instead he is hoping for Mr. Smith the Janitor as his 1st grade teacher, not sure how either of those are going to work out for him but I am pretty excited to tease him about getting Ms. Crackwhip today when we find out who teachers are.  Emily is SO excited about going into 4th grade, mostly because she got some cute Van's that she wants to wear but also to see friends.  She is my social butterfly, hopefully she has lots of friends returning to her school this year and we won't have so much drama.  Asked the kids what they wanted to do on one of their last days of summer before school starts Wednesday, Max's reply - "Rent a helicopter and fly around the Statue of Liberty." He thinks BIG.  

It is now just August and Emily is already getting her Christmas list solidified in her mind.  3 reams of copy paper so she can draw all she wants and an I-pod touch (or she will take a nanew - yes it should be nano but she can't pronounce it right, or shuffle if that is all we will let her have).  We asked Max what he would like and he said Avatar and A-team Lego's, when we said I don't think you can get A-team lego's his reply was "Its not like santa buys the stuff, he can make anything you want."  Oh will he be heartbroken someday!

Well that is about it for us, just working lots and killing plants unlike Ben the gardener, hopefully when the weather starts to cool down more we will be able to try again and be able to eat more than 2 tomatoes from our "garden".

Ben is actually a gardner now

Its kind of a relief to know that we can actually grow a garden. We may be a little less likely to starve to death if the stores shut down :)

We have been working hard (ok, Ben has been working hard) but it is doing well and we have been blessed with a few tasty "fruits" (and veggies) of our labor.

Soon there should be summer squash and some early bird tomatos.

Now if we could just get some grass started, our "Barren wasteland" theme isn't working out.

Love the other Bennetts

Update from the Head Household

It is May 29th and the temperature is not even approaching the warm category. It rains and rains but somehow, some way, we have not floated down the river. Weather.com claims we'll see an extended period of sunshine w/ temps on the 70's starting Tuesday. That will be nice....if the forecast doesn't change yet again. (You can call me Eeyore.)

Chan and I have been busy getting the yard into shape. After the snow melted it was clear that there were many things we didn't get done before winter hit last year. The tulips already bloomed and have started to die. So did the grape hyacinths. The phlox are beatiful right now, in spite of all the moisture. My hens and chicks seem to have somehow grown exponentially under the snow.

The back yard has been under construction during the last 2 weeks. The rain made it hard to get the work done but the landscapers finished late Friday evening. Now the perimeters are ready for me to finish putting in new plants. We may do a few more this year but the bulk of them will be planted next year. If you want to see photos, go to my FB page.

We got our garden planting done several weeks ago. If they ever get any sunshine they might actually grow! We are trying zucchini, cucumber, several varieties of peppers and a few tomato varieties. We don't know if everything will live but we're sure going to do our best to make things live. :)

Well, hopefully by the next time I blog I'll have a "sunnier" outlook and more interesting things to write about. Hope everyone is well. Take care!

The Griffiths: April & May

The Griffiths: April & May: "So sorry that We've been bad about blogging the last two months. Well, what has happened...? First off, Beth got her wisdom teeth out at ..."

Well, we are boring and very little has changed since the last time we posted. Still just waiting to get in school, working, dealing with kids and plugging along. Highlights of the past while?? We celebrated our 11th Anniversary in Feb. unfortunately it snowed the whole time, I turned older, Max is now 6 and 1 more month and Emily will stop driving me nuts about her 9th birthday (hopefully). And best of all Charlie and I can now say we are officially 20 lbs lighter than last year. Hopefully we can keep it up.

The Salt Lake City Life

I again have Internet access from home! Yay me. My previous PC slowly began having problems during the last couple of months. It was 4 years old and after waiting months for a new fan (it did finally arrive) and having other problems, I gave up. It has been donated to a friend at work who wanted something to give his 2 year old - hopefully it will prove to be an enticement for the child to play on his own laptop instead of his Dad's machine. Chan and I have been flying by the seats of our pants since my last post. This time of year is one of his busiest. He had a GIGANTIC quota to fill for March. While he didn't quite make his March numbers, he did make his quarterly numbers. He found that to be a relief. Last week is best buddy at work turned in notice to leave the company. Chan is quite disappointed - feeling like his mentor and dear friend have moved on too soon. I assured him he'll find a new one. Many changes at work have kept me very, very busy over the last few months. I've been working very long hours but have also been interviewing a lot over the last 2 weeks. Interviews always prove interesting. I see a lot of really BAD interviewees. Below are things that stick out is things the general public should learn. Interviewing pro tip #1: don't tell your prospective employer that you don't really want THIS job but, hey, it's a job so you can do it if you have to. Interviewing pro tip #2: don't make me beg you to talk. Interviewing pro tip #3: don't talk so much that I want to stuff a sock in your mouth. Interviewing pro tip #4: don't show up 30 minutes late. Interviewing pro tip #5: don't tell me how amazing you are and then refuse to articulate your salary requirements. Interviewing pro tip #6: don't BS me. If you don't know the answer to something, just say "I'm not familiar with that." You sound like a know-it-all bonehead when you talk nonsense about things of which you know little or nothing. Interviewing pro tip #7: make SOME eye contact with me. Interviewing pro tip #8: do your homework about the company giving you the priviledge of an interview. When you show up and ask me "what do you guys actually do" I wonder if you've ever heard of this little thing called Google. Any company worth working for has a Website. Usually a company website will give you a general idea of the company's direction. Going to an interview mildly educated makes you sound like you might like to work there. Interviewing pro tip #9: when you decide it's time to job hunt and you begin the interviewing process, have at least 3 PROFESSIONAL references lined up and ready to provide to your prospective employer. Your father-in-law whose computer you maintain does not count as an employer. I also don't care if your friend thinks you're a hard worker. Interviewing pro tip #10: don't pester me about hiring you. Daily phone calls will annoy me. Weekly phone calls let me know you're really interested in the position. There is a fine line. At any rate, it's late and I have more interviews tomorrow. I should be well rested. Signing off for now. V