The Last Frontier (other than space) Alaska

Hello Family!

2019 will be known for me as the year I moved to Alaska. I finished up my Americorps service in January and by the end of February I was a resident of the capital of the largest state Juneau, Alaska. I began here as a Fish Tech working in the DIPAC Salmon Hatchery! Two months of moving baby fish around and releasing them into the wild ocean! I moved over 130 million (130,000,000 its more impressive with all the zeroes!) Coho, King, and Chum salmon!

In April I began my new position at the hatchery as a Lead Guide for the DIPAC visitor center. Going into this job I was not a public speaker, a teacher, or a connoisseur of Southeast Alaska ocean life. But after a summer of speaking to tens of thousands of folks from all over the world I can officially say I am all of those things. If anyone has salmon or salmon hatchery questions I am the one to call.


I’ve been working at the Eaglecrest Ski resort for a little while now after the tourism season ended, but it just so happens that on the day I wrote this I’ve been offered a full time position at DIPAC as the supervisor of the Visitor Center. So back into the fray I go!




Outside work I’ve made new friends, and gone on many adventures with my girlfriend Jessica. You may remember my Sea Semester program in 2017 when I sailed from Woods Hole, Massachusetts to St Georges, Grenada. I met her aboard that ship and somehow we ended up together here in Alaska. You could say I moved up here for her. It was a great choice! We’ve climbed mountains, hiked amazing trails, and swam in frozen lakes (a strange Alaska holiday tradition).





And to end my post I will also mention that I have made another friend up here named Nellie. She is a Giant Pacific Octopus who lives at DIPAC and loves wrapping her tentacles around

my hands and arms and playing tug of war with fish heads. They are amazingly intelligent creatures and now with my permanent position I’ll be able to see her every day. Hopefully my pictures will do this place some justice. Until next we meet, I love you all my Kansas family!

October - December 2019

It feels like we just posted, but we had a few more things happen since October! 

Ava was a Mom for Wannabe Day at school. 

For Halloween, the kids were Woody, Little Bo Peep, and her 3 sheep - Billy, Goat & Gruff from Toy Story 4. It reminded me of Halloween 2013!

Sadly, we said goodbye to Bella. She had lymphoma and was not doing well. We had a great 11 years with her! 

Now, when half day Kindergarten wears Ava out, she has some napping buddies. Even if she doesn't sleep, she still cuddles them every afternoon - and they stay willingly!  

 We all had fun at the Parade of Stars!

I joined MOPS this year! I love it! We made these for Mom's Night Out. Drilling, sanding, staining, painting, staple gun, the whole bit! 

Dave and I left the kids to go to Charles and Nate's wedding in Florida. I hadn't flown since we went to Italy in 2009, but we made it! Dave and I also went a day early so we could explore on our own. We went to Busch Gardens and rode every roller coaster, some several times, it was 70*, we had no kids, and we were out of there in 2 hours and went to have sushi! 

Ollie just reminds me of a cuddly snowman in this picture. We have lots of leaves at our new house, and a yard that's big enough to collect lots of snow! 

The 5 of us went with Sarah, Olivia and Kinley to go see Frozen 2! 

Sundae is doing great and brings us so much joy! She's getting quite the underbite! :) 

We brought out Rock Band recently. The kids love it! And Ava is really accurate on the drums! 

Dave made a digital calendar for me! It's so handy! Then I added a little corkboard beside it to complete the command center. 

Adelynn had her Winter Showcase for dance on Sunday. She's so graceful.

Ava and Kinley danced both on and off the dance floor at Charles and Nate's reception. 

Christmas decor with Ollie... he found this ornament, stuck it on his crane and told me it was a wrecking ball! :) 

Pam and Randy gave us their artificial tree this year, so the kids got an upgrade to their tree! Pam also made a tree skirt for them. The kids think it's pretty special to have this setup from Grandma & Grandpa!

Merry Christmas! 

Year in Review at the Johnston-Ullom Household

It's been a big year at the Johnston-Ullom household.  Three major trips, a wedding, a major reception, dog misadventures, job changes, business trips, you name it, it has probably happened.  

First, we'll start out with the most joyous moment of 2019.  This, of course, had to be our wedding and reception.  The wedding as I'm sure most of you know took place in Florida at Indian Rocks Beach near Clearwater, Florida.  As luck would have it, the artic blast which saw the polar vortex drop earlier into Kansas this year in the first and second weeks of November had a delayed effect into Florida which made the couple of days leading up to the wedding as well as the day of and after some of the coldest weather on record in Clearwater.  It was, to quote our wedding planner, "unseasonably cold".  Amber also reported that they hardly ever have more than one day like this in their typical winter months of January and February let alone multiple days in a row.  

But everyone took the weather in good stride.  There were nearly 25 of us in attendance for our special day including Mom, Dad, the Rutherfords, the David Johnstons sans kids, Dad's best friend growing up Leroy Lee and his wife Robin, my best friend Estelle Cowie, our long-time 400 East 12th neighbors Al and Donna Holsopple, the Tollesons, Andrew and Tim Shook, Nate's mom, two sisters and his niece Jessica.  It was a crisp 54 degrees with 30 mile an hour winds.  I've included some pictures below.  

The set up for our ceremony at the beach

Nate and I getting off the Jolly Trolley before walking down the aisle

Dad walking Mom and Nate's mom, Linda down the aisle

The participants in the wedding ceremony. David (who helped warm the rings), Estelle (who performed a reading from 2nd Corinthians, Jessica (Nate's niece who assisted David) and Mary (who performed a reading from Frozen)

Nate and I with Mom and Dad

The entire gaggle of wedding attendees

The newly updated Kinast clan

Us on the Jolly Trolley after the ceremony.  Everyone is getting a bit warmed up

Then, just this past Sunday, we celebrated with everyone in Hutchinson.  It was a wonderful day and saw all of the Johnston kids and their families together.  In addition, most of the Kinast clan reading this blog were in on the fun.  We performed a first dance (Nate's idea - I think he rocked it too).  There is a video floating around somewhere and if you'd like to see it, let us know.  I believe Nate shared it on his Facebook.  In addition to a wonderful meal and time together, I really loved having people participate in the photo booth.  I've included some of my favorite moments from the evening with plenty more to come.  

Nate and I getting ready

The finished product

Us rocking the dance

Let them eat cake!

This might go on record as one of my favorite pictures of Kate and Grandma

Or maybe this one

The Kinast girls....lol

Mom...putting a T-Rex in my Dad's ear

Us ala mini-guitar and accordian

Us

Laurie and Olivia

Rutherfords and Kinley and Olivia

Olivia and Emily

Rivers girls with Dan

Rivers girls plus Aurora

Rowlands

I don't know how it gets much more fun than that.

The other major change in our lives was the decision for me to move on from Stage 9.  I'd been there six years come this July.  And it was time for a transition to be made.  Lynsey Becher, an old classmate of mine had been working with me as the Associate Artistic Director.  The Board made the decision to move her to my role.  It has been interesting to watch this transition and often frustrating.  But I'll always have great memories from my time at Stage 9 and wonderful achievements to look back on.  Here are some of my favorites.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Me working on the last stages of the renovation of Stage 9

Dream sequence from Lukcy Stiff

Other Desert Cities

Fox on the Fairway

Almost, Maine

Avenue Q

Be a Good Little Widow - my first production with the then Hutchinson Theatre Guild

Dead Man's Cell Phone

My Model of Fiddler on the Roof

A moment from Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

A moment from Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Godspell

Kitchen Witches

Laramie Project

Lynsey and I at Lip Sync 9

Little Shop of Horrors

Nunsense

On Broadway: Underground

Our Town

Talking Tombstones

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Nate's been on the road some this year, with trips to South Dakota and Colorado to bring two new banks onto Data Center Inc.  Dad is also currently on the DCI board so they talk quite frequently about what's going on with work.  Nate got to see Mount Rushmoore for the first time and also got to go skiing for the first time in a hot minute.  While I enjoy skiing, Nate definitely makes me look like a beginning.  I'm proud to say I held my ground pretty well until I wiped out on a blue in deep powder.  It wasn't awesome...but Nate was a good sport about it.  

Us skiing at Wolf Creek near Nate's bank in Del Norte, CO

Nate rocking Mt. Rushmoore

We took a couple of nice trips this year including of course our honeymoon in Florida.  During our honeymoon we took a dolphin sightseeing cruise, went to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios and spent some time on the beach.  It was a wonderful trip and we have too many pictures to share.  

In addition to the honeymoon and the ski trip in Colorado, we also took June to go on a trip to Disneyland to see the opening of Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland.  A friend of ours, Joe Allen had recently moved to Southern California.  So we got to experience that together.  

Us in front of Sleeping Beauties Castle

Joe, Nate and I in Galaxy's Edge....and yes...that's the Mellinum Falcon

We continue to enjoy our time together with our two dogs Aspen and Hampton.  Aspen has had significant health challenges this fall including a scare where we almost though we'd have to put her down right before we left for our wedding and honeymoon.  Fortunately, she seems to be doing a bit better.  We hope she gets to enjoy several more Christmases with both of us and Hampton.  But, if our situation with the family's health and the dog's health, I think it's really just reenforced that we are all on borrowed time.  

Our love to each of you as the year closes.  We are now in Nate and I's favorite time of year - CHRISTMAS!  Hard to believe we're just 15 days away.   May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!