What's New??!!

It seems as if there is always something new going on in the Dunford home.  In 2010, we moved from Indiana to Alaska. 2009 was the year we bought a home in Indiana and 2008 was when we made the official move from Alaska to Indiana.  Ahhh!!!  That's a lot of big stuff.  And 2011 is going to be no different. :)  Rene has made the decision to change careers.  He is no longer an Air Traffic Controller.  The plan is for him to go back to school and get a Bachelor's in Accounting.  Rene's ultimate goal is to get the bachelors and work for the FBI as an intelligence analyst (or something like that). 

Last weekend my younger sister had a bday party for her son's 4th birthday.  I was asked to make a cake and this is what I came up with.  (Don't look too close cause you will see all the flaws! lol)  My nephew loved it though.  He just sat in his stool looking at the cake and he was even licking it!!  I let him help me put in the candles.  I wish I had taken a picture of the candles, they were so cute.  They spelled out Happy Birthday!  :) Anyways, he was getting really excited about the cake and decided to take some taster bites from the top.  Here he is blowing out his candles. 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful day :)  I spent a good portion of yesterday in the kitchen making the cake featured below and then I was in the kitchen again today making a big dinner for my family (dad, mom, sister, her son and boyfriend, and Rene and I).  It was a busy two days but a lot of fun and now I get to enjoy some much needed downtime. :)  I even got a back massage from Rene, yay!!!!  

This morning I was talking to Rene about Easter family traditions and what I remember from my childhood.  As we were sharing, Rene shared some new things I never knew.  It's so amazing to me that after 5.5 years of marriage and a total 16 years of friendship (holy cow that's a long time!!!) that there are still things I don't know about him.  Wow, 16 years..... that's more years than my youngest niece has even been alive.  I feel old now :(  LOL  

My poor car :(

Last Friday, Rene and I got in my car to head downtown for a nice evening out.  Rene was going to drive but when he tried to start the car it just wouldn't.  :(  The car was making the juj juj juj sound but it just wasn't firing. We didn't have time to do much about it so we got into Rene's car and headed out.  The following day my parents came over so my dad could take a look.  And really, that's all he did :)  He tried what he could but he said he just doesn't know much about the newer cars.  I am so not excited about this....  If it's not something simple this could be a very BIG, unexpected cost. :(  Let's hope it's just a small thing!!!

I called a mechanic today, had my car towed to his shop and after they took a look he called to inform me my car was flooded.  What??!!  He said they looked at everything but there was nothing they could find so they drained the gas and it starts perfectly.  He asked if we had pumped the gas at all while we attempted starting it and I said how Rene may have when he tried but not initially.  The mechanic was befuddled as well so he said he'd keep the car over night and see how the car did in the morning with a cold start.  So far so good, let's keep this cheap!!  I'm guessing there was something loose and after they fiddled around it got fixed.  I just hope I get some more good news tomorrow morning.

Not much going on...

 Long time no blog.  There's really been nothing going on with us lately so nothing to blog about.  But I did decide it was time to update the blog with something so here are a few things.

In February, we celebrate the Fur Rondy here in Alaska and here are a few of the pics of our day.  Below is a picture of the winter carnival.  Yes, we do ride all the rides bundled up in our winter gear but NO, Rene and I did not do that this year as Rene isn't much of a fan ^_^

This is the blanket toss.... it's a seal skin (at least I think it's seal) and they let anyone who wants sit in the middle and they toss you up.  I was hoping they'd let people stand up during the toss but they only let them sit.

 This year we had our first Yukigassen (a snow ball fight).  It was pretty interesting but we didn't stay too long cause the day was so super cold with a very bitter wind.

And lastly, the sled dog races.  I love how happy the dogs look as they run by. 

 In March, my parents celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary!!!  Love you guys!  Anyways, I took a cake decorating class to learn how to make beautiful flowers and with that knowledge I made the below cake for my parents.  The flowers are carnations and roses made out of gumpaste (very pretty but no fun to eat! lol)

 My sister Tammy came up from Colorado for a week and I made this cake for her.  It's just a basket weave with some lilies. However, Tammy said the flowers looked like spiders, yuck!  I wasn't a fan of the flowers but I decided to use them instead of throwing them away.  I just really love the basket weave.  This was also my first attempt at the basket weave. ^_^

 Okay, last cake ^_^  This was spring inspired.... I made a bouquet of flowers and adorned it with leaves and a 'grass' border along the base.

 So on a completely different note, Rene made a comment the other day that I liked.  He mentioned how on Facebook there are quite a few people who only update their status with facts about their kids and only talk about their kids.  Since we have yet to have children I thought perhaps I should dedicate all of my FB posts to our puppies!  I didn't do it BUT here are some adorable pics of our cuties.

Cocoa - such the sweet heart & cuddler :)

 Indy - how can you say no to that face??  too cute!!

Now this last pic of Indy is so funny.... When Rene's up in the office on the computer, Indy loves to get up on the windowsill and look outside.  He will even lay on the desk and place his head on the windowsill sometimes.  He's such a funny guy.  

Don't worry, we're still here!

 Wow, I haven't been on here in forever!  Now that we're living back home and so close to most of our family I don't know if there's really a point to keeping up with the blog.  But for now, here's an update.


Life since this summer has just flown by.  I cannot believe we are so close to Christmas and my 'present day.'  :)  I've recently decided I will no longer be celebrating my birthday and getting older, but I will celebrate the day I receive gifts.  lol  We'll see how that works.  


First things first.... In October, Rene and I traveled to Rome, Italy to take a 13-night cruise!  It was one of the best, if not the best, trips we have ever taken.  The traveling to Rome and back home after wasn't so great as it took forever, but oh man, the in between was amazing!!!  Here are some of the highlights: 

Our Ship: Celebrity Equinox (first sailed in 2009!!)

Ship @ Sunset

Our stateroom (it was @ the front of the ship and so much bigger/nicer than our last one)

This is where we spent a lot of time, The Lawn!!  (yes, it's real grass ^_^)

A view of Sorrento, Italy with Mt.Vesuvius in the background. 

The streets of Pompeii (this was actually really cool and so different than what we expected to see)

Corfu, Greece (Rene and I would LOVE to buy a home in Greece!!)

 Cairo, Egypt - hieroglyphics inside a tomb

 The Pyramids of Giza 

 The Sphinx w/ Giza Pyramids behind (and just an FYI, we wont be travelling to Egypt again.  It was very dirty and there were a ton of people.  You haven't experienced real traffic till you've been to Cairo!) 

 Jerusalem, Israel - The Wailing Wall 

The River Jordan - upstream from where Christ was baptized.  (Israel was super beautiful, we want to go back and be able to take some real time to sight see)

This was just a pretty flower in Israel taken at the home of the apostle, Peter

Rome, Italy - the Coliseum 

Inside the Coliseum :) 

We are looking forward to our next vacation!  We don't know when it'll be or what we'll be doing but I've got some great ideas!!  

After our cruise we came home and got right back into things.  Rene's been working and I've been looking for work, but not very successfully.  :)  We also just adopted another puppy.  Her name is Cocoa and she's actually Indy's real sister.  We got her from the same breeder and she's uber cute!  

The Last 4 Months or So

I have been soooooo bad with keeping up with the blog this summer. I know I said I've worked a lot and been super busy, but I've also been not working since the 18th of September. Woops :) Anyways, here are some much delayed pics from an earlier post. Back in May I went to Colorado Springs to visit my sister and her family for my oldest nieces graduation. Here's the beautiful family in front of Katie's middle school after her 8th grade 'graduation.'

And here is my brother-in-law, Brad. I love this guy, he can always make you laugh!! It was such a treat to see him as he's been off in Egypt for the last year. Luckily, he was able to come home for a few weeks around the girls' graduation. Love you Brad!!

Here's Makayla (Mac), one of the twins. I am so proud of these girls, they truly mean the world to me. I have been blessed to be their Aunt and to have spent so much time with them.

In the year leading up to this day I would talk to my sister Tammy about the girls graduating and it would make me cry. I've watched them grow from babies into young girls and now young women. Here's Jessica, sorry I didn't get a better picture of her but you can still see how wonderful she is :)

And at the end of the ceremony everyone looks to the stands at their family and friends.... these two girls had a large cheering section, man you should've heard us screaming for them.... or did you?!! lol

Next up, Rene and I didn't do ANYTHING this summer which was a real bummer. However, we did celebrate our 5th Anniversary and look who came to serenade us....... Boys II Men!!!!!!!!!!! Just kidding, they didn't come just for us although that would've been amazing. Towards the beginning of the summer I found out they were coming to AK so I talked with Rene and we decided that for our 'gift' we'd see Boys II Men in concert. :) I think this was more of a gift for me, but man will I take that!

They were awesome!! It brought back so many wonderful memories from High School and all of our friends. I still remember getting calls from Troy, Austin, Pat or Colby and they'd start singing me a song and many times it would be a classic Boys II Men hit. :)

Towards the very end of the summer we drove to Whittier with our friends Spencer F. and Anya W. It was pretty neat, none of us had been there before. The neat thing is that the only way to drive to Whittier is through a one-way tunnel through the mountain! I took a video to see how long it took and I believe it was around 12 mins or so, I can't remember right now. I didn't add the video but here's the Welcome to Whittier sign to prove we did go there.

And last but not least, fishing!!!!! I really wanted to some fishing this summer but we never really had the opportunity or the $$. We were also hoping to coordinate with my parents and that didn't happen till the end of the summer, but we did get out. Here's Indy on the boat for the first time. He spent a good deal of the time in my lap or trying to get into things. He was super restless and totally intrigued by the water and fish.

Look what he did.... He jumped off the boat!!! He went right down and then was on his way under the boat. I was so scared he would keep going cause the motor was still on and I didn't want him to get hurt but luckily Rene was super fast and rescued him from certain pain. Shortly after this we went to shore so Indy could hang out with my mom in the RV.

Well, there you have it... that was our summer. It went by fast and we didn't really do anything exciting. But, because I worked so hard this summer Rene and I are going to celebrate with a little trip :) We are going on a cruise leaving out of Rome, Italy. We will go to Naples, Sicily, Greece, Egypt, Jerusalem and Haifa (Israel). We are super excited for this trip and I promise to share some of our breath-taking pictures.

Vacation!!!

The season is winding down and all I can think about is our upcoming vacation!!! We are flying to ROME in 40 days and then will get on a cruise ship!!!! :) Wahoo!! I promise to be better at updating this blog once the craziness stops.

Summer's almost over..... What?

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe the summer is almost over. Since the last post Rene and I have been busy with work and getting our home together. For the first time we've painted and bought couches!! I'll do my best to post pics soon. I should also mention that back in May I had the pleasure of flying to Colorado Springs to see my sister, bro in law and nieces. The twins graduated from high school.... What?!! I know, I cannot believe they are so old already. Not to mention my youngest niece "graduated" from 8th grade and will be attending high school next year!! When did they grow up??? I'm such a geek, I've spent a lot of time with these girls and feel super uber close to them and as exciting as these new adventures may be, I'm so sad my girls are growing up. Anyways, it was terrific to see them and I thank Rene for letting me go see them. Again, I have a ton of pics but they'll come later. :) Oh, and on this note of milestones and such from my nieces... I am 10 years older than the twins and so if it's their HS graduation it makes it....my 10 YR hS reunion! Ah!!! When did I get this old?? Rene really wanted to go to the reunion and just see where people are now but really, none of our close friends will be there so we aren't attending. Plus, the events didn't seem all that great. But yeah, 10 years... Sheesh

The month of April, in Pictures :)

Wow, so a whole month has gone by and man has it been busy. On Friday, April 9th Rene and I began our road trip from Indianapolis to Alaska. On our way out of Indiana into Illinois we saw a sign for Yogi Bear's Jellystone so we went to check it out and guess what.... We found Yogi!!

Here's Rene and Indy with Yogi himself :)

And then Yogi took Indy for a little walk.
While Indy was doing his thing, Rene and I took a walk down memory lane and played on the teeter-toter.
After Jellystone, we went to Nauvoo, IL - a historical site for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Here is the beautiful temple
And again at sundown
We left Nauvoo pretty late and continued to drive for some time before stopping at a truck stop for some sleep. The following morning we made our way to Colorado Springs, CO to see my older sister and her family. Silly me didn't take many pics, I was enjoying my time with them to be bothered with a camera :) However, we did take some time to tour the Olympic Training Center there with Jessica and Kaitlyn (2 of my beautiful nieces, the 3rd was at play practice). Here we are with the Olympic rings
This statue is out front and Rene, Jess, and Katie are trying to jump up like them. This is just one of the many takes
And Rene, the first 'Strong Man' ;D Look how he holds the entire world with just one little finger
Katie, a natural ballerina
My nieces are so very spectacular, with no training at all they jump into the bobsled and make it look so easy.
Outside again, Katie shows her superior Taekwondo skills and kicks Jess in the head (no one was actually hurt in this picture). lolWe were in CO for an additional day, but again no more pics were taken. We then headed out for Salt Lake City to see Rene's brother Ammon and his family. They were so wonderful to let us stay in their new home. We had a lot of fun with them all, it was a lot of fun to see our nephew Kai and new little niece (or not so little anymore) Mia. They are dolls. While in Utah I went to Ikea for the first time and fell in LOVE with the store. Rene on the other hand changed his first diaper, oh the milestones we reached! And again, I'm so sorry that I did not get any pics while we were there. :(

This was the sign I wrote on the rear window, 'Alaska Bound.' I wrote another one on the side of the car that I never got a picture of, it said "Caution, Slow Turns, Puppy on Board."
After Salt Lake our next destination was Yellowstone National Park. We went through Idaho where I saw a sign advertising the Potato Museum. Really? Seriously, a potato museum?!! How could I pass on a gem like this so I persuaded Rene to stop here. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there but we were able to get a pic of Rene and Indy with their HUGE baked potato.
In Northern Idaho, on the outskirts of Yellowstone, we stopped at a Ranger's station to make sure we were on the right track to get to the Park. However, sad news was awaiting us... Yellowstone was closed for the season and would be reopening in just 3 days!! Just our luck, eh? Oh well, we did make a stop at a local place to have some lunch and let Indy play in the snow. He loves snow, he's an Alaskan dog at heart.

Since Yellowstone was out of the picture and put us an entire day ahead of schedule, we really took our time and made some stops in small towns. We drove for 16 hours that day and around 8pm we got into a small town called Coer D'Alene, ID and decided to stop. I thought we'd sleep in the car or something but Rene had other plans. We went down to the water where there was this beautiful hotel. Rene took me in under the impression we were only going to look around, but he worked his magic and got us the Honeymoon suite for a mere $125 (the room normally goes for $350!!). My hubby, the silver tongued devil ;) Here's a pic of our room

And the view from our balcony, what a way to wake up!
We then stayed overnight in Seattle, WA with Troy Green and his beautiful family. For the third time, I neglected to take any pics with them but again Thank You to them for having us in their home. Oh, and while we were at Troy's place Rene ended up getting a pretty had bite on his nose. He was playing with Indy and ended up taking a bite to the nose, a pretty bad bite that needed stitches. However, there are NO 24 hour Urgent Cares in the Seattle area. How absurd is that??!! I ended up cleaning it for him and putting a band-aid on it so he could sleep the night and we'd go to the doctor in the morning. After the doctor's we headed North to Vancouver, BC (Rene's mission).

About 1 hour away he received a call from a friend in Vancouver who advised him the new Vancouver Temple was currently having an open house so we changed our plans and went straight to the temple. Again, a beautiful temple.
While in Vancouver, we were blessed to stay with a family Rene knew while on his mission. There were many sites Rene wanted me to see and here are a few of them:

The Vancouver Aquarium - a pic of some Jellyfish
On the road we saw this beauty - A Viper.... enough said :)
Now, has anyone ever seen one of these?? It's a spider spruce tree... really, that's what it's called (according to Rene). It was pretty neat so I had to get a picture of it.
Here we are at the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge (it's just like the Cappilano -as seen during the Winter Olympics 2010 - but FREE). As much as I wanted to see this and as cool as it was, I did not expect to get weak knees while crossing. The bridge moves a ton while you walk across, especially with others on the bridge at the same time.
There were other trails around the bridge and while perusing around I found this spectacular picture worthy site :)
We did quite a bit more while in Vancouver, but this entry is already too long so I'm keeping it brief. After Vancouver, Rene and I decided we wanted to just drive right on through Canada and get home as soon as we could. I had to get in and get some paperwork done for my new job and we had a lot of things to set up. It took us about 52 hours to get from Vancouver to my parents home in Eagle River, AK. Here's one of our 3 hour nap stops... Indy is attacking Rene's face :)
We also saw a little too much wildlife, although nice it was a little scary late at night when we'd see them on the highway crossing right in front of the car. We had to slam on the breaks once to miss hitting some Caribou.

This is a Big Horn Sheep
Caribou... one of the many
And Wood Bison!! We were super excited to find them. The road sides were littered with bison poop... I must say the Bison are a lot nicer to look at! lol
And finally, we're Home!!!!
Our mountains!! :)
So that was our Road trip in a nutshell. Once we got home (it was last Tuesday night) we were constantly on the go. On of our first priorities were to pick out paint colors for our condo. Here are the before and after pics.

The entry/living room...
From white to 'antique silver' with a red accent wall.
The backside of the living room with part of the kitchen (Rene helped paint the first two walls and taped this one for me)
Now the finished product, again the antique silver with our olive green kitchen (from here on out I did all the painting. It took me 4 days to do all this)
The kitchen before... plain white
and now, a pretty green (my original plan was to restain the cabinets mahogany but that wasn't going to happen - not enough time. Perhaps I'll get to it in the future)
The view as you walk into the condo
Do you like the colors picked? We think they go well together.

The half bath downstairsWe did a two tone wall, yellow on top and a light blue on the bottom. Again, we'd like to later get some crown molding to make more of a distinct line and make it cleaner as well.
(no before pics for the bedrooms, they were all plain white) Now, the master is this grayish color
The office is 'kiwi kissed' which I think is more minty
And the bright yellow workout room :) This is my favorite room because it's so happy and bright!
So that was our month of April, we stayed super busy and it will continue throughout the summer. I'm working for the cruise company again so I don't know when I'll have time to post anything but I'll try if there's anything interesting to share :) Rene however, will be working hard to memorize all of the new maps and begin his training all over again.