Our little miracle

To those of our friends who have not heard much about Archie this is for you. He turned two at the end of March and is Alaska Native from Kotzebue, AK. We found out about him on December 20, 2013. It was a Friday morning and right away we knew we were interested. It turned out to be a very quick placement as he was on the plane the next morning. When we came to meet him the very first time we knew we wanted to take him home. We did not have much information and the adoption process being new to us we did not know what to expect. It has been a bit of a bumpy ride but has all come together. The adoption has been finalized through his tribe which is recognized by the state. We are just waiting on his updated birth certificate.
He is such a cute, smiley little guy.  From the first day we could see that this was a special boy and fell in love. He was the best Christmas present anyone could ask for. We had a wonderful family Christmas together. He enjoyed all the gifts and the food. He is very easy going and good natured about most things. He likes to eat and goes to sleep no problem 95% of the time. He likes to look at books, throw balls, ride toys around the house, play outside, ride on the snow machine with Dad, take a bath and go to Nursery at church. He likes babies--his little cousin he sees each week and enjoys making him laugh. He is a tough little guy and sometimes does not realize his own strength! He is very smart and picks up on things quickly. He is very loving and likes to cuddle or give hugs with a little pat on the back to show he cares. He is great a blowing kisses and is now starting to say Love You back. We are very blessed to have him in our home as our son. He has made us a family and changed our lives for good. It was a long road to find him but I am here to say that prayers do get answered. It was all in God's timing and it gave us a beautiful boy to call our own. We love him so much and enjoy him more and more every day.

Archie's blog

I am not sure how often I will write on this blog but I may do some. I do have a private blog where I am writing about our life with Archie. I sent out some invites to the blog but if any of you friends did not receive one and are interested in joining the blog just sent me your gmail address and I will add you.

Thanks!

Winter is ending

So here we are again... almost another year has come and gone. I realize and have come to accept that I do not make blogging a priority. We do, however, have many friends and loved ones that live away from us and would like to hear about our "goings on". So lots has happened since last year so much that it would take more time than I am willing to commit to catch up. So here are the highlights: Hans graduated in May 2012 and yes folks, I have finally posted some pictures for it. Better late than never right?!? It is not from lack of love. I finished up my Bachelors degree which does not mean much to my present career since I was already employed as a hygienist but I know have a four-year degree of Science and Dental Hygiene. My Mom is happy so now I match with them- except Dad Ruben got a Masters but that is besides the point. At least I can say I persevered even when I did not want to and it is done--hooray! We sold our condo in Anchorage during the summer and lived in our same area while we searched for a house. We looked in Anchorage in our price range and was not thrilled with the prospects--especially me. So we gave in and decided to look in the Valley which includes from like Eagle River out to Palmer/Wasilla and such. We looked at 5 houses that day and found "the one". I really liked it from the first minute we stepped in and that was new to Hans. I had been mostly silent throughout the walk-thrus just wondering if I could actually be happy with the house we were looking at. We talked it over, ran the numbers and prayed about it. Long story short we moved in the middle of January to our new abode in Wasilla. It was really taken care of by the previous owner and though it is 12 years new or so it still is in great shape and totally move-in ready. It has an acre with a 3-car garage, lots of grass and some trees around the back and side. We do have a partially obstructed view of the mountains and inlet which is great. I think the best view is out the kitchen windows at the sink. So when I am doing dishes I can take in the beautiful scenery. We are getting settled in and are on our way to being un-packed. Hans is enjoying the garage which one side is his shop for now until we can build him a separate one. We both are still working in Anchorage for now and commute from here which is a bit of a drive around 50 miles each way. I work 2 days in Anchorage and just started picking up some other shifts closer to home in Wasilla. Hans works swing shift right now so he misses all the traffic that I get to sit in and enjoys seeing the sun finally. He seems to be enjoying this change over working nights. He is due to start a new job for the city of Anchorage working on the public transit buses so we will see what shift he gets then. We are hoping and praying it will be an OK one and not nights again. We celebrated 6 years of marriage last month on the 16th. We took a little weekend getaway to Seward which was a much needed, relaxing trip. It is about time for our annual pilgrimage to Fairbanks this month to see the ice sculptures and go to the hot springs. Last year was pretty rough on us since the car broke down during the trip and needed a new engine. This year should prove to be much less eventful (in a good way). We are not sure if any of our Anchorage friends are doing the road trip with us this year. We do have friends in the area up there that we plan to visit while we are in town. I will try to actually post pictures (or actually take them this year since last year we just didn't feel like it). I also need to post pics of our home. We are excited for our new adventures in this area and to see what life brings us this year. We are anxiously awaiting children to bless our home. We hope and pray that this year is the one that we get to expand our family. The weather here seems to be changing for the better which is just fine for me. I look forward to the snow being gone so I can go out and enjoy our yard this year and be warmer!! Well, I am not sure if anyone really even checks our blog out anymore since it has been so dormant but if you are here--WELCOME! and I hope to keep up with some updates and post some of the good and funny moments that come our way.

We are here

Almost a year has passed since my last post. I am not sure why I don't ever blog anymore-not that I was particularly good at it ever. It has been almost a year since I graduated from college with my degree and I have been working since August with my license. Hans graduated in December but is going to walk in May to say that he did. Actually, he is graduating with honors and I am very proud of him. For someone that has said he didn't like school he did a great job. He is working for the state as a diesel mechanic. They repair and maintain all of the equipment for the airport's runways. He enjoys parts of the job but he is on the graveyard shift which does a number on his sleep cycle. He has spent months being sick this year so far I think due to the fact that he does not get good sleep consistently and his immune system gets affected. The winter was long and we got a lot of snow. We broke the record for the snowiest winter in Anchorage which was a bunch of snow. It has been melting surprisingly well. There has been some flooding here and there but it could have been a lot worse. As of today we have our condo up for sale on the market and hope to get it in contract soon so we can look for a new home. We are excited to have a bigger place where we can have a garage for Hans to work on things and no shared walls with the neighbors. We still have not decided exactly where we are going to live but we will figure it out once we are able to start making offers on places. It is a big test of faith for me since I like to plan but for now we just wait and it will all turn out how it should... eventually. We are going to get some camping in this summer and hope to go more places that we have not seen around here. There really are so many beautiful places to explore in Alaska. I hope to take some photos this year -- more than last year and maybe I will post something. I can't really promise but at least I will think about it. ;0)

Hawaii Trip

So I have lots to post on our trip but here is the link for the pictures that I just loaded up today onto Facebook that you could check out. We had a great time and took lots of pictures but I posted a sample of our adventures on the island.
Here is the album link that you can paste in your browser: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10150648554715788.694286.530165787&l=8b58c44bbc

We stayed on the North Shore where we rented a condo at the Turtle Bay Resort. It was a nice enough place. We really enjoyed being on the the North Shore but the condo had some downfalls. The resort was beautiful but the condo was close to others and the noise was bad in the master bedroom. We ended up sleeping the other nights in the living room where they had a futon mattress for extra guests. That was also where the a/c was so Hans was much happier with that arrangement as well. We bought groceries at the store and cooked many meals at home which was nice and saved us money. We got fresh pineapple at one of the roadside stands which was yummy!

We went to many beaches that were all beautiful. It was so great to be so close to great places to walk, relax, swim, boogie board and snorkel. We went on a long drive one of the days to explore the whole coastline around the island. We almost made it everywhere and saw so many great spots. It was Memorial Day so all of the beaches were just packed with people but it was fun scoping out all of the great places to go later in the week.
We visited the Laie Temple and Visitor Center which was great. It is a very beautiful temple inside and out. We went on a walk that evening (which was quickly becoming Hans' favorite time on the beaches due to the temperatures being much lower and it being less sunny). We took the walk from Temple beach to Castles. At least we got pointed in the direction of Castles and presumed we got there during our walk but was not quite sure what to expect. It was very windy but beautiful and warm enough for me not to wear any jacket or pants and cool enough for Hans not to totally melt away.

On Wednesday we headed into Honolulu to Pearl Harbor and the Aloha Stadium for the swap meet. I had been to Pearl Harbor the last time I was in Hawaii but it was nice to see it again. So many names on the wall, it was sad. The swap meet was a great place to get our souvenirs so thank you to our friends that gave us the tip. We were both hungry and hot (for some reason I chose to wear pants that day) so we did not last too long but we made it all the way around the loop.

Thursday we made it our beach day and went snorkeling first thing in the morning at Sharks Cove. It was recommended to us by several of our friends and it was a great spot. We had a great time and got there early enough that it was not too busy while we were there. We saw lots of neat things and got to swim around with the fish and 2 sea turtles as you can see in our picture album link. Hans tried his luck at boogie boarding at a really windy beach--all of the beaches were not labeled really well so it might have been part of Sunset Beach or maybe where the Pipeline is? It was pretty there but sooooo windy that day. It would start to blow hard and pick up the sand which was little bits of coral and shells and pelt your skin with it. At first it was a bit comical but eventually after a couple of hours it got old. We had sand everywhere and caked into our hair. I had so much sunblock on that it stuck to me like glue. We still got sunburned that day though and ended up with the back of our legs getting red and a strip on our backs. I guess the sunblock did not get put on there properly. We took a break for lunch and to cool off and rest a bit. Who knew that using fins could work out your feet so much? Later that evening we went back out to another beach and we both got out on the boogie boards. I caught one wave but not for very long. We had a fun time and I was actually not too cold even though the sun was going down as long as I kept moving. The water in general seemed cooler than I remembered if from last time. There were spots that we would find that were warmer but the majority was just like a mellow swimming pool or something.

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center one of the days and it was pouring rain off and on that day. We had a great time going to the different villages. They did a great job at having entertaining performers. We ended up going to the Luau as well and enjoyed it. The food was OK which is what we had been told but we had a good time. We got seated next to some fun people. We met a couple that was there for their 31st anniversary and the wife was a hygienist. She had been practicing for 30 years and was still working. It was fun to talk to her about the profession and pick her brain a bit. I still did not have my Clinical exam results at that time so we spoke about that and how I wanted to know how I did. It was actually later that night that I found out that I passed and so it is official... I am going to be a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH). YaY!!! So glad that is over with. I am waiting for my state license to get processed but at least it is all just formality now and no more sitting on pins and needles for the results.
We really enjoyed the night show at the PCC although Hans was wishing that the wind would blow for him because it was warm. They had some impressive dancers and the fire dancers were great. I think it is the most complicated routine I had ever seen. They did a great show!
Our last day there we picked up some last minute produce and nuts to bring home. We stopped at the Dole plantation because I really wanted some pineapple ice cream. We got some and it was so good. We drove around some other areas that we had not seen on our other drive and unfortunately it was raining when we found one of the scenic look outs. We want to go back again next time and see it better.

I loved all of the flowers and flowering trees/bushes. It smelled amazing everywhere we went. It definitely is a piece of paradise.

We had a great time and are already thinking about when we can go back again. So now we just need to decide if we go back to Oahu or to another island?

This video is showing the shy plant that Hans was playing with. It is pretty neat. I had not ever heard of a plant like this before.

Welcome to our new blog... The Newest Chapter

If you are wondering what our old blog was here is the address: http://hjortfam.blogspot.com/

I don't know when (or possibly if) I will get some of the pictures and such transferred over here but just in case you can always got back to the old one. There is much to say but for today, that is all. I hope to write more often on this new blog now that I have much more time on my hands.