Finally,

I'm updating the blog!

I've been up to quite a bit in the last month.

Aunt Peggy and her soon-to-be husband Paul stopped by for a quick visit while on their Alaskan tour. We went on a little hike and out to dinner. It was cool to see her again, meet Paul, and hear all about what the Hayslip kids are up to these days.

After that I spent a week in Wrangell-St.Elias National Park helping out with annual maintinence of climate monitoring stations. It's the biggest park in the country (13.2 million acres) and twice the size of Denali. It's got lots of mountains, glaciers, and gold mining history, and was a very neat place to see.

Then Erin came to visit for a week. We went on a sightseeing cruise out of Seward and got to see Orca and Humpback whales, Harbor seals, and Otter, PUFFINS, and many seaguls. Then we checked out the Exit Glacier and met up with fellow OU-to-Alaska kid Cassie. After all that, we came back to Denali and I worked for a few days while Erin explored the area. We fit in a white water rafting trip before she went back to the heat and humidity of Ohio.

This was followed by a normal week.

Then I went to Grand Canyon for a week to do a little bit of working, a little bit of schmoozing, and a little bit of sightseeing. It was an awesome time. Which a lot of you know because I called just about everyone while I was waiting on never-ending layovers, flight-delays, and cancellations.

I finally got back here at 3am this morning.

The next few weeks should be normal. Then Mom and Dad come to visit in September for a few weeks. Dad has been buying lots of backpacks, walking sticks, boots, and camera lenses in preparation. I'm excited for them to come up, and it sounds like they are excited as well.

For the (sort of) long term, I'm planning to be here until Christmas time again, and then to Germany to visit Brent.

Alright, you have been officially updated. Hope everyone is doing well.

Some pictures as usual:

Peggy and Paul

Cool glacier in Wrangells
Mt. Wrangell

Erin getting chased by Exit Glacier

Flowers and Ice

Grand Canyon sunset