Welcome To AdventureLand...

Ok, so here are the pictures from last night's grand opening of AdventureLand, our church's new childrens ministry area. It was an AMAZING night, the place was PACKED. About 10 minutes into the event they announced that, even though the auditorium was already full, there was still a line of cars 20 deep coming onto the campus off of the highway! I am going back to the church on Monday night and will hopefully be able to get better pictures of everything since there wont be as many people there. Here are some highlights of AdventureLand: A two story tube slide that looks SO much fun, A huge city scene with buildings and mountains, they even have fiber optic stars in the "sky" above everything. They also have L.E.D. spotlights that change the sky color so it looks like the northern lights, a rock climbing wall, a underwater room that has props in it that blow bubbles so it looks like you are actually underwater, The Hangar, which is a room that is designed to look like an actual airplane hangar with a plane and everything, yes, a real, lifesize cessna airplane! That room also has air hockey tables, foosball, basketball, 6 video game stations and tons of fun "high tech" toys. The King Cove, which is basically a huge indoor play area, has a huge boat that kids can climb through, slide down and play on. It also has several "tunnels" that crawl through a fake rock wall that was built. The main hallway, the best part of the hallway is the huge hollowed out log you walk through. The log even has "forest sounds" built into it so when you walk through it sounds like you are in the forest. The nursery has a much more "calm" feel than the rest of the areas. There are a total of 12 different nursery rooms. They included some smart "extras" in the nursery, such as an industrial size washer and dryer. SO, if a child makes a mess on their clothes, they can wash them, dry them, and have them back in clean clothes in a matter of minutes. These pictures really don't even begin to capture the real feeling of the whole area. It is something you have to see in person, it is amazing to look at all of the detail that was put into it. The new childrens ministry area is about 70,000 square feet. SO, when you come to Alaska we will certainly set up a tour so you can see it for yourself!! You can click on any of these pictures to see a larger image.

Thanks For Looking!!

Thank You State of Alaska!!

Every year the State of Alaska gives a check to every Alaskan, this is called the Permanent Fund Dividend. It was set up in the 70's during a time when the state was in the beginning stages of oil development. There were several politicians who felt that the resources on the land belonged to the people of that land. So they set up a fund that gets paid into by a small percentage of the oil revenue that the State of Alaska makes each year. Then, each fall, the State of Alaska pays a certain amount out to every Alaskan. They just announced the amount of this years check. So, on October 4th, Sherri and I will each receive $1,106.96. Just for living here. That will be a nice little $2,200 bonus for us!! They also do a 6 year outlook and estimate what the checks will be for the next few years and they are saying that the check amount will continue to rise quickly!! Next years checks will probably be in the $1350 - $1450 range. It is a great boost to the local economy every October because there is so much extra money. This is a very common time for people to take vacations and make big purchases. Figure this, the average family, with 2 adults and 3 kids will get an extra $5,500. That can certainly help a family's budget!! The largest dividend check payout was in 2000 when the checks were $1,963.86. They expect that record to be broken in the next few years though as dividend check amounts rise. Last years checks were $845.76, so we had a pretty big jump in this years check amount! The Permanent Fund is a pretty amazing concept, you can learn more about it and how it works at www.apfc.org

Summer Is Hanging On...

Howdy!

Normally in Alaska, September is the beginning of Fall. Around the first of the month the temperature begins to drop and by the middle of the month the leaves are turning fall colors. Sometime between the beginning and the middle of the month the first snowfall will appear on the surrounding mountains as well. By the end of September the leaves are off of the trees and onto the ground and we are all certain that winter is on its way! The first snow normally happens in the city sometime between the beginning and middle of October. However, this year seems a little different. It is now the middle of September, we have had non-stop sunny days since the month began and there is little sign of any changing colors. We have been able to be outside playing disc golf almost every day and the temperature is quite nice! There isn't even any snow on the mountains! Which is nice, however, I must admit that I think mountains look better with snow! No doubt that summer is coming to an end and fall is quickly approaching but the beautiful September we are having has been an excellent end to another summer.

In other news, we are going camping this weekend with about 10 of our friends which should be a great time! We are going to a place called Eklutna Lake (see picture above). It will be an awesome weekend of kayaking, camp fires, tents and fun! We are VERY excited!!

Also, we are now only 10 DAYS away from our 1 year anniversary!! That is awesome! It has really been a great year, I am sure that we will post a recap of our 1st year together on here soon.

That's all for now. We will post camping pictures when we get back after the weekend!!

Apparently we are young, smart and not that cold!

Well,

CNNMoney recently released some "top 25" rankings for cities across the country and I am proud to announce that Anchorage has been listed as the 22nd smartest city in America!! Apparently we have 32.2% of our population that has a bachelor's degree or higher. Also, we were recently awarded the "Best City for twenty-something's" award that was based on the amount of outdoor activities that are available, amazing job growth and a very high average income. A list that Anchorage was NOT listed on that may come as a suprise, is the "Coldest cities in America" list that CNNMoney also compiled. There were 25 cities that made the list. These included cities from Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, New Hamshire and Iowa, but no Anchorage :o) We were also named the "Best American City for Entrepreneurs" which is a good thing to hear since Sherri and I are wanting to open our own business! The Milken Institute also named Anchorage as one of the 50 strongest economies in the country. The Green Guide said that Anchorage has the best Air Quality Index in he country. Also, Anchorage is the "Least Taxed" city over 250,000 residents in the country. This is mainly because we have no state income tax and no sales tax. Also the Anchorage area continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in the country. So, lets review. Anchorage is smart, young, not that cold, clean, great place to own a business, fast growing, strong economy and very little tax. Why would you not want to live here?!?!?