Autumn in Alaska

The cottonwood trees are changing from green to vibrant yellow here in Juneau, and the once bright days and nights are growing darker and darker. Temperatures are dropping back into the colder reaches, and any day now we expect to see snow grace the tops of the highest mountains.

But this marks the beginning of our favorite time of year! The snow hasn’t come yet, so we are all in a rush to enjoy the last handful of sunny days and snow free yards and trails.

Sunday walks to Mendenhall Lake for a peak at the glacier left us feeling like we had walked into a postcard:

Trees everywhere flaunted their new colors and dried leaves crunched under out feet.

Fall is definitely here!

Quinn has been spending his fall outside as much as he can (even though the summer bugs are still buzzing around). He’s been reading Emily some of his favorite books, The Harry Potter series, and because of this he was inspired to build his own Quidditch broom (after drawing the school Hogwarts on the front walk):

 

Abigail has been busy with her camera. This week she took Rebecca Maxwell (one of Emily’s flowergirls from her wedding) and made her into an Autumn angel!

Emily helped by making her a flower crown and lending Becca her harp for the pictures. Quinn also helped by risking life and limb to hang a swing for the photo shoot!

But don’t worry, the swing has been put to good use!

And the view from it of the blue sky was something we just had to capture for you:

Laura has been busy making some of the most delicious pies we have ever tasted! We think she may be trying to get onto Emily’s good side, as she’s making her favorite: pumpkin! (Emily has it for her birthday each year instead of cake!)

 

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The days are now crisp, the nights are cold.

Time for mittens and scarves and hands to hold.

The mountains will soon be white with snow,

but that wont be till the birds all go. . .

And so with holidays drawing near,

the household has gotten into gear!

The leaves are changing, it’s time for fall,

so with red and orange we’ll deck the hall.

And while rain and leaves fall from the sky,

Laura will make some pumpkin pie.

So we’ll be thankful for this season,

though to eat pumpkin pie, you never need a reason!

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Getting The Barn Ready For Fall

Emily has set about decorating the barn for the fall season by using her skills of flower arranging and her knowledge of basket weaving to create some lovely autumn decor. But first things first, you need to gather the needed materials:

Young willow and alder branches are the best for bending, and can easily be made into shapes for use in baskets, wreaths, and trellises.

And don’t forget to keep an eye out for interesting things along the way. Pieces of nature, like these little alder cones, can be used in decorating your finished products!

After gathering your branches, they’ll need to be cleared of all leaves and tiny twigs to allow for easy weaving.

Once you’ve gathered and cleaned your sticks and branches, its now time to start creating!

Emily used a thick branch, with a fork in it, and shapes it to be a heart. The bottoms she firmly keeps in place with a little bit of wire, then she carefully intertwines other branches throughout this base until she is satisfied with the look of it.

Cedar was secretly chewing on Emily’s sticks, but when confronted, she acted like she hadn’t been doing anything at all! Such a sneaky puppy. . .

And now the best part: decorating!

Emily wires flowers, pinecones and other fall plant life together in bundles. Once several are finished she carefully attaches them to her newly made creations. All that’s left to do is to hang and admire!

The Barn now looks ready to greet the fall season!

But of course with the wreaths she made, there was bound to be one left over. That one found its way onto the main house:

Quinn approves!

But what did Cedar think of all this fall decorating?

She thought it was time for a new hairstyle. . .

The Reception – Part 5 of THE WEDDING

And now the part that everyone had been looking forward to. . .

The after party!

Many selfies were taken:

And Emily found out what happens when you leave your phone unattended:

After an amazing dinner, it was time for what all the young kids at the reception had been looking forward to (and only really came to the wedding for). The CAKE!

Emily and Quinn chose confetti cake (they deemed it fit their combined personalities) for their wedding cake, expertly made by a family friend.

And all the young children at the wedding agreed it was a good choice:

But it was time for something that Quinn and Emily had been looking forward to for quite a while: dancing!

When Quinn and Emily first started dating, Quinn taught her to swing dance and since then they had taken several dance classes together. They had both agreed that a slow waltz for their first dance didn’t quite capture their style…so they combined two of their favorite songs: “Honeybee” a slow foxtrot by Steampowered Giraffe, and “Emily” an up-beat swing by The Hot Club of Cowtown.

The result was certainly a show of their style and elegance on the dance floor:

Meanwhile, shenanigans were afoot!

Sadly, the rain started up again, and the paint washed off almost completely by the time Quinn and Emily left down the road.

I think everyone would agree that fun was had by all, the evening ending with what seemed to be a mile-long conga line! But all too soon it was time to wish the new bride and groom off on their way!

It’s just too bad that Laura and Bethany couldn’t tag along with them. . .

Family – Part 4 of THE WEDDING

After all the guests had left the church and gone on ahead to the reception, it was time for pictures! This silly one being everyone’s favorite:

Then came family. Emily’s six siblings came up first. Her brother Cody had flown up from ‘down south’ just for the occasion! As you can see, though Emily is the oldest, she hasn’t been the tallest since the boys hit their growth spurts.

Soon even Valerie will be taller then her!

Then came the proud parents and the new addition to the family. . .

The parents sure do look happy, don’t they? Each of them gaining a new child!

Then came Emily’s newest sisters (she’s happy to tell you she had always wanted more sisters rather then brothers!).

Then it was off the the glacier for wedding photos! Though the day had been very gray and rainy (typical Juneau), God stopped the rain for just long enough for Emily and Quinn to stay dry.

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”

Proverbs 18:22

The Ceremony – Part 3 of THE WEDDING

At last it was time to start. Quinn says he was alright until ten minutes before the ceremony started, then he got nervous.

But how could he be nervous with two beautiful mothers on each arm?

The song that the wedding party walked into was titled ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’ and was from one of Emily’s favorite movies growing up: “Somewhere In Time”.

First came in Quinn’s best man, Aaron Schetky, with Emily’s sister and maid of honor Bethany Cummins.

Next came in Laura Zahasky with Jacob Eberhardt,

followed by Abigail Zahasky and Zack Eberhardt.

Emily’s youngest sister Valerie Cummins had asked to be the ring bearer, probably expecting to get a stern “NO!” from her sister. Imagine her surprise when she was told yes! She came next followed by Melissa and Rebecca Maxwell, two girls Emily has babysat for over three years.

Everything was ready, the stage was beautifully set. . .

From earliest childhood, Emily and her sister Bethany had a love of horses. This partly came from every girl’s dream to own a pony, but it mostly stemmed from the movie “The Man From Snowy River”.

When picking a song to walk down the isle to, Emily decided to draw from things from her past and childhood to make the event even more meaningful for her and her family. Because of this she chose to walk to “Jessica’s Theme”.

The Morning Of – Part 2 of THE WEDDING

The morning of the wedding dawned rainy, gray, and wet, but there was too much to get done to worry about the weather. Emily had stayed up late the previous night with her sisters painting nails and watching The Cheetah Girls, still not believing that it was her last night in her room.

Once morning broke, last-minute decorating was done at the space where the reception was to be held, then all the girls ran off to the little church bathroom to get ready.

They started five hours before the wedding was to take place, plenty of time to get ready, right?

WRONG! The girls worked and worked until the very last moment came for them to go upstairs.

Melissa did Emily’s hair, while Abigail did her makeup. Many practice sections, weeks before the wedding, had taken place to make sure that hair and makeup could be done in the allotted time.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. When the girl’s bathroom became too crowded, Laura made a hard decision. . .

After all, the boys were upstairs! But during these hours and hours of makeup and curlers, what were the men up to?

Quinn proudly says that he and his groomsmen took less then an hour to get ready, compared to the girl’s five.

But because of this, they got very bored waiting around upstairs for things to get moving. This resulted in some very entertaining photos:

Emily’s favorite being this one:

And while the boy’s had fun, the girls were still getting ready.

And then the moment Emily had been waiting for…the dress!

Guests were arriving upstairs! If you listened closely you could just hear the jazz swing of the band playing in the sanctuary. Last minute things were done, and people were told how amazing they looked:

One of Emily’s favorite memories from that day came right before the ceremony. Abigail was putting bright red lipstick on her, when someone came to tell them it was ten minutes till 4:00! Abby became very nervous that she had so little time left to finish, to which Emily said, “Don’t worry, they aren’t going to start without me! Take your time!”

Thankfully the ceremony started right when it was supposed to. After all, brides, like wizards, are never late, nor are they early, they arrive precisely when they mean to.

The Day Before – Part 1 of THE WEDDING

This last weekend marked the two-month anniversary of Quinn and Emily. We are happy to say their marriage is going wonderfully. In fact, Emily hasn’t made Quinn sleep outside with Cedar once!

These two months have flown by very fast, so it was nice to finally sit down and look through all the wonderful things that happened during that eventful weekend.

Things like decorating the church:

Doesn’t Laura look lovely in the sheer silver fabric? I hear it’s all the rage in Paris this year. It also makes ceilings look lovely!

Here is a before picture to see how much was done:

For the church decorating session, Quinn, Laura, Abigail, and our dear friend Rachel Link, all helped Emily and her family to hang fabric, pretty-up bulletin boards, poof bows, and get everything ready for the big day.

During the first part of the decorating, Emily was instead busy with another important duty: creating the wedding bouquets!

When Emily first started college, she worked for a couple years in a florist shop. Arranging flowers is one of her favorite things, so it only made sense that she would make the bouquets for herself and her bridesmaids (as well as all the flower arrangements throughout the church and the reception).

Emily had also put a lot of time, along with anyone she could get to help her, into the boutonnieres for all the men involved in the ceremony.

She had taken silk fabric and melted the edges with a candle to give the appearance of petals. Layering different sizes of circles she created pretty flowers that were used on quite a few of the decorations as well.

After the decorating was done, all involved in the wedding met together for the rehearsal.

Running through the ceremony made the wedding a reality, when before, Quinn and Emily really couldn’t believe it was finally happening.

Everyone was certainly excited!

Emily did cry when her dad practiced walking her down the isle. However she wouldn’t let us post those pictures. So here is the second run through of the ceremony, where she is a bit more in control:

The beautiful bouquet she’s holding was made by Abigail at the bridal shower Emily’s church threw for her. It was made two weeks before the wedding, but thankfully the tissue and wrapping paper held together for this trip down the isle!

Emily’s two cousins Callie and Melinda and her Aunt Freddie sang two songs during the ceremony. After they ran through the first one, there was not dry eye in the church, and yet Callie said upon finishing “Don’t worry! It will be better tomorrow!” To which everyone laughed!

It was also a treat to hear the band made of players that Emily hand-picked to play before the ceremony began the following day. It consisted of her brothers Riley on saxophone, Wesley on drums, their good friends Alex Soboleff on guitar, and Guy Unzicker on bass. They played a wonderful mixture of jazzy songs that set everyone’s foot tapping!

After running through the ceremony twice it was off to dinner. Lets just say that Quinn was eager for food(and the prospect of getting married the next day as well, I’m sure.)!

The rehearsal dinner was graciously held by Quinn’s Aunt Christine and Uncle Steve at their beautiful home. Emily and Quinn had asked that burgers be served for a more casual dinner, since the following day would be much fancier.

I think everyone there would agree that it was a wonderful time spent with friends and family. And the candy bar helped…

Of course the ring bearer, Emily’s youngest sister Valerie, and her two flower girls, Becca and Melissa Maxwell hung very close to the candy bar until dinner was over. Their bags of candy were full to bursting on the ride home!

The biggest surprise of the evening came when Abigail revealed her wedding present to her brother and soon to be sister-in-law. The door to their new home, hand-painted by her to look like the TARDIS, a spaceship in one of their favorite TV shows, ‘Doctor Who’.

Needless to say, they were a bit excited (though Quinn will tell you that when the door went missing, he had some suspicions…), and it was a great way to end a wonderful day!

Last Days At The Tram

Today marked the first day in our last week of shows up at the tram. Next week the tourists will be off for good until next summer, and we wont get to ride a tram car with an amazing view to work each day.

We have had a very busy summer up at the tram, and we’ve met a lot of wonderful people! Hopefully we will get to see some of those very people in our next tour (Southern states, here we come!). 

But until the sunny Southern coastline calls us away from our wintry city, we’ll be here!

The show is here, its time to start!

Instruments in hand, around we’ll dart.

Abby tunes her banjo strings,

Emily smiles and starts to sing.

Paul will laugh and start the show,

while Melissa tightens up her bow.

Quinn will start to pluck and slap,

and Laura will make the audience clap!

And after all the shows are done,

we’ll all go home and have some fun!

Of course, we have practice too…

but there are plenty of other things to do!

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To finish off our summer season, we will be performing on the MS Amsterdam for eight days. Too prepare for this we have been doing a lot of practicing! We’ve even found time to practice between shows up at the tram:

Although, some people were more productive than others…

What We Learn From the Tourists

All of us in the Zahasky family have spent a good part, if not all, our lives here in Juneau. And we are privileged (by Juneau standards) to be able to leave this small capital city during winter and spring months for band tours. Yet by the “down south” view, we are lucky to be able to come home to Juneau.

Tourists spend thousands of dollars each summer to travel here and take in the spectacular views and marvel at this land we call our home. Sam Talafiero and his good friend Gay, from Springtown Texas, came up on a cruise ship this last week and visited with us. We have stayed with him several times in our many tours through Texas and it happened to be Gay’s first time up to Alaska. She was so awed by Juneau, she exclaimed to us “If Heaven is prettier than Alaska, I can’t even imagine what it will be like!”

We agree with Gay, and she reminded us of something we often forget: how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place. When you work and play and live out your days in such a place, you can easily lose sight of the grandeur of the mountains, and of the fleeting beauty of the glaciers. 

In two weeks the tourist season will end here in Juneau, and our downtown roads will seems very empty without all the hustle and bustle of the tourists. Even most of the out-of-town owned shops will close their doors, leaving a very quite downtown. So as our exciting summer season ends, we reflect on what the tourists teach us as long-time Juneau locals. 

The tourists come, the cruise ships go,

and then they leave before it snows.

While summer sun or rain beats down

they fill the sidewalks of downtown.

With rain ponchos on, and umbrellas held high,

they take pictures of mountains against a slate gray sky.

They marvel at the glacier, the whales in the sea,

they ask questions about everything from the bears to the trees.

They ask the altitude when arriving on the dock,

and most locals despise them, and will secretly mock.

But they see the beauty we often overlook,

for when was the last time a picture we took?

When was the last time we starred up in awe at the sea, the forest, the sky?

Or when was it last that you yelled out in surprise as an eagle swooped in and flew by?

For though we’re happy to see them go, we’re happy when they return.

For they teach us to look and appreciate this place, there’s a lot from them we can learn.

Alaskan Girls

I am an Alaskan girl,

I’ve grown up in the wild.

I’ve lived through winters bitter cold

and played through summers mild.

In Spring I clothe myself in flowers,

in autumn I’ll wear fur.

I love the mountains that tower above

and I know where the glaciers once were.

I can sing along with the rain’s low song

as through the year it falls.

I’m friends with the bear and mountain goats,

and I know the eagle’s calls.

I know the tides like the back of my hand,

I’ve played in the ocean’s surf.

I’ve spent days with the ravens, who taught me to laugh,

from their silliness and mirth.

I’ve feasted on berries of blue and of red,

I’ve howled with the wolves in their packs.

I’ve traveled on tundra, over mountains and streams,

and at the beauty I’ve always looked back.

I will praise my Creator for putting me here,

and for making this beautiful land.

For you can see His mark from the northern lights high,

down to the small grains of sand.

I am an Alaskan girl,

I’ve been brought up in the wild.

I’m happy to call this place my home,

and I’m happy to be God’s child. 

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P.S.- Yes, the girls look this beautiful all the time. As you can see:

 

 

Yes, even Cedar has her moments: