Return trip to Alaska for Flyball

2 years ago we flew Mariah and Brisco to Alaska for a week of fun and flyball. We loved it so much, that we decided to go back again this year! Our friends Keri & Ethan were driving up, but we didn't have the time, so we flew up there. This year it was going to be Trek and Brisco making the trip with us. The Sat before we left we found out that one of the height dogs for the first tournament couldn't race, so we did some quick planning and ended up flying Mariah up too!

We arrived at 1:30am Tuesday morning, picked up Ang & Jim's truck (they're the best!) and went to a hotel to get a few hours rest. We woke up and had all day to play since racing didn't start until Wed. We decided to go for a hike up Flattop Mountain just outside Anchorage. It was cool and cloudy, but that didn't stop us. We got a good workout in hiking up the mountain in the clouds and drizzle and had a good time. We couldn't see the beautiful views, but it was a nice hike.



After the hike we stopped off at Moose's Tooth for some of the best pizza in Alaska! It was a good way to warm up and dry out.

After refueling we started the drive to Palmer with stops off at Thunderbird Falls and Eklutna Lake. We finally made it up to Palmer and set up our tent and visited with all the AK flyballers who were there. It was good to see everyone again and meet new people!

The first flyball tournament was Wed & Thurs. Brisco, Trek and Mariah were all on the same team along with an AK border Collie Rosie. We had a blast running that team! I ran Trek and Travis ran Mariah (for the first time ever). We had Vickie from AK run Brisco and she did an awesome job with him! I think we placed 2nd over the weekend and the dogs ran well. Mariah ran better than she had in a long time and put out some good times! Trek's turn was still crazy and we're definitely working on that now that we're back. Every year there is a welcome banner for teams from out of state. This year was the first year they got to make a "Welcome Back" sign!

And as always, we had to get a picture by the fairgrounds sign.

Travis had to head back to Colorado for the MS150 bike ride. Mariah went home with him since there wasn't room on my flight back. We had a very good dinner before he left, then I went back to Tim & Jody's house to shower and relax. They're great hosts too and fun to be around! Friday morning we had a relaxing start to the day that included a momma moose and her 2 babies strolling through the front yard, then we went up to Big Lake to go have fun on Tim & Jody's boat. We had an amazing weather day and had way too much fun riding the tube behind the boat, longboarding and just relaxing. The dogs got to swim and everyone was happy.
Trek liked hanging out on the boat!

Trek also loved longboarding and went out a couple times!

Ethan, Keri, Tim & Steven

Me and Keri on the tube

We had such a good day on the lake and I can't thank Tim & Jody enough for taking us up there! :)

Saturday and Sunday were spent playing flyball. We set a new AK record of 16.7 sec with Arrow-Kaya-Power-Trek. We also helped set a record of the largest flyball tournament in AK with 7 teams racing! It was another fun 2 days of flyball and it was sad to think about heading home Sunday night. I could have stayed up there a few more weeks! If you've always thought about going to AK for their tournament, I highly recommend it. They are the nicest group of people and a lot of fun to be around. The tournaments are relaxing and this year we even had fun minute-to-win-it games during the breaks. The weather up there has been really good to us the 2 years we've been. We had a rain delay on Saturday, but we were able to get all the races finished. The long days are definitely fun! Where else can you play badmitton at 10:00pm and not need lights?!

Overall it was another wonderful week in Alaska with great people and a ton of fun! I'm not sure when we'll be back, but I can guarantee we'll get back again one of these days!