My husband, Mike, and I are avid skiers. We are both former members of the U. S. Alpine Ski Team and still love the sport. Living in Girdwood has made it easy for us to teach the boys to ski at a young age. They both ski the whole mountain and have fun doing it. We all love the outdoors and spend more time outdoors (hiking, biking, on our boat, etc.) than indoors whenever possible.

Reiker and Max Durtschi

Mike is a commercial fisherman and spends June to September out in Prince William Sound. This has a definite impact on the family -- he's either totally here or totally gone. The boys and I go out and fish for one-week periods in July and August, and this may increase as the kids get older. When Mike is home, he's very involved with the kids. We are also able to travel for longer periods of time with his seasonal work schedule, and we all love this.

Max has huge itineraries planned, including visiting places we have read about -- the Eiffel Tower, Japan and its bullet trains, and the cogged wheel railroads in Switzerland.

Reading has been, and I believe always will be, an integral part of our family's life.