{"id":8271,"date":"2017-01-09T09:01:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T17:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/fairbanks-family-documents-alaska-life-in-video-blogs\/"},"modified":"2017-01-09T09:01:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T17:01:03","slug":"fairbanks-family-documents-alaska-life-in-video-blogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/fairbanks-family-documents-alaska-life-in-video-blogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairbanks family documents Alaska life in video blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014<\/strong> Adjusting to life in Alaska is rarely easy, but for Kiara Cassell and her family, it\u2019s been easier with the support of thousands of fans on YouTube who\u2019ve been there throughout the journey.<\/p>\n

Kiara Cassell, her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Desmond Cassell, their children, 7-year-old Decorey and 2-year-old Jericho, and their dog, Kacey, have been documenting their time in Alaska with daily video blogs, called \u201cvlogs,\u201d on their YouTube channel: \u201cThe Life of the Cassells.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vlogs show Alaska through the eyes of a military family. There are videos of road trips around the state, birthday parties, family visits and family time at home as well as plenty of regular, everyday life, such as shopping trips, cooking meals and cleaning the house.<\/p>\n

Kiara Cassell got the idea for the channel while she was pregnant with Jericho. She was watching a lot of other vlogs on YouTube and saw it might be a fun way to document her memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told (Desmond), \u2018Let\u2019s record our daily vlogs while I\u2019m pregnant so I could have this memory,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd after that, we started growing it and started meeting people through YouTube. It\u2019s for the memories and because other people wanted to watch us, which is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their more than 500 videos collectively have a million views that have come from all across the world, and their channel has nearly 9,000 followers. She said people recognize them out in public.<\/p>\n

Desmond Cassell said he likes the project because it\u2019ll serve as a digital scrapbook for his kids to remember a time that may fade as they get older.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was telling my son that you may not remember everything now, but you can look back on it and always have those memories,\u201d Desmond Cassell said. \u201cI was an Army brat and I was in Germany with my family overseas and I don\u2019t remember a lot, so the pictures \u2014 the few that I have \u2014 is all that I have. It\u2019s for memories, and it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike high-profile YouTube vlogs that are polished into seemingly perfect lives, The Life of the Cassells has a charming authenticity to it. The Cassells decided to document their entire experience, both the good times and the bad, such as fights, tears and anxiety.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been particularly true for Kiara Cassell. Unlike her husband, who grew up moving around in a military family, Kiara Cassell grew up in New York close to her extended family.<\/p>\n

She talks about missing her family in many of her videos, as well as the frustration that in the two years they\u2019ve been in Alaska, her family has yet to visit.<\/p>\n

In a video posted in April, she talked about feeling overwhelmed about not having her family close.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make these videos so people out there can relate to what I\u2019m going through and I know I\u2019m not the only one in this world that feels like this,\u201d she said with tears in her eyes. \u201cAnd I just want you guys know that you have somebody here to talk to if you need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiara Cassell said it\u2019s been particularly popular with other wives who are going through the same challenges with military life. In the comments of the video, other military wives offer their support, saying they\u2019ve been through similar experiences.<\/p>\n

The couple said they didn\u2019t know what to expect out of Alaska, so they\u2019ve also made videos for other families who will be moving to Alaska, such as videos of local stores and what life is like on base. Kiara Cassell said working on the YouTube channel has helped her find her own voice and become more confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a lot of people relate to a lot of things that we\u2019re going through, and I want to be that voice for them because before I was really quiet, I would keep everything bottled up inside, but now if I feel some type of way I pick up the camera and talk and let them know they\u2019re not alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the family published a retrospective of 2016 that included among dozens of snippets, Jericho\u2019s first time in the pool, a picturesque sunset swarmed by mosquitoes and a trip to the Halloween store where Decorey was frightened by a clown mask.<\/p>\n

The family has one year left in their three-year assignment to Fort Wainwright, and Desmond Cassell says he can\u2019t wait to get out and see more of Alaska. He said on the list is whale watching and dog mushing. Kiara said she hopes her family will finally decide to make the trek up to Alaska.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably going to be our last summer and we have to make the most of it,\u201d Desmond Cassell said.<\/p>\n

But he said before moving to Alaska he had a list of places that he would like to settle with his family, and that after a few years here that Alaska is now on that list, too.<\/p>\n

But regardless of where they move, Kiara Cassell said they plan to continue filming and sharing their lives with their fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout them, I don\u2019t know how I would have been out here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014 Adjusting to life in Alaska is rarely easy, but for Kiara Cassell and her family, it\u2019s been easier with the support of thousands of fans on YouTube who\u2019ve been there throughout the journey. Kiara Cassell, her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Desmond Cassell, their children, 7-year-old Decorey and 2-year-old Jericho, and their dog, Kacey, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8271"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}