My parent’s opened The Toy Quest when I was four years old. I remember dragging the stool over to play with the Lundby doll houses, eating popsicles and watching Mister Rogers in the back room, and trying to negotiate with them into giving me a daffy duck stuffed animal (I was unsuccessful). It became one of my first jobs as a teen, and I helped out while I was in college. I grew up to become a biologist whereas Shane, my husband a firefighter and paramedic. I never imagined that we would own the toy store or that my parents would ever retire.

Yet, here we are. My parents are retired and we are the official owners of this fantastic toy store. This is a whole new and exciting world we have entered. Toy shows are very different from science or emergency medicine conferences. We can bring the dogs in with us to assist with paperwork in the backroom. Toy catalogs now litter our living room and have become our evening reading along with business books. We are slowly figuring out how to put our mark on this incredible store while retaining what has made it successful for the past 30 years in Fairbanks on top of remaining active in our respective fields. Stay tuned to find out what happens when a biologist and a firefighter own a toy store – we promise not to disappoint!