Alaska - part 3 of 5

After Nelson and Michael were back with us we had a day to get ready to head out of town. The girls went to hike flatop and the rest of us went for a walk along Potter's Marsh. It's a bird reserve with nice walkways and views. We went with Sharon and Gordy Clawson. Sharon and my mom were best friends and the Clawson's have been family for a long time. While in Alaska, we stayed in their basement apartment. It was nice to be able to spread out, make breakfast and not be in everyone's way.

Erika's girls started school the Wednesday we were there and then we headed out of town after school. We went ot a public use cabin on Nancy Lake, North of Anchorage about 1 1/2 hours. You can't drive to this cabin so we shuttled people and things in the Robbins' boat. this was the most amazing place. The scenery was beautiful, the weather could not have been better and the kids had a lot of fun playing with each other. Here we are roasting hot dogs over a fire for dinner. I have actually never done this and it was great.

Sunset over our dock looking at the lake.

The next day was the same great weather and fun. David loves to fish apparently. Who would've known, poor kid, we need to do this more often I guess.

Here he is reeling in a salmon. You aren't allowed to keep salmon from this lake so back in it went but not without pictures. This guy was so red, not good eating anyway.

Proud fisherman!

My Aunt Sue and Uncle Richard live about 5 minutes from Nancy Lake and they came to spend the day with us. We took a little ride to see their house and get their dog, Bailey, to join in the fun. As we came around a bend in the road toward Willow, Mt. McKinley was out in all its splendor. I actually gasped when I saw it, really! The only memory I have of seeing this mountain is from Anchorage if it's really a clear day you can see the tip and it's hundreds of miles away. We are still a couple hundred miles away from it here. I'm not sure the pictures does the wonder credit. It was truly amazing!

Here are some of the group hanging out on the dock, where the best sun was.

Erika, me, Sue and Richard. It was so great to spend the day with them. There is nothing like family.

The Robbins brought their kayaks to the lake for all to use. Here is Caroline floating in the lake reading her book.

Me and Erika kayaking.

Another produce picture...I just can never get over how BIG everything is!

Alaska - part 2 of 5

Within hours of Nelson and Michael landing in Anchorage they boarded a float plane for 2 days of fishing on the Talachulitna River. Nelson has tried to take the kids one by one on trips with him and thought this would be fun with Michael. Here is Michael, front row seat in the plane on the way to the river.

They fished for silver salmon and caught their limit of 2 fish each per day.

Ok, this isn't a salmon. Michael, if you are reading this, please log in and fill in the blanks of this post since I wasn't there.

Posing with their catch.

The camp had a visitor of a black bear a couple of times. It's hard to see him, but the end of him is inside the tipped over can, about 10 yards away.

Standing on the pontoons before take off.

The flight back.

The flight is about 45 minutes each way, what a view!

Alaska - part 1 of 5

Our trip started with me and the 3 younger kids flying to Alaska. We couldn't get the frequent flyer seats we wanted for all 6 of us to fly together so Nelson and Michael flew in the next day. We totally lucked out that homeland security wasn't around - and the pilots were really friendly! David got to sit in the pilot's seat while the copilot explained much of what all of the buttons and dials do, they even set off some alarms to see what they sounded like. Pretty cool!

Alaska had the rainiest summer on record this year. We arrived on day 29, after 28 days of straight rain. I told Erika we would bring the sun! It was beautiful as we had breakfast on the back porch, even almost hot at times!

I wish we could grow things like they do in Alaska. Everything is BIG. With almost 24 hours of daylight in the summer, plants have an advantage.

Grandpa John and Katie playing piano.

We went to the museum in Anchorage where they have a hands on science exhibit. This is Jasmin, Erika, Katie and a twin (sorry Lilli and Lani! I can pretty much tell you apart when I am there but in pictures, well, not so much) in the heat sensor display.

Giant double bubbles!

baloon helmets!

Jasmin, Erika and me.

Me and Katie

Jas and Katie

David took these pictures while we were driving one night. The time on my camera says 11:40PM. I was fortunate growing up in Alaska that I could sleep anywhere, anytime so the light never bothered me.

Oh Happy Day!

I think that was a song I sang in choir once actually. It was kind of a gospel jazzy song. Anywho...

Here is Caroline, looking happy, because she just got her braces off. This was 2 weeks ago but I am slow these days. She is loving it and has only "lost" her retainers once. Quite a tragedy for a day but then found by a friend in the tall grass by a fire pit in her yard where they had been making smores. Whew!

Another happy day...I went to St. George this week to be with my dad after his surgery last week to remove a kidney. He had kidney cancer but it was totally contained in the kidney and won't have to do chemo or anything! Happy Day!

While I was there Dad and Kathy gave me my birthday present early, the fun pearl necklace in the picture. Maybe I am excited to have a birthday this year after all. Since today is the 13th, exactly one month until my birthday does that mean I get to have a birthday month ( I usually claim a weekend at least if not the whole week)? Happy early birthday to me, thanks for the necklace!

Un-birthday and birthday fun

Katie and her friend Jenny made an un-birthday cake to celebrate their un-birthdays. Here is the cake with candles lit...oops, we need the Alice video running with the "Very Merry Un-birthday" song playing before we blow out the candles....

I guess that would've been good to have all set up BEFORE the candles were lit. Wax puddle candles! The cake tasted great anyway!

Very merry unbirthday to you!

For Michael's birthday this year I could not think of anything for his big 18. All he could think of to ask for was, I don't remember, socks or something. Nothing worthy of becoming a legal adult. We had just received the UVU community education brochure and something caught my eye. They had a one day aviation day camp where you got to fly a plane! You need to know that Michael has always wanted to go to BYU but the only other school that he seriously looked into was Air Force Academy because he has always thought it would be great to be a pilot.

So, he spent the day with a retired AirForce pilot, in the flight simulator and then in an airplane with an instructor. He didn't take off or land but was allowed to take the controls in the sky for a bit. Katie and I went to video and take pictures.

Here they are checking everything. It was not the greatest weather and I must admit a little stressful for a mom. They actually taxied out and came back because the winds were high and there was lightening. They waited until the storm passed and then went up but it was still pretty windy.

Michael's hand waving goodbye out the window.

Starting to taxi...

Liftoff! Nelson and David were boating on Utah Lake with a bunch of David's friends watching to see him in the air. The airport is right next to the lake so they saw him go up. It was raining in Orem so they went South and around a bit and came back. He had about a 25 minute flight.

Safe and sound back on the ground! Happy 18th Michael!

23rd Anniversary

Here we are on August 6, 1987. For our Anniversary this year we went to Salt Lake City. We had dinner at the Lion House Pantry, one of my favorite restaurants. It feels like eating at Grandma's house, real mashed potatoes, the rolls, fresh vegies...yum. Then we went and did sealings at the temple. When we walked in, the man in the sealing office asked if it was our anniversary. He said he could just tell. Then when he asked how many years we had been married, he and the other guy looked very shocked and asked if we got married when we were 8? How did he know exactly what I wanted to hear? How nice.

Here we are on August 6, 2010. After the temple we went to Bruges Waffles and Frites for a treat. A guy from Belgium opened an authentic waffle and fry shop downtown and they were pretty awesome. Next, we went to see the BYU stand-up comedy club HumorU's show. It was called movie mocktacular - they showed The Phone Call, another one from the 60's I hadn't seen before on how to choose a mate, and the old Johnny Lingo. They made side comments throughout the movies and it was pretty funny. We had to go because the main character in The Phone Call lives in our house we live in right now. It's always fun to see! Well, Happy Anniversary to us!

By the way, I am trying to get caught up on life from the summer so if you want to see what else we have been up to go back to May 29th and work your way back. Keep checking backwards because I have about 5 or 6 more entries to do!