TheAlaskaCurrent

Stonehenge

2010-09-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

Liverpool

2010-09-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

Liverpool was dominated by our Beatles tour, which was enjoyable. Below Rachel and I are standing at the very location of the stage where the Quarry Men played the day John and Paul met. (The Quarry Men was John's pre-Beatles band.)

The above photo is the Legacy Sculpture by Mark DeGraffenried, 2001. The inscription reads: "This statue of a young family commemorates migration from Liverpool to the new world. It was given to the people of Liverpool by the Mormon Church as a tribute to the many families from all over Europe who embarked on a brave and pioneering voyage from Liverpool to start a new life in America. It is estimated that in total approximately nine million people emigrated through the port. the sculpture is cast in bronze; the child stepping forward symbolises migration to the unknown world whilst the child playing with a crab indicates a deep association with the sea."

Isle of Man

2010-09-16T09:12:00.001-08:00

The Isle of Man is where my Mom's family (the Cannons) came from. Don and I are sitting at the Cannon ancestral farm (Cooilshellagh) above. The island itself is also breathtakingly beautiful, which we enjoyed as we drove and hiked around. We also attended church at the Douglas Ward, the only LDS congregation on the island.Then we toured the Laxey Wheel, the world's largest operating water wheel, and its accompanying mine shaft.

They serve hot chocolate with a piece of chocolate too. The below was delicious. :)

Preston

2010-09-15T09:08:00.002-08:00

Burghley House

2010-09-15T09:02:00.002-08:00

London

2010-09-15T08:58:00.001-08:00

Frankfurt

2010-09-15T08:55:00.004-08:00

Frankfurt Temple

& grounds

& neighborhood

Heidelberg

2010-09-15T08:48:00.006-08:00

We found this curious statue in a village near Heidelberg. Then we visited Heidelberg with its castle.It took 130 oak trees in 1751 to make the below keg, which holds 58,100 gallons of liquid.

Switzerland-Bern Temple

2010-09-15T08:46:00.004-08:00

We had a wonderful experience as we visited the Bern Switzerland Temple. The people were warm and hospitable, and the temple was great. We spent the night in the patron housing, which was very minimal. Several families were also there from Italy. It was fun.

Germany

2010-09-15T08:26:00.003-08:00

In Germany we visited Kehlsteinhaus ("Eagle's Nest" in English), which was Hitler's alpine hideaway. The scenery was beautiful! (This view of the Zugspitze is from the Edelweiss Lodge where we stayed.)

Down in the village we ate Schweinehaxe and Schnitzel. After Garth heard about Jacob's love of Schweinehaxe, he had to try it. This was his first (of multiple) Schweinehaxe he ate on the trip.

in England together

2010-09-14T08:32:00.002-08:00

After we met up with Rachel & Jacob, we visited Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, birthplace of Winston Churchill.The next day we ate delicious scones with clotted cream and jam, as well as white hot chocolate and fruit teas at Emily's Tea Room.

Jacob is a pro at punting the Cam. We enjoyed our ride down the river and a great day in Cambridge.

We also saw the abbey ruins at Bury St Edmunds.We ate a yummy Sunday roast, complete with meat, potatoes, veggies, Yorkshire puddings and gravy.

The next day we visited a bread festival at Bircham Windmill in Norfolk, followed by a visit to Holkham Hall.

(This is actually bread.)

Day 25-Cinque Terre

2009-06-29T01:45:00.004-08:00

Day 24 (Florence)

2009-06-28T08:49:00.021-08:00

Day 23

2009-06-28T08:49:00.013-08:00

Day 21

2009-06-28T08:02:00.004-08:00

Day 19 (Munich)

2009-06-28T07:57:00.006-08:00

Days 17-18 (Austria)

2009-06-28T07:56:00.005-08:00

Day 16

2009-06-23T23:18:00.005-08:00

Day 15

2009-06-17T11:19:00.009-08:00

Day 13--Orford and Framlingham

2009-06-15T12:23:00.009-08:00

Day 11--London

2009-06-13T13:06:00.007-08:00

Day 10--Dover

2009-06-13T12:53:00.009-08:00

Europe day 8

2009-06-11T06:03:00.008-08:00

Days 6 &7 (Paris)

2009-06-10T13:42:00.000-08:00

Day 5 (Wales)

2009-06-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

(Jacob is in this photo--standing in the second window from the right)

Europe (Days 3 &4)

2009-06-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

(family history-related church)

European photos (Days 1 & 2)

2009-06-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

Glacier's and Halibut

2008-06-22T07:13:00.011-08:00

On June 11th we went on a four-hour tour around Whittier, Alaska. We saw many glaciers, with runoff from them to the water below. It was beautiful to look around the inlet and see streams of water running down every crevice in the mountains, even where there was no glacier. It was quite cold - remember, we ARE in Alaska (but it's June)!

When we were near one of the glaciers, we heard a large piece break away and fall into the water. This is called 'calving'. We saw several bald eagles soaring in the area - what majestic birds they are.

Whittier is about 60 miles southeast of Anchorage and the only way to access it by land is to go through the train tunnel. There is a rotating schedule for cars entering Whittier, releasing cars (exiting Whittier) and trains. The cost is $12 to enter Whittier, but they let you out free. You really have to plan your trip, otherwise you could be stranded for quite some time. We took this picture as we were waiting to leave. The tunnel is 2 1/2 miles long.

On the 12th of June Garth scheduled a halibut charter leaving from Anchor Point. The charter he was on lost his reservation, but he was able to find one leaving at 1:00 p.m. He returned around 7:00 and had a wonderful time, but only had 17 lbs. of halibut. They clean and package the fish for you. Well, it's a start on filling up the new freezer we bought. We ate some fresh halibut when we got home Saturday and it was delicious!

We spent the night Thursday at Ninilchik Point Overnighter. This is the view from our cabin window. That is a volcano across the water and there are several along that range of mountains.

The cabins are advertised as "homegrown" log cabins. It was VERY clean but VERY rustic. The people in the cabin next to ours brought their catch of the day and cleaned it themselves right outside the cabin. I watched a young eagle (not 'bald' yet) flying around them hoping someone would share with him. He was really big and I watched him for a long time as he was watching them. We saw quite a few bald eagles in the area of Anchor Point and Ninilchik - must be good fishing for them, too.

Friday morning we got up really early to go back to Anchorage (180 miles) so we could attend the two morning sessions at the Temple. What a perfect way to end our latest Alaska experience.

The Month of May

2008-06-15T08:40:00.000-08:00

We had the most wonderful month in May. We started out visiting Michael & Melissa in Urbana, Illinois. As you can see, marriage, work, school and church agrees with them very well. We had so much fun sightseeing and just being with Michael and Melissa and seeing where they go during their daily lives. Melissa love's her work and schooling at the University of Illinois/Champaign. It was fascinating for us to have her give us a tour of the very large, very old library on campus. We also toured other libraries on campus and in town. She has writen more about our visit on her blog. We should have taken more pictures, but didn't. Michael's job at the Freestar Bank, campus branch in Champaign is also going well. They are doing so many things in Illinois to make this a wonderful experience for them.

Of course we had to have a reason to go "outside" and our reason was Robert's graduation from the University of New Mexico on May 17, 2008. We were not able to attend Emily's graduation in December, so it was great to have them both in cap and gown for pictures. We are so proud of Emily and Robert for their hard work the past four years!

Grandma and Grandpa Brough came from St. George for graduation. It was so fun to celebrate this wonderful occasion with them.

The rose garden on the UNM campus is one of Emily's favorite spots.

One more picture - the graduates and proud parents. We spent five days in Albuquerque and loved being there with family and friends. The Monday after graduation, Robert started a new job with First Federal Bank.

Garth returned to Fairbanks after graduation and Nick and I continued our vacation. We flew to Phoenix so we could see my nephew, Jordan, return from his mission and visit with Don, Nancy & the nephew's in Gilbert. The only family member I didn't see on this trip was Zach, who is in Brazil on his mission. We drove with Grandma & Grandpa to St. George and spent a few days there. We ate dinner at Brian & Kim's new home and saw all the cute nephew's and niece there.

We went to the St. George visitor's center to see a very moving exhibit by Angela Johnson.

Memorial Day as we were growing up was a fun time to get together with aunts, uncles & cousins that we didn't see very often. We always had new summer clothes to wear and mom always worried about us climbing on headstones or walking on graves. This Memorial Day was different - it was a time to share with my son, Nick, some family history and remember those ancestors so long gone. My brother, Mark, Mom, Dad & I, along with Nick, visited the Garland, Utah cemetary and the Fielding, Utah cemetary.

Nick and I spent several days in Avon with Mark, June & the four great nephew's there. We were able to see Mike and Melissa two more times before we left; they were in Cache Valley for Melissa's brother, Nick's, graduation. On our way to catch the plane for Fairbanks, we were able to visit Joye, Kim, Kylie, Janalyne, Cameron & Makayla (Jesse was at work).

Our family time in May ended with a visit from Rosie & Craig Parker, Garth's sister and brother-in-law. Garth spent some time with Rosie & Craig before Nick and I returned from our trip. We had such an enjoyable time with them. The Parker's took a trip through Denali Park and visited friends in Anchorage (President & Sister Owen's of the Anchorage Temple Presidency who are their neighbors in Boutiful Utah). Our families are wonderful!

Still Winter

2008-04-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago we woke up to six inches of snow and here is Monty wondering why there is more of that white stuff all over when just yesterday it was almost gone! During the past two weeks we have had five or six snowy days but the snow is usually gone by the end of the day, along with some of the accumulated snow of the past six months. Well, this morning it is snowing again and we expect to receive two inches of snow. Yesterday I was amazed at all the grass I could see as I drove around Fairbanks. It is coming down really hard and, believe it or not - it's BEAUTIFUL this morning. The temperature was 35 degrees as I drove home from seminary this morning so at least it is 'warm' today.

It is probably hard to tell from the picture, but Monty has lost 26 lbs. since October. We are really proud of his hard work.

This is just a picture I took during the winter. The trees were so beautiful with all the snow on them.

In Alaska we have 'break-up', which is when the snow melts and the ice on the rivers break up. It was fun to watch the snow slide off the roofs of our condominiums. Our Homeowner's Association even posted notices on everyone's garage to "Beware of falling snow." They cautioned us to not park our vehicles directly under the roof and not to let children play there. I heard the snow fall several times and there was a layer of ice under the snow that came down too. It was very dangerous!

Nick is just about done with his semester at the Tanana Valley Community College. He has taken classes in Philosophy and Sociology. He is registered for fall semester at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. His plans are to study Political Science with a minor in Economics. It has been so warm lately that all of the ice sculptures have melted.

We purchased a web cam and over the past few weeks have enjoyed chatting with Jacob and Rachel from England. It is wonderful to have access to technology so we can see each other as we talk and it is FREE.

Technical Difficulties

2008-04-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

You all get to benefit from my learning curve! Click on the half-picture, then click on "slideshow" at the far right of the Photobucket page to see the show. Robert, are my quotations in the "right" place??

Ice Festival

2008-04-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we attended the Ice Festival here in Fairbanks. My camera freezes when trying to take pictures outside, so we are sharing pictures our friend, Jim Wherry, took for and of us. You should check out the Tula Belton 2008 Photo Gallery on www.icealaska.com. Next year we plan on attending at night with a better camera.

Ice Festival

2008-04-16T09:41:00.001-08:00

Photobucket Album

2008-04-09T18:25:00.001-08:00

Seward, Nebraska (Oops, Alaska)!

2008-04-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

The picture above is a beautiful church, which looked so quaint nestled against a backdrop of cloud covered mountains, pine trees and snow. Last weekend we traveled to Seward, which is 125 miles south of Anchorage. We had a 6 hour drive to Anchorage where we stopped to wander the mall and browse at the bookstore for a couple of hours. We ate dinner at the Sourdough Mining Company. The picture below is a white-faced sea otter who was floating on his back as

our cruise boat motored past him. Please click to enlarge the picture - he is cute.

Garth and Nick enjoyed breakfast at this restaurant, famous for it's made-from-scratch breakfasts.

Before going to Seward, I logged onto Map Quest to check mileage and motels. I was so happy to see a Super 8 Motel in Seward (thinking prices would be somewhat reasonable there). I gave Garth the phone number (funny, it was a 402 area code) and he called, asking to make sure this was Seward he was calling. He booked a room for two nights and we relaxed knowing we had a place to sleep. We didn't see a Super 8 as we drove through town, so Garth pulled up here at the Hotel Seward to ask directions. The very nice young woman at the counter said there wasn't a Super 8 in town, she called the number we had and we all were surprised to find out we had reservations in Seward, Nebraska! (Sounds like Alaska) They were kind enough to cancel our reservations, without penalty. We had a lovely room at the Hotel Seward for a very reasonable price - we highly recommend them if you are in the area. Be aware, however, that our two queen beds room for $69 in April is $200 a night from May-September.

We booked a 4 hour Wildlife Cruise on the View Finder. It was a cold, snowy day but there were 30 adventurous people on our cruise. We enjoyed visiting with Don & Gay - longtime Alaska residents who had lots of stories to tell.

We saw black and white porpoises (look closely, he's down there somewhere).

We passed several large rocks with sea lions enjoying the snowy day. There were lots of birds on the rocks, too.

Here are two bald eagles perched on this rock. We passed one a little earlier high in a tree, just watching us drifting by.

I didn't get pictures of the hump back whales we saw - well, we saw the hump back and the tail as he dove back down into the water. It was a very fun trip. We drove back up to Anchorage and spent Saturday night at Fort Richardson. Driving was a little hazardous on the way home because I insisted we take the snow tires off the car. We had had such lovely weather in Fairbanks that it seemed silly to keep snow tires on to get chopped up from the rocks still left on the road. We could have won the dirtiest car award when we got home!

2007-12-02T21:10:00.000-09:00

Garth is working a flex-schedule and every other Friday he has off. We have really enjoyed spending this day together and last Friday, November 30th, we visited North Pole, Alaska. North Pole is just a quick 20 minute drive South of Fairbanks. We noticed the ice sculptures at the bank and at Wendy's as we arrived in town.

This is a 45-foot-tall fiberglass Santa. He may be more frightening to the little ones than sitting on his lap inside Santa's house.

Here are some other ice sculptures we found. There is an ice-carving festival next weekend, and people are getting started on their pieces. In down-town Fairbanks we saw a team starting on a sculture in front of a dental office. Any guesses on what that might be a sculture of?

The Santa Claus House is located on St. Nicholas Drive. Here are some of the displays around and on the building. It is a bright, cheerful place!

Inside Santa's House were these beautiful, life size Santa figures on display. There are all kinds of Christmas ornaments and decorations for sale. There are many locally made crafts and I really loved the carved wooden bowls. During the tourist season in the summer, the Santa Claus

House is a popular place for visitors. This is a family-owned business and has been in operation 55 years. They estimate 250,000 visitors come through every year.

There were lots of little kids waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap, and Mrs. Clause was there, too. Quite festive!

http://santaclaushouse.com/

When Garth & I left the house on Friday, the temperature in our car read 58 degrees (the benefit of a heated garage). By the time we got to the base and parked at the gym, the temperature was -1. It has been quite cold, and this week the highs will be -5 or -8 a couple of days.

Garth will be in Sacramento, CA this week attending a course on malpractice cases. He has been looking forward to going "outside" as we call it here in Alaska.

Pictures!

2007-11-23T22:06:00.001-09:00

It has been 2 hours and 20 minutes since I started this blog. I might blog more often if I could figure out how to download the pictures from my Kodak EasyShare software to the blog! We enjoyed our Thanksgiving yesterday with friends from the ward, Tom & Kitty Griffin.

Sorry about the green eyes! Here is our Monty (I know some of you are missing him). He has lost 12 pounds on his diet. He can't decide in this picture whether he is going to continue down the stairs or go back up!

Here are some new friends of ours, Eliza and Perry Farley. This is Halloween and we are meeting Perry for the first time. George Farley works with Garth in the legal office on Ft. Wainwright. Gayle is the mother of these two cuties. Eliza will be coming over for a couple of hours tomorrow (Saturday) morning while mom, dad and Perry do some Christmas shopping. One of these days we hope Perry will get to stay, too. I have this in common with Emily, I love to help out and have kids over to visit with. It's nice to be able to help people out and it helps us be a little more lively and energetic around here.

Garth, Alena Keller (a ward member) and I were in Palmer, Alaska on November 2nd & 3rd. We were there for a cannery assignment. This is a beautiful snow-covered mountain in the area. Garth and I also attended a session in the Anchorage Temple. The new Temple President and Matron are neighbors of Rosie and Craig Parker (Garth's sister) in Bountiful. Garth met both President and Sister Owen, and I introduced myself to Sister Owen after the session. They sure think Craig and Rosie are great!

Last week, Garth and I visited the Knotty Shop in Salcha, Alaska. It was getting dark and was snowing, but I did get a picture of a moose. They have quite a variety of carvings from knotty wood, as well as other gifts and novelty items.

These are not bags of trash outside, this is my new deep-freeze! I bought two turkeys and don't have any room in my freezer (remember Garth & Nick's fishing trip in August?). It is so cold here that I just left them outside for about a week. There was an article in the paper a few weeks ago about not leaving food out in the snowbank that would attract bears or moose, but we have a fenced area so I wasn't too worried. There were a couple of times that Monty started barking and I wouldn't have been too surprised to see my turkeys being carried away!

I attended a super-Saturday for Relief Society a few weeks ago. It was fun and we learned how to make these scripture bags out of placemats. I have made one for myself, Melissa, Rachel and Emily. Let me know what colors you like and I will make one for you, too.

Monty is wearing his new booties. With the weather so cold here in Fairbanks we had to get something to protect his feet. He sure did a fancy high-step when we went out on our walk. He soon got into the swing of things, we ran for a while and he did his usual 'stuff' while we were out. We have just arrived home and he is trying to get them off as quickly as possible. We didn't have much of a choice of colors, so he will be Christmasy all winter long in red and green.

This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions - making 'turkeys' to give to friends. I made about 50 turkeys this year for the sister's I visit teach, the kids in seminary, and for Garth to take to work. My mom made these years ago when the kids were little and they are so fun to make. Emily 'tagged' me so I will quickly tell six things about myself. I enjoy crafty projects - like making bags out of placemats and turkeys out of cookies and candy corn. Garth and I are hoping to make some fun wall-hangings or quilts in the near future. We have done quite a bit of moving over the past 20 years and I love meeting new people and getting to know the areas we have lived in. I think these experiences have made our lives so rich. Alaska has been an adventure so far, and we are excited about the new experiences we will continue to have up here. I love children and enjoy helping out friends and ward members by taking care of their kids for a while. It is always nice to send them home again, too. One of the new things about me is that I am teaching early morning seminary this year and absolutely love it. I know I'm not the best teacher, but I am learning to prepare the lessons to meet the interests of my class and I'm learning to relax a little as I teach so we have a fun time, too. I have 19 students in my class and miss them when they don't attend every day. I'm becoming more of a regular exerciser nowdays. After seminary, which goes from 6:30-7:20 a.m., I go to the gym on-post and work out. I like the eliptical machine and recumbant bicycle. Three days a week I have been using the nautilus machines to build some strength and muscles. The final, sixth thing about myself is, I miss you all and am so grateful for our friendship and relationship as a family. Thanks for all your love and support for us.

Preparing For Winter

2007-09-23T17:05:00.000-08:00

We saw our first Aurora Borealis last night! It was great. Jim Wherry, Garth's co-worker called at 9:30 p.m. to tell us one was forming. We looked out the window, then went outside to look. It was a pale green and stretched all the way across the sky. We drove up Chena Ridge Road and stopped near the top where we could see a great expanse of the sky. It was fascinating. Maybe when the weather gets colder we will see different colors.

In the news the past week there has been lots of talk of snow falling within the next two weeks. We are already two or three weeks late in having the first freeze, which came Friday night. I've downloaded pictures of our cars and the outlets to plug the cars into during below zero weather so the car and all the liquids won't freeze. This first picture (above) is at the institute building. All I have to do at 6:15 a.m. is plug the car in BEFORE I turn off the ignition, then everything will start when I leave an hour later. The second picture is Garths' Nissan Xterra. The last picture is my Saturn Vue. Just so you all know what we are driving!

Last Friday & Saturday (14th & 15th) Garth and I went to Anchorage. It was a beautiful drive - the leaves on the trees had all turned gold. We enjoyed a session at the Temple on Friday. Saturday we went furniture shopping and purchased living room and bedroom furniture. It should all be delivered Wednesday. We are looking forward to putting our underwear in drawers instead of suitcases on the floor, and having a couch to sit on instead of patio furniture. It was dusk as we were driving home on Saturday and we learned to slow down quickly when the car ahead of us braked - on two different occasions he stopped for moose crossing the road. They were so hard to see in the dark.

I wanted to tell you the cold weather policy for our ward. We are to call 1 hour prior. -30 No Seminary, No Activities, No Sunday School. -40 Sacrament Only. -50 No Church. This does give us some comfort. We have heard that there will be a couple of weeks during the winter where the temperature does get -30 or colder. For about four months the temperature is zero (0). We will plan on giving weekly weather reports when we start having the extreme colds. Dad has heard that people in Fairbanks are called the "frozen chosen".

Dad is working a similar schedule to Jacob, where he is off every other Friday. He was off this past Friday and we enjoyed running errands, going to the gym together and watching a movie. Nick is keeping things together in the bakery at Sam's. Seminary is going well. We miss you all.

Water Expeditions

2007-09-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

Family and friends, thanks for your patience. My digital camera is on the blink so I purchased a couple of one-time use cameras. It took us a couple of weeks to use them up, get them developed (AAFES was slow) and figure out how to use the Kodak EasyShare program. Hopefully we are back in business!

Three weeks ago Nick and Garth met Craig Parker, Garth's brother-in-law, in Valdez at Prince William Sound. They fished for salmon and brought back about 80 lbs., which is taking up lots of space in our small freezer. Here is a picture of Nick's first catch ever, a rock fish. As you can see, this was pretty exciting for him. They had rainy weather the two days they were there, but Nick said "This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen".

This is the Riverboat Discovery. Nick and I took a 3 1/2 hour cruise along the Chena River. We went with Mary Lou Wherry, whose son, Jim, works with Garth in the legal office. Mary Lou lives in Illinois and was here visiting for two months.

During the cruise we saw a float plane take off and land on the river, we saw reindeer and a demonstration on preparing salmon to be dried. The dogsled mushers take the dried salmon with them to feed their dogs because it is so light to carry. You could tell she had cut-up a lot of salmon.

We disembarked at a small village where we saw demonstrations of beadwork, types of hides used by the athabascans , how they prepared them for use and what the skins were used for. We also saw a team of dogs that a musher brought for us to see. The last picture I have is of her training camp where we saw the team of dogs pull her on a four-wheeler around a pond, approximately one mile. Those dogs knew what they were going to do and were anxious to start their run! It was quite exciting.

We are all doing well. Nick will start work at Sam's on Tuesday. I am teaching early morning seminary and, as Rachel has told us for years, it IS the best calling in the church! I do have a hard time getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m., but once I am there I love those 18 youth. I am teaching the freshmen & sophomores. People ask about Garth's job. It is going well. The weather is getting colder - in the 40's in the morning. The leaves are turning yellow and starting to fall off the trees.

Anchorage, Friends & Rhubarb

2007-08-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

Friday morning, August 3rd, Nick, Garth and I left for Anchorage. There are two ways to travel to Anchorage from Fairbanks, and we took the Richardson Highway, which is the longer of the two routes. It was beautiful with wildflowers, trees, mountains and glimpses of glaciers along the way! We stopped at the Sourdough Roadhouse where Patsy was our cook and Todd was our waiter. Their claim to fame is that they use a sourdough starter originating in the 1890's. Patsy said she doesn't spend winters there anymore. After we ordered, a quaint looking woman came in and said they had shot a bear. Todd told us it was in the back of the pick-up outside. We were drawn to the pick-up with the thoughts of seeing a bear! It was sobering to see that magnificent animal lying in a pool of blood. The fascination didn't last long and we were left wishing we hadn't looked, that we could have seen the bear down by the pond instead. With our stop for lunch, the trip took us 9 hours.

One of the attractions of going to Anchorage was seeing our friends, Eddie & Sharlene Hakala, who were in our ward in Albuquerque for a couple of years. Eddie is from Anchorage and they have lived here almost 3 years. We had a great visit with this wonderful family - we didn't call and let them know we had moved to Alaska, so they were very surprised to see us! Nathan is 12, Haley is 8, Jarod is 5, Chad is 3 and Katie is almost 5 months old. We look forward to seeing the Hakala's again.

Going to the Temple in Anchorage was a very special experience. We are so thankful to have a Temple in Alaska and I hope we can attend frequently. I know making the trip in the winter will be impossible. Kevin and Susana Kennedy from our ward were in the same session. The Anchorage Temple is a small Temple so making a reservation to attend a session is required. While we were attending the Temple, Nick visited his favorite store, Borders. I think he acquired a new CD, surprise!!

We ate lunch at the Moose's Tooth, which is known for specialty pizza's. We tried the Spicy Thai Chicken because we loved Mike & Melissa's so much. We vote for Mike & Melissa's pizza over the Moose's Tooth, but their pizza was good. We also ordered 1/2 Avalanche & 1/1 Sgt. Pepper's. You'll have to come to Alaska to find out what those pizzas are all about.

We took the Parks Highway on the way home, which goes through Denali National Park. It rained all day Saturday and the clouds were very low, so we did not see much along the way. There are a couple of places where Mt. McKinley should have been visible. There was an accident, which blocked both lanes of the road and we were stopped for 1 1/2 hours. We were very comfortable in the car listening to some Miles Davis, reading and talking. Garth walked up the road to check out the accident - nobody was hurt. I had been driving and just after I got out to take a picture of some flowers, I noticed the lights on the dashboard dimming. I had run the battery out! Well, what better time to have a dead battery than sitting on a road with vehicles all around you. Garth asked the nice couple in a jeep behind us to give us a jump. No searching for cables or someone to help, they were right behind us with nothing else to do. The drive home took 6 hours (not counting the wait). The public restrooms on both highways sure leave a lot to be desired. It was great to be home.

Last week we went out to George & Gail Farley's home to pick raspberries. They didn't have too many raspberries, but did send us home with lots of rhubarb! I made a batch of freezer jelly (only 2 pints), a rhubarb crisp for Garth to take to work, and two loaves of rhubarb streusel bread (yummy). I still have tons of it left and will probably make some more jelly. I didn't like the chunks of rhubarb in the jelly, so this time I will put it in the blender and see if I can make a smoother product and I will share it with some neighbors.

Garth has been called as a Sunday School teacher for the 12-13 year olds. Tuesday night we have an appointment with our Bishop. I guess I might be receiving a call soon, too. We test drove a Saturn Vue on Saturday - I'm hoping to get myself another car, and Garth would like a jeep. I love the Honda, but feel like I am sitting down so low, and I have a hard time seeing out the back window.

2007-07-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

Friday night Nick, dad and I went to the Alaska Salmon Bake, all-you-can-eat salmon, battered cod & prime rib. They also had a variety of salads, baked beans and beverages. For dessert we had a selection of cakes with a concoction of blueberries & apples to put on the plain cake. It was really delicious! Of course, we ate all we could. Here is Nick's first plate of food and mom's first plate of all-you-can-eat. After Nick finished the cod, he felt like he could try some of the other delicasies, too.

The Alaska Salmon Bake is held at Pioneer Park, which has several cabins built in the late 1800's or early 1900's with shops in them. There is an Air Museum and other touristy things to see. We went to Pioneer Park on July 4th to enjoy the festivities, but didn't eat. I've taken a few pictures so you can see how pretty it is. Nick was ok about riding the salmon until some smart alec old guy said "ride 'em cowboy", then he wanted to get down.

Grandma Brough remembers the beautiful flowers when she was in Fairbanks many years ago, and they really are beautiful!

Last night Nick went to see the Simpson's Movie. I think he enjoyed it. He is at the public Library this afternoon checking out CDs, then will vacuum the car - lots of Monty hair since that is the only way we have had to transport him from motel to motel to the condo.

Dad is attending a housing seminar today & I was supposed to go blueberry picking. We had a lot of rain this morning so our picking outing was postponed. Now I am getting the blog set up (maybe there is a reason it rained this morning) so we can keep in touch.

We really love the condo and all the room we have. Next week we should close on the purchase and if there is any money left over (chuckle) we might get another car and possibly living room furniture and/or a set of bedroom furniture.

keeping in touch

2007-05-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

Mutti,
Everyone we know have been starting up these blogs and we thought this would be a wonderful way of keeping the family close even though everyone is moving away. You can post pictures, updates, funny stories, and it is super easy to use. This way any time we want to know how you are doing up there in Alaska we can hop on this site and see what is new. Bob and I will get one going soon and maybe we can talk the others into it as well. We love you and will miss you so much when you are gone. Happy Mothers Day!!! You're the greatest.
Love,
Bobily