Alaska: Day One

Melissa surprised us late Tuesday night, or actually Wednesday morning at midnight. She had come to meet us at the airport, but we missed her! Somehow, we went through a back terminal, so she met us at our motel instead.

The next morning, we loaded up the "Green Space Turtle" and headed toward her home in Kenai. We made several stops. . . Here is Baluga Bay where you can look for Baluga whales. We didn't see any, but we did see some mountain sheep on the other side.
We also stopped at the Wildlife Conservation center and saw many of Alaska's wildlife. We saw moose, bears, bison, etc. Here, we are feeding an Elk.

The scenery is gorgeous.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

O.K. We didn't ride a train, but I'm sure we saw one on the six hour drive to Denver. We arrived five hours before our plane took off(there was a delay), so we got to go many circles on the moving sidewalks and escalators! By the way, it takes a lot of stuff to go with three kids to Alaska for 10 days! The kids did great on their first airplane ride. We left at 7:30, Denver time. They enjoyed it for an hour or two and then fell asleep until we reached Anchorage. (It was about a 5 1/2 hour trip.) We arrived in Anchorage at 11:15, Alaska time.

Next Stop: Gram's

We celebrated early birthdays at Gram's before driving to Denver on Tuesday.

Slip-N-Slide!

They've improved the slip-n-slide since I was a kid.
This was fun!

We are actually on our way to Alaska via the farm for a night.
This provided some cool entertainment!

Fourth of July Festivities

Fireworks. . .

Fun Gifts . . .
(Jeanne made a quilt with photos
of Grandma and Grandpa on it.)

Family Picnics. . .
(We got to know our cousins from Texas better.)

and a Full House!
(The house started to fill up starting on Wednesday, July 1.
Everyone started coming for the family reunion on Saturday.
It was a lot of fun to be able to get reacquainted for several days!)

Girls Night Out

Sydney invited her friends to a movie, Kit Kittridge in lieu of a birthday party. The girls had a great time at a sweet movie.

Cleaning our House

We are spending many Saturdays at our new house. No, it isn't finished yet; however, we are cleaning up after the construction crews. Here is our first meal in our kitchen!