Going to Alaska for Christmas meant we got to visit with all of Seth’s family (parents and 3 sisters and families) and my brother and sis-in-law.  Here is Seth’s side of the family, in his parents’ front yard, which is the same house in which Seth grew up.  Aren’t we cute??

Happy New Year!

It was below zero at the time of this picture (actually it was below zero basically the whole second week we were there!), and yet everyone was in good spirits.  They are a happy bunch!  I provided some comic relief by pushing the shutter button on the camera, which was on a tripod across the street, carefully running across the street, gaining momentum to plow through the snow bank on the side of the yard and tromping myself into position.  The shot just before this one, I completely lost my balance in the deep snow and ended up right in my niece’s lap!  We were all laughing so hard!  I still managed to get up in time before the shutter, but I think this shot turned out the best.

Seth’s oldest sister and her family live right next door to Grandma and Grandpa.  This makes it very convenient for visiting…we just get to spread out our stuff even more and forget leave tokens of our appreciation for them to find after we’ve left…you know, like dirty socks and Lego pieces.  Ethan slept at their house, sharing a room with two cousins, while Seth and I had a guest room at his parents’ place.  I’m not sure if Ethan would have even missed us had we left him there!

Seth’s next sister lives about 10 minutes away, where it gets to be about 10 degrees colder!  I thought their house looked so cute covered in snow…like a gingerbread house!

When we visited there, we were fed delicious, warm meals and enjoyed relaxed, easy-going company and adorable cousins.  What more could you ask for?  (This is the family that visited us in November.)

The youngest in Seth’s family is Katie, who teaches English in Japan.  She begins her long journey back tomorrow…3 hour plane ride…10 hour plane ride…10 hour bus ride…or something crazy like that!  Godspeed, Katie!

A couple days after Christmas, we visited my brother and sister-in-law.  They shared the exciting news that they are expecting their first baby this year!  That is going to be one cute baby.    After some delicious hot cocoa, they took us to lunch at a beautiful spot called Hatcher Pass where I quickly snapped this before we had to say good-bye.

We love you all!  We miss you all!  God bless you in 2009!

We arrived home Saturday night at about 10:30 pm after a smooth trip back from Alaska.  It was actually strange to not see snow covering the ground as we’d had snow in our lives since Dec 14.  (It did snow some more this afternoon, but now it’s turned to rain.)  We went from sub-zero to temps just above freezing in less than 3 hours!  It is nice to be home, but we already miss our family and we’re so grateful for the wonderful memories of our Christmas trip.  Now begins the task of sorting through over 1,300 pictures!  You can be sure I’ll be sharing some here, and because it feels strange to post without any pics, I’ll start with this one…

This is a pretty park in Anchorage that we had hoped to use for an outdoor family photo.  My sis-in-law and I were scouting it out on this beautiful and frigid day and this family showed up and started skating on the frozen pond.  I couldn’t resist taking a few shots!  Unfortunately, the day we chose for our outdoor group photo ended up being the only day that week where the brilliant blue skies remained hidden, so we didn’t come back to this spot.  So, I’m extra glad I got this one when I did.  Happy New Year!

written on Monday morning (12/22/08)

One of our neighbors sent us a couple pictures of our cul-de-sac and backyard so we could see the beautiful snow at our house. Waaahhh! We’re missing the biggest snow storm in 40 years! Yes, we’re surrounded by tons of beautiful snow here in Anchorage, but it’s supposed to be that way here. Our house hardly ever gets snow!

But…our house also doesn’t have our delightful, fun family around, so I’ll quit complaining now. Going to do some baking today and enjoy the snow here!

written Sunday night (12/21/08)

We awoke to a clear, beautiful day on Saturday morning in Seattle, but the weather forecast predicted a rather substantial winter storm to blow in around 3 pm that afternoon, exactly when our plane was to take off. We arrived at the airport around 11:45 am, hoping to connect with Seth’s sister, Katie, who was to have landed in Seattle that morning, en route to Anchorage from Japan. By the time she arrived in Seattle, she had been traveling by bus, hanging out in Tokyo and flying on a plane, all for over 24 hours, and her scheduled flight out of Seattle wasn’t until about 10 pm that night. At 12:15 we learned that she had been on the stand-by list for the 12 o’clock flight, but we couldn’t know for sure if she had made it on. We got all checked in and decided to get on the stand-by list for the 2 pm flight, hoping to get out a bit earlier and miss the storm. We were about 25^th on the list, however, and didn’t make it. So, we stuck with our 3 pm flight. As we still could not locate Katie, our hopes were high that she had made the noon flight.

During the course of the day, we became aware of many folks who were stuck in Seattle because they had missed earlier connections and were now being bumped from stand-by list to stand-by list, or who could not get a plane to their final destination because of extreme weather where they were trying to go. One lady in our hotel lobby had been there since Wednesday afternoon and was just trying to get across the state of Washington to Spokane. I don’t think Saturday was her lucky day either. Another couple at the airport said that they had left their home at 8 am on Friday morning and had spent the night in the Boston airport. Now they were in Seattle trying to make their way to Fairbanks, AK. They were on the stand-by lists, but I kinda doubt they made it out on Saturday either, as their tickets weren’t until around 10 pm, and I’m pretty sure those flights got canceled. We were very thankful our tickets were for no later than they were, but as the afternoon wore on, I began to wonder if even our flight would take off.

Our plane was a bit late in arriving, and then its passengers had to unload, and then they had to replace a circuit board on the plane, and then it was finally our turn to get on. By now, the snow had started falling and there were no signs left of the clear morning we had seen out of our hotel windows. I began to wonder at what point do they begin to cancel flights because of weather? We got on around 4 pm and then they had to spray down the plane with deicing stuff. We finally took off at 4:30 pm. Even though our traveling had been rather non-stressful up until the last couple of hours before take-off, flying is not my favorite thing to do, and so it felt good to release a few tears in the first few minutes of our flight. I was worried that I would somehow make Ethan feel scared, but he was so sweet. He and Seth held my hand and when I apologized later to Ethan for crying, he said that he hadn’t even noticed and gave me a big hug. Later, I was able to be a comfort to him, as he decided he didn’t really like looking out the dark window to see the city lights below, which I actually enjoy, because it means we’re nearly there!

The flight was actually quite smooth, with a few minor bumps here and there. The fasten seat-belt sign was able to be turned off for quite a while, and I got up to use the itty bitty bathroom twice. I had planned on getting out my laptop to do some writing, but I was just too nervous to type. I read a book and either listened to Ethan’s movie (Ratatouille) or to Phil Wickham. The flight was barely over 3 hours long and we got to our gate at about 6:40 pm, AK time. The temp was about 18 degrees, which was not a huge shock to us as we had just completed a week of freezing temps at home. We were so grateful to get off the rather warm plane and be greeted by family members that we didn’t care about the temperature!

Fortunately, Katie had made it on the noon flight from Seattle! She was a long way down on the stand-by list, but because another plane had been delayed coming into Seattle and many of those passengers were missing that 12 o’clock connection, a large number of stand-by seats had opened up and she was able to make it home. If she had not made that flight, she would probably still be in Seattle, as we learned this morning that Alaska Airlines had canceled 47 of its flights on the West Coast on Saturday! I think ours may have been one of the last ones out of Seattle that day.

The storm in Washington and Oregon certainly grew stronger after we left. Apparently, our area received nearly 10 inches of snow on Saturday night! Oh, how I would have loved to have seen that! That’s just unheard of for us! Of course, I’m very thankful we made it to Anchorage with relatively little trouble. We were in a protected little traveling pocket…praise God! But it is a tiny bit disappointing to have missed out on record breaking snowfall at our home. I’ll just have to hope it does it again someday!

written Friday night (12/19/08) from a hotel room in Seattle

Over the past week, I was caught up in preparations for our trip to Alaska for Christmas. I didn’t get everything done that I wanted, but this afternoon we left a mostly tidy home and drove to Seattle where we had hotel reservations. The crazy, wintry weather we’ve been having helped us decide to drive up on Friday and stay the night, rather than on Saturday and risk missing our flight due to poor traveling conditions. The drive today was very smooth and quite beautiful, as parts of Washington received more snow than we did. The flocked trees are gorgeous, and I’m actually a bit disappointed we won’t be here to see how much more snow will arrive in the next few days. Snow is rare enough here that it’s a special treat when it does come. Since we are flying out tomorrow, I just hope that the next batch doesn’t delay our flight, which is at 3 pm.

My focus on our trip kept me from blogging as much as I’d like, and I didn’t get to share about a neat little book I finished a couple weeks ago. It’s called Small Miracles of the Holocaust: Extraordinary Coincidences of Faith, Hope and Survival. Seth brought it home from the library and I snatched it up! It is a collection of stories, some only a couple pages in length, some longer, about people who survived the Holocaust in amazing ways. The setting was gruesome and unimaginable, and yet these stories were brought together in order to share the bittersweet, uplifting moments and connections that some survivors experienced. It is truly a remarkable book about remarkable people.

On Saturday, August 30, I picked up a friend and her daughter in the morning and we headed to the Tri-Cities area of Washington to visit some friends that recently moved there.  It was a short visit, just over night, but it was sweet to visit with friends, both during the car ride and during the stay in our friends’ new home.

On Sunday, we all went for a hike up Badger Mountain.  It was a gorgeous day and there’s a very nice trail to follow.  It was about 1 1/2 miles to the top, and the four kids in our group were troopers and made it all the way…some with some help from mom and dad.    Unfortunately, my dear camera chose this time to malfunction (is there ever really a good time?), and so this is one of the last shots I got.

I was very disappointed to not be able to capture any of the terrific views from the top!  It became very clear to me how much my camera has become such a part of my life over the last nearly 1 1/2 years that I’ve been taking daily photos.  Not having the option to take a picture felt so odd and wrong.  I tried to just enjoy the moments and capture them in my memory.

We got home about 8:30 pm and made plans to head to the beach the next day for Labor Day Monday.  Since my camera was sick, Seth and I took the opportunity to pick up an ultra-compact point and shoot…something that can fit in a pocket, be “Seth’s camera,” and go along on hikes as a just-in-case back-up!  (All the remaining pics were shot with the Canon SD 870 IS.)

We met our friends in Cannon Beach and headed down to Mo’s for lunch.  By the time we came out, the sky was gorgeous, the temps were warm and it was a spectacular day on the Oregon Coast!  Before we made our way to the sand, we stopped at a great play structure next to Mo’s and let the kiddos blow off some steam.

Underdog!!!

Then it was to the waves!  Ethan and his friend, Miss H, got completely soaked.  They are five days apart and they’ve been friends since they were about 1 1/2 years old.

Mr. L enjoyed the warm sand.  That’s Haystack Rock behind him.

Sisters…

Did I mention what a gorgeous day it was?  No wind…temps in the 70s…blue skies…perfection.

It was a very fun day!  I love it when we pick awesome-weather days to go to the beach!

As much fun as I had just playing around with the little point and shoot, I’m missing my big camera!!!  I found out where I needed to send it for repairs, and since it’s still under warranty, it won’t cost me anything.  I packed it up and sent it off on Tuesday.  It looked so lonely, with no lens or camera strap or battery or memory card…

Hurry home, my friend!

trip to Washington, part 1

trip to Washington, part 2

July 25, 2008

Our friends, the Iversons, had ended up with a room at our hotel, so we met in the lobby in the morning and walked down to Pike Place Market to find some breakfast.  On the way, we passed by this colorful vendor again, and this time, a man with a bright green shirt and red hair was working there.  He looked so coordinated and colorful, standing amongst all the chilies and peppers, that I couldn’t resist clicking a few shots in his direction.  He looked right at me at one point and I hoped he wasn’t bothered by my paparazzism.  I said, “I’m sorry, but your shirt just looks so great with all the peppers.”  He motioned that he wasn’t bothered at all, and said something like, “You’ve gotta live with the art, right?”  Indeed!

We found our way back to Crepe de France, unable to resist the call of light, thin pancakes stuffed with all varieties of deliciousness.  This place has about 10 little tables, great service and a terrific window, just begging for some pictures to be taken near it.  I obliged by grabbing this shot of our friends.  Would you ever guess they have six children?

After a stroll by some of the incredible flower vendors…

…it was back to the car at the hotel so we could drive Mike and Jenn to their pier for their Alaskan cruise!  Maybe that’s why they’re looking so young and fresh…they were fixin’ to board a big boat…sans kiddos!    (Since we met them in Texas, it’s only fittin’ I throw in some southern soundin’ verbage.)

Once we saw them off, we became tourists again and enjoyed the aquarium.

After grabbing some lunch, we boarded our own boat for a one-hour cruise around Elliott Bay.  This was an enjoyable way to see Seattle’s waterfront and learn more about the city from the knowledgeable tour guide.

Space Needle and Olympic Sculpture Park

A bit of wildlife…a bald eagle on some containers which were on a barge we cruised by.  This was about as close as I could get, not having one of those huge ginormous lenses…I have a medium ginormous lens.  Anyway, I liked the shapes and colors provided by the containers.

The building in the center with the green dome is fondly known as R2D2.  Ethan thinks that’s terrific!

By the time we made it back to our car, it was about 3:30 and time to head home.  What we failed to consider was that leaving Seattle at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon meant major traffic headaches!  It took us 2 hours to go the 60 miles to Olympia.  We often considered pulling off and finding something to do to just wait it out, but that may have proven more frustrating, as we’re just not familiar enough with the area.  Once passed Olympia, things picked up before we stopped for dinner in Centralia.  We went into a restaurant called Country Cousins which reminded us a bit of Pea Soup Andersen’s in California…they are both quaint with a meat-and-potatoes menu and a little gift shop.  We opted for soup and salad and came across a combination we’ve never seen before.  Our salads came with julienned beets on top (love beets!) and instead of croutons, they had goldfish crackers! 

We finally made it home at 8:45…without that traffic it would have been 7:30, even with a dinner stop.   Next time, we’ll know better!  But that little blip of a glitch didn’t cast any sort of shadow on our short and sweet trip.  We had great weather and just the best time reconnecting with old friends.  It did my heart and soul much good.  Thank you to the Iversons’ friends, who got them to go on that cruise, giving us all an excuse to meet up in the Emerald City!