Nathan gave his first Sacrament talk on Sunday. He had been waiting, dreading the call from Bro. Link, who assigns talks and it came! We worked on how you write a talk and how you practice it and he did well but he was so nervous. His eyes looked black to me as he stood and began to speak. He never once smiled or relaxed but I am sure it will be better next time. No pictures taken but a mile stone nevertheless.
Today is Mandy’s 10th birthday. A whole decade old. For the first time in her school career, I took cupcakes to her school for her birthday. The whole cafeteria sang to her and she was embarrassed but very pleased. We had taken cupcakes up to the school for everyone. She sat and laughed with her friends and I think, enjoyed the attention. Did I take a camera? No, did I even have my phone with me? No. I can’t believe she is 10. 10 seems really old. We are going to have a family lunch on Saturday at P.F. Chang’s and open her other presents (she got to open one today) and then on the 21st, she has a birthday party planned. I promise to take pictures!
We had a week to finish getting Mandy ready for school. She is entering a small, private school called Central Baptist Academy and new to us, we had to buy uniforms and school supplies and a new backpack and lunch box. Anyone that knows Mandy, knows that making decisions of any kind are hard for her. What do you want for breakfast?, What color are you wearing today? are hard – making decisions about backpacks and lunch boxes – oh my goodness. I think we spent our hour in Target looking at the backpacks! Whew. Anyway, we got through it and she likes her turquoise backpack with of course, matching lunch box! The uniforms were fairly easy, in that they were uniforms and there was one store that sold them. Unfortunately, they’re supply was low and they didn’t have her size. Never fear, there is an online store and we finally received her blue, red and white plaid jumper with the white, Peter Pan collar trimmed in blue or red. Seriously. She does get to wear a school t-shirt and khaki shorts to school on Wednesdays and a polo shirt with school logo and jeans on Fridays. This entry is about last week but she had her first day today and I took a picture. She Did Not want me to but I am the Mother and I took a picture anyway.
On Wednesday of last week, Lizzy came to visit. She brought with her a craft box from her Grandmother Turpin and while here, she and Mandy made a CTR banner. They had a good time picking out the exact colors and size. Iroud of Lizzy in that she didn’t like the size of the pattern so we changed it and she decides what size she wanted to make them. When you make something the first time it is hard to change the pattern. They worked on it on Wednesday and in between other things worked on it Thursday.
Nathan got into the action by playing on the Wii with the girls. Why they went into my bedroom – I had stripped the bed to change the sheets – is beyond me.
On Thursday, we woke up and did chores and then went swimming in the Saddle Creek pool. Much laughter and splashing ensued. We came home around lunch time, had lunch and then Grandpa, Lizzy, Mandy, Nathan and I went to see Turbo. It was a really cute movie and we ate 4 large containers of popcorn! We waddled out of the movie. Then we took Lizzy home and visited with everyone for a little while. 
and he scores!
On Friday, Mandy went over to the school for a visit with her teachers and picking out her desk and putting away her supplies. She seems to have two really nice teachers and the other kids – 5 boys and 3 other girls seemed very nice also. Nathan and Glenn left in the early afternoon and dropped by Shelly’s. Glenn has been saying he was going to take Becca out for ice cream for quite a while and finally,they were able to get their schedules together. After the yummy ice cream, Nathan and Glenn went to an Astro’s baseball game.
Mandy and I went looking for a solid blue cardigan or hoodie to wear in school. No such luck but we did have a fun time eating at P.F. Changs and checking out the Barnes and Nobles bookstore at the Woodland’s Mall.
On Saturday, Nathan almost burned the kitchen down. He was tired from the game the night before and took a nap and as a result missed lunch. I had saved him lunch and when he got up I told him to warm it up in the toaster oven. He put a plastic plate in the toaster oven with the food on it to warm it up and then came and talked to us in the office. I looked up and saw flames shooting out of the toaster oven – he hadn’t closed the door and flames were as high as the cabinets above. We ran in to the kitchen and unplugged the toaster oven and then I grabbed it and carried it out side because of the fumes and the flames. One ruined toaster oven but other than soot on the cabinets, everything else was ok.
What a week!
Nathan had wanted to see Mt. McKinley (the highest mountain in North America) but we didn’t want to go all the way north to Denali Park so we drove to Talkeetna and hoped for a clear day to see the mountain. Talkeetna, itself is a pure tourist trap but we were able to get a good shot of Mt. McKinley.
There was a small museum which had a great room size topical map showing all of the peeks and how they people try to climb Mt. McKinley. Not something I would care to do but it seems like a lot of people like that kind of thing. While talking, the quide told us about a site seeing plane that had tried to fly over Mt. McKinley and the weather turned bad. The plane had to land and the tourists had to stay in the base camp for several days. Scary.
On the walk down to the river to take the picture. There were flowers everywhere. Going back to Anchorage we stopped and ate dinner. No problems, several hours later we got back to the hotel and found I didn’t have my purse. Kind of panicked me. No wallet, phone, ID. We backtracked in our minds and could only come up with the restaurant, luckily Glenn had the receipt and they had found it! Yeah, for honest people. Glenn and Nathan turned around and went back and retrieved it. My hero’s. The next day we headed back south to pick up our fish. It was our last day and our plane didn’t leave until 12:30 a.m. We wanted to put as much into it as we could and arrive very tired at the airport so that we could sleep on the way home. So much for our plans – but that is later. We headed down to Girdwood, which is a small skiing area. Very pretty and I would imagine very expensive. We rode a tram up to the top of the Alyeska mountain. It was beautiful and very peaceful. On the way up we saw beautiful mountains all around us.
Seen from the air – a mother moose and her baby resting by a pond.
While we were up there, helicopters were everywhere. They were removing/replacing chairs lifts and so we had to have pictures, of course.
The Aleskya Lodge. That is one beautiful building. I felt like I was in a very, formal English hunting lodge. 
The tram from above.
A glacier from the top. It was a well worth going up to seeing the surrounding mountains. Next, we went to see Exit Glacier. Interesting as it is the same glacier that Asia and Kathie and Glenn and I went to see 13 years ago.
The glacier is really a blue color. It has to do with the minerals it picks up as it kind of slowly crashes down the mountain. 
As we came out from the walk to the glacier there was huge rock. What do boys do, when they see rocks? Climb them, of course!
down he
COMES!
The last place we visited before we headed to the airport was the Alaska Conservation Center. I really forget how young Alaska is. So many of the centers and museums are new or still in progress. The Center was the same way. As we rode around there were plaques of things that were planned. They take orphaned or injured animals and try to rehabilitate and then release. They also try to educate the public. They are the only place in the United States that have Wood Bison. This type of bison was considered very endangered, in fact they were thought to be extinct and several were found and since then the wood bison are doing well here. I don’t think there are any wild ones anywhere. 
The herd with little ones. 
A close up of one of the babies.
They also had musk oxen. Which we had never seen. It is summer and so they are losing their winter coats. 
They had several large brown bears that had been orphaned and are being raised here. They are separated into large, electrified areas. Reminded me a little of Jurassic Park.
They also had some fabulous elk and a eagle that was shot by a farmer and lost his wing.
Thus ended our Alaskan vacation. We drove back to Anchorage, dropped off our rental car and checked in. The flight went ok, except that instead of being a nonstop flight, we stopped in Seattle. Everyone had to get off the plane even though we got right back on the same plane and flew to Houston. We had a great time and would love to go back.
We actually didn’t plan this next part well. We planned on driving down to Seward to go on our cruise, ok and the next thing was to go fishing and that also went out of Seward. It is 3 hours drive through mountains to get from Anchorage to Seward. Beautiful drive but too long for Glenn and Nathan to take off by 6 a.m. So, after thinking about it, we decided to stay in Seward on Tuesday night. The only problem was that July is the height of the tourist season and we called basically, oh the day before! We did get reservations at a bed and breakfast but then they called us back and said they had double booked the rooms. Sigh. The lady then suggested another place and Glenn said fine. So, after we arrived back in port from our cruise, we looked for some where to eat. I asked Glenn if we shouldn’t check into our hotel and he said we would do it after dinner. Umm. Then we had dinner and I again said “why don’t we check into our hotel”? Glenn said, “Well, why don’t we go find out where we can get some sandwiches for tomorrow.” Umm? What is wrong with our hotel? We went to the Safeway and arranged to have sandwiches ready by 5:30 a.m. and then again I said, “Hotel”. We had driven by a odd railroad car going in and it hadn’t looked very clean. Well, that’s where we were going. I promptly said – I’m driving back to Anchorage, have a good time!. Anyway, we agreed to check out the place. Didn’t look promising as we couldn’t get the door open as it had a number lock. 
There were three families that went out. Here is their catch. They were gone from 6 a.m. to around 5:30 p.m. Two very tired guys but they had a wonderful time. While the guys fished Mandy and I went to explore the rest of Seward. Which, by the way, is quite small. We ate lunch at a place called “Nellie’s Cafe” and went to the Sea Life Center which was very well done. The Center rehabilitates
Outside the Center.
a guillermot and a duck in the outside area for the birds. 
Mandy’s first picture with our new camera. Aye, Aye Captain!
Sailing away. Another fun day in Alaska.
We decided to take a cruise out of Seward. It cruised around Resurrection Bay and stopped at Fox Island, where we had a yummy salmon and prime rib dinner.
Seward harbor in the background, right before we boarded our ship, the Nunatak.
Views as we headed toward Resurrection Bay.
We stopped at Fox Island for lunch. 
Our ship docked and waiting for us. We were on the island for an hour.
We had a Ranger give us a talk after dinner and they had an orca skull (above) and other selected skulls.
a glacier seen from the ship. We asked how many glaciers are in Alaska and the answer was that they haven’t been counted but close to 100,000. Next we went to Emerald Bay, named because the water is this dark green. It is full of nutrients and the bird and seal populations come there to eat. Picture below – at the top you can see a WWII bunker. Alaska was actually quite involved in WWII. They have bunkers that soldiers climbed up and stayed for a week at a time. They watched the bay for enemy planes and boats.
The birds had nests in all of the little coves and crannies.
puffins swimming on the water. They are water birds and aren’t very graceful while flying. Puffins on the rocks. 
Seals sunbathing. The taller one toward the back is the male. The others are females.
My camera doesn’t do justice to the scenery. I understand how many could live here – although I surely don’t understand how they can. The prices are unbelievable.
Nathan on board. He spent most of his time on board talking to the captain and asking a million questions.
We all really enjoyed the cruise and seeing the beautiful creatures and mountains.
