April 29 & 30

After the Fairbanks show on Tuesday, we flew to Anchorage and then drove to Soldotna--a very beautiful drive along the Kenai peninsula. The sunset was incredible, though we were unable to safely pull off the road in time to capture it with a picture.

Today is the last show. From here we drive back to Anchorage, and then I fly home and Daddy goes to Oklahoma. 

The two photos of the river were taken from our hotel room in Soldotna. The group of ladies I am with are the two ladies who run the IDEA shows, Carol and Betty, and Debra Bell. 

I'll try blog before I leave Alaska. We are hoping to go to an animal park on the way home to see more moose, some caribou and bears.

Love you girls!

Daddy and Mommy

Moose, Moose

Denali is the large mountain in the center of the photo above.

Yummy Blue Broccoli soup with sourdough bread.

Denali is in the center of the photo above.

Today we drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks. We stopped at a small village called Talkeetna because we heard the view of Mt. McKinley (Denali) was best from there. We were able to see Denali even though it was a bit cloudy. We ate lunch at place called The Roadhouse which is in a cabin that was built in 1917. The restaurant has been owned and operated by the same family since 1944. What an interesting place to have lunch! The restaurant is known for its soups, cinnamon rolls, and sourdough bread, which was started in 1902. The food is served family-style--whatever they have made is what is on the menu and you sit with whoever happens to be in the restaurant when you are. Apparently, all the hikers who hike Denali eat at The Roadhouse. There were pictures, signed t-shirts, and other memorabilia on all the walls.

We visited Denali National Park but were unable to drive very far into the park due to the snow from Friday. We went to the science center and saw a great movie about Denali.

About 70 miles outside of Fairbanks we saw the two moose. Hope you like the pictures, Kerri!

We work tomorrow and Tuesday and then go to Soldotna on Wednesday for our last show.

Love  you girlies!

Mommy and Daddy

Anchorage Convention & 12 Inches of Snow!

The Anchorage show began on Friday, April 25. It began snowing around 10:00 A.M. and didn't stop until midnight. It snowed around 12 inches and was beautiful! The local folks weren't too thrilled with the spring snow. They thought they had seen the last of the snow until fall. Daddy and I assured them that we appreciated being able to see snow this year and that you girls would love the pictures.

The green building in the picture is one of the oldest buildings in Anchorage. It was built in 1915. We could see it from our booth. It was a cheery sight in the snow.

One of the vendors here, for the Naval Academy, was a friend of Daddy's from UVa. He lives in the Anchorage area and has a daughter who does WriteAtHome. Small world, huh?

Tomorrow we go to Fairbanks. We'll try to post tomorrow or Monday.

Love you,

Mommy and Daddy

Hatcher's Pass, Thursday, April 24

Thursday was our day off, and we drove to Hatcher's Pass. It was recommended to us by a really friendly guy at a bookstore we visited early in the day. EVERYBODY we've met in Alaska has been really friendly, of course, but this guy struck up a conversation and told us all about the cool places to go. 

We got to the pass though a beautiful little town called Palmer. We stopped and had lunch in a cute coffee shop there. 

It wasn't a great day for the pass--it was hazy by the time we got up there. The distant mountains were barely visible and all colors seemed to blend. The neat thing we learned later was that the reason it was so hazy was that there forest fires in Russia and a sandstorm in the Gobi Desert. I can't prove it, but it sure sounds like an interesting explanation!

Beyond Hatcher Pass is an old mining town that has tours in the summer. It was closed when we got there and we could only see it in the distance. Too bad--it looked really cool. 

There are three different hiking trails near the pass. Mom and I talked about how fun it would be to hike one of them as a family. One is easy to moderate and ends up at a glacier! Does that sound fun? Maybe one day we can all come up here and hike it!

Kodiak Island

Hi girls. My card reader isn't working; I'll get one later today and post pictures, but here's our update. We arrived in Anchorage on Tuesday night and flew to Kodiak on Wednesday morning. We had to leave our hotel by 5:30! 

Kodiak is a small island about an hour's flight from Anchorage. It is known for its fishing, large bears, and eagles. It is beautiful!

We arrived in Kodiak about an hour early for our meeting, so Daddy spent that time preparing for his talk while I went for a walk with two other vendors. While we were walking on the dock across from the hotel, we saw fishermen on a boat cutting up freshly caught squid. We saw several eagles, a huge sea star, and sea lions. I got a picture of an enormous sea lion catching and eating a huge fish. 

Daddy was the keynote speaker at the breakfast in Kodiak, and he did a great job. After the breakfast we went to Kodiak Bible Church for the curriculum fair. It was a small fair, but very nice. We flew back to Anchorage last night, went out to dinner with some friends, and then went to bed. We are very tired.

Today is our day off. Daddy has work to do this morning. When he finishes, we are going to find something to do outside if the weather stays as pretty as it is right now, and maybe we'll go to a museum, too. Tomorrow and Saturday are the days for the Anchorage convention. 

Every time we see something pretty or unique one of us says, "I wish the girls were here!" You would love Alaska. It is like nothing you've ever seen.

We love you girls and can't wait to see you. Keep posting. You're doing a great job with the pictures and posts. We love reading them.

Mommy and Daddy

Hey Mom and Dad,

We've been hanging out at Auntie Beck's a lot lately. We've played games, watched tv, watched movies, and eaten. Here are some pictures we took at there house.

                                 

                     

                              

These are some of the fun games we played while granddad, Christopher, and Cooper slept! The one on the left is called "Blast Out" and the one on the right is "Skittle-bowl". We also played a game called "The Last Word" which was  a ton of fun and made us all laugh (mostly at Christopher). 

Mom, this is the picture I took that I told you about. 

We love and miss you both so much!! Post soon!

Hi Mom and Dad,

We miss you guys so much!!! We've been exercising and eating healthy too....... ok, maybe not exactly. Tay and Kerri have recently called our pantry a "junk food heaven." That's a first! =D Here are some pictures of our "junk food heaven." Mom you might want to sit down! 

                                                                                                     

Yes those are all poptarts!

                                                                   

Well, this pretty much sums it up. We miss you Mom and Dad! Now that we figured out the pic thing, we'll try to post more often. We love you both so much!!! 

Your Four Girls