Day 26 - Going Outside (Anchorage - Lower 48) 10 July

Quote of the Day: “I saw Mr. De’Etta outside and had to come find De’Etta.” ::snort:: Said by one of “my ladies” - Heidi. She’s coming your way Kristine - y’all are so lucky!!!
Would you believe we were out of our apartment by 8:30 this a.m. In fact, we were sitting at McD’s and I was uploading photos. ::snort::

After breakfast, Mike suggested I attend the PWOC Bible Study. What a nice guy. He visited with Ch. M, went and bought new shoes for Zander, and chatted in the halls. I only knew one lady at PWOC - but it was fun to be there. I did meet several new Chaplain’s wives…never know when paths will cross again. Lynn, I met Sherri B. today.

We drove around the back of base one more time......beautiful.

This is the view I saw a lot of in Alaska. LOL Following Mike's rental car.

Josiah and Jamin treated us all to an afternoon at Chuck E Cheese. We don’t have one of these in our towns. It was a pretty penny, but fun. We all got sketches made at the little booth - that was fun. I’ll scan them when we get home. Here they are in the roller coaster simulator.

Stacia loved anything with a steering wheel....

I was thrilled that we were able to catch up with a kindred spirit, Valerie. That was an unexpected blessing.

Currently, we are waiting to catch our flight outside (anywhere outside of AK). Another blessing occurred when we checked in. The lady asked why we were going to Juneau. “Um….because that’s where the free tickets go!” ::snort:: She changed our tickets and has us all sitting next to each other….flying from Anchorage - Seattle NON STOP. We won’t have a 6 hour layover in Juneau. We leave an hour later here….but we’ll arrive in WA at midnight instead of 4 a.m. Breakfast in Spokane? LOL

This was a great trip. We’ve had several offers to stay at other’s homes next time we are up. The boys really, really want to come up next summer for a fishing trip. It’s being billed as a “senior trip”. We shall see how much $ they save towards it. I belive next time that we will rent a couple of trailers from the base and stay at the fam camp....or stay at someone's home....Maybe we should plan a "reunion camping trip to EAFB Fam Camp". ::snort::

Saying goodbye to AK again is tough, but we know that God moves us and that HE has a reason for moving us to the places He moves us. He has people for us to touch and people to touch US ….and so we rest in the process. . . But sometimes we are sad. LOL

Day 18 - Photos

Picnic at the back of the church (Jared must have been chasing Stacia - there are only seven children here - this was our goodbye to the girls)

Tickle Time

Mike took us to DQ after saying goodbye to the girls - can you say COMFORT FOOD???

Japanese Gardens

The Car....like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter

I'd started this one about a week ago. From now on I'll put the photos in the post that tells about them.....to read about this - it's DAY 18. ::snort::

Day 25 - Eagle River/ Anchorage AK - 9 July

Quote of the Day: “Oh, De’Etta. I wondered what all the screaming was about.” Quote by Bernard from our Elmendorf Gospel Service. God is so good. We couldn’t make it to the gospel service as Mike was sick yesterday. Monica and Quincy told us that they had a softball game tonight. We showed up and watched one of their first wins…..I was quiet and visited with spectators until the team got off the field. Then I simply had to yell….”Cole”. My dear friend Nichole, spotted me and returned the yell. Then Monica, Elvie…..oh it was great. I miss “my ladies” but God moves us on for reasons. Sweet fellowship.

We woke up this a.m. with the knowledge that this was our LAST full day in Alaska weighing on our hearts. We decided to do as much as we could.

Mirror Lake: This is a quaint lake out by Eagle River - where we used to live. The younger ones wanted to fish - so we headed out. I used to bring the kids out here quite often. The older ones would hike, fish, play baseball or volley ball and the youngers would swing. We’d picnic and fish. It was fun to take everyone out there. Trish, I think Mirror Lake is one of the first places we went as friends…..after the Eagle River McDonalds where we met. ::snort::

Mirror Lake
House across the lake. There are several of these houses being built - love the float planes

No one caught a thing, but we had fun.

Caches: We couldn’t leave AK without caching. We found 4. The 5th I THINK is under a bulldozed field.

One of our cache finds....

Returning equipment: Alas our fun is ending. We returned all the fishing gear to Chaplain Matt B. Thanks, Matt. The men folk are talking about flying up for a week of fishing next year. Gregg, Nichole’s dh, says he can let us know when they are doing a halibut trip next year…..maybe.

Softball Game: Already shared about that above. What JOY to see such dear friends again.

Packing: Mike ran out to buy diapers, pacifiers and ½ a gal of milk. Necessities for our trip tomorrow. I’m doing laundry and packing things up.

Day 24 - Anchorage/Kenai AK - 8 July

Quote of the Day: Arielle to her friends, “We’ll see you again. We’ll see you in two years!” Sadly, most of our friends have moved or are moving this summer. BUT we are blessed that Darshia and Dayton and Tammy LIVE up here…so we WILL see them again - Lord willing!

Mike woke up with the bug. The children ALL wanted to go to chapel and we don’t all fit into one rental car. Mike decided we’d go to the first service and play it from there.

We happened to sit behind a new (to us) chaplain’s family. They have 3 little boys. Zander and Luke hit it off IMMEDIATELY. I offered to pull strings to get them reassigned to W TX, but they thought they’d rather stay here. ::snort:: I used Arielle’s quote for the day, since Zander has so many, but when it was time for the family to leave Zander said, “C’mon I have plans to play with Luke!” ::snort::

It was GREAT to see some of “My Ladies” at chapel. We also got to visit with the last chaplain that was here when we were. He and his family are moving out next month to be Sr Prots at McCord AFB.

After chapel we went to BK with Dayton, Tammy and their children. The kids have had so much fun up here with friends. We “stormed Midnight Sun Park”. We had hoped to make it to the Gospel service, but by this time Mike needed to come home and sleep. Stacia also took a nap.

This paved the way for Arielle, Jamin, and I to head downtown to the tourist shops. I didn’t think there would be a moment; we seized the opportunity. Jamin enjoyed Title Wave (bookstore) and Arielle and I managed to cover all of 4th and 5th avenue before the parking meter ran out of time. LOL

These Salmon Statues are all over downtown

Anchorage is known as the "city of flowers" and "city of lights"....we drank in the lush flowers Back at the apartment, we found everyone stirring but not wanting to do much. We talked about things to do on our last day in AK. The big plan was to drive up to the Russian and fish all day, but Mike is not going to be up for such a drive (total of at least 6 hours) before we begin the flying/driving marathon back to TX. We have a list of things that we “could” do tomorrow. We could climb the mountain behind our old home, go to Mirror Lake, fish at Ship Creek or Eklutna, go to the Wildlife Conservatory, Portage Glacier….and we still have about 6 folks we’ve not caught up with yet. We shall see. I have a feeling we are NOT going to get it all done.

One thing that DID work out was to meet with Dody. She had to pick up her son at the airport at 1 a.m. We met at Village Inn at 8:30 and had a fun visit. Dody is a fellow USAF spouse, homeschooler, and long time SHS member. She moved up here the month we moved to TX. She lives OUT of Anch. We’d met before but this time we had a nice long visit….it was 11:00 p.m. by the time we noticed it was getting late. We asked a kind manager to take our photo. We even switched sides so that the same photo wouldn’t be on both of our blogs. Hmmmm….when Cindy met Dody, Cindy tried to break into a gentlemen’s car…..when I met with Dody last night I tried to leave without paying….just what sort of HomeSchool support list IS SHS? ::snort::

Day 23 - update!

The men returned home around 8 p.m. They were wet, tired, and muddy. Josiah snagged a king but didn’t land it. Jamin and Jared had hits. Mike landed a 28 lb king. Photo later. He gave the Salmon to Dayton - but we have the photo. LOL

Day 23 - Anchorage/Kenai AK - 7 July

Quote of the Day: “I didn’t think you were serious.” A clue, a glimpse into why I am having a bit of trouble communicating with my men.

I woke up at 6 a.m. and discovered that Mike and the three older boys were gone…yep….they had gone to pick up Dayton and head to a creek on the Kenai where it is rumored that a few last King Salmons survive. We shall see. I called a bit ago to see if they knew when they may be home and was told, “an hour after Josiah catches a salmon”. ::snort:: THAT may be the quote of the day!

We did laundry (does this sound familiar?) and then headed out for lunch and to go spend some time with Darshia’s family. What a joy to touch base with old friends after a break in…well I was going to say fellowship - but we’ve really not had a break in fellowship - break in space and time????? Anyway - it was wonderful to see Tracy (her gh), Darshia, CT, AJ and MJ. The children had a great time - and Darshia and I had a good time too! MJ gave me the sweetest little bracelet made with heart beads. Strange how other’s children grow like weeds but you don’t notice yours growing so fast. Darshia, tell your children they were perfect little hosts and hostess….I meant to tell them but got caught up in the hugging that accompanies these visits. ::snort::

CT and MJ preform magic tricks for us

Darshia and children....I and children

We had not even made it two blocks from their home when Stacia fell asleep. The younger ones wanted to play at Midnight Sun Park. This is a “kid’s kingdom” type park on base. I thought it would be a good, safe spot for them to play while I sat in the car with Stacia.

Midnight Sun Park When Stacia woke up we headed to BK (next to the park for dinner). Lynn, a nice gentlemen held the door for me as I headed into BK. He was wearing a pilot’s jacket BUT I noticed his last name. Sure enough - Ch. B who was stationed with you at Edwards. I passed on a hello from you and Ken.

Then on to the BX to buy postcards, souvenirs, and stamps. We’re waiting for the men to get home, but I hear they are on the way. A gentlemen was supposed to be in here today to fix the phone, but I don’t see any evidence of him being here….most importantly, I still can’t phone out.

Mike's King - next to his size 13 shoes

Cy "landing" a fish - sort of....

Day 22 - Anchorage AK - 6 July

Quote of the Day: Several from Zander….”that moose is just a baby moose” - “that’s a BIG baby moose”. There is snow on the mountains because “the angels are making snow cones”.

We spent a.m. sleeping (Mike and fishermen) and doing laundry. ::snort:: Mike also ran back to the DMV to get his license. They still aren’t sure what to do. The problem has to do with the CDL. If you are driving interstate you lose your AK CDL…and there is some new process you have to go through - rules are changing within the last month. So he said he wasn’t driving interstate and they were renewing his CDL and such for AK….but when he gave the TX address it swamped the computer…..They asked him to come back Monday. He agreed, but told them he’s leaving Tuesday. He suspects he will have to tell them to cancel the CDL and simply renew his normal license. He’ll still have the military CDL equivalent for driving chapel buses/trucks etc.

We spent the majority of the afternoon at Kincaid Park. This park is amazing. It is situated at the point on the inlet. It has trees, mountains, wildlife and lots of hiking/biking/skiing trails. It’s a beautiful place to hike and climb - we did both.

Hiking at Kincaide Park - Stacia loved to run up to the boys and say "Go" then chase along side them... Exploring down on the mud flats at the inlet - still at K park Getting back UP is always harder than sliding DOWN. ::snort:: Sleeping Lady viewed from K Park

We were thrilled to walk up on a moose. Yes, we were close….we were in the middle of the bike path and he was in the brush to the side. Stacia tried all her words to describe him. "Duck", “Dog”, “Bea” (Our dog), “horse”. It was cute. Zander maintains this was a BABY moose...even after seeing it all he said it was just a "big" baby.

This moose put on quite a show. YES we were close - this is not the work of the super dooper lens.

While we were out Dayton and Tammy, Club Beyond/youth leaders at Elmendorf, called and invited us to dinner. This is fun. They have children the ages of Arielle, Nolan, and Zander. The boys and Mike have a great time with Dayton - lots of memories and new tales to share. Tammy and I have fun catching up as well. We had a BBQ up at their home on the mountain. It was 10:00 p.m. when we left - this daylight thing is always challenging. Dayton and the boys left bright and early to go fishing today…..this is why all AK becomes manic/depressive in the summer time. ::snort::

With Dayton and Tammy - no children photos - I forgot to ask permission to post. ::snort:: I need to call a list of friends today, and hopefully meet up with some. LOL