December 24/25 - Merry Christmas

Ken, Jenn, Sawyer, Wilder, Maddie, Anderson
Rose and Iris
Our kids and grandkids 
At fun restaurant with slide in Tempe, Arizona 

Rose and Iris with “party hats” aka decorations 

Rose and Iris

Sawyer and Wilder
Sawyer is Maddie’s husband. He’s awesome. 

Rose and Iris

Our tree in Soldotna. Abby is decorator extraordinaire.

Our backyard. A tad colder than Arizona.

Jenn and Abby hanging out together. 

Church in Kenai, Alaska 

Group of us at Pull tabs in memory of Rhonda’s mom

Rose baking cookies. We had a lot of fun. 

Candy cane cookies. 

Abby on Christmas Eve

Rose and Abby Christmas Eve

All of us 

Rose jumping around 

Our tree again 

Rose with new doll from her sister Abby

Rose with violin. She’s been asking all year
for one.

Rose with new doll

Abby’s new guitar (she will have the
Big one soon but loved this one) 

Sooo great being back in Alaska for a week! This is home. ❤️

Merry Christmas. Joyeux Noel. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Ken isn’t as thrilled as Rose and I to be back in Alaska. He spent hours pushing snow around in the cold and our first day back we had a power outage for almost 4 hours so he had to hook up the generator. Yay. He says I haven’t been outside for more than a few minutes but I reminded him that I had been outside for more than 20 minutes every day. Granted it was in the hot tub but still! 

Christmas Eve and Day were lovely spending it with our family.  We reunited with friends at Birch Ridge Community Church. It was so great seeing everyone. We each held real candles while singing Silent Night which is always so lovely. 

Prior to coming back we had a lovely Christmas meal with the kids and grandkids in Arizona (see pics above). It truly was a great evening with an indoor slide at the restaurant, a magician who performed at our table, a live band, great food and a good time held by all. 

It’s definitely an adjustment driving on icy roads but having a white Christmas was definitely lovely. Having been in our 29 foot camper for nearly 5 months now we feel like Europeans coming to America for the first time and seeing American homes. Everything is huge - bathrooms, showers, strong water pressure, bedrooms, kitchens, refrigerators. I feel almost winded walking around the house compared to the camper. The dishes are so heavy compared to the light weight ones we have been using. And the luxury of a dishwasher and 24/7 free laundry. Wow! I think Ken’s a bit concerned that Rose and I won’t return on the trip with him but we will and we look forward to seeing more family and friends on the way. ❤️






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 28 - Final Day of the Big Trip

Image
Rose and Jenn were fortunate to be able to enjoy the Liard Hot Sprimgs  very close to the campground where Ken installed the repaired axle. Alaskan beauty. And more! It was so great to see  the Alaska sign. Can you tell these passengers are very excited? Many gas pumps in the Yukon Territory  look like this. And you have to go inside and leave your credit card for the pump to be turned on. And they aren’t 24/7. And sometimes you have to wait in line. And sometimes they have no gas or their pumps just aren’t working. Gas can be as much as $6.50/gallon in Yukon. Joy. Joy. And more Joy. We saw a lot of bison. They are big! And several bears just roaming.  Almost home! We are home and in our driveway! Top: July 28, 2024 arriving home  Bottom: August 1, 2023 leaving home  The truck and camper made it too! The trailer axle was repaired by Friday afternoon, so we headed back to Liard Hot Springs area from Whitehorse. 400 miles. 7 hours. Again. We ended up seeing 120 bison and many bears. Howe
Read more

July 5 - Ozark, Missouri

Image
Happy Fourth of July! Fun times with friends Rose (10), Caleb (12), Titus (7) Water balloons on July 4th It was a fun and fierce battle. Jenn and Erica Toby and Ken The kids  Great memories. Titus at his swim meet. He did great. We parked in their driveway and enjoyed  the amenities of their lower level suite.  We all enjoyed the extra space. The kids enjoyed lots of play time. Time Traveler roller coaster at Silver Dollar City. Caleb and Titus after their baseball teams won. They both did great! We enjoyed a lovely date night at a nearby hibachi restaurant. Action shot of Titus. He’s a strong boy, Street fireworks. There were lots of fireworks in the neighborhood but were somewhat cut  short by God’s fireworks aka a big thunderstorm that evening. Ken preparing to help Toby with backyard fireworks. What a great week full of lots of quality time with the Long family. Rose has been waiting to see Caleb and Titus for 11 months and finally we arrived at their lovely home in Ozark for 8 nig
Read more

April 21 - Cleveland, South Carolina and Rodanthe, North Carolina

Image
One of the four leaf clovers that Rose found. Ken and Rose playing in the creek and discovering bamboo at our South Carolina campground. The water was cold, but refreshing. Ken and Rose bamboo stick fighting right before a lightning storm. Jenn and Rose at nearby waterfall. (SC) We hiked right before sunset. Rose at waterfall. Science lesson about mountains, hills, plateaus, and glaciers. What Rose saw when looking outside. Math lesson on probability.  I was teaching Rose how the likelihood of rolling two 6’s was extremely unlikely with one try. And then I rolled this. Rose and I did a tour of the Table Rock Tea  Company about 8 minutes from our  SC campground. Rose holding a tea plant seed. The tea was really great and flavorful. And they ship to Alaska! This is how Rose held onto the bull for 58 seconds at the trampoline park. She is one determined girl. Rose on jump pad at North Carolina campground. She loves these!  Yep, that’s Rose! Updated map. Jump pad. Wright Brothers National
Read more