Summer Fun!!

This summer has been pretty busy, but mostly for the girls. This was a fun summer for birthdays. Amanda turned 13, so she is officially a teenager. Rebecca turned 10, so she is in double digits. And, Katrina turned 5 and gets to start school this year! Kevin, Lora and Katrina spent the summer at home, while Amanda and Rebecca took turns doing all kinds of things and going all kinds of places.

It began June 26th, when Amanda boarded a plane for Alaska to spend a week with Gma Kathryn and Gpa Herb. It was her first flight all by herself and she had a great time! While she was in Alaska she got to spend time with her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and cousins. They made candles, food, went to museums, to a musk ox farm, and the zoo, where Amanda got to help take care of the wolves for a few hours. We got to talk to her frequently on Google video chat and got to hear about all the fun things she was doing.

Amanda returned home just in time for Rebecca to start Literacy Camp, which is put on by the Kerman Branch Library. The kids spent the week writing and reading and in the end they received a beautiful book about animals. One of our favorite librarians, Miss Rita, was retiring at the end of the week, so we were glad Rebecca got to spend the week with her. (And, we did not get even one photo. Sad face!)

Then it was Amanda's turn to be off again. This time she headed up to Girl's Camp as a First Year. Girl's Camp is healed at Green Meadows in Fish Camp near Yosemite. Gorgeous area!! Amanda had a wonderful time! She loved being there with all the girls from our ward and she made a lot of new friends. Including a girl named Meredith, whose dad went to school with Amanda's dad. She took hikes, practiced archery, and her favorite part was the Faith Walk. Amanda did not stop talking about it for a week afterwards.

Every year when the Nehring grandchildren turn 10, they get to spend an entire week with their Gramma and Papa in Auberry. This year was Rebecca's turn. She got to help feed and brush horses, sewed a skirt, went to an unexpected funeral in Bakersfield, made a birdhouse and went swimming. She enjoyed her week very much!!

It was a busy summer!!

Excited!

The Letters to the Editor only allow you 200 words, so I thought I would post about this! I am not one to wear my politics on my sleeve, but often that is what a blog is for, right?!

I feel very strongly about my right and responsibility to vote! Yet I have had little to be excited about in the political process for a long time. For many years I feel that our choice for president has been a vote for the lesser of two evils. I was feeling that way about this election as well. . . until today!

I am so excited that Senator McCain has chosen Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate!

For the first time in this and many elections I am excited and wanting to talk to people about what is happening. I called my mother, who lives in Alaska, this morning and we had a great talk about Sarah Palin. I have not lived in Alaska since before Palin was elected, so I am not familiar with her as a politician. My mother said that she is sad that Palin could be the VP only because that would mean that Alaska would lose her as it's governor. She really likes Governor Palin and all that she has done for the state of Alaska and it's citizens. Governor Palin has an 88% approval rating in her state!

Now, I am not so naive as to believe that there were not some powerful politically strategic reasons that McCain chose her -- the fact that she is female may draw voters who are still upset that Hillary didn't win, the fact that she is pro-drilling fits with his energy plan, to name two -- but the fact that he chose her makes me happy in two ways. One, McCain had the gumption to put a woman on the ticket and not play it safe with more of the usual. Two, she is really a great person. When I heard that she was the choice, I was excited just because she was from Alaska, and how cool is that! Then I heard her speak! She is genuine and sincere and that is missing from so many of our politicians today and it has made most of us very cynical about what we hear coming out of their mouths. So far, from what I have seen and heard, all that she says about herself can be backed up with reality. I like that! Her acceptance speech blew me away and I am excited to see where she can go from here!

For the first time in a long time, I can't wait for November 4th!!!

-Lora

Read an article about Sarah Palin HERE.

Anchorage to Kerman

Whew! We made it home! And it was only 85 degrees when we got here! The girls spent the whole day talking about how part of them really didn't want to leave Alaska, and the other part couldn't wait to be home!

Our flights were great! Our flight from Anchorage left only a few minutes late, so there was no worry about a "short" connection in Seattle. I rented DVD players for Amanda and Rebecca on the flight and so they got to watch "Night at the Museum" while we traveled. Katrina colored in her coloring book and crawled all over her seat and me.

When we arrived at Seattle, Katrina was as thrilled as ever to see her stroller waiting for her in the jetway. Each time we have landed somewhere, she has walked off the plane and then jumped up and down, pointing, "My stroller! My stroller!". This leg of the trip she was much more brave about taking that step from the jetway to the plane and visa versa. She is getting to be a pro at this flying thing!

The Seattle Airport is really nice. It's like they are making airports into little cities these days. Anyway, where the food court is, there is a two-story wall of windows and you can sit there and watch the planes take off and land. It is really neat. We had some nachos and spent a little while figuring out the big, huge hanging art in the food court, and there was a kid's area, but since we had enough time to eat and then get back to our gate, I didn't point it out to the girls. There is a really fun drinking fountain in the B concourse that has a speaker below it and when you push the button it makes a loud water gurgling sound.

In Seattle we had to go out on the tarmac to board the plane, so this was a little different than before, but the girls did very well. Katrina got in her seat, looked out the window and squealed, "Momma! My stroller!" She could still see it sitting at the bottom of the ramp before they loaded it into the belly of the plane.

We flew around a storm on the leg between Seattle and Fresno and Amanda was excitedly reporting every time she saw the lightening flash in the clouds, while I explained to a much less enthusiastic Rebecca that the pilot was flying us away from the storm and we didn't have to worry.

I told everyone I could about how smooth everything was going on our trip and how grateful we were for that. They were all very appreciative to hear positive comments, rather than the usual negative. We were very happy to be able to have such good reports.

When we got to Fresno, the terminal was empty and almost dark. (I miss the days when people could meet you right off the plane!) We walked down the long corridor, and finally the girls could see Kevin, who was standing there with a Welcome Home sign for them. They ran to him, and Katie did not let go of her hug for quite a long time.

The girls were thrilled to see the van again and they talked excitedly most of the way home, telling their dad all the fun things they did and had seen. They will have enough stories for quite a while!

See all the pics here.

Last Post from Alaska

We can hardly believe our visit here to Alaska is nearly over. In any case, this will be my last post for this trip. It has gone by REALLY fast! We have loved being here and all the great things we have been able to do while we were here! We are also looking forward to being home.

What we are not looking forward to is the doubling of the temprature between here and California. We have been watching the heat wave build and we are not looking forward to plunging from 65 degrees to 110 degrees (Detail) in a course of eight hours! Yikes!

Today we started working on packing and cleaning, etc. and then the girls and I went out to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. But by the time we got there it was pouring rain and most of the displays there are outside, so instead we went to the Imaginarium and played there! There was a fun touchy-feely tide pool area where the kids got to touch starfish and anemones, and then we also got to watch the reptile encounter and the girls got to pet a snake, an alligator and a turtle. Fun!

Tonight for dinner we went to the Lucky Wishbone, a really great family-owned restaurant here in Anchorage. It was one of my favorite places when I was in high school, and I always try to go there when I come to Anchorage. It was so good, and I got to have my pineapple shake! Yum!

Tomorrow we are home! We are hoping for as smooth a flight on the way home as we had up here!

See all the pics here.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

It's past midnight again! The fireworks didn't start tonight until 11:35pm, so we were up late!

Today was a lot of fun! We started the day off with our own little private pancake breakfast, rather than head downtown in the rain for the one that the city was hosting.

We left for the parade and got good seats that gave us a good view of the staging area and the end of the parade route. The weather was nice enough to stop the rain for the parade time. It was a lot of fun! We saw all kinds of great floats and the patriotic spirit in the crowd and with the participants was great! There were a few highlights for each of us! Me, I am always a sucker for bagpipes. Amanda went crazy when she saw the Star Wars contingent round the corner. Rebecca loves polar bears and when the Alaska Zoo float went by, the polar bear mascot passed by everyone else and walked up to Rebecca and gave her a hug. We all thought it was great, and Rebecca was so thrilled!

After the last parade float had gone by, they were headed toward the Parkstrip, where the food was, so we followed and unofficially became a part of the parade. We had hot dogs, gyros and a funnel cake. Then it started to rain.

We left there and I took the girls to the Alaska Railroad Station. While we were there, Kevin called. We talked for a little bit, and then we got on the subject of benchmarks, and Kevin went looking on line for where we were on an online map. Not only were there three Tidal Benchmarks on the Railroad Building, but there was also a Geocache nearby. I didn't have the GPS, so Kevin read me the cache page, and I was able to locate it. Neat! (Read our Geocache Log here.)

One of the reference point benchmarks was on the front of the building, but the other two were on the track side of the depot (where you are not allowed to go if you are not a passenger), so we couldn't get to them. I asked the lady behind the ticket counter if we could go out there to take pictures, and she was given permission by Security to "escort" us out there. Ironically, even with Kevin giving me the description of where it was in my earpiece, the Alaska Railroad lady was the one to find it first. Neat. We took a few photos and then left the station.

We drove up through town, and as I was turning onto C Street, my phone rang and it was Kevin. He asked it we were still at the train depot. I said no and told him I was at 9th and C. "Stop right there!" Kevin yelled. "That's exactly where I need you to be!" Miraculously there were no other cars on the road at that moment, so I was able to turn over two lanes of road into a parking lot. Kevin told us that there was THE original Anchorage benchmark across the street, and it was also a virtual cache. We went over and found it and took some pictures that then we headed home.

As we drove, I decided that I was going to give a cache I had tried twice before another shot. I had figured out what the cache was on the first try, but I had had no luck getting it out. This time it was backwards, so I knew I was looking for the right thing and grabbed it. Don't twist. . .PULL! Anyway, I called Kevin from the car and told him I had found another cache. He was surprised, but thought it was great!

Every Fourth of July, we spend time together as a family geocaching. So, it was really wonderful that we got to geocache together, even if we were over 2000 miles apart.

When we got home we had baby back ribs (I have a great recipie for when I get home) for dinner and s'mores for desert. (Katrina - "Mama, my sticky!") We did some sparklers on the back porch and then we headed out to see the fireworks. The fireworks show began at 11:35pm and even when it ended the sun had not gone down. It was a fun day!

See all the pics here.

Museum and the front lawn

It's past midnight, and I am still up, so even though the time stamp on the blog will say Wednesday, I am going to proceed as though it is still Tuesday, since it still feels that way to me.

This morning the Rock Gods showed back up to continue working on the front lawn. Today they started to dig up all the top few inches of dirt at the front of the lawn. This also meant a lot of roots. They used the digger and pulled most of them out, cleared the area and then brought in the topsoil.

In the meantime, Jordan, Isabel and Ivy came over and we all worked at finishing making the banana ice cream, and making ground beef. Each of the girls got a turn at turning the paddle on the ice cream maker and then they each got a turn at pulsing the food processor to grind up the steak that Herb had cut up. They all had a great time helping.

After that was finished, I took Amanda, Rebecca and Katrina to the Anchorage Museum and we spent a few hours there looking at all the exhibits. We started in the Alaska Gallery. Amanda really liked all of the dioramas, after having made a few herself. Rebecca liked the statues of the animals, especially the musk ox at the entrance to the gallery. And, Katrina liked climbing in and out of the stroller over and over, and taking off her shoes and socks, and asking for fruit snacks.

It is nice to have the girls old enough to begin to understand and relate to some of the things that they are seeing in the museum. Amanda got very excited when she saw all the things about the gold rush and began to tell us all about the things that we were seeing and what they were used for. Rebecca asked a lot of questions about what things were and what they were made of.

We went downstairs and looked at the paintings and then looked at the new exhibit which was contemporary art by native americans. Then we went into the Children's Gallery and the girls had a lot of fun playing in there. Katrina was well past her nap and was on the verge of a meltdown, so we left.

By the time we got home, the Rock Gods had filled in top soil, rocks, mulch and had completely cleared all the dirt and roots from where the sod was going to go at the front of the lawn.

Later in the afternoon, Jordan brought Isabel and Ivy back over and we had a little tea party under the fairy bower on the back porch. They had mini Oreos and apple juice "tea", and then we had the banana ice cream. That was absolutely delicious! Yum!

The Rock Gods will be back on Thursday to plant all the flowers, ferns, etc. The front yard looks really great already! It is going to be amazing!

See all the pics here.

See all the Landscaping pics here.

The Rock Gods

Today the landscaping guys showed up to make the big, huge pile of rocks in the front yard into smaller rock garden walls. I have jokingly been referring to them as the Rock Gods all day, because Mom is so thrilled that they are here and are creating her beautiful rock garden for her!

This morning the girls took the bread that they had started making last night and continued on with the next step (which was a little dusting of cornmeal, folding it over and then letting it rise for another two hours) and then we left to go meet Jordan and Isabel and Ivy. We went down to the Coastal Trail and took a short walk and found a Geocache called the 'Muggle Migration Route TB Hotel' together. I gave Jordan the GPS and had him punch in all the info, and when we got to the spot, I let him and the girls look for the cache. Jordan was the one to find it! Yea! We left a bunch of the Travel Bugs that we had brought with us and then we walked back along the trail. Jordan is thrilled to know a lot more about what his GPS is capable of and how he can better use it!

The trail runs along the railroad tracks, so we even got to see an Alaska Railroad train go by! Very cool!

Later in the afternoon we went back over to Jordan and Sioux-z's house so that the kids could play together for a while longer. When we got back home, we had soup for dinner with the bread that the girls had made! It was great.

After dinner Gma and Gpa had the girls help them make banana ice cream, and tomorrow we get to have that for desert! Cool! While they were doing that, I was busy on another project that Mom had for me, polishing her great-grandmother's silver tea set (that's two greats for me). I forgot to take a "before" shot, but it was in the bronzy-rainbowy stage before I started. Now it is in the VERY silvery-sparkly stage! I have always enjoyed polishing the silver for my mom, the same way I always loved cleaning the chandelier at my Gma Lu's house when ever we would visit her.

I think tomorrow we are off to the Anchorage Museum.

See all the pics here.

See all Landscaping the pics here.

Nancy Lake, trains and bread

This morning we left Jordan and Sioux-z's early and we came back to Gma and Gpa's house, jumped back in the car and drove to Nancy Lake to visit some friends of Gma and Gpa's named the Beatties. They were very nice people and we had a wonderful time at their home on the lake. It was raining most of the day, but it just made everything really green.

Mr. Beattie has an absolutely marvelous train track in his home! It was custom designed for his home and we were all in awe of this amazing set-up! His trains are G-scale and he had several different trains, a Santa Express, an Alaska Railroad, and an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe as well. The roundhouse was in one of the bedrooms and there were two "tunnels" going in and out of the room through the wall. The track runs around the dining room, the living room and up and down the hall. It was spectacular and we loved watching it!

After lunch, we drove back to Anchorage and we relaxed for a little while and after dinner, the girls helped Gma make some bread. There is a show that she and Gpa saw on tv that talked about a recipie for bread that is so simple even a six-year old could do it, so they are giving it a try. They made the dough tonight and it is going to rise over night. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Gma is excited because the guys are showing up tomorrow morning to change the big pile of rocks in the front yard into a beautiful rock garden!

See all the pics here.

S'mores!

Last night Amanda, Rebecca and Isabel slept out in the tent with Uncle Jordan. We were really expecting some, if not all of them, to make their way inside sometime during the night, but they all made it out there!

They had so much fun that we decided to do it again, although this time it is Aunt Sioux-z's turn out in the tent.

The kids spent the day alternating between playing indoors and out, depending on if it was sprinkling at the time. They blew bubbles and played on the swings and slide and colored and watched movies. After dinner we had s'mores and that was an ooey gooey good time!

See all the pics here.

Sleep-over!

Tonight we are over at Jordan and Sioux-z's house and the kids are sleeping out in a tent in the backyard. They were so excited to get to sleep over!

Today we went back to the library to another lapsit and to check out more books!

I spent most of the rest of the day finishing up the sorting of photos. I took a lot of photos of photos today so that I would have "copies" of some of these pictures I found! (See the 'copies' here.)

This evening we came over to Jordan and Sioux-z's for dinner and a sleep-over. The girls are having a lot of fun playing with their cousins, and I am sure Gma and Gpa are enjoying the silence at their house for a few hours.

See all the pics here.

Lots and lots of photos

I spent a great deal of the day sorting through lots and lots of photos for my mom. This has been quite the undertaking, but we are making headway.

In the late morning we started trying to plan out some of the things that we can go see and do for the rest of the time that we are here visiting. We checked the weather report and saw that it is supposed to be nice for the rest of this week, but raining all next week, so we quick jumped in the car on this beautiful day and went to the The Alaska Zoo. We had a great time and got to see many of the animals, as it was cool enough that they were out and visible. The girls loved seeing the polar bear (I need to show them the 24 hour polar bear webcam on the Alaska Zoo website), and the bears and the musk oxen. It was a gorgeous day and we took lots and lots of photos!

We came back home and spent the next half an hour trying to get Katie to go down for a nap. I am nearly at my wits end with her. Every day naptime and bedtime is a long, drawnout affair of her crying and screaming. Arg! I am willing to bet that the very last day we are here she is going to go to bed peacefully, but in the meantime. . .

We went to the 7:00pm lapsit at the library for Katrina and this one was all about dogs. I wish we had a library as wonderful as the Loussac Library in Fresno/Kerman. They have the most wonderfully, engaging children's area I have ever seen at any library! I love it!

When we got home and Gma had read the girls a chapter or two of the newest book (they finished The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet and are now on to Betsy-Tacy), and we had the obligitory hour of Katrina's bedtime fussing, I started through the stack of photos from when I was a little kid. I went through lots and lots of photos from when we lived in Haines, most of which I had never even seen before, and my mom and I sat there for over an hour and reminisced about all the different things we remember from that time. I had some very specific memories, and then there were others that mom had to fill in the blanks, because I was too young to remember the specifics. It was a lovely time, but then it got very late (although it is still very light out), and I need to get to sleep!

See all the pics here.

Grandmas and Geocaching

Today we were invited to lunch at Isabel and Ivy's grandma's house (Sioux-z's mom, Joan Humphries). She lives in the foothills, so we got a lovely view of Anchorage and we could even see Mt. McKinley (very faintly). We had a lovely time.

When we got home to Gma and Gpa's, Katie refused to take a nap, so we went out Geocaching and found our first three caches in Alaska! Cool! They were all micros though, so we haven't been able to drop off any bugs yet.

Later this evening we went back downtown to let the girls pick out some souveniers and then we went back to see the salmon run. We saw a lot more of them today!

It was a gorgeous day today!

See all the pics here.

The itty-bitty, doll-sized day!

All the cousins got together today for a tea party at Gma's house. They had a wonderful time! They had mini croissants and cinnamon rolls and then made tissue paper flowers. For lunch the girls had mini cheese sandwiches and tiny tea cups of apple juice and the adults got mini hoagies, no bigger than your thumb. For desert they all got tiny "ice cream" cones (made from Bugles with strawberry and cinnamon swirl cream cheeses). It was a lot of fun!

For dinner, to continue with the theme, Gma made mini pizzas for dinner and little tiny dishes of peach sherbet and tiny doll spoons to eat it with. Amanda was excited because she can tell her friends that she has eaten three WHOLE pizzas at one sitting!

See all the pics here.

H2Oasis Water Park

On Monday we went to the H2Oasis, which is an indoor waterpark here in Anchorage. (The fifth largest in the nation, we are told!) It was really fun! (I didn't realize until today that I forgot to write about it yesterday!)

We, being Lora, Amanda, Rebecca, Katrina, Uncle Jordan, Isabel, Ivy, and Ramona (the aupair), all got there in the morning and we started out by floating around the "river" that surrounds the park. Then the kids played on the pirate ship and we all played in the wave pool.

Eventually Jordan and Lora went on the Master Blaster, which is the vary tall water slide that you go down in a double innertube. That was awesome! Amanda said that she wanted to go on it, and I was a bit aprehensive, as Amanda can be very timid about things and even when we climbed all the way to the top, I was afraid that she would chicken out, but she didn't, and down we went! When we splashed down at the end, Amanda come out of the water sputtering, let out a whoop and shouted, "Let's do that again!"

We also went down the smaller slide and then we all went to the Moose's Tooth for lunch. Yum! They have very good food there!

Later, while Katrina was taking her nap, Lora, Amanda and Rebecca went back to the waterpark for a little while longer! It was a lot of fun and the girls loved it!

See all the pics here.

The BIG Birthday Bash!

The rain has been falling steadily all day today. This is a good thing, as it will hopefully help put out the forest fires burning around the state.

Lora and the girls went to church this morning. Lora thought that the 9:00am sacrament meeting was supposed to be a Young Single Adult ward, but instead it was a Samoan ward. They had sacrament meeting all in Samoan which was pretty neat. Lora especially liked singing the hymns in Samoan.

In the afternoon everyone went over to Jordan and Sioux-z's house and had a big, huge birthday party for all the cousins, as there are two birthdays in June, one in July and two in August. There were twenty-five candles on the cake and each cousin got to blow out there own grouping. They had hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, and there was also grilled salmon that Jordan had caught last week, which was soooooo good! The kids got their faces painted, got to decorate horses and opened their presents. Everyone was VERY happy.

Since returning back to Gma and Gpa's house, Katrina has been going around singing, "Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you". Pretty impressive. I guess after you hear it five times in a row, it makes an impression.

Lora's back is doing much better, although now we are worried about Gma Kathryn's as she slipped on the tile in the entry way today and did the splits! Thankfully she stretches every day, so she is pretty limber, but that doesn't mean that it didn't smart!

See all the pics here.

Tomorrow it is on to "h2o Oasis", the local water park!

Organizing

Today we got a lot of organizing done. Yesterday I pulled everything out of the "Christmas" closet and we sorted through things. We still have to get allof it back into the closet though. Today it was all of mom's jewelry and we got that all sorted and put away, so we are ahead of the game there. Next is all the photos.

We also went to the local nursery and I am inspired to create some hanging baskets when I get home. They are all over the place here and I love the way that they look! I will have to take some photos of them to bring home.

Katrina decided today that she wanted every hair clippy we brought with us in her hair today. It looked like she had on a little sparkly crown. It was cute.

It has been much chillier today than it was when we first got here. There was even a bit of rain today, but probably not enough to really help put out any of the forest fires that are still causing problems with the air quality. At least it wasn't as smokey today as it was yesterday.

Last night, really late, I put my bio on my reunion web page. I found out that one of my classmates lives only an hour and a half away from me in Modesto, CA, so I would like people to be able to get a hold of me if they would like to. Heck, with our SmugMug site and this blog, it's not like I'm hiding out or anything.

Tomorrow we are going to have the combined birthday party for the girls. We brought all the stuff from the My Little Pony party in Kerman and are going to do it here! Fun!

See all the pics here.

Could somebody hand me an ice pack. . .

Lora was moving a suitcase this morning and hurt her back. ARG!!!! Lots of ibuprofen, an ice pack and lots of prayers and she is cautiously optomistic. We will see how tonight goes.

We all went over to Jordan and Sioux-z's house today for lunch and all the cousins had a great time playing together. They played outside for a while, but the air quality is really bad right now from the fires that are burning to the north and south of Anchorage, so we also played inside.

Tonight Lora and Ellie (her best friend from high school) decided to skip out on their 20 year high school reunion and talked and laughed about the memories they have from high school. They decided that was more fun than watching a bunch of people that they barely remember from high school get drunk. Maybe their thirtieth.

See all the pics here.

Salmon, solstice and good friends

Today was a busy day. We had a lot of fun!

This morning we went downtown and walked around looking at the Wild Salmon on Parade. We really enjoyed all the different salmon! Some were gorgeous! Some were amazing! And some were hilarious!

We also got to go to an exhibit that is by the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts that has a large representation of the sun, and then throughout town and out the Coastal Trail for several miles are the markers that represent how far each of the planets would be from the sun. That was neat! Since today was the Solstice and we are the closest to the sun for the longest amount of time, Lora took a picture of the girls next to the sun on the exact moment of the Summer Solstice. That was fun!

We also went into a souvenir shop and the girls got to buy their postcards so that they can write to family and friends. We will get to go back later for other fun stuff, but for today we wanted to get the postcards.

We met Jordan and Isabel and Ivy downtown and we all had lunch together and then went to the salmon run. There is a part of the river that has walking bridges over them and you can see the salmon coming up the river from the inlet. There were fishermen lining the streams in droves, but they can't go any farther up than the falls. Beyond that, the salmon are "safe". We saw one big salmon in the river that looked like it was as big as Katrina!

After we came home we all took naps and when we got up the girls got to have a tea party under a net awning that Gma Kathryn and Gpa Herb had put up for the girls. They enjoyed that while Gma Kathryn read to them. She has been reading "The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet" by Eleanor Cameron. It was one of her favorite books as a child and the girls are really enjoying listening to it, asking her to read them three and four chapters at a sitting.

This evening Lora and the girls went to the home of the Vasiljevic family. Ellie Vasiljevic, now Martinez, and Lora were best friends in high school and have remained close over the years. It was great to see Ellie and her family! Ellie and Lora had a great time laughing and reminiscing about high school and reading the notes that they passed to each other in class, etc. It was a lovely evening. It's hard to believe that it has been twenty years since high school!

Katrina went down for her nap and for bed tonight without screaming, so we hope that we have overcome the problems of the last two days. Whew!

See all the pics here.

Books and swings

Happy Solstice! Today is the longest day of the year, and here that really, truly means something. When we got to bed last night at 11:00pm, the sun was still above the horizon!

Yesterday was a little bit more low key than the busy-ness of Tuesday. We got up at a liesurely pace, had breakfast, and the girls were delighted to play with some of Gma Kathryn's dolls.

We went to the main Anchorage library, and the girls got to check out books, and Katrina and Lora went to the Lapsit, which, incidently, was about Grandparents.

We also went to the playground at the local elementary school and played there for a while. Here in Alaska, the playground surface is rocks, to which the girls delighted, and they spent most of the time playing with the rocks. Needless to say that last night was bath night.

Katrina is having some issues adjusting, as she spends the first twenty minutes of naptime and bedtime screaming her head off, and yesterday actually got out of the crib by herself, but we are hoping that will calm down a bit soon.

The weather has been gorgeous!

See all the pics here.

I'm leaving on a jet plane. . .

9:15am The anxious Nehring children arrive (with mom and dad) at the Fresno Yosemite International airport. They have been telling EVERYONE they meet that they are going to Alaska.

10:30am Lora, Amanda, Rebecca and Katrina go through the security gate. This went MUCH smoother than we expected!

11:10am This is when our plane was supposed to take off. . .

12:10pm This is when our plane ACTUALLY took off! As you can imagine, by now the anxious Nehring children have been replaced by the whining, when-is-our-plane-going-to-leave children.

2:10pm We arrive at the Portland Airport. The girls had a great time going along the moving sidewalks and we found a Kid's Play Place!!! There were lego tables and bead tables and a screen with cartoons. It was nice for them to get to play around and we called daddy and let him know we were travelling along just fine.

5:10pm After playing and food at the Portland Airport, our Alaska Airlines flight takes off. Katrina FINALLY fell asleep as we were taxiing out onto the runway and slept through take off and the first 45 minutes of the flight. The girls had a great time coloring and playing cards and eating snacks, etc..

7:30pm (Alaska time) We land, in broad daylight, at the Anchorage airport. The brand new Alaska airport! Wow! Lora had no idea where she was at first! It is great! (By the way, the Fresno Airport was a new experience as well and it is very nice too!) The girls RAN to Gma and Gpa! They are so thrilled to be here!

10:00pm Still in broad daylight, we finally convince the girls that it is time to GO TO SLEEP! There is so much to do and explore at Gma Kathryn and Gpa Herb's house that it is difficult to get them to calm down and get ready for bed. They have two and a half weeks to explore, but how do you convince kids that they have time later to do things when there is time right now!

The flight experience, on the whole, was MUCH better than we were expecting! We have heard all the horror stories about air travel these days and so we were pleasantly surprised at how well things went. The girls were very well behaved (I got many very positive comments), and we are happy to be here and will have a lot more to talk about and to take pictures of!

See all the pics here.