We had a terrific trip down South that was totally eclipsed by Abigail's wedding. So, here's the rest of the trip...
We started by flying into Anchorage and visiting the Martin's for Shabbat. It brought back good memories of playing and singing with David.
Next was our required stop at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to swim at the Aquatic Center.
Paul took the opportunity to get some needed rest for the trip.
I've been having a hard time with external hard drives. We took one to Israel with us and halfway through our trip we dropped it and lost our pictures. After we got home from this trip, I had the new external hard drive plugged in as we were looking at pictures. I leaned forward in my chair and heard a sickening sound, my heart sank as I realized what had just happened. I looked down and pinched between my chair and the floor was my hard drive. Quentin was able to recover some data even though it had been written over off our handycam, but we lost a lot of pictures :( Right here should be a picture of our visit to the Cey's house in Saskatoon. We had met Matthew in Israel and enjoyed our visit with his family.
We left Anchorage on the 10th of March so we thought it would be prudent to bring out winter gear with us. We fully intended to leave the snow boots at Paul's Mom's house in North Dakota, but we arrived just in time for a blizzard. Below, Paul and Quentin cleared the snow out of the driveway.
Here there should be a picture of our visit to The Travis' in Wisconsin (more friends from Israel). They invited the neighbors over and we had a great time together. We left North Dakota busting through snow drifts left by the blizzard and the snow stayed with us all the way to Wisconsin. Our next stop was Kentucky where we spent a week with many of the friends we made in Israel. It was a great week of fellowship. It started off with the beautiful wedding of Nate and Katie Waller.
Here we are braving the cold for a Shabbat gathering with old friends and new. Two of the new families we met live pretty close to Paul's Mom's in North Dakota. The Lance's are only an hour and a half away in Minnesota and the Hughes' are from Minot, North Dakota. We traveled all the way to Kentucky to meet families from North Dakota :)
The cold (it actually snowed the first three days) and rain made visiting more difficult. We all squeezed into each others campers one or two families at a time. Below we are having dinner with the Cherry's in another "It's A Small World Moment". We met Angela and Lindsey in Israel. It turns out that their Dad grew up in the same small town and attended the same church I (Susan) did. Our Mom's sang in the choir together. It was fun getting to know them better and the Grandma's are loving telling their respective sides of the story.
Nate and Katie had their wedding feast seven days after the wedding. We were all still at the campground enjoying Family Week. Thankfully it didn't rain and we had a joyous time celebrating with lots of food and dancing. Below Abigail and David are dancing the brother and sister dance.
After Family Week we headed to North Carolina to visit Grandma and Grandpa Rogers. Below Grandpa's horses are enjoying the sun.
We got there just in time to see some of his lambs being born.
While we were there Anna turned 14 and Paul turned a very handsome 51.
Below we are sitting with my Granddad. He'll be 102 in December and he's doing great. We enjoyed visiting with him throughout the week we were there and helping my Mom with his jigsaw puzzle.
We spent Shabbat with the Taylor's (more friends from Israel and Family Week). The kids had had a great time making a movie together. Their son, Luke, is quite the videographer. Anna Taylor wanted to roll of the roof onto an air mattress after being shot by an arrow but her Dad wisely vetoed that idea :)
Next Jeff and Rebecca, whom we met in Alaska but have since moved to South Carolina about an hour away from my parents, came to visit us at my parents. Then the Pohlman's whom we had just met in Kentucky at Family Week and who live just a half hour from my parents came to visit. Their daughter Danielle was taking a photography course and used Abigail, Deborah and Quentin as subjects for a Senior Picture shoot. She did a great job.
After we left my parents we started heading West to continue visiting on our way home. First stop was Tim and Lisa Brown's. They've got lots of animals. The kids got to ride their beautiful Morgans and they taught us how to play Settlers of Catan.
We're not sure what Anna is saying to the horse? :)
The Brown's raise Golden Retrievers and Goldendoodles. A litter of Goldendoodles was ready to go up for sale so some of the kids got to pose in the advertising photos.
If our trip had ended here it would have been an awesome trip, but we were just getting started. I'll post more in my next post.
