Dayton and Abigail in Alaska

After Dayton and Abigail's honeymoon, they flew up to Alaska to spend some time with us.  We got home to Nondalton just in time to greet them when they flew in.

 Lavonne's Mom and Grandmother came over to meet Dayton.  Sarah has chalk all over her face, but I thought this was a cute picture of Lavonne's Grandmother, Cheda Mary, showing Sarah how to crochet.

We have lots of projects that need doing around here and the kids didn't seem to mind working when they were doing things with Dayton.  He's a lot of fun and keeps everyone smiling while they work.  Below he and Quentin are putting up a rain gutter on the back of the house.

We went to Regina's for our monthly new moon celebration. Hazel and Augustine along with Cam and Nicole were in town and joined us.  They have moved to teach in another village so we won't be babysitting Hazel and Augustine any more.

We had a fun time dancing.  

One of our favorite hikes is the mountain behind Nondalton.  We took Dayton up to show it off to him.

Above the kids are waiting on the plateau for Paul and I.  Below I'm making it up the last few feet.  It is always good exercise :)

Up on the plateau there is a crevice where the snow never melts.  We had fun exploring it.

Below Dayton and Quentin are trying to put snow in each others faces.

Dayton brought his Go Pro along and we had fun making creative videos.

Abigail volunteered to hold the Go Pro to get shots of snow/ice balls hitting it.

I think Dayton got a little carried away in the photo above.  So Abigail attacked him :)

Below Dayton is making it look like he jumped off the cliff.

The way down goes much faster, but can get a little slippery.

Driving Back to Alaska

The drive from North Dakota to Anchorage went very smooth and very fast.   Having the motor home and being able to get good sleep when you're not driving makes it very nice.
We did find time to stop a few hours at Liard Hot Springs.  They totally remodeled it and it is very nice.

 Quentin and Anna were stopping up the water going over the dam.  Then one of the kids would sit on the other side and get a huge waterfall when they released the water.  One of the other visitors there that day called us the "Beaver Family"  :)

 It was a hot day so we wandered downstream a bit to cool off and play on this fallen tree.

 The kids tipped over backwards into the stream at the same time.  Benjamin and Sarah were a little slow, not quite sure they could trust Paul to catch them both at once.

There was also a brand new playground.

  We got into Whitehorse, Yukon late at night.  We got up at 0500 to swim for a few hours and then we hit the road again.

 The drive through Canada and Alaska is beautiful.  We always see lots of wild animals.

The Rest of the Trip Part 5

We did some more visiting with old friends in North Dakota before we headed to the wedding.  Here we are at the Ehmer's house, while we were there the kids made a music video.  They did their own rendition of Tim Hawkins' "Pretty Pink Tractor".  You can view it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYbyMPV9LJ0
We also went up to Mayville where Judy cooked us a delicious supper and we did a lot of catching up with the Rekkens and we went to Cooperstown to eat lunch with Janee.  Farming was in full swing so everyone was pretty busy.

Joshua and Anna had fun taking pictures in the rain.

Benjamin turned seven just as we were getting ready to leave Grandma Effie's and head back to Alaska.  

That evening we had a storm with very strong winds.  I was out in the motor home with Sarah when it hit.  As the motor home was rocking and rolling, I wasn't sure if I should stay put or run for the house.  The wind died down just enough for me to open the door without it being ripped out of my hands and as I looked out Paul was waving for us to come.  So, I picked up Sarah and ran for the house.  

As we were looking out the window, we saw a big explosion when a tree fell on the power line.   The power company came out and fixed the line. 

Then next morning as we surveyed the damage there were over 20 trees knocked down around Grandma Effie's yard.

The kids got to work and started hauling branches and cleaning up the yard.

Kenny Kroeplin our friend and neighbor who is always there to help Grandma Effie out, brought over his Bobcat and did a lot of work hauling trees.

Grandma Effie is an expert loader operator.  She helped the kids load the trailer and then helped them unload where they were making a brush pile.

Anna took the picture below before the storm.  It was sad to see how many bird nests were knocked down by the storm.  The kids wanted to save all of the now homeless birds, but we told them it just wasn't possible:(

The storm delayed our leaving North Dakota by a few days.  So when we did leave we drove fast with hardly any stops.  We had planned on stopping to visit a little on the way home but we felt like we needed to get back so we made record time on the way back.  We made it 2952 miles in two and a half days.