Trip to the States

Everyone laughs when I say we're going to be in the "states" for a couple months.  What is Alaska?  Haha, but anyways, we're down in the lower 48 states right now =).  We left Anchorage the 12th of March.

Lake Clark Pass

International Airport

We drove all night Monday and all night Tuesday with a few hours stop at Whitehorse and Liard Hotsprings to swim.

It was freezing at Liard.  Our hair got all frosty and our swimsuits froze as soon as we got out.

We have five drivers now so we were either sleeping or driving the entire trip down.

We spent Wednesday night at a friends house in Saskatoon...

...and got to Grandma Effie's house at three in the morning on Friday right in front of a big storm.

We spent the weekend at Grandma Effie's in a blizzard then headed out to a friends in Wisconsin then on to Family Week in Kentucky.

We're heading out from Grandma and Grandpa Rogers right now to visit friends and relatives till the middle of May.  It's been a ton of fun so far, I'll post more later.

Hanukkah Celebration & Caleb's Birthday

The day we left Grandma Effie's happened to be the last day of Hanukkah. Our friends, the Froeses', were having a Hanukkah celebration near Winnipeg.  So, we spent the afternoon and evening celebrating with them.  We spent the afternoon talking about the book of Daniel then we ate supper.

After supper we lit the Hanukkiyas. 

All the kids.

Afterwards we did some dancing.

The next day we started heading up to Alaska, visiting a few more friend on the way.

Benjamin and Sarah

The 31st was Caleb's birthday.  We worked it out to spend his birthday and shabbat in Whitehorse, Canada.

He turned nine and we had cake, snug in our motor home with all the windows frosted over.  

Being as how his birthday is on New Years Eve everyone celebrates his birthday.  The Canada Games Centre celebrated it with a huge New Years party.  Everything was free and they had snacks, games in the soccer field, a dance, an obstacle course set up in the pool, free skates for the ice rink, fire works and a bunch of other stuff.  It was a lot of fun.

The obstacle course was harder then it looks:P

Sarah and Benjamin had trouble with skates.

We even talked dad into going ice skating.

Whitehorse Sports Complex

We spent a couple of very long days driving so that we could spend a whole day at the sports complex. We had the multi-million dollar complex to ourselves which was kind of cool.

A track runs above the basketball and soccer fields on a balcony.

We played a little half-court soccer. Too bad we didn't have time to play a little more on the trip down. We could have played The Brendemuhl's vs. The Fowler's :)

Deborah dunking the ball (It was the little kids hoop...)

We pretty much had the pool to ourselves too... We played a rousing game of water basketball. Sarah had to hang on tight (she really seemed to enjoy it) as Paul and I had a good time guarding each other, much to the amusement of our kids.
We got pretty good at doing back dives off the rope swing. I even tried a flip and landed on my face.

Paul and David

Benjamin

Deborah and Sarah

Liard Hot Springs

We saw nine bears on the way to Liard Hot Springs.

Herds of Buffalo...

Two moose; one of them walked right up to us...

We got to the campground at Liard at about 9:30 pm. We swam until almost midnight. We met the Walker's while we were swimming. They had been dorm parents at a Bible College in Alaska four years ago and now felt God was calling them back to Alaska. They lived in Wilmington, NC for the last four years and left from there the week before we did to travel back to Alaska. Who knows how many times our paths almost crossed over the two weeks and 3,000+ miles we traveled the same road. And then God brought us to Liard Hot Springs to fellowship together. Their grandson Caleb was traveling with them so we told them about the great swimming pool at Whitehorse and then we met them there the next night.We left for our last trip to the lower 48 in April of 2004. We didn't have a blog back then (did anyone?) so I thought I would include some photos from that trip as it was very memorable. It was extremely cold that day which made the hot springs feel even better. Our hair frosted from the steam and then when we changed after we swam, our swimming suits froze stiff as boards by the time we finished.

Abigail is racing for the water.

Deborah

Deborah is holding Anna who can barely touch. Paul has Joshua, then Abigail and then a toothless Quentin.

The kids (including Paul) took turns getting out and rolling in the snow and then getting back in the water.

Matt & Natalie, Jack & Kelly and The Border

Next on our Montana tour we stopped at Natalie and Matt's house. They were teacher's in Nondalton a few years ago. Natalie's Mom lived with her for a while in Nondalton. Natalie and her Dad came to visit us after they'd moved.

We had a very nice visit, although it was too short and we got to meet their niece and nephew.
Next we visited Paul's cousin Chrysa and her husband Jack's house. Jack and their daughter Kelly were there for a good (too short) visit, but Chrysa was out of town. They try to spend most summers in Alaska so sometimes we get to see them there. I made sure I got a picture of Jack holding Sarah since Chrysa hasn't gotten to meet her yet.

We have made it a policy to have me drive instead of Paul when we cross borders. It must be the beard or something, but when he has been driving they've made us come inside while they checked our papers, they've had us get out while they searched the motor home, and once they insisted they'd given us back all of our passports when in reality they still had two; they finally found them. On the way into the lower 48 they took our oranges. We made sure we ate our oranges before we got to the Canadian border, but they didn't ask for oranges this time, instead they asked for apples, which we had several of... The border official offered to let us pull off and eat them, so we did and then we went on our way.

Liard Hot Springs

Liard Hot Springs ranks right up at the top with the Whitehorse Aquatic Center as one of our favorite spots to stop on the ALCAN.
Menda is walking with Elizabeth and Nezzie on the boardwalk to get from the parking lot to the hot springs. They had just finished clearing off the 6 inches of snow they'd gotten the night before.

Anna, David, Deborah and NedThe Brendemuhl's and The Fowler's
Menda with Nezzie, Malachi, Rylea, and Isaac.
Deborah
Susan and Sarah
Paul and the little boys.
Quentin

We are at Paul's sister Debbie's house in Grafton now. We went to Perham MN to visit Paul's Grandmother. She just turned 97 on Saturday. I'll get some pictures and post them as soon as I can. Deborah is still taking one Benadryl at night as the rash is still hanging in there. It's not too bothersome as long as she takes the Benadryl. Please pray with us that it will completely disappear.