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.

Abigail is 18

I can't believe we have a child who is 18!  Where has the time gone?  She was just a baby...  Now she is a beautiful young lady that loves Yhwh with all her heart.  She has grown so much even in this last year..  she has been a joy to be with and I love watching her mature.

It was a beautiful day, so we were outside until the bugs got bad.

Deborah and Anna made all the decorations and the piniata.

Paul watching Abigail blow out her candles.

Lavonne's Grandmother, Cheda Mary, at Abigail's party.

A few days after Abigail's birthday, it was a gorgeous day.  Grandma Effie was here so we took her across the lake and up the Tazimina River.  Abigail, Deborah and I paddled rubber kayaks across the lake.  Paul gave us a ride up the river after he dropped his load as the current was swift.  

The birthday girl jumping into the freezing cold water.

Deborah

Quentin

Joshua

Abigail and Deborah helping the little kids across the river.

Paul visiting on a log with his mom, Grandma Effie.

Anna practicing her volleyball.

Momma bear and two cubs.

The kids waded and played until a bear and her two cubs showed up about 300 yards upstream.  The kids decided they'd swum enough.  

Paddling downstream in the kayaks was great fun.

The video below is from the boat while Paul is taking us upstream.  You can see salmon swimming around us.  They have already turned red so they look like big goldfish.  I also tacked on a clip of  the momma bear showing up with her two cubs.  You can hear the excitement in our voices.

If you get this post emailed to you, click on this link to go to the video http://youtu.be/FwSG_HI3yTc

Family Week Kentucky

So, way back in the beginning of April, Dad, myself, Deborah and Quentin went to Family Week Kentucky.  Family Wk is put on by the same group we went to Israel with.  So a lot of the people that were there we had met in Israel last fall, which was awesome.  

A couple days before it started we flew to my Grandparents in North Carolina and visited them and my cousins for a couple days.

One day, while I was shopping with Grandma, Dad, Grandpa, Deborah and Quentin  put the boat out in the pond to try drain it so they could fix a leak.  The drain didn't work or something but they had fun.

I don't think this is how you put a boat in the water...

We borrowed Grandma and Grandpa's fifth-wheel and truck to drive up to Kentucky so Quentin put some kind of sealant on it before we left.  (p.s. why does blogger make all the pictures so blurry??? aghh)

One of  the main reasons we flew all the way the Kentucky was for Devin and Barrett's wedding.  They had their Betrothal in Israel while we were there.  It was beautiful wedding.  Unfortunately we didn't get many good pictures of it.  In fact that was pretty much the theme of the whole week.  If you're having  fun who wants to stop and take pictures?  Mom wasn't very happy with that though:) 

They tried to make their wedding as much of a mirror of Yeshua coming back to get his bride as possible. All anyone knew was that Barrett was going to come for Devin on Sunday.  No one but his father knew what time on Sunday just like in Matthew 24:36 where Yeshua says "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, but my Father only".  So we all just hung out at the campground all day waiting for the shofar to sound then we had an hour to get ready for the wedding ("and He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet (shofar), and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other" Matthew 24:31).

  The guys riding through camp blowing the shofars and yelling "the bridegroom is coming".

Everyone waiting for Barrett.

The groom and his bride.

After we all gathered at the campground and Barrett came we walked up to the amphitheater.  There was a lot of people there and it was a fairly long walk so we quite a few cars piled up behind us.

It was a great way to start off the week:)  The rest of the week was awesome.  I got nice and sunburned but had a great time hanging out with old friends from Israel and new friends that we just met.  

Volleyball and four-square games were constant.

The Friday we were there was Passover so we had a wonderful Pesach meal with the Hilton's and Wahlberg's.  Keeping up with our theme, these are the only pictures we have.  Oh well, you can just take my word for it, it was great.

After family week we drove back down to grandma and grandpa's and spent another day with them.  Then we flew back up to Alaska.  Right now I'm really missing the heat that was down south.  It is freezing up here in AK.  It was snowing a couple days ago.  It's not supposed to snow in May!  I think I say that every year though and it always snows:)

North Dakota

Well we've been home a week and a half.  There were record high temps in North Dakota and southern Canada and I found out where all the cold weather was hiding:P  It's been from -30 to 30 ever since we got home (and the above 0 days only lasted two days).

We spent a week at Grandma Effie's in North Dakota.  Our cousins came down for a day visit.  While they were there we took the chance to get family pictures.

The whole family.

Grandma and the grand-kids.

Dad, his sister Debbie, and Grandma.

We spent a night at the Lorentzen's house.

What happens when our family gets around video games.

This was how warm it was, Christmas Day and Sarah in short sleeves jumping on the trampoline with no shoes.

Sarah loved dressing up in mom's wedding dress.

Granddad's 100th Birthday

December 2nd was my Great Granddad's 100th birthday.

Even though he's a hundred he still feeds the dog everyday and drives his golf cart to get the mail.

  We had a party for him on the 3rd.

My Uncle David and his family.

Granddad and his two sons.

Granddad with three of his grandkids.  Mom is pretending to have her arm around Aunt Carole, who couldn't be there:)

And their spouses.

Four generations.