A Beautiful New Grand Daughter!

Grant and Grace with new baby sister, Eden

Eden Yvette was born earlier this week - arriving at 7 lbs 4 oz and nearly 20 inches long! 

We can't wait to hold her and welcome her to earth!

North to Alaska - Festival and Renaissance Fair

One of the many beautiful pieces of art at the craft fair.

Our last few days in Alaska were spent visiting family and seeing things around Anchorage.  We went to the Anchorage Arts and Crafts Fair and the Anchorage Museum.

Dad and I enjoying some of the displays at the Anchorage Art and Craft Fair

Because we only had a few hours at the museum, we focused on art,Alaskan History and the building of the Alaskan Pipeline.

Suzette and Tori took us up to Flat Top - where there are great views of the bay and the city

Janice, Sue,Judy, Danny and Emily at a bawdy pirate show at the Renaissance Fair.  Emily had to go up front, where everyone sang Happy Birthday to her ~ even though it wasn't really her birthday.

Emily, Judy, Sandy, Janice and Sue

The Anchorage Temple

We had a wonderful time with Mom and Dad, Janice, Sue and all of Janice's family.  It was with a heart full of gratitude and love that we flew back home. 

North to Alaska - Whittier

Brittany - riding "bear"back at Dreamers Woods

Cory has some great plans for this office chair

We drove back to Anchorage Friday. On the way up the Kenai Peninsula, we stopped to see some wood carvings that were amazing. Eric Berson is the sculptor and Dreamers Woods is the name of his business. We met Eric, his wife and children. They were very nice and Eric told us the story of how he started his business.

I really liked the Welcome Bears and Mooses that he had done, but knew there was no way I could ever get it back home. After viewing all the fun carvings, I went back to the RV to wait for everyone else. We were all back, except Brittany and Cory, and they kept going back and forth between some carvings. Finally, I opened my door and yelled, “just get it, you won’t regret it!” Well, they made their purchase, then when they got back into the RV, everyone started singing “Happy Birthday!” to me - they all gave me a cute card and the Welcome Bear that I so liked! I was so embarrassed that I had “hollared” out! What a surprise and I have to laugh every time I see that Bear on our front porch. . . . Brittany and Cory hauled the heavy thing back in Britt’s backpack! That was an incredible thing to do !!!

Last views of the Kenai Peninsula

We went over to Whittier on the way back. Whittier is a very small, isolated town (Did I say small? The town population is 182!.) The only way to get there is through a 2 1/4 mile long tunnel, which was built during WWII, or go by ship. The railroad owns all the land there, so everyone who lives there rents an apartment in two high rise buildings. I wondered what the young people do there - you would need to ski (and be in really good shape as it is quite a climb up the mountain).

We bought some great fudge there, and walked around the shops and marveled at living in a town so small and so very isolated.  We spoke to a young woman, who had grown up there and she explained their school was combined grades 1 through 12.  She said it was fun growing up there and had a great attitude!

Dad and I looking out on Prince William Sound

We watched some native people fishing in the ocean from the rocks on the water break, toured the docks and shopping area. Ray insisted that there was a lot more to the town . . . but we drove around and walked around - it is very small.

The shop that we really wanted to go into, Log Cabin Gifts, was unfortunately closed, but she had a lot of fun and interesting things around the outside of the cabin. 

One of the many beautiful waterfalls and snowfields in Whittier

Larry, Venna, Sandy, Ray, Cory and Brittany at the Whittier Glacier

Glacial Ice Sculpture

Brittany and a hunk of glacial ice

We stopped to view the Whittier Glacier, which is beautiful. There were so many interesting “ice sculptures” floating in the water. Some other people who had stopped, had seen some bear droppings on the trail around the lake, but that didn’t deter Brittany and Cory - they ran down and brought back a hunk of glacial ice.

We thought this glacial ice sculpture looked like a whale!