Update

Happy Graham is back and sleeping through the night. The boys are on a new sleeping schedule for school. Now we have breakfast with DAD in the morning. So long, peaceful scripture study over breakfast!

THE MOUSE IS GONE! I had pest control leave me a stack of those sticky traps. I went nutso all over my kitchen with them last night and it was caught within an hour. Mice do not scare me, but I just want to vomit when I think about it running on my counters.

I Was That Tired

On our third night home I was spent by early evening. I had fallen asleep on the bed while Chris was in the shower. I guess Ethan had gotten up and built this booby trap. I heard nothing until Chris called for help.

I was sooooo tired I moved the mats and chair and left everything else until morning... hoping I would not trip during a midnight potty break.

Welcome Home

• New Faucet- I can actually spray around the entire sink in my kitchen.
• Painted Kitchen- It is one shade lighter green than my Anchorage kitchen and I love it!
• Painted Living Room- It's way darker than what I had planned but it looks really good.
• Painted Bedroom- The color is okay, but it changes from blue to gray to an almost light lavender, depending on the time of day.
• Legos Legos Legos- Chris rebuilt all of Zach's Lego sets and put them around his room. The squeals of excitement were so high pitched! The boys have played with them constantly since we've been home.  Even Ethan has behaved himself... with a few reminders.
• Mouse Droppings- Yes, there is a vermin in my kitchen. The traps are set, I have siliconed closed holes that I found behind the oven, and I keep RE-CLEANING everything. I feel so violated every time I think about it.

Our house is finally starting to feel like a real home.

I was having mixed feelings about returning. I think that is normal for one's first time back. Today I finally reconnected with some friends and remembered why I like this little community so very much. The lifeguards, grocery clerks, gardeners, and food servers have all welcomed us back by name and asked how our trip was and expressed how glad they are to see us again. I guess they missed being entertained by a frazzled American woman trying to keep three her boys in line.

We are settling in, doing more home decor projects, getting ready for school, and tending to Graham, who is still pretty much a basket case... so unlike him. I am eager to have my happy good sleeper back. We have also enjoyed some wonderful family time with DAD.

60 TO 120 Degrees in 30 Hours

I'M EXHAUSTED! Our connections were smooth and the flights were long but Zach and Ethan were great! Graham was more of a challenge, especially on the second two flights. However, on both of those the surrounding passengers complimented the boys on their excellent behavior and were quite impressed with me for making the journey. I also had so many helping hands along the way from kind passengers.  Some went above and beyond in assisting me.

I never want to travel that far alone again... but I can't guarantee that I won't have to. Plus the boys will be in new phases by then, so the challenges will be different. Like labor pain, you don't ever want to experience it again, but you know sometime in the future you will, and with time you forget exactly how painful it was.

The boys slept off and on but I got NO sleep so I am trying to recover. Zach and Ethan are almost back on schedule. They have been getting up early every morning (like 5AM) and since school will start shortly I plan on trying to keep them on it, if not quite so early. Graham, however, is completely not himself. He's a bit grumpy and without a good sleep schedule he  JUST WANTS HIS MOMMY. I can't blame the little guy, as I just turned his world upside down again.

As for Chris, his bachelor days are over... and he likes it that way.

Yesterday, we finally met with the audiologist to have Ethan's hearing checked as he is CONSTANTLY asking us to repeat ourselves. His hearing was great, just waxy ears.

I very much appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers during our journey. They definitely gave me the strength to handle the trip. We miss Alaska but it was time to be a family again.

The Salmon Slayers

Ethan loves horses and has had an imaginary horse named Chico for almost a year now.

So when our family realtor threw his annual pony party, Ethan was over the moon with excitement.

He had several rides on Dolly.

Zach, on the other hand, was NOT interested in riding let alone getting near the horses.

On our way home this baby moose crossed our path. Grandpa thinks he's the baby of a mother who last week stomped one of his friends in the area. The guy accidentally got between the mother and baby and she attacked. The guy was out cold for at least 45 minutes before he was found in his front yard.

We finished the day with one last adventure.

Ethan collected sticks for Grandpa to burn when camping.

We headed back into bear country...

making lots of noise along the way...

but for the second day in a row this is all we saw.

The river was so full of salmon you could almost reach out and grab them.

The boys were thrilled with their catches.

It was strictly catch and release.

Ethan ended up with four and Zach three.

There was one last surprise snag of the evening.

Dad's friend Bill showed up on his bike and took this picture for us.

Back at the truck Zach sweetly said, "thanks for taking us Grandpa. We had a great time." Meanwhile, Ethan finds the one pile of horse manure in the gravel pit parking lot and steps in it. Yet he had no problem all afternoon in and out of horse paddocks. Go figure!

A Hike To The Falls

With only a few days remaining before departure and my bike packed for shipping, I had one thing left on my "must do this summer" list...

hike to Bird Creek Falls.

This five mile hike is not difficult, but it is right through Bear Country. The trickiest part was keeping the branches from hitting our littlest backpacker.

Grandpa carried the gun and I carried the jabber box.

You can see why the bears love this area-- the dark spots are all salmon.

But it's a "dead" end for them as they can't quite jump up the 25 foot falls...

although many of them were trying.

Girdwood Adventures

DAD, WE MISS YOU!

The Seward Highway was recently voted one of the top ten most beautiful drives in America. It runs from Seward to Anchorage along the Turnagain Arm Inlet. It is SPECTACULAR in any season, but it does have its dangers: falling rocks from melting and freezing ice, avalanches, and the mountain goats,

such as those we watched yesterday, who kept pelting cars just beneath them.

This is cousin Sean's first trip to Alaska. We stopped at Beluga Point in hopes of seeing a few whales but were unlucky. Meg's luck changed the next morning when she saw a pod of 60+ Belugas as she walked along a portion of the Inlet further to the north.

Our next stop was Crow Creek Mine. You can still find gold, either panning by hand or with high tech dredging machinery.

I love the juxtaposition in many of these shots... the antiques from time past and little boys with dart guns and lightsabers.

The boys loved going in and investigating the buildings. This was the ice house. I asked Zach how he thought they got the ice back then. After thinking for a moment he went into this very in-depth explanation about cutting out chunks of ice from rivers in the spring, etc. I was blown away because he was spot on and said it in such a way that he had thought through the process, not that he had heard it somewhere.

This is the Lost Shoe Wall. Humorous yet freaky! I'll explain! Since I was young I have hated seeing a random shoe along the roadside. It creeps me out, because I think, "where's the body that belongs with that shoe?" It all started when I saw a Stephen King movie where a child gets hit by a semi truck and all you see is a shoe fly through the air.

As a missionary walking the streets, we not only wore out our own shoes, but we also often passed random lone shoes. One AWESOME companion, Sorella Spendlove, knew how I felt about them. In my last city I received a package from her that had a bunch of grease spots on the outside. Clueless, yet curious, I opened it and found a rotting chicken foot that she had found on the road outside a butcher shop... it still makes me laugh thinking about it.

Tourists panning for gold down at the river.

We just hiked around...

and goofed around.

While Meg and I were busy getting the littlest ones ready, the bigger boys took off. We found them patiently waiting for us up the trail.

On the way out the boys grabbed a fun soda treat from the natural glacier water cooler.

Onto the best playground for miles, which has a castle, train, slides galore, and a sand pit full of diggers.

Graham's first solo swing ride. He liked it for about four pushes. I get way more laughs from him when we stand behind his bothers pushing them.

I JUST LOVE THIS CHILD!

Swinging didn't take us high enough, so we rode the tram to the top of Alyeska ski resort.

It was so cool to be at eye level with the paraglider and the view was STELLAR. Bye Dad... we had another great adventure but we'll be home soon!