Vacation in Arizona

Yeah! We finally made it to our vacation time. We are all excited to visit our family and friends. Our first stop is, Tempe, AZ. Then off to Flagstaff for a couple days before tubing the Salt River and heading to CA. We hope you are having a good summer as well.Just a little friendly pose from a gecko we found in Arizona.
Boy's State was held at a beautiful camp setting outside of Wasilla, Alaska.
Karl was elected 'senator' at Boy's State. He had a good time. Right after graduation (in Wasilla) we headed to the airport to get on a flight to Arizona.
We cooled off in Auntie Lurinda's pool the very first night we were in Arizona. Whew! We were thankful.
Karl and I (Lenore) arrived in Phoenix on Father's Day. We celebrated Father's Day, and cousin Jeremy and Karl's birthdays as well.

Our cousins Robert and Shelley Miller in Flagstaff, enjoying breakfast (sourdough pancakes) al la fresca.

Claire had a blast playing with the kids on the wiggle cars.

After a brief rest and recover, we drove to Flagstaff on Monday and Tuesday. We went to check out NAU (Karl was interested in the college), and visit our nephew and family, Robert and Shelley Miller. We sure had a good time with them. Robert gave us the tour of his new business venture, fed us sourdough pancakes and the kids got to play with their cousins. After we left on Tuesday, we drove out to Wuptaki Indian Ruins. They date all the way back to the 1100's. It was very interesting. (And hot of course).

When we got back to Tempe, we went to saw the new Star Trek movie. It was great.

Wednesday we spent shopping all day long at outlet stores. We went to IKEA, and Trader Joe's. In the evening, we made it for opening night of "Transformers 2". Wow. The kids loved that one, but the shows were all very crowded and sold out, so we were lucky to make it.
Thursday we spent at Sun Splash. We all had a terrific time. It was overcast so most of the locals skipped out. We didn't have any lines. We tried all the waterslides.
Friday night, Kirsten's recital dance show was a traveling show that showed off different things around the museum. The dance traveled around the building while the audience followed.
Earlier yesterday (Friday) we had a fun day. We did a bunch of school shopping. Then, we got to see Kirsten during her dance recital. She spent the past two weeks on a dance scholarship from the Homer dance organization. She took the interpretive dance and video class at ASU. After the show was done, Nephew J.R. and Sarah, and the 4 of us went to 'UP' 3D. Fun movie.

Today, we tubed down the Salt River. A pretty nice thing to do considering it was 110 degrees outside. We all got a little burned. Some more than others. My sister Lurinda went with us and nephew J.R. and his friend Sara. We all had a great time and enjoyed the cold water in the Salt River. Mom made our favorite Mexican food for dinner (flauta and chile rellenos) followed by lots of laughter and cracking up the rest of the evening. There are no photos because cameras cannot stay dry on the river. Sad.

Quiet

I'll send some updates from along the way. Have an awesome summer!!! Claire sent me this photo this past week from Grandpa and Grandma's house in California. She had her dad have had a wonderful week. They have gone swimming in the Eel river several times. Yesterday, Pete went free-diving with a good friend and they brought back their limit of abalone. YUM! The uncles are also there and will head to AZ with them in the new truck. They are planning on driving through Yosemite and Death Valley. They also want to stop and see the Hoover dam. It was highlighted in 'TRANSFORMERS"!

Sometimes we have 14 cranes in our yard during the summer. Often we have 2-3 sandhill cranes and always enjoy watching them dance. This one was try to impress another one while I took the photos off of our deck (with my new telphotos lens!)

Claire isn't going to know what to do with CA beaches this summer.

Claire doesn't know that it is May in Alaska. The water was COLD!

A day at the beach and trying different photo taking techniques.

Kirsten (blue and gold) kicking up some volcanic ash during a game.

Karl and his pal Peter watch Kirsten and the J.V. girls team play soccer.

Even Kate is a good model. The real secret of this photo is the doggy treat in Kirsten's left hand which is hidden by the camera.

Having a little fun with our camera settings. Kirsten is always a good model and a good sport.

Claire's 5th grade class did a whole unit on photography. They took turns taking photos of each other. This is one of the photos that her girlfriend took. An action picture.

Our school celebrated it's 25th anniversary with a huge party. We invited everyone who has ever been connected with McNeil, over 1000 invitations. We had a 6 foot dragon (we are the McNeil dragons) cake that was quite impressive.

Here I am at home all by myself for a whole week. Not even Kate the dog is here to greet me with a happy wag. I've decided to use the time to catch up on a lot of things I never have time for. I have been doing some gardening and landscaping, scrapbooking, painting, Round-Up, etc. I still walk the 4 miles every day with my neighbor Laura, so I have human contact during the days and can use up some of my 14,000 words.

Pete and Claire went to Swansons for 2 weeks ahead of us, Kirsten is at dance camp at ASU, and Karl is in Wasilla at Boy's State. Saturday, I'll meet up with Karl for graduation, then he and I will meet the rest of our family in AZ. We have an exciting 6 weeks planned. I'll try to send pictures along the way to share some of the fun events.

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks from our lives here in Alaska. We had a huge fire that brought in several hundred special force firemen and women from all over the state. McNeil became the headquarters for the event, and my music classroom became the actual intelligence center. The music room was taken over by comptuers, copiers, phone lines and a lot of people.

My beginning photography tutoring

My friend Megan is giving me photography tutoring on my new camera. I am finally learning to take it off of auto and put it on manual. She even posed for me in this series. I am looking forward to a sunny southern US summer vacation where everything will be in color instead of grey. It should make picture taking much more interesting.

Easter Sunday in Alaska

Kirsten and her friend Casey look for lost eggs. At least there is no snow. We still had snow at our house.

Claire is looking for her eggs.

The kid table ate first since there were almost 40 of us. Then the adults ate at the tables. Everyone had a great time, and Bryan Court serenaded us with some singing and guitar playing.

Grace and Kirsten hanging out after Easter dinner.

April in Alaska is always a surprise

Kirsten, Claire and Kaela navigate the road to Kaela's house.

Our Kids at Youth Group Events

And of course, what would snow camp be without a couple of good snow machining jumps. Karl LOVES riding and jumping his machine.

Kirsten is participating in the grape toss....hope nobody chokes!

Karl is 'encouraging' Morgan to ride snow machines! Morgan is not convinced. (Morgan is one of our dog Kate's, puppies - 2 years old now.)

Kirsten and Briana hoarsing around at snow camp.

The Youth went out to Caribou Lake on Snow Machines and had a great time. Even playing egg toss in the snow. Karl is in the blue and white coat and Kirsten in the brown.

Youth Group Painting the Youth Room, (and themselves!)

April in Alaska

Here is our Pioneer Club 3-6th grade earning our hiking badge on the Spit. My best friend Kathy has a small 3/4 class and I have 19 5/6th graders. We have a lot of fun. This week, we are planning our annual camp-in, tents and all.

Karl and Clayton riding together

The Beachy's came and spent the day with us. While the mom's scrapped, the kids went sledding, played LEGOS and rode snow machines.

What a great way to spend Spring Break.

Karl and his hockey buddies (Asa, Josh and Luke) are out for just one more ride before the season ends.

If you look closely, you can se Karl and Pete snowmachining at the bottom of the ravine, while Mt. Redoubt is going off in the background. The volocano has given us quite a lot of excitement, with bursts of ash covering our snow from time to time.

Kirsten is loving choir and band at the high school this year. She just finished the huge production of "GODSPELL". She was one of the main singers, and even got to do a little soft shoe dancing.

Bowling with 5/6th grade Pioneer club was a lot of fun. We had 16 people turn out and a couple of mom's as well.

Claire and her friend, enjoy hanging out for the day during spring break, a welcome break from school.

This the the cabin that we wish we could afford to buy out at Caribou Lake. We can get on our snow machines and get out to the lake in about 40 minutes, right from our house. Alas, maybe someday

Here it is April and we still are going sledding one more time. Claire is out for an afternoon ride on her (and her sister's 550). Luckily all of us love to snow machine (please do not embarass yourself by saying snowmobile in Alaska...ha!) Lenore is getting in on the fun as well.