zzzzzzzzzzz's

I do not know what it is but my kids love to sleep in when we are in Alaska. At home it does not matter what time they go to bed they are typically up by 7 to 7:30. Here they sleep until 8:30 to 9:00. Maybe it is the fresh air, I do not know. In the summer it is daylight 24 hours here, but my sister and parents have great window treatments to darken the room they sleep in.

Of course we are awaken to more rain! It is currently 47 degress and the high will only be in the 50's. Not good about the rain situation since the river is out of it's banks. I will not complain about the temperature since it is 100 degree's back home.

Ryan's ears

Just like last summer, my poor son has a busted ear drum while on vacation. Very frustrating as he mentioned late this afternoon that his ear was hurting so I gave him some Motrin to help with the pain. He had no other systems and the Motrin was not helping the pain. My mother took us to a nice clinic where Ryan was seen immediately, they rushed him in as they could see he was hurting. His left ear drum was busted. He had no other systems, no running nose or no fever. From now on before we get on a plane he will go to his doctor for an ear check before we fly. The doctor today told us to see an ENT before we leave Alaska, they will arrange it for us and call us tomorrow. Ryan is a trooper, we had to feed him in order to give him his Augmentin. When we got to my moms we made his favorite meal, pancakes, eggs and bacon. He ate and ate and ate. He is now resting comfortably and we will take in easy for the next few days.

My family went to see the Chena River which is near by. Due to the rains, the rivers around here are going over the river banks.

I will update our trip in the next day or two. The state fair starts in Fairbanks this weekend, I am sure we will be there once or twice.

North Pole Alaska

Every time I come visit my parents, I have to go visit Santa Clause House in North Pole Alaska. I love Christmas and to see all of the ornaments, Santa and Mrs. Clause are always there. Some of the people visiting were having Santa call their grandchildren from their cell phones and they got a kick out of it. I found a beautiful ornament and wooden stacking doll that was made in Russia. It was a cool rainy day, so it was a perfect day to be inside. Afterwards the kids and I headed to Barnes & Nobles. The Barnes & Nobles here has a nice big circular fireplace with lots of comfy chairs around it to sit and read.

Summer Vacation in Alaska

We have been in Alaska since Thursday and it has been so nice to be in cooler weather. I know that Alaskan's are sick of the cooler and rainier than usual summer, but being from Texas it is a very nice change. Today was rainy and around 60 degrees and should continue the same for the remainder of the week.

We had my parents 60th anniversary party on Sunday at the Dog Mushers Club up on Farmers Loop road in Fairbanks. Many people turned out to wish them well and it was great to see faces that I have not seen since I was a teenager. Yes it has been too long!!

I have been enjoying my visit with 5 sisters and 1 brother. The sisters, mother and I went to go see Momma Mia the other day. It was a good movie, but good thing that Pierce Bronsen (sp?) is good looking as his singing has something to be desired. The women did a great job in the movie. I hope to have a few more girl/sister events before I leave back to Texas. I will be here until the 7th of August, then we head down to the Seattle/Portland area for a long overdue family reunion on the Aasland side.

Hopefully I can post pictures tomorrow....

Sorry about the Christmas music, I will figure out how to change it. I forgot to have my sister-in-law show me before she left tonight to go back home in Anchorage.

Summer Vacation in Alaska

The kids and I are having a great time in Alaska. Ryan and Kendra are having fun playing with their cousins Joshua, Seth and Sydney. This is the first time in 2 years where all of the siblings are together. Today we had a birthday party for the summer birthdays, Kendra, Ryan and Seth. We grilled outside since the weather was nice and had a pinata "Texas" style. I will try to upload some pictures in the next few days. We are going to take family pictures tomorrow at the library, and get ready for the big 60th anniversary party for mom and dad on Sunday. Kendra is looking forward to the Hannah Montana concert in 3D on the Disney Channel tomorrow night.

Summer Vacation

I can't believe I have not updated this blog since April 24th! Yikes. Since then Ryan "graduated" from Elementary School and will be a 6th grader at Middle School this fall. Hard to believe. This was the first summer that I was off all summer with the kids and it has been great, but the time is going by too fast. Kendra and Ryan have been doing some sports summer camps at the local high school We are now on a 3 week vacation to Alaska and then Washington/Oregon before we head back to get ready for the first day of school.

I want to use this blog to journal our vacation. Yesterday did not go too well. We left Austin on Southwest (free rapid reward tickets), our flight left at 3:20 pm and we were on the same plane to Seattle and in the middle of the flight we were to land in Denver and let passengers off and on. Well, I was worried about getting out of Texas before the bad weather came to Austin as a result of Hurricane Dolly that I didn't think to look at the weather around the states. Due to a bad thunderstorm in Denver we had to land to Amarillo for awhile. The plane refueled and restocked supplies. Initially we were scheduled to land at 6:45pm pacific time and we landed at 9:05 pm. We were on the same plane for almost 8 hours! Our flight on Alaska Airlines was scheduled to leave at 9:45 pm. Needless to say we did not make our connecting flight. It was after 10:00 Seattle time, midnight Austin time, when we tried to get a hotel room for the night. An Alaska Airlines agent gave me a flier with an 800 number on it to get a hotel room at a discounted price due to my missing the flight. I found out that the rooms in Seattle were booked due to a big Seattle Mariners game and a festival going on in Seattle this weekend. I finally found a room at a EconoLodge that was not too far from here. I was happy to get a room that was close and not a smoking room, but my heart sank when we got to the hotel. It was a part motel/hotel and there was a police car at one of the rooms. We checked into our room and when we opened the door, you could hear the "cheep-cheep" on the smoke alarm as it needed a new battery. We had to gather our luggage to the small elevator and go downstairs again to get a different room. It was almost midnight and we had not eaten dinner but we were soo tired we went strait to bed. This was the worst hotel room I have stayed in and felt sorry for the kids. We didn't get a good night sleep, maybe 5-6 hours, so were anxious to get the to airport this morning. I am at the airport and we are at our gate waiting to get seats together on the next flight. We cannot wait to see our family in Fairbanks! I will report often and hopefully down load some beautiful pictures in Alaska.