Where've I been

We only have about 10 more months - oops 9 more months up here in the far north.  This summer should have been filled with lots of Alaskan adventures but instead things got derailed and instead of fun, fun, fun we experienced a summer more like most of the people who live up here. Work, work and more work - not even hardly leaving the area.

Summer was really slow getting here but once it did arrive, it went from cold and snowy to hot and dry  in a hurry.  This summer there was a record of 36 days here in Fairbanks where the high temperatures were above 80 degrees.  Fans and coolers sold out quickly along with mosquito repellent.  And because summer was late getting here, so were the dragonflies and that caused an even greater crop of mosquitoes than normal which was really hard to imagine.  For several nights, I even had a mosquito coil smoking on my nightstand to keep  from having to donate blood.

The June reunion came and went faster than fast and it seems I've been so busy, I  didn't even write anything about that.  I do have a million pictures though and recently put together a photo book to sent to Mom so she could see pictures from the reunion.  I am still trying to finish getting through them and doing some cleanup.

Grandkids sitting on the boat that came with the cabin we rented - unfortunately we never even had time to use it with all the other things going on.

Tata enjoyed fishing with the grandkids.

ST loved Great-Grandma.  Although she hadn't seen her since she was 3 months old, she decided Great-grandma was her best buddy.

Our clan went out to find the geocaches.  Good thing we had Samantha with us to help us out.

No fires allowed but the propane fireplace on Malcolms deck was perfect for roasting marshmallows for smores.

My good buddy Q-man wanted to play Ring-a-Round the Rosie.  I told him, "no we don't want to fall down in the water"  His genius brain came up with a solution for that - at the end of the poem he loudly exclaimed "We all fall up".  Love that guy.

John was in 7th heaven getting to help grill food.  That's one of his favorite things to do.

ST was not happy when abenanna's family gathered around Great Grandma for a family picture.  She wanted to be in it too.  Sorry Soph - wrong color of shirt.

The whole family gathered for a few pictures as a group.  I really loved the different colored t-shirts for each family.

After we put Val on the plane to fly back  to Vancouver, JW and I drove to San Manuel to visit his brother.  It was kind of fun being back in our old stomping grounds.

Driving down Pinal Pioneer Parkway, the saguaros looked beautiful and they were in bloom which was extra nice.

We stopped by the cemetery in Oracle where JW's parents are buried.  Such good people.

JW's nephew and his kids stopped by.

On our way back to Phoenix, JW decided we'd drive by Kearney and the first mine he'd worked at after we got married - so many many years ago.

The old familiar site of Teapot Dome in the distance.

The mine had grown quite a bit in the 30+ years since JW had worked there.

This old bucket has been here at least since my kids were little - but back then, it wasn't fenced in and the kids could get inside the bucket.

A few miles further toward Superior, there is a stretch of road that is highly populated with Century Plants.

Although we have no desire to move back to Arizona, we both agree that this area south of Superior is absolutely gorgeous.

Heading back to the vehicle, it felt extremely warm which my cell confirmed a bit later as we got nearer to Phoenix.

118 is just way too hot for anyone.

We drove on back to Phoenix and checked into a hotel then John picked out a steakhouse to eat at.  It turned out to be Rawhide.

It was an interesting little tourist trap.  The steak was pretty good and there was lots of music while we were eating.

We walked around a little after dinner then went back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep.  Flight out was early the next morning.

And after the heat, was nice to fly over all this snow and ice.