We did something we have never done before...a cruise!
Carole sent all her kids and their spouses on an ALASKA CRUISE! THANK YOU CAROLE!!!
Scott and I did a lot of walking around and exploring. We left at night and so the next AM we walked all around outside where there was hardly anyone out.
We found the shuffleboard area...
And took everybody there later to play.
We were able to get fairly close to the HUBBARD GLACIER and it was stunning! Ice really does look blue when it is compressed like this!
The interior of the ship was like 13 floors total. This is looking down the center atrium where constant entertainment goes on.
They had 2 "formal nights" while we were on board. We got pretty dressed up the first time and it was fun going to dinner all fancy.
We went outside a couple times late at night to see the Northern Lights, not as stunning this time of year, but we definitely saw them and it was cool.
Speaking of fancy...you would never know what kind of TOWEL ANIMAL your steward would leave you. Here is the elephant!
We stopped in Juneau for an entire day and after going to Church there, we drove to the MENDENHALL GLACIER visitor center and hiked to Nugget Falls.
The glacier was further away, but really beautiful.
We hiked up around the mountain nearby for a couple hours as well.
We drove to a famous statue of a humpback whale. You could make this photo look very real with the right angle.
Scott and I walked all around the city and found this neighborhood center with some cool totems and information on the local tribes.
In Skagway, we opted to go up in the mountains nearby to go kayaking.
We pretty much had the lake to ourselves, it was AMAZING!
The next day in ICY STRAITS, we went out on a small boat WHALE WATCHING.
We saw quite a few humpback whales and got pretty good looking for the mist from the spout like this...
And were always excited when they came up enough to show the tail when they went back down!
It was commonplace to see bald eagles flying all over the place all over Alaska, just beautiful!
Scott got some really great shots of the whales!
In Ketchikan, we went to a nature preserve and although we did not see bears as we had hoped, we did have a very friendly juvenile bald eagle that kept very close to us.
and we got to see salmon jumping up into a tube and up the ladders trying to get back to where they hatched near a fish hatchery.
Getting back to Provo after about 2 1/2 weeks gone was a lot of work catching up on things! Luckily our fence was finally almost in so we could get my swing-set up for preschool.
We had our old neighbor Suki get sealed to her husband the weekend after we got back and got to attend the sealing at Provo City Center Temple.
We also had a friend from AZ, Kathy Turville come stay with us for 11 days while she hoped to get into the Book of Mormon videos being filmed in the area. She was able to be in the films 2 days.
She went with us to the sealing.
Our 38th anniversary was on the 18th.
Scott arranged with a friend to pick up some more of the cool clay house scenes from our favorite part of Italy, Cinque Terre.
We will put them in our bath area along with the others we have...LOVE THEM!
We had a lot of RM visitors this month...missed getting a pic of Caleb Brown and Joseph Barley when they came over for S'mores...
...but got Fredy and Mandy Castro when they stopped by one afternoon.
We had Lexie and Shae Morgan over for dinner with their little girl Emery.
She was such a cute and busy little girl!
We had Amanda Johnson and her boyfriend Dillon stop over one night after Kathy and I went to the temple to do initiatory.
And we went to dinner at Conner and Autumn Dickson's home one night and got to meet their little toddler and new baby!
We had a lot of fun with Kathy here.
One night she went with us shopping and probably decided we are totally crazy.
I was trying to help Scott pick out a new dress belt and was showing him the stitching on this one...
...when he noticed the size of it.
When we looked down to see how long it really was, we could not stop laughing! We were hysterically laughing and could not stop.
The next day we had a YSA boating activity we helped with up in the canyon and barely got home in time to welcome this crew to our new home!
Austin and Laura brought Brooklyn and Evan and Mackenzie and Clara to visit for a week.
It made our house feel even more like a home!
We just had to have hotdogs and S'mores for dinner to use the outdoor area we love so much! Mmmm!
It made us so happy to have family here to share it with us!
And we got some really good CLARA SMILES!! She has grown up so much even in a few weeks since we saw her last!
She talks and is very close to giggling!!
We arranged to take the kids up to see the Taylor Family at Grandma Olsen's house.
Everyone was happy to meet little Clara Rose!
Monday night we did the same thing with James Family up at Dad's house. It was very fun to see everyone!
It was a lovely evening outside in the backyard.
Mackenzie and Grandma Taylor.
Monday and Tuesday I was able to have Brooklyn and Evan and Mackenzie join me in Pre-K!
They all loved the saucer on the new swing set along with Gemma from my class.
They participated in everything including our musical instruments that day!
The theme was our ears, and we used them to listen to lots of different sounds.
Then on Tuesday we had school again and this day was all about our nose and smelling.
I made Kool-Aid play dough that they all played with and wanted to show me their creations!
Mackenzie with hers...
...Brooklyn with hers...
...and Evan with his!
We invited Laura to come down and introduce the kids to baby Clara too.
I wish my grandkids lived close enough to come to my school! It was so fun having them in my classes!
The kids found my jewelry...and pretty soon they were all decked out in very fancy stuff!
Wednesday I had a free day so we spent all day at museums.
We started at the BUTTERFLY BIOSPHERE up at Thanksgiving Point and it was really fun!
I caught the cutest bugs ever in this jar!
They really loved the life cycle of a monarch in this interactive play area!
We spent a long time in the butterfly area watching tons of butterflies fly all around us! They were so beautiful!
We watched an educational presentation about bugs and at the end we all got to hold a millipede if we wanted to.
Laura started...
I had a turn...and then the millipede crawled onto Brooklyns hands!
She was super brave!
Next we had a picnic lunch and then went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity where we climbed and explored and zip-lined and played with water and all sorts of fun!
Thursday night the kids went to the BYU vs UTAH football game here in Provo.
It was pretty cool that Braden's job is to design and publish the game-day magazine/program!
It is a very old-school cover commemorating 150 years of college football. He did a great job putting things together!
It was fun for Austin and Laura to have a date night to a game after many years!
I got to babysit the kids and have a Grandma Movie Night with treats!
Oh yeah!
Made everyone happy to get to be together at the game!
The whole family was decked out all day in BYU BLUE!
Even baby Clara got in on it!
We had two swim days at the Rec Center this week with the kiddos. They loved it so much and it was so hot, we just had to do one more time!
They love the wave pool outside and the lazy river inside!
And they braved some slides both in and out that were really fun!
I loved having them swim in my new tub this week too! Great to have a tub big enough for them all to play in!
The kids left on Friday to drive home.
Saturday was really special because we got to go to Nathan and Daniel's baptisms and confirmations!
They were so cute and excited and happy! It was a joy to see that enthusiasm and we loved being involved!
They are sure growing up!
Fun to be together again for this special occasion!
When we went to Jen and Jon's for lunch, we had Cody get out his new mission call to read to the rest of the family! He had opened it while at BYU-I a couple days ago.
I was SO EXCITED that he is going to GILBERT ARIZONA!! It is a great mission and area of the world!
Well, August was busy and full of family and friends so it was amazing!
We are busy with work and Church and yard stuff, but it is all good!
