Adventures in Alaska

So we've begun our adventures here in Alaska. We have been enjoying the amazing scenery and searching for wildlife. Included in our adventures so far are a trip to the Alaska state fair and a couple of berry picking expeditions. The moose sighting count is as follows: Joshua--5, Julia--1, Ethan--1, Christian--0 and me--0.

Ethan has been enjoying pretending to be wildlife. He's recently started this thing where he sits at the dinner table and appears to almost unconsciously rub the food in his face, hair, and everywhere his hand will reach, without blinking an eye.

The Alaska State Fair was relatively small, but had some fun attractions still. Ethan's favorite was probably getting in the snowplow (top picture). Everyone loved the little petting zoo; Joshua liked chasing after the pigs and Christian loved grabbing any fur he could find.

This pumpkin weighed over 1100 pounds!
The cabbage was over 100 pounds! We heard that Alaskan grown vegetables can grow really large because of the long summer sunlight hours, so this was proof!

Blueberry Hill on Flattop Mountain, the most popular hike in Anchorage. It really is breathtaking--we'll have to try to take more pictures that truly do it justice.

These were in Arctic Valley, about 15 miles into the mountains. The views on the drive up were amazing. We were looking for berries, and ended up with some crowberries (or blackberries) which we mixed with some wild blueberries and made into a syrup. Some Alaskan natives pointed them out to us and told us they used the crowberries to make Eskimo ice cream. I looked it up on the internet and it sounds bizarre (a mixture of fish, shortening, sugar, and these berries), but haven't dared to try making it yet.

Post from Alaska

We have begun our move to Alaska! I arrived late last night (1am) and have been staying in a hotel until I can check in to our new apartment tomorrow morning. Rebecca and the children are still with our parents in Washington and they will be joining me soon. I have been informed by the moving company that all of our stuff is here and I could possibly have that moved in tomorrow. Our van however, will not arrive until maybe the 20th. Hopefully I can get everything all settled here by the time Rebecca and the kids arrive.

It is exciting starting this new phase of our life. Not only are we finally done with school and starting a real career, we are also in an adventurous part of the country. The flight was weird because we left Philadelphia in darkness at about 8pm and it was lighter out when I arrived in Anchorage a little after midnight.

Here is a picture of Anchorage. It is a city of about 300,000. Even though the mountains are really close on one side of the city and the ocean on the other side, it seems like things are really spread out here. We will be excited to tell you all about living in Alaska as we explore it over the next few months. Wish us luck!

Hill Cumorah Pageant

A week and a half ago, we got to go to the Hill Cumorah Pageant as a family with the young men on youth night in our ward. Joshua also volunteered with parking the next day. It was a lot of fun! The pageant is a dramatization of scenes throughout the Book of Mormon ending with Joseph Smith finding the gold plates in the Hill Cumorah and the restoration of the Church from there. It started at dusk, which fell around 9pm and lasted until about 10:30pm. Surprisingly, the kids did very well staying up late, but were asleep pretty much as soon as they had their seatbelts buckled on the drive home.

Before the pageant began, the cast (over 700 members) mingled with people attending the event. I thought it was really neat to see close-ups of lots of the characters. Above in the first picture the kids are standing by Sariah and grandchildren, and in the second with one of the wise men attending Jesus' birth. The cast came from everywhere; some families would make it into a vacation/family tradition to be a part of the pageant every year. They would come a week early to participate in rehearsals, and then perform for the following week and a half. Most camped out in an area by the hill that they called "Zion's Camp."

You can kind of see the set in this picture--we saw youth groups from surrounding areas building it as part of their youth conferences a month ago.

The special effects were pretty elaborate--they had fires, waterfalls, lights, and other cool props for the different scenes. We were glad to be able to see it during our time here in New York.

Washington, D.C.

Last weekend, we took a trip down to Washington, D.C. for Independence Day--about a seven hour drive for us from Syracuse. We met up with my brother Ryan (coming from Florida) and stayed with my cousin Brent and his family. We've never been to the Capital, and it was a great trip! We drove down Friday night and left Monday afternoon.

On Saturday we went to the National Mall--a national park in the middle of the city that houses the Capitol building, some other government offices, many historic monuments, and a lot of museums. This shot is the Capitol building from the rear.

Library of Congress

National Museum of Natural History

Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool

White House

Lincoln Memorial

The kids loved the U.S. Botanic Garden--I did too, it was so neat to see all the different plants. In the children's area there were tools for kids to dig around and fountains to water the flowers with.

That evening, after seeing the sights, we settled on the Capitol lawn to listen to a dress rehearsal of the Independence Day concert. Among those that showed up to perform (some weren't there) were David Archuleta and Lang Lang (the pianist). It was a lot of fun to spend time with Ryan and also Brent and his family.

On Sunday night we went to a patch of grass near the Pentagon to watch the Independence Day fireworks over the Capitol. Monday we drove around to see a few monuments we'd missed on Saturday and celebrated Lucy's (Brent's daughter) birthday, and then left for home that afternoon. A great trip!

Marathon blog update

So May and June have flown by! The following are some shots of our latest escapades:

Last Monday Joshua took a day off from work and we all went to Niagara Falls--Joshua and the kids have already been there, but this was my first visit. The Falls are pretty incredible.

We parked on the American side and then walked over a bridge to the Canadian side, where the view was much more spectacular.

A couple of weeks ago, Joshua took Ethan on their first Fathers and Sons outing, and I think they had a great time! They went to a church owned camp area by Seneca Lake, about an hour away.
They built a fire, toasted some marshmallows, enjoyed a fireside, and played some games. They also brought along a youth who is investigating the Church.

They stayed in cabins with other people from the stake. Joshua and Ethan shared a twin bunk on a bunkbed, so I don't think they got much sleep. It was the first outing of hopefully many more to come!

On Memorial Day we went to a parade downtown, and it was a lot of fun. We came back loaded with parade fare--tootsie rolls and suckers, bead necklaces, miniature flags, and plenty of business and political handouts.
Everyone wore red, white and blue to the parade. Thanks to all those who have sacrificed so much for our country.

This delectable dish is Joshua's replication of a recipe he found in an LDS Living email. He took refrigerator rolls with chocolate chips in the middle, rolled in sugar and cocoa drizzled in a cinnamon sauce. It was really tasty and decadent.

Although our monthly family visits to the temple have lagged surrounding Christian's birth, we got back on track in time to enjoy Palmyra and the Sacred Grove in the Spring.
Look familiar? The title picture on our blog is one we found of the Sacred Grove off the internet, but these are ones Joshua took.

Random snippets:

The other day Julia surprised me with her construction of the Zumble-Zay we read about in Marvin K. Mooney (by Dr. Seuss, one of their favorites). I was impressed with the magic she was able to do with Duplo blocks, a hair ribbon, and a toy elephant. Compare with the original below-

Ethan's newest bedfellows are this dump truck or his school bus. He waits until after we tuck him in and then gathers them into his bed to sleep with instead of his stuffed animals.

I can't stop squeezing Christian's chubby legs. I love the rolls!