Chris and Dorothy Vann Wedding - June 12, 2008

More Pre-Wedding Photos

Here are some more pictures of when the whole gang arrived. The last picture is of Carsten holding Greta, Emme, Levi and then Finn. We had a fire almost every other night in our backyard after cooking out. We so enjoyed every bit of time with our loved ones. Sometimes, it was a bit of a challenge to keep the home running smoothly with meals, transportation, and sippee cups separated. We all have great memories of time spent with family and, course, the reason for coming to Alaska was for Bernie and Angie's wedding. It was awesome! God is to be praised!

Family Photos of pre and post Wedding of Bernie and Angie

Here are some photos of our beautiful grandcherubs the week before the wedding. Adam, Natalie and Greta got to Anchorage first. Adam was "the man" who built our sturdy wooden swingset to keep the kids having fun. He had Kyle and Bernie Jr. as his assistants and Big Bernie to help him move it into place. Here are Greta and Finn getting to know one another. Don't let Greta's size fool you. She can definitely hold her own.

Resurrection Flowers - 2008

Happy Easter 2008

We certainly enjoyed Easter from the Bernie's assembling the "Big Green Egg" smoker to Finn and I coloring Easter eggs. He had blue dye on his chubby little fingers and then he decided to sample one and instantly had blue lips. What a cutie!

We sure have enjoyed the new smoker. It is capable of keeping the moisture in while smoking the foods slowly. Bernie has been the chief chef and I have been eating the fruits of his labor. This weekend we will have authentic brick-oven pizza. I'm looking for ideas for your favorite pizza. I'm thinking of a white-sauce, spinach and sun-dried tomato, whole-wheat crust pizza. Of course, I have already bought a 5lb bag of pepperoni for Dad.

Easter Sunday was a record for church attendance with 1150 people attending! Praise our Saviour. He is risen indeed! We had 17 people over for Easter dinner and, it was so much fun. We then went to Dawn's house and visited for three hours with the family. We had a full day and, the time flew by. P.S. My amaryllis bloomed with two huge red blossoms on the Saturday before Easter. It's gorgeous...pictures to follow.

Spring Break - March 2008

"Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he hath done for you." I Samuel 12:24

What a glorious spring break we had! We left early on Wednesday morning and saw so much wildlife beginning with four cow moose grazing in the Potter flats area to three majestic eagles waiting for their turn to enjoy an animal carcass. There were four coyotes (at first, we thought they were fox) who carefully watched us as Bernie took pictures of them. We went south to Seward for the day enjoying fresh fish and chips for lunch and then raspberry gelato for dessert. We also could not pass up a trip into Seward's oldest dry goods store Brown & Hawkins (1905) for homemade taffy. On the way home, we went to Hope where you see the rusty old sign from the Cafe. This town was really a hoppin place back in the early 1900's during the gold rush. On the way home, we saw two sheep on the cliffs of the Seward Highway.

Thursday, we went North to Talkeetna. The weather was so gorgeous, unlike the snowstorm we encountered the day before. I think every year it has snowed on spring break. We saw McKinley out majestically and considered a sightseeing flight trip. I chickened out because I get airsick in a small plane...I think. We didn't see any wildlife this day except one little baby boy named Finn who just got a new sled. G-Pop took him for a ride around their back yard and he loved it.

Alaska in February and Fur Rendevous 2008

As I watch the blazing orange sunset behind the trees I am reminded of God's power. Truly He has made all things beautiful. We have spent our weekend in the outdoors more since the weather has warmed. The Chinook winds have warmed the temperature and we are down to very little snow but much ice. The back roads are plenty slick as well as our driveway.

Thunderbird Falls was gorgeous and as you can see the water was gushing through the thick ice. So beautiful. The hike up was sort of slick but I just held onto Bernie's arm to take him down with me(he actually had better tread on his boots than mine.)

The picture of the tree whittled down was chewed on by a beaver down by Otter Lake. Saturday was gorgeous outside and we went for a drive to see what animals were waiting to get their picture taken. Bullwinkle and Buzzwinkle did not disappoint us. One was out eating trees and the other was sort of resting in the brush.

Sunday we went down to Fourth Avenue to watch the first ever "Run of the Reindeer". There were sooooo many people spectating that it was difficult to see at first. The runners (hundreds of them) were dressed up in costume to run the three blocks with the reindeer. The reindeer actually ran along beside them. Some of our friends from church were in the running and we had fun watching them.