Last Thursday, I drove over to my mom's house in Aberdeen, South Dakota. My sister, Becky, drove up from Kansas City and met us there. On Friday morning, we drove to Billings, Montana, to the wedding of my niece, Rachell Roberts. It was a fun trip! 6 of the 9 siblings in my family were there. It was fun to visit in the car, at the temple and at the reception in Rachell's home ward in Cowley, Wyoming. The long drive was totally worth it. It's always great to be with family. My mom and my siblings are a good influence on me. I always come back determined to be a better person.

Rachell and her new husband, Tim Enger.

My mom and sisters, from left to right: Becky Hendrickson, me, Susan Johnson, my mom and Kathleen Field.

The mother and father of the bride, my sister Miriam and her husband Shane Roberts.

Chalkfest

This past weekend was Chalkfest, an annual event in downtown Wausau. Janet and I went down on Saturday to see it. Our bishop, Mort McBain, is a very good artist and always does one. His is always a Madonna, because that's apparently what chalk artists traditonally did. If you click on the title of this post, you can see some of the art from 2005.

Land of the Midnight Sun

Wow! What a week we had in Alaska last week! I'll try to describe everything, but sometimes you just don't have words to explain. Anyway, here we go:

We arrived in Anchorage after a long, but otherwise unexceptional, flight. By the time we got our luggage and dealt with the car rental people and drove to Palmer, which is an hour north of Anchorage, it was 2 pm. Rene went fishing that evening; Janet and I stayed home and helped make lots of cookies for the reunion.

Sunday we got went to church at 1 pm. It's a good thing Sacrament meeting was so late, because our sleep schedules were messed up the whole time we were there. The sun sets about 11:30 and rises again about 3 am, but in between, it's still light--kind of like twilight. It's leads to staying up late. We ate dinner lots of night around 8 pm and after that, it just never seems like it's time to go to bed. Plus, it was a reunion, so we stayed up late talking and enjoying being together. As far as the church goes, there are lots of members in Alaska. In the Matanuska valley, where Bryan and Mary live, there is a stake. Palmer itself is only about 7000 people and Wasilla is about the same. But there are lots of homes out in the country. One-tenth of the population there is LDS. There are 3 wards in Palmer, 3 in Wasilla and 3 in between.

Monday, we drove up to the Matanuska glacier. It's about an hour drive. It was interesting and fun. We wanted to walk out onto the glacier, but that cost $15 apiece and we were too cheap to pay that.

Tuesday, Janet left to go with a bunch of cousins on a halibut charter out of Homer. She was pretty seasick, so she didn't enjoy it much, but I'll let her tell her own tale. Rene and I and Blair and Leslie drove down to Whittier and took a half-day glacier cruise. It was a little pricey and at first, I was wondering if we had been taken, but it turned out to be so awesome! We went 65 miles down Prince William Sound in a big catamaran and then came back, stopping to look at glaciers and wildlife all the way. We saw 26 named glaciers and a bunch of smaller ones. We got up close to a couple and were able to see one "calving". We also saw sea otters, seals and lots of bald eagles. We were hoping to see some whales, but didn't. It is hard to describe how beautiful it was. There we were in the ocean, with snow-covered mountains 360 degrees all around us. It was totally worth the money. Oh, for Joseph's benefit, we also saw a bunch of sea kayakers there. They have a plane or boat drop them off way out there, then kayak around and are picked up a week later, or whatever.

Wednesday, we mostly just puttered around Bryan and Mary's. Rene and Blair went fishing. In the afternoon, Leslie and I walked Sarah's pig. It was pretty funny. We were doing pretty well until we rounded a corner and the pigs saw their home and took off running. In case you're wondering why one has to walk a pig, it's to develop leaness, which is prized nowdays in pigs. Janet got home from the halibut charter in the evening.

On Thursday, Rene and I and Mary Ann and Jim took a bunch of the teenage counsins to see Thunderbird Falls and Eklutna Lake. The lake was more impressive than the falls. It is a glacier fed lake. It was pretty up there. That evening, the official reunion started with a picnic, fishing, canoeing, etc, at Matanuska Lake.

8 of the 11 siblings in Rene's family were there. One of their cousins and his family also lives in Wasilla, so they attended all the events, too.

Friday, we went to the Wasilla 4th of July parade. It was pretty much like every parade we ever went to in Mount Vernon. In the afternoon, we drove up Hatcher's Pass to Independence Mine, an abandoned gold mine. We had a private tour and then poked around on our own. It was really neat. It was established in 1939. It employed about 200 people and they all lived right there. They did not pan for gold, but actually mined it like you would coal. It was going strong until 1945, when it was deemed not essential to the war effort and closed. It was actually really cool. Some of the group also hiked up a mountain nearby to a pretty lake. On the way up there, we stopped at the prettiest river I've ever seen--the little Susitna. By the way, Hatcher's Pass is where the US ski team trains sometimes.

Saturday, we went to the Anchorage temple. It is one of the first 3 smaller temples built and is somewhat different than ours in either Columbus or St. Paul. The teens did baptisms, helped by their uncles, and then we did a sealing session. It was very nice. Afterwards, we all went out to dinner at the Golden Corral. After we got home, Rene went fishing with a group and Janet went on an ATV ride up to a glacier. She can tell you about that.

I'm not sure if I'd want to live in Alaska or not. And, of course, we only saw a little corner of it. But it was beautiful and the reunion was fun. It's going to take awhile to catch up on the sleep, though.

Our family, the girls at least, has a thing about shoes. For example, check http://franzenframe.blogspot.com/2008/04/shoe-fest.html on Emily's blog, or http://janscoresgoals.blogspot.com/2008/06/what.html on Janet's. One of the most fun parts of getting Joanna and Sarah ready for their missions was shoe shopping. Fortunately for us, missionary shoes are easy to find right now. I can't find it now, but in one of Joanna's letters, she said that she has more shoes with her on her mission (when she should be traveling light!) than the elders in her zone had all together. Rene even admits that he has more shoes than he ever thought he'd have. Even baby Afton, who doesn't even stand up yet, has a whole bunch of shoes. Of course, most of hers were gifts from people, including Grandma Allred, who sent her several pair.

Our upcoming trip to Alaska has precipitated a shoe crisis. How many pairs of shoes does one need for a trip to Alaska? We'll be there over a Sunday, so obviously, we need dress shoes. Plus, we'll need tennis shoes because there will be a lot of outdoor activities. But we'll also be doing some sightseeing, which in my mind, requires something a little dressier than my tennis shoes. And what about when we're kicking around at home? Flipflops, obviously. And Janet added another wrinkle today by asking if she would need footwear to swim in the lake. Good thing we have lots of shoes to choose from around here!

June 17--It's almost official summer, even here in the "northwoods." We have not really had many warm and sunny days at all so far this year. We had a long, cold spring, and then we've had lots of rainy and cool weather. We worked hard to get the yard in shape for Janet's graduation party, but it was windy and kind of rainy, so our yard didn't get used that much. But the flowers are looking nice, so I thought I'd post some pictures. The lady who lived here before us loved her flowers, so all of these are what she planted. It's a nice change from three feet of snow!

Irises

Bleeding heart

Clematis

These look kind of like a bleeding heart, but I'm not sure if they are or not.

These wild pansies are all over. They spread like crazy. Rene is all for digging them up, but I like them. We also have an area of our yard just on the edge of the woods that is covered with wild phlox. I thought we would miss those from Ohio, but no, we have our own.

It seems that our blog, along with others, has hit the doldrums recently. Are we all just bored, or is nothing exciting happening in our lives? Anyway, I thought I'd post some pictures that might be of interest.


It's been a busy few weeks around here. Wednesday was the soccer banquet. Friday was Janet's graduation party. Saturday, Rene and I, Emily and Preston went to the temple. Sunday, Janet's friend Casie was baptized. It was a pretty good week. Here are some pictures:


Janet was awarded the Most Valuable Player at the soccer banquet. And yes, that's the soccer coach. He is Joseph's age and not married.

Janet's cake was made by Sam's Club and was a steal of a deal. It cost $26.95 for a full sheet cake and was tasty, too.




Emily and I made the rest of the food. Emily spent most of two days here and this is the result. It was all good. But we do have lots of leftovers, especially cheese. Ben, the dairy addict, would probably love to have some. Sorry, Ben!



The trip to the temple was nice and relaxing. It does get to be a long day, though, by the time you drive three hours, spend two hours in the session and drive three more hours home. We did break it up a little with a stop at IHOP, which was yummy.



Casie is a wonderful girl. She is very sincere in her desire to do what is right. She bore her testimony at the close of the baptismal service. She said that at the first discussion, someone asked her how she knew the Bible was true. She said that that was the way she had been raised, to believe in the Bible. That night at home, she started to think about it and realized that she really didn't know for herself. So she started to pray about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and that was the beginning of her testimony. It was a joy to have her in our home for most of the discussions. Her sincerity and her dedication to the truth was an example to all of us.

We've reached another milestone in our lives. Yesterday was Janet's last sporting event in high school. Her soccer team lost to Wausau East 3-1 in the sectional playoffs. I think she started soccer and basketball in 2nd grade, so it's been ten years of following her sports. This year, especially, has been fun, but I don't think we'll miss it much. We might actually have some free time in our schedule next winter.

The game was also on her 18th birthday. We made some signs to hold up and had fun with that. Now that sports are over, she'll have time to look for a job and do some chores!