Jodi's and Jenn's children playing together in the playroom. They have lots of fun playing together.

Zane and Karson jammin' in Karson's room. They are so-o-o-o boy!

These two make up for their brothers -- they are so-o-o-o girl. They are so cute together and they love to play in Kate's walk-in closet!

Zoey and Kate "posing" for a candid shot!! Aren't they cute? They remind me a bit of their mothers, cute and fun!

These two really didn't want to pose, they were too busy crawling all over the floor! Zenna decided she liked what Claire had so she was sharing!?

Okay, I have two posts today. That's because I've been so busy that I haven't had time to post my blog in a few weeks. We also spent a week in Boise with my Mom and two sisters and our daughter, Loriann, but I didn't get my camera out -- too busy talking and shopping with Loriann (that was really fun!!)

Dorothy's Birthday

We invited the Lewiston Gossages to a birthday party for Dorothy at our house. We had 21 guests and had a great time! It was Dorothy's 85th birthday.

Dorothy with her three boys: Howard, Jerry, and Clyde. It was fun to get them all together during our visit to Lewiston.

We got a cake for her birthday and we almost ate the whole thing! Gossages are good eaters!

The family. Even with some family members missing, we had a great time and had a lot of good visits! Isn't family great!!!!!!

The Cruise

On 19 July we embarked the Star Princess and left the port of Seattle at 1600 hours on our way to Skagway in the inland passage. It was a beautiful day in Seattle with beautiful views of both Seattle and Mount Rainier.

Howard and I were in the bow of the ship when she backed out and got really good views of the whole harbour.

Our first port of call was the picturesque village of Ketchican, Alaska. We went on a tour of the city.

At our first stop we were greeted by Emily Heward!!!! That was a huge surprise and a special highpoint of our cruise! She's working there this summer with an internship. Made our stop even more special.

Our next stop in Ketchican was a totem village where they explained some of the stories totems tell and how and why they were carved.

We were to go to Tracey Arm, but the weather had other ideas so we went to Endicott Arm. The Fjord was beautiful with sheer cliffs, waterfalls, and of course the glacier.

Because it was overcast, the blue in the glacier was more prevalent and beautiful!

Just to prove we were there! Yes, it was very cold!

This is Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. It was really pretty too.

This is a shot of the Juneau harbor. Those aren't current, its a solid mass of salmon. They were running and we saw lots of salmon all over along with the bald eagles hunting them (no bears).

Skagway and the White Pass & Yukon Railway! Wow, its one of the Civil Engineering Wonders of the World and was a beautiful trip.

This is one of two tunnels on the ride and one of many trestles on the trip!

This shows the rail a long way up on the mountain and really small you can see two trestles. The views were pretty spectacular even though shrouded in clouds.

Downtown Skagway was very frontier-like. It was a neat place to shop.

We toured Victoria, B.C. by horse drawn trolley. It was a neat way to see the city and experience Victoria.

Boise and Moscow Visits

It's been awhile since we've driven from Boise to Moscow and we picked a beautiful day. We had sunshine in southern Idaho, but as we got north of New Meadows we started to see clouds. Traveling through the Salmon River canyon was beautiful with the clouds starting to really move in so I took shots of 1) driving down the canyon, 2) rounding the bend before Slate Creek, 3) the road to Pittsburgh Landing in Hells Canyon, 4) looking at Whitebird hill, and 5) the view from the top of Whitebird hill. Boise visit: We had a really good visit with family while staying in Boise (didn't get any pictures!) We had a barbecue at Jane's house with her whole family on Memorial

Day and a picnic in my Mom's backyard with the whole family there. We also got to see a lot of Loriann, because she took a 3 and a 4 day weekend while we were there. It was really good to see everyone and to get to help Loriann with projects around her house (good excuse to spend the day with her!) I especially liked shopping with someone who also likes to shop. We camped in Grangeville Thursday night and got word that our friend Josh was going into surgery the next morning, he was one sick young man. Josh made it through the surgery and was stable Friday night. Early Saturday morning we got the word that Josh had "gone home." The service

yesterday was really beautiful. There were probably close to 500 people in attendance. Josh touched a lot of lives in his 23 years. He looked at each day as a gift from his Father in Heaven, and he loved and was loved by many. I am very glad to say that I knew him and knew him well enough to love him and to mourn his passing and I look forward to seeing him again. Brighter note: We have gotten to see lots of friends while visiting, and we've been able to renew lots of friendships. We have lots of people who are special to us in the Moscow area. It was good to spend time there visiting. Hopefully our next visit will be on a happier note. I didn't take any pictures while

visiting Moscow either (I've gotten really bad since we've been in Idaho.) We did enjoy our visits with friends though and we got all our doctor appointments done for another year!!! That was a really good thing! Our next stop will be Lewiston to visit Howard's Mom and 2 brothers for a week or so. First we'll drive over to Bridgeport, WA to go to one of Howard's Aunt's 93d birthday. It should be fun to see family on his side and visit with them for the day. Family is so important and we have to make the most of our time with them. Newsflash: We have been full-time RVing now for one full year! We moved into our 5th wheel on 8 June 2008. Yes, we're

still loving it and plan to see a lot more of this great country! We've met a lot of neat people this year and we've gotten to spend lots more time with our family. That's a good thing -- RIGHT!

This week was fun. We got to go to Karson's T-Ball practice on Tuesday night. The boys were so cute and Karson did a good job. During practice, Kate tried to play with Andy. Afterward we went to DQ and had ice cream. Wednesday Jenn and Betsy had a "sew day." We made sun dresses for Kate and Claire. Jenn picked out some really cute vintage style material for the skirts. They turned out really good and the girls wore them for family pictures Thursday night. We drove to Boise-Meridian RV Resort on Thursday and went to dinner with Loriann. On Friday we went to Nampa and visited Betsy's Mom. She's doing well, but tires quickly so our visits have to be often, but not too long. This afternoon, we're taking stuff over to Mom's to barbecue and hopefully most of the family will be there. Should be fun! We'll be here for about 2 weeks visiting family before we head north to Moscow for all our doctor's appointments and visiting friends in Moscow.

City of Rocks

Sunday, after church, we drove south of Burley to City of Rocks. The California pioneers went through this valley and thought the rocks looked like an old abandoned city, thus the name. Its a beautiful valley, but very rugged!

Some of the rocks with the snowy peaks behind. We had rain this past week, but it snowed on top of the hills. Sunday we had 80 degrees! I love Spring weather -- if you don't like it, wait 5 minutes, it will change!

Kate and Jenn and I went on a hike into the rocks to see the valley. Got a good look at some of the rocks. There were lots of climbers all over the place. They like to climb the bigger rocks.

This was taken from the trail Jenn and Kate and I went on. While we were doing this the boys walked around a big rock.

We weren't sure if this was graffiti or markings with axle grease that were done by pioneers. It was a really neat afternoon. We found a campsite and had a picnic and then walked around the park.

Graduation & Shoshone Falls

Not the greatest picture, but she did it! Jenn received her Master's in Health Education on Saturday.

The Jones Family. The kids were excited. I don't think they understood what the fuss was all about, but they got to go out to lunch afterwards.

Jenn was excited two of her siblings could make it to graduation! It was a neat Mother's Day weekend gift for me too, I got to have three of my four kids together for awhile!

Jenn with her very proud parents.

There's still a lot of snow on the hills north of Burley and the Snake is running really high. We asked at Shoshone Falls and were told they would keep the water high over the Falls for about another month before they "turn them off." They have a water gauge at the entrance that marks how high the water levels are and it was pushed as high as it would go!

They call Shoshone Falls the "Niagara of the West." It is really beautiful, especially when this much water is flowing!

I took this shot to get perspective on how big the Falls are. There are groups of people standing at the observation point just to the right of the falls on the rocks. They are so small though you can't really see them!

This angle was cool with the rainbow. What a neat experience!

This was taken on the observation point that you can't see in the other picture! Karson didn't want to get too close to the rail. It was really loud! If you're close enough to visit, we highly recommend it!!!!