SATURDAY

 IS A 

SPECIAL 

DAY.......

It is nice to have a Saturday at home to get a little more caught up on things around our home.  With the temple still closed, we were able to do just that!

Wayne borrowed a really tall ladder from our neighbor across the street, Roger, so he could wash those really night windows in the living room.  With the trees cut down we could see all of that accumulation of 'stuff'.  AAAHHHH they sure look good.

It was another SCORCHER of a day too.  Good day to meet some old friends and go out to dinner.  Joe and Ginny recently moved back up to Frederick.  Well, at least for a few months.  They have put their mission papers in so they are just waiting for their 'call'.  We haven't seen them in about 2 1/2 years.  It is good to be with them again.

This was a great Japanese Steak House....will have to go back there again sometime.

ANOTHER SCORCHER OF A DAY ON TAP!!

The entire eastern US is in a total HEAT WAVE....to put it mildly!  I saw a cute 'sign' on a friends FaceBook post......"Satan called.....he wants his weather back!"  If this is what Satan's home is like, I definitely do not want any part of it.

SO....with this heat wave we had our living room windows replaced!  Yes, as hot as it was.  The workers were suppose to be here at 8:00 a.m.  They showed up at 7:30 a.m.  Wanted to get a head start on the heat.....good thing.

Got a picture of the OLD WINDOWS with the curtains down......so glad to have finally made this change.

 Out with the OLD and in with the NEW......they worked hard to change them out.

 A look at the NEW WINDOWS from the inside.

We looked out the living rooms windows and what did we see.....YUP......MOMMA DEER AND HER TWO BABIES having an afternoon snack.  She got caught (by us) with an APPLE in her mouth.  They are cute......BUT!!!

Another shot of the new windows with the CURTAINS back up!  AAAHHH.....we like!

I had the pleasure (PLEASURE??) of being out and about today trying to catch up on a bunch of ERRANDS.  Including having lunch with some of my best girl friends.  Only problem was.....IT WAS 105 DEGREES on the car thermometer.  The radio said that was equal to 115 0 120 heat index.  Man, I must have been crazy!

BAMBI......

OH BAMBI....

WHERE ARE YOU!!!!  :-(

Our beautiful IMPATIENTS were so very, very pretty!  I had shown them in an earlier picture here.  Good thing I did......Those deer have taken over our yard while we were gone for 2 years to Finland!!

Can you believe they actually left ONE PLANT untouched!  Well, guess what!  They came back and ate this one for breakfast......and now

WE HAVE NONE!!!!  :-(   :-(    :-(

 It is really, really hard to get a good shot of an AIRPLANE coming in for a landing at 

REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT 

in D.C.  This one might be our best yet.  Man.....when they come in we think sometimes that they are going to land right on our heads!!  Have to say it is quite impressive to see.

Got PROOF today of the work that Wayne gets accomplished in our 2 hour commute each morning and afternoon as we travel back and forth to Alexandria.  He is so good......at least one of us can get something productive done.  We pay for internet connection as we go up and down the road.  It is worth every penny of what we spend.

 TODAY and TOMORROW are suppose to be record breaking HEAT-WAVE DAYS!   Here is what the car thermometer read as we drove home tonight.  That was reflecting the 'heat index.....humidity' thingie.  With that factored in it was about 110 - 115degrees F.  Are we living as a suburb to Arizona or something.

ALL  GOOD  THINGS  MUST  COME

TO  AN  END!

By that I mean.....these were some nice looking, tall, straight trees in their 'day'.  But...their day had to come to an end at some point.  They just got a little too tall.....not nice looking any more.

 Maybe a few too many heavy snows piled up on them as well.

 We 'borrowed' our grandson, Tim, for a few hours to help grandpa cut them down to a more manageable size.

 Might not look quite the best YET.....but it is a start.  We will finish them another day.  Tim even commented that he never knew we had a chimney in there!

AND......then these BAMBI'S!  They are cute aren't they!?  Well.....

 If truth be told.......THEY LOVED EVERY BITE of our beautiful, full  flower bed of IMPATIENTS!!  They were very, very pretty flowers.....they at least left us about 1/3 of them.  Although that may be their breakfast for tomorrow morning.  Those little critters are brave to come so close to the house!!  I suppose they are used to our being away from home and feel free to roam anywhere they want to!

 On the way home from our NCFA Office in Alexandria, Va. today we decided to pull off at a little parking area along the GW Parkway right by the runway of REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT!  Watching those planes come in for a landing ....... WELL, we felt like we could just reach out and touch them!!  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!

We thought we could even see the eyes of some of the passengers smiling as they were coming in for a landing!  That is how close they were.

TRYING TO GET BACK TO SOME

NORMAL KIND OF

THINGS HERE

ON THE 

HOMEFRONT!!  (after the Alaskan Cruise)

I finally got around to getting some CROSS STITCH framed......the top picture was made for my by a dear sweet young RUSSIAN gal....Katya!  She is so sweet.  I cherish this picture.

 And this was MY FINNISH MISSION cross stitch picture.  In the middle of the picture it says "EXPECT A MIRACLE EVERYDAY".  And I have to say it is very representative of what happened so very often for us while serving in Finland.

Diane did a great job framing them.  Now I just need to find a 'place' in our home to hang them.  So many pictures and so little space!

A couple of 

RANDOM

SHOTS......just because I couldn't pass them up!

If this was a 'southern' girl there ever was......this would be Claire....licking her BUTTER directly from the knife.....no bread needed here!!!  A girl after my own heart!!!

 And Claire insisted on having her picture taken with the great 'OH WHAT A NIGHT' entertainment group.  They were fantastic!

 Like MOTHER like DAUGHTER....give her a camera and watch out world.....another 

BECKY HIGGINS in the makin'!!

 One more shot of that gorgeous blue of the iceberg.

 The cutest of our TOWEL ANIMALS!  This one is the more colorful of the bunch.

 The 'PARTING PARTY' with Crew and Claire making sure their 'friends' didn't get left out on anything!

And there you have it....the end of our cruise 'story'.  That's all folks.  Now ..... back to the 'normal life', whatever that might be.  At least until the next trip!

DISEMBARKATION 

DAY

Sunday, July 10th

The day arrived when we would have to get off the boat and head to our home and back to a 'Normal' life.....whatever that was.  We ate our last evening meal in the Summer Palace on Saturday night....

And BREAKFAST was in the KIDS CAFE where we often ate.....we could actually find seats there and it was easy for the kids.  Little Miss Claire Esther had her stuffed animals lined up eating their breakfast too.....and Porter just chimed right in.

 I think the kids are going to miss their CHOCOLATE MILK when they get home.

 And every meal looked just like this!!  I think the Cruise Ship lost money on us when it came to the milk.  They should have charged extra for that!!

 Heading off the boat......

 We got a cab together to go back to the airport.  Fortunately, we had the BAGS PROGRAM so our bags were checked all the way through to our final destination....directly from the boat.  No hassle with lines at the airport...other than security, of course.  We even got our BOARDING PASSES at our 

on-ship room.  This was definitely a PLUS!  And we had a great PLAY AREA for the kids while we waited for our air flights.  They got lots of wiggles out and had a great time.....

 And HOMEWARD BOUND we go!

It was a great trip.....however, we were not fans of the FREESTYLE MEALS at all.  It made it harder for us with little kiddies.  We will look for other options on our next cruise!

CANADA OH CANADA!!

WELCOME

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

We had to go through 'customs' when we arrived here.  Not quite sure why except it was a formality!  We didn't show our passports or anything.  I guess somebody just wanted to impress us for some reason.

 We did not dock until about 6:00 p.m. and were only in port for about 5 hours.  We didn't have a very long time and we did not sign up for any excursions.  Becky and I had been here before many years ago when Becky did a scrapbook show here in Victoria.  So we remembered a lot of what we were seeing.

And YES, the QUEEN'S CROWN.....I am Victoria after all and deserve to be able to wear the 'crown'!

 In walking around we saw a JUGGLING SHOW being done along the wharf.  Why not we thought!  We decided to stop and see what he was doing.  Well, David got roped into 'helping' out.  He was going to ride a tricycle with a helmet on his head and the top was going to be lit with fire.  Oh...and the juggler would be straddling two chairs and juggling with torches with fire glowing on the end.

 David would have to ride between his legs......no problems!  He made it and all was well.  We all had some good laughs.

 Claire loved watching the 'statue people' on the street too!  Here was the PLASTER MAN!

 And here was the BRONZE LADY.

 The sculptures were just as unique and beautiful as the statues.....these DOLPHINS are a great example.

 AAAHHHH.....this is what Becky and I had been waiting and looking for.....NANAIMO BARS!!!  Only found in Canada as far as we know.  They are the best things!

 Back on board and at dinner (a late one at that).....Crew is kept entertained his 'own way'.....with HIS ipad2!!!!  Hey....it worked and we were all very, very glad.

 And he threw in a little extra entertainment.....who else could do this with FORKS!

 This was just a little SCARRY for us.....looks 'peaceful' and calm right?!  Well, Claire went missing for about an hour.  ALL of us were frantically looking all over the ship for her.  Even the security people on board were looking all over for her.  Well, little did we know, Claire 'spotted' grandpa and they took off to go play a life-size game of chess on Deck 13!  That was fine and well....it is just that none of the rest of us knew that.  And cell service was spotty.  We had tried to call grandpa on his cell phone to no avail. We tried 'one more time' and he answered.  When asked about Claire he said .... 'Yea, she is right here with me playing a game of chess'!!!  We were all very, very relieved and Claire had absolutely no idea she was 'LOST'!!!

Back at sea and headed back to SEATTLE for DISEMBARKATION on Sunday morning!  Don't know where this week went to.

KETCHIKAN, ALASKA

Friday, July 8th

Another location only accessible by airplane or boat!  Man, I think I would feel very isolated.  I suppose if you are used to it, it would not be a problem.

 The excursion today would be on a catamaran out to the MISTY FJORDS.  This was one that I was really excited about because I have been wanting to see the Fjords in Denmark and Norway....these will have to do until I can get there.

 Here again, we were not disappointed with what we saw and did.  Just wish we had more time to enjoy the beauty of it.

 We passed this little island on the way out to our destination.

 Again, you would have to say these are spectacular!  And again...worth the trip out there.

 We actually saw several EAGLES along this route.  Hard to get pictures of them though.

 A little family shot......Crew was taking a nap inside.

 Native Alaskan Indians live in these parts.  They had great TOTEM POLES everywhere.

They had some great STATUES around as well.  Love them....

 MATT is a native Alaskan Indian that was on board our boat.  He told us lots of nice things....and showed us some things he had made.  Too bad he didn't have any for sale!

 More shots out on the top deck of the catamaran.

 This was a cool find......that is an OLD INDIAN PAINTING on the side of these rocks.  A circle with dots coming out from the circle.  

Another FUN FILLED DAY and still enjoying our sights.