Alaska: July 5th and 6th

July 5th

(This was the last day of 4th of July activities)

This was in the morning...Devon and Noah wrestling.  

Around 11, we were going to head downtown for more 4th of July activities.  While the kids were waiting for the adults to come out, they decided to go and play in Alex's boat.  

Paige and Devon--both 9

Noah pulling up a buoy

Bella ready for a ride

When we got downtown, they still had games and booths set up, so we let the kids play some games. 

Sydney and Maggie get their faces painted.  Maggie has an obsession with Captain America.  

Here, we are watching some races...I'll explain them more when I get to those pictures. 

Georgia and her younger sister Bev.

Garrett and Scooter

Here are the races we were watching.  They were called the "5 Alarm Fire Go Cart Races" and they were so funny to watch.  I've never seen anything like it.  

They have the volunteer firefighters with two hoses and two 'bikes' (no pedals) with half a bucket on the back.  The firemen then spray the hoses and try to shoot the water into the buckets, which then force the bikes forward.  When they had smaller kids on the bikes, they got going really fast because the kids were so light.  It was quite funny, 

This is our nephew Devon coming back from his turn.  

Savann really wanted to do it, but none of us wanted to do it with her.  You get pretty wet and I really don't like being wet.  

She finally convinced Alex to go with her.  

And they're off!  I love Savann's face!  When they get to the end of the street, there are buckets of water set up and a cardboard "house" with windows full of fire and they are supposed to knock the fire out with their buckets of water.  They just threw it on each other.  They were wet already, why not?  

Sydney and Devon raced each other.  

Meanwhile, we were eating elephant ears and cheering everyone else on.  

This is the outside of Savann's quilt shop with one of her employees outside.  

 I just googled her Quilt shop and this cute picture came up.  Her store is really cute and she has great fabric!  

This is her logo--you can order online from her, if you are interested.  (I had to put a plug in for her.)

Back to the festivities--Bella and Paige got their face painted again.  

We headed back home for awhile until the next activity started.  The kids loved riding in the back of the truck.  

Later that afternoon, we headed down to the docks.  They were holding a scrap fish derby for the kids.  They had one hour to try and see who could catch the most fish.  They didn't use fishing poles, but "hand lines".  They were just pieces of wood with a hole cut out, for holding on to.  Then, there was a line attached and you wound the line around the piece of wood.  They had two contests--one for younger kids and one for older kids.  We missed the younger kids one, but they still let Bella and Noah participate.  

Garrett showing them all how to do it.  

Maggie, Alyssa and Syndey didn't want to fish, so they watched.  

Lydia

Paige

Bella and Noah

I love this kid's face here.  He was having such a fun time!

We moved to a different spot because we weren't having any luck.  

Paige finally reeled in a little flounder.  

She was so proud!

Her little fish

Grandpa helping Bella

Feeling her fish.  She's never touched one before, I don't think.

Noah and I caught one!!  I can't remember the official name of this one, but it's nickname is a double ugly.  It was pretty ugly!

He didn't want to get too close.  Every time it twitched, he jumped.  So funny!

By this time, our hour was up.  Lydia and Bella were pretty upset that they didn't catch one.  All the kids took their fish to get weighed to see who caught the biggest/most.  I love this picture of Paige in line with all the boys.  There were other girls fishing, but the majority was boys.  We let Paige claim Noah's fish since he technically wasn't in the contest.  She got a prize for getting the second largest in the girl's category.  

Her prize--she got to choose from a bunch of prizes on the table--Garrett wanted her to choose a fishing pole or tackle box, but she chose a toy.  

Riding home in the back of the truck, again. We had dinner and hung out, the went to watch one more activity that day.  

It was the log rolling contest.  Two people who try to stay on the log longest.  You feel so bad for the people that fall in the water--its gotta be so cold!! I remember watching this when we lived there for 2 summers and Garrett's sister Meggin did it.  I thought she was completely crazy!!

The kids kept themselves occupied by playing all sorts of games.  Here they are playing Scrabble.  

July 6th

Today was Sunday and so we went to church in the morning.  They have a small branch here in Petersburg and so it was strange to our kids that there weren't very many people.  It was fast Sunday and most of the people that bore their testimony were from our family.  There were a few other visitors there, too.  There's another small island close by (Kake) that has a couple of members there that aren't able to come to church, so they call in and listen and can participate that way.  It's very interesting.  

 After church, it was such a nice day that we hung out outside.  Here the kids are playing card games and Paige is below, jumping on the trampoline.  Noah and Bella were usually out there with her.

 After awhile, Alex took us to the airport where he works to show us some of the cool trucks and equipment that he gets to use on his job.  He works at the airport and takes care of the runway and does maintenance and snow removal and stuff.  He used to do construction and drive dump trucks before that.  And way before that--when I first met him, he used to own the 2 video stores in town.  I worked there part time when we lived there for 2 summers.  

 The kids got to try on the firefighters hats. 

 Noah the fireman

 This is the main truck we came to see.  It's MASSIVE!

 The kids got to climb in and look around

 Looking out from the inside.

 Watching it spray the water

 Pretty cool!

While we were there, we got to watch the afternoon plane take off.  I've never been so close to a plane taking off before--it was loud, but really neat!

 For dinner, Doc and Bev invited us over to their house for Mexican food.  Enchildadas, Burritos and Spanish rice.  It was really good!

 They have a dog, too.  Her name is Misty.  Paige and Noah loved her.  

 Garrett, me, Doc and Georgia

 Devon and Noah

Back at home--playing another game that we all like to play, called Take Five.