Alaska--July 13th, 14th and 15th

July 13th

Today was a Sunday and so of course, we went to church in the morning.  After we came back, we sat around outside chatting and watching the kids play on the slip n' slide again, since it was really nice outside.  We all pitched in to help make dinner.  Garrett's aunt and uncle came over for dinner.  We had a Take 5 Tournament that evening and played numerous games to determine the winner.  We took our board up, so we had 2 to play on.  I honestly can't remember who won.  I want to say Garrett and I, but we might have come in 2nd.  Anyways, it was fun.

July 14th

Jim and Georgia left to go home today, but we had 2 more days until we left.  It was also Sydney's 15th birthday and so Savann spent most of the day getting ready for her party that was that night.  I was doing laundry all day and catching up on blogging.  Garrett took the younger kids swimming.  The older 4 kids went downtown for lunch, went to the bookstore and to the library.  They were having an 'Amazing Race' Scavenger Hunt at the library, so they did that for awhile.  

Bella really likes helping in the kitchen, so she was Savann's little helper.  

Sydney's theme for her birthday party was Frozen--hence all the snowflakes.  They were watching the movie while waiting for her friends to show up.  

They played a couple of games like picking up marshmallows with chopsticks, and building a snowman, and they also went on a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood, to collect things from the movie.  Like a heart, ice skates, a snowman, a carrot, etc.  They had a lot of fun with that.  

Building Paige into a snowman

Then they had a pinata that everyone got to hit.  They started with the youngest, which of course was Noah. 

Bella

I think there were 12 people in all, so by the time Sydney's turn came around, it was pretty beat up.  But, she finished the job.  Right after the party, the older girls went and did the radio show again, but Maggie and Lydia decided not to go this time.  We stayed up listening to thembi.  

July 15th

Today was our last full day in Petersburg.  Garrett and I wanted to repay Savann and Alex for letting us stay in their house for 2 weeks, so we did a little cleaning that day.  So, I cleaned the kitchen and Garrett cleaned out her fridge.  It wasn't much, but we wanted to help somehow.  

Bella, Paige and Noah playing out in the yard.  

We went downtown to have lunch and then did a bit of souvenir shopping.  We let them pick out a shirt or a sweatshirt.  Then we had some ice cream.

Not quite sure what they are doing in this picture, but it's funny

Out in front of their house, it was really low tide and there was this whale kind of "stuck" there because the water was moving really fast 'in' and he was trying to get out.  He was there for quite a while trying to get out.  We could hear him every time he came up to the surface.  He eventually was able to get out of the narrows and into the open ocean.  

After dinner and getting packed, we went outside to let off some lanterns that we bought with all of the 4th of July fireworks.  We just never got around to letting these off, so we did that tonight.  We had 2 of them.  They were kind of tricky to light.  

Sending it off

It was quite fun.  Maggie really enjoyed it because her favorite movie is "Tangled" and of course, the lantern scene is her favorite.  

This was our second one.  

It was such a beautiful sunset that night.  

Last pictures before we all go to bed.  I love Alex photo bombing their picture.  

Maggie and Devon.  These two were so cute. They grew quite close this trip.