Alaska 1

Bonny and Jim got married on June 20, and we wouldn't have missed it for the world! We hadn't been back to AK since we moved away, so the whole trip was a huge thrill for the boys, and bittersweet for me. I say that because while I am happy to live somewhere much warmer, I do miss Alaska and I miss my family up there like crazy. I of course cried all the way home!
The wedding was beautiful and we all really like Jim, so couldn't be happier for Bonny. An extra treat was that Nancy, Walid, and Loei flew in from Cairo. Yay!!
We only had 8 days, so it was a whirlwind tour and none of us felt like we were there long enough. I know that's normal for most vacations, but still...anyhow...here’s a brief recap. I will at some point add photos at Facebook, so will only include a few here.
We arrived around 1 am on Sunday the 14th, stayed up later talking to Lupe and Jessica, then slept some. We got up and headed out to the Three Baron's Renaissance Fair, which we had faithfully attended every year when we lived in Anchorage. Benny and Molly met up with us and we all had a great time. When we got back to Lupe’s, she drove us to Elderberry Park and we hiked the Coastal Trail, arriving back at the park just before midnight. Since Monday was Ealom’s birthday, we counted down the remaining seconds until he turned 13 in the midnight sun. I took some very nice pictures of his last minutes as a 12 year old and a very funny video of him counting down to 13. :-)
I arranged a party at the Imaginarium (our old Science Center) and invited friends and family on Monday. Since everybody on my side of the family was working and/or getting ready for the wedding, it was just Gil’s side of the family and some of Ealom’s friends. He had a pretty good time, but since we used to have huge blow-out parties at our home in Anchorage for the kids’ birthdays, Ealom felt a little let-down. I did my best, but I think it was like a lot of things in life, especially birthdays. You get all worked up for this “huge” event, but you don’t feel any different really, and it’s kind-of anti-climatic. Oh well, life goes on. We went back to Lupe’s for dinner and then headed over to our old neighborhood. It was really emotional for all of us to see the home where we had built so much of our lives for 9 years, but we were glad we went and hung out in the street with our old neighbors chatting until nearly midnight when we could stand the tiredness and mosquitoes no longer. It never gets dark of course. ;-)
Maybe this is why I don’t blog much – it takes me too long! I think I will break these posts up into a couple of days at a time, and add a couple photos each.
Here’s the boys at the 3 Baron’s Fair:

Ealom's last minutes being 12:

The final countdown to 13:

Ealom's birthday party: