July 17,2024

 This has been a couple of wild weeks so a blog did not happen! Between health issues and a cruise slipped in here we have not been on a normal routine!!  If we can get Gary well again we can get back to normal and hit these last couple of months strong!

We are very grateful that our trip with Chalae and David and Tricia and Ken went how it did!  Gary felt great getting over bronchitis before & it just came back for a revisit now we are back!  We had a great trip to Vancouver and up the inside passage back to Whittier! We had a beautiful warm day in Vancouver and saw the gardens there.

They did not disappoint!  We stayed in a cute AirBnB.  A bit warm but hey it is summer!  We also went to a Spanish ward to church cause we could go before we had to board! Actually we enjoyed it!  It was a big ward!!

Ken was our chauffeur and got us to our port and returned our car and met us back at the boat to board!  We had lots of exploring and eating for the first day and a half!  We ran into Justin our institute director in line to board so saw each other pretty often!  It was cool on board but enjoyed the deck and outside areas until Friday and it got stormy. By Saturday the decks were closed cause of wind and rain!

So we had ridden a ferry to Victoria BC. So now cruise ship!  

Tues we were on a zodiac raft and kayaks on the ocean! Wed we went on a small whale watching boat. Thursday was the train!  It was all gorgeous country and amazing! We kayaked for like two hours on the ocean. We were two man kayaks so in couples. It was kind of tough. We kept thinking about elder Renlands talk!  We did not dump!  My shoulder was hurting so a good rhythm was hard but we survived. Gary got a little bugged . We were by far the oldest and Gary’s legs were too long to use the rudder so there was that too!  We saw star fish and sea cucumbers which was cool!  Our bus driver back was from Idaho and Lainee Cox and a member of the church.  A couple with us were members from Arizona!

Our first stop was Ketchikan. Next we went to Juneau and we got some serious rain!  We went on a walk to the Mendenhall glacier and then went whale watching!  It was amazing we saw many whales in groups really close to our boat. Even a baby flipped up and twirled!

These guides knew these whales names and everything! We were the last ones back to board that night. Chalae and David went separate that day. They went on the tram and some hikes. David was worried about sea sickness. We all did pretty good the whole trip!

Our last excursion was a train ride. We took a bus (the driver from Salt Lake). Up to Bennet lake. This was back into Canada in the Yukon.  We had a big ice cream cone and explored this place a bit then came back on the train!  They served us lunch and came back to Skagway on a very beautiful ride . Stopped at a ghost town to walk and explore! It was a great day!

 Walked a really cute downtown when we got back! All was closed up because after 6. Saved us some money!

The last two days were on the ship !  It was rainy and pretty chilly! We did go into glacier bay and learned about that! We saw a couple of movies and a few shows! There was a great team on baby grands that we listened to a couple of nights! Being with family was the best! Love enjoying meals together and lots of visiting!  Ice cream and raised oatmeal cookies were some favs! We ended in Whittier sat night! Sunday morning got off the boat and took a bus to Anchorage airport where our good friend Elder Badger brought us their car to use!  Kept it for the day so we could go to church and get kids to the airport late that night!  I had food here so fixed a meal for us!  Glad to be back but hard to be done with the trip!  Sort of felt like we should have been done and home to Malad!  Two more months!

We did land and had our institute FHE of games and dinner Monday night!  Had about 40 kids so that was great!! By the time we were cleaning up Gary was pretty sick!  So we left and I went back Tuesday noon and cleaned up and replaced a zipper in a missionaries slacks! He has really been in bed but I went to my shift at the temple and plan a session in the morning!  Been a few weeks so needed to get back!  I’m going to really miss the temple being 7 minutes away!!!!

Love you all so much. We cherish the time we've spent on our mission and the things we have learned, but we miss all of you and will look forward to being with you again.