Jingle Bell Rock

My grandsons love Mickey Mouse!  Here is a cute video I saw that combines Mickey Mouse and Christmas!  Enjoy boys!

Halloweenie

A few years ago, I started having a Halloween Party for our family.  It started out small and now it has grown into a great family tradition. This year everyone dressed up so great, I had to do a blog post about the costumes!   And, for the record, I will do the fish pond for everyone next year!  

Bryan and Celeste.
Celeste dressed up as Merida from Brave!
We all think Celeste looks like Merida!  Bryan is one of her many suitors!

We flipped back to the good ole 60's and dressed up as hippies!  

We went to our Ward Trunk or Treat and people didn't even recognize us! It was fun

Ben and Tana
The Ninja Family!  They are all experienced Ninjas and  usually appear like this:
But they had to tone it down for Halloween as not to scare the little ones!

Ninja Baby

Jeff and Sarah - The BASEBALL family!
 ( I love how Eli and Jeff both are tipping their hats)

Jeff The umpire! Had to leave work early to make to our party!

What a cute little Hot Dog!
Their costumes were so cute!

We couldn't have a party without Laura's cute family!
A Purple witch, a Ninja, a fireman with his little dog, and a frog!

Mom... really you made me be a frog?

Laura as Mary Poppins and Ben as Bert... I think they make a fine couple!

We had a great Halloween Party and it was fun to have the whole family home and enjoy each other.  We played Bingo, Fish pond and Candy Walk.
I love Halloween!

* For My October project, I made costumes, I made our hippie outfits and all the Ninjas for Ben and Tana's family.  It was so much fun and I enjoyed making them.

My Little Punkins

For family home evening we went to the Pumpkin Patch.  We had a great time and enjoyed watching our grandchildren pick out a pumpkin. Fall is such a fun time of year, when you can get out and see beautiful colored leaves, go to a pumpkin patch and just enjoy some nice cool weather. 

Our Sweet Princess

Cootsie

Coleman

Axton

Tyler

Dirk... he didn't want to look at the camera!  He was being shy!

Austen

We had a fun time and enjoyed a nice dinner after at the city park.  I love FALL.

In A Pickle

I thought I would take a break from my Alaska pictures and show you what I have been up to in September.

We had a good crop of cucumber this year from our garden.  I love cucumbers, but I can't eat them by the bucket load, so I had to come up with a plan to preserve them.  I decided, you can't go wrong with PICKLES!  I haven't bottled pickles for years and didn't even know if I remembered how.  I searched my cookbooks and online recipes and come up with some good recipes.   Then...I went to work and started canning.

My first attempt was Dilly Beans from Aunt Geredine.  You can see a picture of them in the front.  They are spicy and dilly at the same time!   I also made bread and butter pickles.

Next, I made dill pickle chips for hamburgers.  I used my slicer to get them all the same size!

Here is a good view of my dilly beans and dill chips!  Oohh  Ahhh

To top off my pickle project, I made relish!  I had never made it before, but the cucumbers were still coming!

I am quite happy with my September project of doing pickles. If nothing else, they look good sitting on the shelf.  If you come and visit me this next year---ask me for a pickle!

All Aboard to Denali

I am still here! I want to finish our Alaskan Adventure, so here is my next installment.  I have been so busy lately that blogging has been down on my list! I did do a September project and I will post that later!  So, when I left you last, we had just left College Fjord and we cruised all day, and that evening we docked at Whittier, Alaska.  I looked out the window and what did I see, but a big FULL Moon over the bay.  It was beautiful, but my pictures didn't turn out.
We spent our final night on the ship docked at the bay.  I felt bad to leave the ship because we were having such a wonderful time, but inland Alaska waited for us! Then next morning, we got up and boarded a train.

We said good bye to our wonderful ship and climbed aboard a train!  It was early in the morning, so I am not at my best in this picture, but I wanted you to see how neat the train windows opened up!

A photo of the clear water.  It was taken through the window so it  has a rainbow feeling!

Here is picture of our train tour guide.  Her name is Ester and she is a retired school teacher.  I felt like we were in a classroom for the whole train ride!  I was waiting for a test at the end!   She was very good and I liked her style.  

Mt. McKinley or Denali.  It is the highest mountain in North America!  We were  so lucky to see the mountain this good from this distance.  They say that you can only see it 30% of the time!

Talkeetna, Alaska

We got off the train in Talkeetna.  It was the coolest town.  We were allowed to visit as long as we wanted and then catch a bus to our lodge for the night.   David and I walked the town and had lunch here.  It was 80 degrees!!!  All the shops in town are so cute and the plants are unreal.  I was so shocked to see BIG flower pots everywhere.  

Chocolate shop.. let's go in!

Road House... this place has been around since 1919.  It is where you would come  for a meal and  lodging. It is still in operation today.

Look at these flowers at the Mile High Pizza Pie store.

Nagley's Store... prices are high here.  A gallon of milk was $4.00, but it is the only grocery in town.  People were buying ice cream here.  It looked good, but we weren't hungry, so we passed! 

I love this sign... if feels so Alaskan....It was on Nagley's Store. 

Kissed by a Moose.  Good Bye Talkeenta.

Mt. McKinley Lodge

That evening we stayed at Mt. McKinley lodge.  Here is a view of Denali at Sunset.  Of course, this was taken about 9:00 pm.  The sun doesn't go down for a long time... about 11:00ish.

A view of our room...Big flower pots everywhere.  It was a pretty place.
That night we ate at 20,320.  We asked, "Why is this placed named 20320?", and our waiter said, " That is the elevation of Mt. McKinley."   Oh, we said... good to know!  We felt lame. 

A view of Mt. McKinley as we were driving away the next day!
Our next stop is Denali Lodge.

We have been  home from our trip for over a month and it still feels like we just got home!  I am glad I am blogging so I don't forget what we did.  I have so many more pictures, but I just can't fit them all in.  

Until next time...

Glacier Bay

This post is mostly pictures. I just wanted to show off some of the great pictures we took!  One of the highlights of the cruise was to go into Glacier Bay National Park.  When we were there it was cloudy and overcast with an eerie mystic feeling.   It is cold up by the glaciers and so you have to wear a coat.  The one good thing about it being overcast, was the color blue stands out more.

Glacier Bay

We were able to see some of the glacier fall off.  They call it "calfing". 

Leaving Glacier Bay

Once we were out of the Bay area, the weather cleared up and it turned out to be a beautiful day.   These pictures were taken from our  balcony.   Such beautiful scenery. 

Notice the glassy water.  This was as we were entering College Fjord. This bay is full of glaciers , all named after Colleges in the United States. 

A fishing boat, that looks so small up against the mountains, but in reality, it  was a big fishing boat.   Everything is just so big!    I hope you aren't getting tired of my Alaskan posts.  We took so many wonderful pictures.  I feel like I have to keep posting them! 

Until next time!