Alaska and the Completion of our Family Visits

During the family reunion Grant mentioned to Bryce that we would like to visit him and his family in Alaska again, and Bryce began immediately to make plans for such a visit.  Before the reunion was over he talked to us about the things we could do together.  As soon as we made our plans and bought the airline tickets he began to make final plans.  We got to go to the Anchorage temple two times because Bryce is a temple worker there.  It is a beautiful building. 

Anchorage Alaska Temple

Grant and Bryce by Bryce and Sandi's
motor home

Even though it rained a lot while we were there, we had a very busy schedule including a two-day trip in their motor home up to Denali (once known as Mt. McKinley) which is the highest mountain (20,000+ feet) in the USA.  Bryce arranged for us to take a tour bus into Denali National Park with a guide to help us enjoy spotting the animal life.

Here is a close up of a brown bear on
the mountain foraging for food.

  The park is so big that the mountain peak isn’t really much of a feature of the tour, but at the visitors center we were able to see videos that showed the peak and what was most interesting about it.  On the nearly 8 hour tour we saw several brown bears, Dall sheep, and some moose.  A female moose came up to within just a few feet of the bus and all of us passengers were quietly holding our breath and watching her until she ambled off. 

This female moose almost came right
up to the bus to check us out.

It was quite fun to see.  We also learned about the plant life – especially the tundra, which was a new experience for Grant.  Walking on the tundra is really a strange feeling as it is so spongy. It was quite freaky, actually.

Picture of Alaska on the wall of the
museum where Garth built the
huge aquarium.

Riding with Bryce in his motor home as we travelled the Alaskan roads was a very special experience.  He has lived there for over 45 years, and he knows a lot about the history of the state’s development.  His son, Garth, has been a civil engineer there for about twenty years, and Bryce often would point out a bridge or dock that Garth had designed.  After the first trip to Denali we made another trip in the opposite direction down to Seward where he showed us the Sea life visitors center which contained an aquarium that was 27 feet high and about 30 feet across that Garth had engineered.  Life inside could be viewed from three levels:  above the water where the sea birds were the main attraction, just below the surface, and down at the bottom.  The views were through glass panels that were 14 inches thick.  Garth is a great engineer.  Everywhere we went Bryce was able to show us what was interesting. 

Bryce in his living room,
probably exhausted from
hosting us.

Sandi with granddaughter, Krystal

Sandi didn’t go on either of these tours because she wasn’t up to it physically, but before and after each one she talked with us about it.   It was clear that she had been in on the planning, and wanted us to have a good time.  



Near the end of our stay in Anchorage, we got a chance to spend some time with Garth and Jeanna and their family.  Jeanna looked fantastic since having her kidney transplant and their family is doing great. Their oldest daughter,  Jessica is married to James Esplin and they have one daughter, Katie.  James is going to Penn State.  Garth and Jeanna's next girl, Alona is away at BYU.  So they only have the two boys at home, Jonathan and Andrew. 

Garth and Jeanna Howlett's family

 Later we took a little road trip with Bryce and Sandi both to see some of the local area.  Then we went out to see Corey and Melissa at their day care, which seems to be thriving.  Corey is also still flying all over the world with his job.  They have 8 children.  The oldest, Amy just married Matt Reece, and their second child, Tyler is serving a mission in Toronto, Canada.  That leaves Kyle, Gregory, Krystal, Zachary, Skyler and Phillip at home.  All the grand-kids are doing well and growing up fast.

 Corey and Melissa Howlett's family

Everyone was interested to hear about how our son, Eric was doing as he has entered the field of aviation now.  Of course they know enough about the occupation to ask good questions. So our trip to Alaska was also a very special experience.

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Pat by Corey and Melissa's day care.

The result of all this travel was that we have visited with every one of Grant’s brothers and sisters and their wives or husbands with several of their children.  We visited with each of Pat’s siblings including her step sister, Sharon, though we did not get to visit with John’s wife, Jan, nor with Sharon’s husband, Smitty.  The visits with each of them were long enough to really become re-acquainted, and we loved it.  We also have been able to visit with all of our own children and their spouses, and all of our grandchildren except for Brandon who is in Brazil as a missionary.  We may never again have the opportunity to visit so many in so short a time (just over two months), and it is quite possible that we may never again have the opportunity to visit with some in this life.  What a marvelous goal we set for ourselves, and what an accomplishment!  We figure that we have driven over 8000 miles since we were released from our mission, and that doesn’t include the trip to Alaska and all of the driving there and in Washington in other people’s vehicles.  But it has been worth every minute of it for us and our family.