Family visit from Montana

A couple of weeks ago, my parents, along with my aunt and uncle, made the long trek up the Alaska Highway to visit us. They camped in a pop-up trailer along the way, and survived mosquitoes and $7-a-gallon Canadian gas for the privilege of saying they have done the "Al-can."

At least during their time with us, they got to sleep in real bedrooms, take hot showers, and not worry about putting down the camper every morning.

We packed in quite a bit during their stay here. On Sunday night, our family drove up to meet them at Denali National Park, where they had arrived after driving down from Fairbanks. It rained on and off all day Monday, which is par for the course for Denali. But, we were able to get in some hiking in the park. Here is Dad and Sander walking on a trail next to Savage Creek.




One of the highlights was getting to see "Arctic Thunder," a bi-annual air show held at nearby Elmendorf Air Force base. Here are my parents, and Michael and Maryan, standing in front of one of the many jets on display at the air show. After a week of living together in the car and the camper, they're still all smiles!



Not everyone enjoyed the loud jets. This is what Sander looked like most of the time.



The FedEx plane was a huge hit with the kids. It made such an impression on Sander that he can now spot a FedEx vehicle from miles away. The other day I was driving him and his friend Christian around, and suddenly Sander screamed, "FedEx"!! I looked around and about 3 blocks away a small FedEx van was driving down the road. When Christian asked, "What is FedEx?," Sander said with confidence, "It's an airplane."



Speaking of Sander, this is a picture of him after long day away a few weeks ago. Despite what it looks like, he hasn't converted to Islam! This is where I left him for a minute to keep unloading the car, and this is where he decided to take a nap.