Utah!

I know it's a little backwards with regards to posting order, but I'm still trying to make it through all my photos (there were a lot). I finally made it through the pics from Utah and wanted to get them up. Still to come will be San Diego (including Disneyland!).

So, we left Fairbanks Dec 28 on an evening flight to Anchorage which was fine. We've done this many times and it is slightly less painful now that the kids are a little older, but it is still quite an adventure. The adventure is always a little more painful as almost all flights going to Utah necessitate an overnight flight. Making it worse is the fact that flights from Anchorage to Utah are only through Delta which flies out of the international terminal at the Ted Stevens International Airport (Anchorage - ANC). This means going out of security, waiting for a bus outside (not a heated shelter) in the Alaskan winter that comes every 20 MINUTES, riding it through all the long term parking lots only to be dropped off at a dingy, small terminal which is standing room only. Oh, and you also have to go through security again. Oh, and our flight was delayed (left at 2AM instead of 1AM).

Fortunately, our good times in Utah more than made up for our travel difficulties.

We arrived on the 29th to both Gram and Gramps Cook and went up to their house for Mickey Mouse Waffles. We played with their train, oogled their new media toys, and made a mess of their house. It was a little chilly when we arrived for Utah standards (5-10F), but warmed up during the week. It was great to get to spend some time with family and especially the cousins. The cousins came over relatively frequently including a semi-spontaneous birthday party for Beth (self requested) which was great. We love a lot of things about Alaska, but being so far from family is definitely not one of them. We also got to see Drew's new piano skills and Christopher's new rolling over skills. It's amazing to see how quickly everyone grows up. I was reminded of two things especially when seeing Abbie and Lydia.

1 - How strange it is seeing such mature beautiful young women that only a brief time ago were sleeping in a tent on my living room floor in my apartment (1996).

2 - Remembering adults telling me when I was 16 over and over how they remember me when I was just a baby and wondering why they kept telling me that. I really didn't care.

Anyway, it was great to see everyone and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful extended family.

We also got to spend some time with Maama and Popop. They were back and forth from San Diego, so our time was brief but sweet. Maama made a delicious non-wheat (Owen and allergies) apple pie and pear tart (Gram also made some fabulous non-wheat waffles). There were at some point Cummings candies in their house when we arrived and I'm sure they now regret showing us where they were because they disappeared in a matter of days (3 I think).

It did snow quite a bit while we were there and I think Gram and Gramps have to be about the quickest folks I know on the draw for getting the sidewalks/driveways cleaned. The only way I got to take a turn was to sneak out and do it in the middle of the night. Gram even ran over to the neighbors to do a little snowblowing service.

We also got to see some long lost friends from Ohio and high school which was great. We wish we could somehow transport them to Alaska as well!

Anyway, we had a fabulous time with everyone and we can't wait to get back. The girls are still talking about all the fun they had with everyone.

More photos here.