September 2022

September has been a crazy month and we have been gone from home a lot more than we have been at home.  This picture shows how Frankie feels about that:

We started the month with an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle that my sister Kim and her husband Tim invited us to join them on.  We had the most amazing time!!  In honor of Grandpa Ririe, we got ice cream cones almost as soon as we got on the ship and then settled in to watch the Seattle skyline recede into the distance:

Our first and last days were spent at sea and we found plenty of fun things to do onboard, including foosball and ping pong tournaments, bumper cars, rock climbing, whale watching, indoor skydiving (which left us with one of our funniest memories of the entire trip) and nearly constant eating. :)

Our first port city was Ketchikan where we went to the logging competition show, explored Creekside street and enjoyed walking around the surrounding areas.

We next stopped in Skagway where we rented a jeep for the day and took the most beautiful and amazing drive through the mountain pass near Skagway and into Canada and the Yukon territory.  We saw beautiful waterfalls, lakes and even an area of sand dunes that were created not by an ocean or lake, but by a glacier.  We hiked around some and just enjoyed the scenery.  And Bryce was super happy to stop at a market in Carcross, Canada and stock up on some of his favorite Canadian treats!

We next stopped in Juneau where we took a shuttle bus to Mendenhall glacier and hiked around 7 miles in the area.  Again we saw some pretty amazing scenery and plenty of wildlife including lots of bald eagles, but were disappointed to not catch site of a bear.

We had a short stop in Victoria, BC and walked around downtown and up to Beacon Hill park.

Throughout Alaska and Canada, we saw a ton of totem poles, which Bryce is pretty passionate about.  Here are just a few of the pictures we took of totem poles. :):)

After returning to Seattle, Bryce and I spent a couple of days with my dad and Karen, who live in the Seattle area.  We had a great time together and I was happy to get to go to the Chihuly garden and to see the AMAZING and beautiful glass sculptures there.

We got home from Seattle and 4 days later, drove to Southern California.  We spent the first 3 days of our time there at Kim and Tim's new house in Loma Linda where they moved a little over a year ago to be closer to Loma Linda University where Kim is attending nursing school. Kim and I had fun exploring the Loma Linda and Redlands area while Bryce and Tim worked.  Kim took me on a tour of her university and Loma Linda hospital where she works as a nursing student.  I was super impressed with both!  We also went on a hike through the mountains near their home, went to the Redlands temple together and spent plenty of time in their pool.

We spent the next 3 days in Disneyland with my siblings Kathi, Kristi, Bill, Becki and their spouses as well as my dad and Karen.  The 14 of us had such a total blast being together, even though the temps were scorching hot and it was crazy busy.  But we laughed a lot, rode plenty of fun rides and just enjoyed being together.  It was an awesome three days.

While we were traveling all over the place, Autumn was having some pretty awesome experiences as a missionary.  She is loving Winnipeg more and more all the time and the opportunities she has to serve and share the light of Christ with the people she meets there.  We love her and miss her and love talking with her each Monday.

Megan, Mitch and Evan are all doing well in Idaho.  It took Evan a bit to get going on gaining weight, but he's doing great now.  Mitch just barely returned to work after taking 7 of his 12 weeks of paid paternity leave.  He will use the remaining 5 weeks (which he can use anytime in the first year of Evan's life) in June/July next summer to attend family reunions and a vacation with friends.  Megan posts a picture of Evan every day in a Facebook messenger group called "A Daily Dose of Evan", created at first so Autumn could see a picture of her nephew each day, but grandparents, aunts and uncles are all loving it as well. :). Here are a few of our faves:

We also saw Seth and Delaney and Devin and Levi when they came home for a weekend in between our Alaska and California trips.  They are all doing well, though they are all pretty stressed with school and work obligations.  Being a 20 something is busy and challenging at times. :)

That's it for our September!