Past Eight Months

OK... So way last Spring, I fiddled around with creating a blog for our family, but never shared it with anyone. I was rather proud of myself for getting as far as I did, but as you can see, I never posted after that initial time. Alot has happened in our family since then & I would have a hard time catching up on everything, so rather than feeling overwhelmed, I think I will give a brief rundown of our last 8 months & try to start from there with future posts.

Remember, the key word is try. I figure one of these days, I may truly get the hang of this blog thing!

Well, Tyler did return from his mission to the Mexico City West Mission in mid March. We are so proud of him & glad to have him home!

Meeting Tyler At the Kenai Airport

A couple days after Tyler got back, we took a weeklong vacation to Idaho to visit relatives on both sides of the family. That was great for all of us, getting to spend time with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins! Like I've said before, it is hard living so far from our families.

Visiting The New Cabelas Store In Post Falls

The whole time Tyler was on his mission we had been planning a trip to Mexico for after he got back. We had never done a family vacation to somewhere warm & tropical, and felt our family was at a point where we had better do it if it was ever going to happen. Three weeks after our Idaho trip, we flew to Mexico for a wonderful 10 days in the sun. We stayed at a resort in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun. We could have been perfectly content to spend our whole trip right there at the resort, but did venture out to explore the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza & spend a day at the awesome Xcaret Eco park. Maybe someday I will write more about our trip & post more pictures.


At Chichen Itza


Fine Mexican Dining

Visiting An Awesome Eco-Park

The rest of the Spring passed quickly. Our main excitement was following Kaitlyn through her High School softball season. She is their main pitcher & led her team to a 4th place finish at the Alaska State High School Softball Tournament! Pretty good for a team that has only been in existence for 3 years!

In May, we got to honor Ryan as he graduated from High School! That was very exciting... 2 down, 2 to go! Actually, Doug & I dread the day that the kids are all graduated & we are left with an "empty nest". At least we have a few more years before we have to worry about it!!!


Celebrating Ryan's Graduation

Summer was unusually cool this year, even for Alaska. I'm sure we could count on one hand the number of nice, sunny days that reached over 70 degrees in temperature! That still didn't seem to slow down the amount of fishing we did though.

Tyler with his first "post-mission" catch!

Tyler & Ryan lived & worked down in Ninilchik, Alaska for the summer (about a 50 minute drive south of our home in Soldotna) They both deckhanded on Halibut Charter boats until Ryan switched jobs mid-summer & worked launching the charter boats from the beach at Deep Creek.

Ryan getting ready to launch a boat from the skidder.

Bryce stayed busy playing legion baseball. We traveled quite often to Anchorage (150 miles) for his games. Kaitlyn also played some summer softball in Anchorage & had a big trip to a huge national volleyball tournament in Reno, Nevada the end of June. On her return trip to Alaska, she got to spend the 4th of July visiting Grandparents & relatives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.Kaitlyn & Bryce spent a week in July attending EFY (Especially For Youth Conference) in Anchorage.


Old Friends Larry & Ross Dickey

We enjoyed some company during July also. Ross Dickey, an old friend from our Washington days, spent the month with us as a change of pace for him. His Dad, Larry, joined us for a week of fishing during the middle of the month. We also were happy to have Doug's brother Wayne spend a week with us. I will try & post a picture of the big Kings that Wayne & Bryce caught.


Uncle Wayne Wehrli & Bryce

Before we knew what was happening, summer was over & school started again! Kaitlyn is playing volleyball & doing very well at it. She is an outside hitter & is one of the top 2 scorers on her team! Bryce is looking forward to basketball starting soon & in the meantime has spent as much time as possible riding & jumping his bike! Last week he got a unicycle for his birthday & is finding out it's alot different than learning to ride a bike!!!

Tyler started college at the University of Alaska in Anchorage near the end of August. He is in the Aviation Technology - Professional Piloting (4 yr) program there. So far he is really liking it. He got a great job working nights at the airport for UPS. He is currently training as a supervisor in their International Shipments department.

Ryan is currently on a 2 week trip to visit a friend in Texas & his grandparents in Coeur d'Alene, ID & Boise, ID. When he gets back, he plans on getting started on the paperwork for his mission. He hopes to be in the mission field by early next Spring!

The biggest news in our lives currently, is that Doug has been laid off from his job as the Administrator of the MediCenter in Kenai. We did have a couple weeks notice that it was going to happen, so Doug was able to get things going as far as applying for other jobs, both in & out of Alaska. We don't know what is going to happen yet, but Doug has had several promising phone interviews. We are really hoping our finances can survive this 2nd period of unemployment in less than 2 years. It would be much appreciated if you would remember us & Doug's job search in your prayers!