Pooch

We are all enjoying a clean smelling and silky feeling Ulli. His coat looks so glossy after his baths, he is extra black!  Today he was resting and using his toy as a pillow, we all died of cuteness overload. 

Temple Trip!

We had to squeeze in one more family trip to the Ogden temple and I’m so glad we did!  The sky was so blue, it made for a perfect backdrop to this cute gathering!  Love this family and love being in the Lord’s house together!

German Deli!

We ran down to salt lake in between Ava’s classes to get some German sundries and help Ava feel comfortable cooking with their type of food.  Kyle was telling missionary the whole way-it was a great outting. 

Missionary Bath!

Last summer Ava was our favorite groomer for Ulli!  It was helpful to have her bathe him in the front yard instead of trekking down to Ogden.  It’s been pretty chilly since she’s been home, so when the weather looked sunny today, her and I tackled this dirty dog!  He is always glum when the soap and water are flowing, but he perks right up when he’s rinsed and we are drying him off!

 

Wiped!

Summer has started and this guy is recovering from an exhausting school year.  I feel like Ben has never been a great nap taker, but he falls asleep in the long car rides quite often. It’s so cute to see him passed out, especially knowing he will wake up in a better mood afterwards!

1st Day!

Ava made it through her first day of home MTC by getting up at 6:30am, studying scriptures for 1 hour, working out with me, getting dressed and then attending a 3 hour zoom meeting from 8:30-11:30. She had a couple of 10 minute breaks during the class and then a lunch break from 11:30-12 followed by another meeting from 1-2.

We met up with everyone at that time at the liberty park and played volleyball and spikeball in between bites of pizza. Ava got a special call from her cousin Connor who gave her some great advice and supportive words or encouragement. 

After lunch at the park and some grocery shopping we headed back to Nana and Papa’s Airbnb in Eden for some swimming while Ava did a 30 minute language study session. We rushed through dinner so we could get Ava home for her 6-9pm zoom meeting. 

We had a family discussion afterwards and then Ava got ready for bed; she has to be in bed by 10:30 every night of her mission. She was completely exhausted from this first day and happy for some sleep!  We said goodbye to nana and papa during one of Ava’s 10 minute breaks during her evening meeting, it was a tearful one since they will not be talking to Ava each week like us. 

Support!

This is a tough time, but also an exciting time!  Ava is the second missionary from this generation of our family to choose to serve a mission.  Chuck and Kristine’s son, Connor, is currently serving in Brazil and will be home in August.  These guys know what it’s like sending a missionary out and wanted to come be apart of Ava’s farewell this weekend.

Nana and Papa and the Cluff’s oldest daughter Rachel, who graduated on Friday, made the trip as well.  We felt very loved this weekend with so many people here, watching over Zoom and texting us.

 

Siblings!!!

This group is the best and Kyle and I are truly blessed to have them!  We got lucky in the oldest child department and these guys got lucky in the oldest sibling department.  Ava truly is an amazing person, daughter and sister; she is an example to us all. I am sad we are Breaking up the band, but there’s no better reason to do it. 

Family Pictures

We went out in the foyer and took so many pictures to commemorate this momentous occasion. 

 

Official!

We enjoyed a day filled with spikeball, Northfork tours, pulled pork, brownie sundaes and hanging out; it was so great to be with family. 

Tonight, however, was unlike anything we’ve done before. Having a child serve a mission is no joke. All the preparations are a buttkicker, but realizing you will be separated by an ocean from your kid is indescribable. 

Having your kid get set apart was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  It’s weird to think you are literally giving your child to the Lord. It was honestly a little like Abraham and Isaac the whole evening. 

We rolled into the stake center to meet with the stake presidency where all in attendance sat around a massive table and listened to the counsel of the president and his counselors and then Kyle, Ava and I were asked to share a thought with the group. 

I asked Kyle to go first and he really helped us remember why Ava is going and how special his own mission was. He was very emotional and then it was my turn. I basically cried and told Ava how amazing she has been to raise and what a great example she is to our family. 

Ava got to say a little bit about how grateful she is to Kyle and I for how we raised her and then talked about how excited she is to go and serve. 

The crazy part was thinking how real this all was and how much our family was about to change. Sacrificing a year and half with your child is not like actually sacrificing them, like Abraham, but in the end, Isaac was fine and he and his dad got to go home together; Ava won’t be coming home for a long time. 

After Ava was given a blessing and set apart as a full time missionary, I was the one to pin her name tag on. Hard stuff. 

Tallest and Shortest

As of today, these two are the extremes in the grandkid height department. With Rachel standing at a mere 5’4” and Jack towering at 6’8”, the 18 inch difference is astounding!!  So crazy these two are related at all!

Cousins!

I had zero interactions with cousins growing up and Kyle had very few. These guys don’t see each other all that often, but when they do, it is so easy!!  I’m so glad they are friends and don’t take too long to get back into friendships after literally years without seeing eachother!!

Frousins!!

After church a few friends and neighbors came over to the house and we all had some brownie sundae makings to celebrate Ava!  Everyone left around 2 and then it was family time. These three were hanging out in the house before the epic Spikeball battles began. 

Church!

We had an amazing sacrament meeting that included Ava’s farewell address and Kyle and Norah’s duet with Ava accompanying. It was such a special meeting, but Kyle and I were super emotional the whole time. This is hard!  So many people were quoting parts of Ava’s talk during the last hour of church; she touched so many people with her words today!

Brunch!

One of Ava’s favorite breakfast spots is a diner right next to the Layton temple!  Somehow we miraculously got a table for 11 without waiting at all!!  I called ahead, but it was still a miracle on a Saturday to get a table for such a big group!  We enjoyed sitting together and the food was great too!

We rushed over to the movies next for our 1:40 showing of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Everyone got seats, although not together and met up in the lobby at the end. 

The rest of our night consisted of grocery shopping for tomorrow and a fish and chips dinner!  We said goodnight to our visitors and then Norah, Ava and Jack watched a few episodes of Avatar one last time. 

Pouring!

It has been raining for over 4 hours straight now and it is chilly!!  Somehow, though, we were able to get through the mile long lines and into the temple without getting too wet or cold, a miracle in itself!  After viewing the temple we braved the rain and found a sister missionary to take our family picture!  Love this group! 

Fake!

This picture was staged after Ben and papa hugged and I missed the sweet moment the photo op!  It was so fun meeting up at the Layton Temple Open House with everyone after they flew in this morning. We were late after washing all the campfire smells off, but these guys didn’t seem to mind!

Let’s Go Camping!

Since Aunt Cassie and Grammy aren’t able to come visit due to car trouble, we decided to plan some fun alternative family activities. We decided to binge watch the entire Planet of the Apes series culminating in a viewing of the newest release with the Komenda family coming in on Saturday. 

We also decided to go camping!  Northfork is so close it’s easy to camp!  We parked the side by side on a amazing spot Thursday evening to reserve it and after a long day of cleaning and movie watching, we headed over to the campsite for a Hot Dog dinner!  Jack set the tent up by himself earlier, so we were able to explore the site while Kyle got the fire going. 

Hotdogs by campfire really hit the spot!  We had a fun scripture study and s’mores before I headed back to the house to hang with Ulli while everyone else stayed for a rough night’s sleep. 

It’s been getting down into the 40’s at night, so it was chilly, especially for those wearing shorts to bed. There was a little rain and the sun was up around 5:30!  Thankfully they packed up everything and headed home before it got too wet. 

Fish Guy!

Jack was volunteered to carry the 41 pound box of fish in and out of the airports, he needed the heavy lifting session more than the rest of us!  The box was so big and awkward, this giant carrying it didn’t tone things down either!  We made it home without any flight delays and grabbed dinner nearby before dropping Kyle back off at the airport to catch a red-eye to Atlanta to work on a deal. 

Tired!!

The exhaustion from the fishing excursion is still hitting us; being cramped in a minivan all day didn’t help!  Regardless, we made it to the hotel, which was so nice and enjoyed an early evening!  Bunking with the girls in hotel rooms (they share a bed) is the absolute best-love these two so much!!

So Beautiful!

The color of the water was absolutely mind blowing!  The color of the water is Caribbean blue, but sooo cold!  The boys got in up to their ankles and said their feet were numb almost immediately.  We had two different photographers taking this picture, I love them both!

Once we all made it down to the beach, we chilled and soaked up all the scenery for awhile.  Rock skipping went well and then the boys decided to throw handfuls of the small pebbles which produced the most interesting sound; it never got old.

We headed to dinner and enjoyed a hearty meal at the Two Brother’s Roadhouse; brisket, pulled pork, nachos, pizza, Mac n cheese and a cheeseburger-wow!  We were stuffed all the way Anchorage and rolled into our hotel with plenty of time to get to bed early for once.

 

Bookends

Norah and Jack wandered off on their own and found different trails as well as a perfect perch on the beach.  Ava and Ben stuck around and we got these ridiculous pictures of each.

Ben had mentioned multiple times that he doesn’t want Ava to go on her mission; such a tender heart!  I’m so glad these two are friends and that they both still like to hang out with their parents!

 

Kenai Lake!

After we grabbed our 37 pounds of Halibut from the fish processor and we checked out the spit for a little bit, we got back on the road. 

We needed to stop halfway somewhere for dinner and a little hike to break up all the car time. Cooper Landing hit both notes and we made it there at the perfect time. We decided to do the hike first and we’re blown away when we got down to the lake!

Eagles!!

In addition to a ton of moose all over the place, were a ton of eagles!  We even saw one eagle fighting with another eagle over a perch!  Kyle got this sweet picture of the winner on top of this lighthouse. 

Homer!

It was so fun to be in this amazing place with these people!  Our family is awesome, I love them so much and hope they feel the same way!

We snapped this picture out on the front lawn of the Airbnb after church. We had to pack our stuff up and get on the road right away. 

Made it!!

After the last fish was caught and we saw the humpback, things got really sketchy. We ran into some really rough water on our way back to Homer, and we were very far out after all the changes in fishing areas. 

We were supposed to be back at the dock at 3 and around 3 we started through the worst of the storm. The wind was causing huge waves that had whitecaps and were very close together. A few times the tip of the boat was completely submerged in the ocean causing a huge swell of water to come up onto the deck and up all the windows. One such swell actually dislodged the windshield wiper in front of the captain causing the first mate to go out onto the deck to fix it in the storm. 

The engine that was worked on last night and this morning that seemed to be causing gas fumes to fill the cabin finally did finally give out and we were left with the ability to go 7 miles an hour in big waves and bad weather for nearly 3 hours. There were even times when the first mate had to confirm that the bilge was able to empty its water. It was such an ordeal that I heard the captain audibly sign when we finally made it to the opening of the marina. 

Kyle talked to him later about it and he said he wasn’t sure we were going to make it!!  I can confirm his trepidation as I overheard him multiple times on the radio with other captains about standing by in case we needed help. 

With all the fumes it was a blessing to have the door to the cabin open for the entirety of the three hours, but the 39 degree weather with wind and rain really chilled us all to the bones. The relief was real when we stepped onto the dock and we all spent dinner at a nearby restaurant shiver and chattering trying to warm up. 

Cod-father!

Kyle caught the first two mini halibut and then didn’t catch anything but cod!  It was nuts, because he had been deep sea fishing 3 times and never had any trouble catching the fish he wanted. We all caught and saved 2 fish and finally Kyle caught one halibut worth keeping and we decided to call it. The rain had started coming down towards the end, so we were all soaked and pretty tired from all the physical exertion. On our way out of the area we saw a humpback whale come up for air and then dive back down. 

Cod!

We followed a friend of the captain’s advice and moved to a certain spot that seemed to be good only catch about 10 cod fish.  It was fun to catch them, and I’m pretty sure my first one was the biggest, but since we were there for halibut, we switched spots one more time.

 

NOT Halibut!

Things kept getting weirder and weirder as we were not catching Halibut, but seemingly every other fish in the sea.  I personally caught a Skate Fish after battling intensely with his sail-like shape as well as an Irish Lord whose gills are spiky and will cause numbness if you touch them.  It was an interesting spot, but the captain decided it wasn’t a great place for Halibut so we moved on.

 

Halibut!

Dad and Norah both caught some tiny halibuts that got tossed back, and then Ava caught this one!  Ben caught one that was slightly bigger, while Kyle and I caught absolutely nothing. 

Fishing!!

We made it off the cruise and headed toward our next stop, Homer. It was a 2 hour drive, but we ordered some pizza and picked it up to eat in the car for dinner and then saw 20 moose or something crazy like that on our drive. There was a sign on the side of the road that said 187 moose had been killed since July 1, and it was obvious why!! 

Moose are super easy to spot in the daylight, but at night, it would be very difficult. Thankfully for us, though the sunset each night around 11:45pm and we were usually in bed by then. Kyle and I grabbed some breakfast and snacks for our boat ride in the morning after saying goodnight to the kids. It was such a good day!!

Our fishing trip started at 7am on the dock, which was early after an 11pm arrival in Homer last night, but we made it and were excited for the adventure. 

The captain and first mate were super nice and the boat was cozy, holding only our group of 6. The cabin smelled of gas fumes and the captain explained that those would dissipate as we got moving and that he was up late repairing an engine. 

We got to our first spot and caught so many Pollack fish. They had big fins and were interesting, but not for eating and got tossed back. The captain continued repairs while we hoped to catch some salmon, but after a while we moved onto the halibut fishing!

Waterfall, Gulls and Goats!

On our way back to Whittier after the sea lions, we stopped at a 200 foot drop waterfall and were able to view some 8,000 Kittiwakes as well as mountain goats. The boat got extremely close to the falls and we were able to make out the white goats standing on the cliffs. 

Stellar Sea Lions

After the amazing whales and porpoises, it was a bit of a let down, but see the funny sea lions bark and burp at each other to get a spot on the barge was pretty entertaining.  We only saw one seal actually get up from the water and he not only got up, but launched himself over the other sea lions to the middle!  Another sea Lion dropped into the water afterwards, must have been too crowded!

 

For Real!!

We had moved on and were heading toward Blackstone Bay when someone said they saw a whale at 9 o’clock  everyone rushed outside to see if they could see it too.  The captain confirmed the sighting and we all stood on the front deck searching for the resurfacing whale.  Kyle had been saying how much he wanted to see an Orca and the moment was actually here!! 

We saw the killer whale surface and then suddenly there was another one.  We saw two!!  They were swimming together along the shore.  Everyone was in awe and I was moved to tears, it was truly an unforgettable movement!!

We followed the pair for a while and then once they were pretty much out of sight we were at the glacier!  Two orcas with the Blackstone Glacier I’m the background; it was an unreal moment!

 

Dall’s Porpoises!

After we were mesmerized by all the calving at Harvard and spent some extra time waiting for more, we moved on. We were cruising when the captain called out that there was a pod of porpoises swimming nearby and that he was going to try and get them to play and swim with the boat. 

He did just that!  Somehow he was able to get the entire group of porpoises to swim and race with the boat. We had the good fortune of being at the very front and got numerous looks at this special moment. It was so neat to be up close with such a majestic creature.  

Harvard Glacier

Kyle and I have seen glaciers before, but these guys haven’t. The College Fjord is filled with glaciers and we were able to spot many on our after a while. The highlight so far has been the intense calving. It felt like a 3 story building worth of chunks crumbled down into the water. The amount of glacier that fell caused an actual wave that our boat had turn into to avoid trouble. There were two giant events and many smaller ones-so cool to be able to see!!

Berg!

We got on our boat after a round of fish and chips at the highest rated restaurant in Whittier, the Saltwater Cafe.  As soon as we sat down the boat left and we started toward our goal of seeing 26 glaciers!  Glaciers are so impressive, but so are icebergs!  This one was so crazy due to the high rock content making it grey!  We got incredibly close to it and were able to see how the water right around it was murky from the iceberg melting the rocks into the water!

Overcast!

The weather has been broody here and Norah absolutely loves it. She loves rain and clouds and was perfectly pleased to be in this setting. She climbed down some rocks and was taking pictures of the water while we stood at the top and enjoyed her enjoying herself. 

Whittier!

We got to the tunnel and made it through with two hours before our tour started, so we enjoyed the little town of Whittier while we waited.

After a very short drive through the town, we discovered there wasn’t much to do except enjoy the views, eat some fish and chips and grab some fudge.  Whittier is the end of the road, and the only destination of the mountain tunnel, but we are convinced it has some of the most impressive views anywhere!

 

Breakfast!!

We grabbed some groceries in Anchorage last night so we would have breakfast and some snacks for the boat ride today.  The cinnamon streusel coffee cake looked so good in the store with its 4 inch thick pastry, everyone enjoyed their slice!