Cake or pie?

Melinda made an amazing Boston Cream Pie to celebrate Miles' birthday. Delicious!

Fly me to the moon

Last week Lisette's class launched rockets! I missed it, but Arden and Lorraine took the rest of the kids to go check it out.

Here is Lisette and her friend getting the rocket ready.

Everyone's waiting for the countdown.
The launch was successful!

I guess public school actually does have a few fun things once in a while.

Team building

This weekend is my company's annual management retreat. It's good to meet all of the new people from other states. The meetings get kind of long, but we've actually haved some really good speakers. I really liked the one on empathetic listening. I need to work on really listening to understand and not just immedietly prescribing solutions to problems.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

We all had a great time in Alaska, but we're glad to be home again. It's so nice to sleep in our own bed. We really are enjoying all the Utah sunshine and all of the fresh tomatoes that are in our garden. Yesterday we went to Murray's farmers market and bought loads of fresh fruit. We bought a half bushel of peaches, a watermelon, a cantaloupe, a canary melon, some goat cheese and honey sticks.

Everything was so expensive in Alaska that it's great to see reasonable food prices. No more $7 milk! Of course we don't have fresh fish every night, but we brought home a whole cooler full of frozen fish and frozen berries, so the freezer is stocked now. We're all set!

Alaskan ocean stroll

Sunday there was a short break in the rain so we went for a walk by the ocean. Orca Bay has this stunning rock mountain that juts out of the ocean and is covered by trees, bushes and moss growing in the cracks and crevices.

When it rains there are impromptu waterfalls that stream down the rocky wall.

We saw more sea otters and other sea life. We actually more otters and stellars sea lions up close yesterday, but alas, I didn't have my camera with me. Here's an otter peaking out of the water to survey the scene.


Here's a sea lion raising his head in the air.

Our vacation is nearing it's end. It's been great being here with family and getting a way from work and our everyday routine. Still, it will be nice to get back to our home, rejuvenated and ready to to get back to work and school.