Mother in Law

My mother in law had a fall this past Tuesday early morning and broke her hip. She had surgery on Thursday. I talked to her after the surgery and she sounded real good. She will need physical therapy and so this will be a long process. Please pray for her.

King Cove

I am so glad to be able to share these photo memories of my trip to King Cove for Mother's Day this year. I hope you enjoy the photos and videos. It took a lot of time obviously. I hope it makes my kids want to return to the land of their grandfathers and grandmothers. :) I had to share these photos of these rocks by my brother Kenny and his wife Marlene's house. They are so beautiful. I tried to lift one to see if I could take it with me when I left but , guess what? they are REAL and realllllly heavy!

Scenery around King Cove, Alaska

Here are some photos of King Cove taken in the summer and one during the winter . The scenery in and around King Cove is BEAUTIFUL!!

Leaving Cold Bay on the hovercraft to King Cove

Approaching Cold Bay airport

Taking off from Sand Point airport

Landing in Sand Point

Having Fun

Shirlee having fun with Karaoke!!!
The precious little Tommy getting lovins from aunty Jo!
Shonna wanting us to believe she is sleeping--she looks pretty good this way!!! :) I liked her looking like this so much I decided we needed 2 of the same photos of her!!!

YUMMY

Leaving King Cove on May 14,2007

Mother Daughter Potluck

Mother and Daughters

Here are my sisters and our mother. Left to right Shirlee, Bonnie, Annie, Joanne (me) and Lillian. I am the oldest, then Bonnie, Shirlee and Lillian is the youngest.

More King Cove happenings

Happenings in King Cove

Whale watching on the front boardwalk-this was about 9:30 in the evening. You can see the back of the whale in the center of the picture.
This is Mount Dutton. You can see this mountain from town and we have to drive by it to go to the landing for the hovercraft and airport. It is a sleeping volcano. It has claimed a few lives in the past because of inclement weather interfering with the landing of a jumbo jet traveling overseas and landing in Cold Bay.
Here I am loving up on Baby Tommy!! He is adorable!
My sisters doing karaoke!

Mom is SURPRISED!!!

Here is a view out the window of the hovercraft--beautiful BLUE!!
We are getting closer to the landing site in King Cove.




Mom is totally surprised to see me!! It was a great plan that was successful considering all of the people who knew that I was going to surprise her for Mother's Day!!

Three Sisters waiting to go to King Cove

We are having a fun time waiting to get moving. From left to right is Shirlee, Lillian and myself.

More of the Hovercraft trip to King Cove

This was such a fun traveling adventure for the family.




























Me and my neice. My sis Shirlee and Shellee standing and Maria and our Aunty Shirley holding Baby Tommy. We are on the hovercraft waiting to start moving










Here are my twin aunts, Sharon and Shirley.
My uncle Seward is in the middle, he is married
to Shirley on the right of him.

Cold Bay for the night

This photo was taken about 10:30 at night looking at Unimak Island. The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is right here also. Each year thousands of ducks and birds go through here. It is so beautiful. People from all around the world come here to view the birds












This is Baby Tommy, he is the newest addition
to the Mack family. He is soooo sweet and has
a lot of loving from all who know him!










Maria drives around Cold Bay!!

















We are heading towards the hovercraft which will take us across the Cold Bay and Leonards Harbor where we will be picked up and taken into King Cove. The ride on the hovercraft is about 25 minutes and the drive into King Cove from there is another 30 minutes or so.




Here is me holding the flowers to give to my mom and my aunty Shirley and my sister Shirlee
holding baby Tommy while we wait for the hover
craft to take off.

Going back home to King Cove for Mother's Day

Here is some scenery that I saw on my trip from Anchorage to Cold Bay. My neice and her son on the airplane.













Here we are landing in Sand Point, the weather was pretty sloppy with wind and rain. The runway has water on 3 sides of it and isn't very long.
















I left for King Cove on Friday evening.

I went with my sister Shirlee and her daughter Shellee and her 2 year old son Colin. (he just turned 2 in March) Here is a map of Alaska and you can see where King Cove is, it is at the end of the Alaska Peninsula. (the peninsula that juts out toward Japan) King Cove is where I was born and raised, my parents live there from April through August each year. http://www.cftech.com/BrainBank/GEOGRAPHY/Alaska.html


I was there the last time 5 years ago for my parent's 50 wedding anniversary. Travel there is very expensive and the only way there is by airplane or by boat which takes 3-4 days from where I now live in Kenai. The airplane we traveled in carries about 20 passengers, our flight had about 10 passengers. We had to stop in a community called Sand Point before we landed in Cold Bay where my sister Lillian lives with her 4 children.

SHHHHHHH

SHHHHHHH
Just a note to those who might read this and know my family: I'm trying to keep the fact that I might be in King Cove for Mother's Day as a surprise for my mom. Please help me keep this a secret. Thanks

Dinner time!!

This is our dinner! It was absolutely tasty!! First of all I made the salsa out of Roma tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and jalapeno peppers. It was a huge batch which I added to everything. Then used it to top everything. I used turkey meat which added to the tastiness of everything! Now my fingers are BURNING!! I was going to use some rubber gloves to chop the peppers but thought it wasn't going to be necessary-YIKES!! I don't know what to do to relieve the pain. I keep putting them under the running cold water for a few seconds at a time for relief. Live and learn, I guess. Although, I know this has happened before to me!! :(

cinco de mayo

OOOOPS! I was not planning ahead and missed Cinco de Mayo. Well, we can celebrate any day of the year!! So today I'm planning on a Mexican dinner for my husband and son. My son is in a class all day and my hubby is working overtime again so they will be sooooo pleased to have a great meal. I'm really excited and pumped! I LOVE MEXICAN food and so do they. I have a sister who does a fabulous job cookng Mexican and anyother kinds of food. I'm going to make a BIG batch of Pico de Gallo and use it in all the foods I'm making. I'm going to make tacos and chimichangas and soup.

Successful moving sale!!

Well, it's finally over! My second moving sale was a success and I'm sooooo glad to have that part of moving over. We donated the items that weren't sold to friends who are in the process of adopting a baby from Russia. They are going to hold a couple of garage sales to help with their expenses. I can now concentrate on cleaning the house and packing the large pictures. Our youngest son returned home on Friday evening from university. He is attending fire school today in hopes of landing a job with the forest service for the summer.
Right now I'm so excited because there is a possibility that I will be flying to my hometown of King Cove for Mother's Day! I have 3 sisters and this will be the first time in 5 years that we all will be together. With me possibly moving out of the state of Alaska, this will be very special. The most important thing of prayer is for good flying weather. I plan to leave on Friday evening and come back on Sunday evening. I will be flying in a small plane to Cold Bay then go across a bay on a hovercraft to King Cove!! I've never gone on a hovercraft before so that will be a new experience.

Moving sale

Well, I'm going to have my second and last moving sale tomorrow, Friday the 4th of May!! It has been a LOT of work but I hope will be as profitable as the first sale that I had a couple of weeks ago. It is going to be a GOOD thing to be rid of all this stuff. Trust me, we have plent of STUFF left! I'm thinking that I lightened our load big time. It is amazing all the stuff that we have collected for 32 years. I thank God for all the help that He has given me to get through all this sorting, cleaning and pricing. I'm looking forward to a fun and entertaining day tomorrow.
I put my sewing maching away the first of this week after I finished a project for a friend. I will now focus on hand projects. I always have to be doing hand projects.
With all the work I've been doing with cleaning and preparing for the moving sale, the cooking has gone out the dooor. I have managed to cook up a tasty treat occasionally. Last night I cooked up some spaghetti squash and topped it with sauted onions, garlic, zucchini and tomatoes and cooked ground turkey. We topped all that with parmesean cheese. It was so tasty and I felt like I put some effort into it to show my hubby that I love him. He comes home so hungry and I have been feeling so badly that I haven't been serving him up any good meals. He was pretty pleased with this last dish. It doesn't take much, he has been happy with a sandwich so much of the time lately. I'm sooooooo blessed!