Happy Birthday Rayna

We celebrated Rayna's first birthday while we were with my parents and Uncle Clark and Aunt Mupp (aka Danielle).  Giving her the cake was pretty funny.   It took her a minute to decide what to do but you can see she dove right in.  She was a chocolatey mess.  She also got to open some presents including a princess doll.  She'll have another birthday party with John's family once he gets down.  She ought to be pro at eating cake by then.

Water Baby

Rayna was finally able to play in a pool.  Nana and Padron got her a frog pool for her birthday (Grandma and Grandpa got her one too, but it rained nearly the whole time we were at their house).  She really had a good time and she really liked the water that sprayed out.  I guess she's not too disappointed that we aren't in Alaska anymore.

We're Here

Well, Rayna and I are in Oklahoma now. We got here Friday morning. Rayna did pretty well on the plane. The wait at the Anchorage airport was rough. She was getting cranky and wanted to move around but I couldn't leave or stuff, then when we got on the plane she wanted to crawl all around and wouldn't stay in her seat. I was hoping she would go to sleep since it was a six hour overnight flight and she eventually did but I didn't. I thought we were going to miss our connecting flight in Dallas because I had the wrong gate number but it ended up being late anyway. Then because of weather we sat on the runway for over an hour waiting to take off. It was a very long night and I'm glad it's over but all in all she did very well. But anyway, we're here and now we're just waiting for John and Riley to come down. They should leave next week.

Little Lady

I just had to post these pictures. Yesterday when we got home from church, I let the dog out. Rayna likes to watch him do his doggy business. She looked so cute standing there in her little fairy dress. She looks like a little girl now and not a baby (sigh).

Well, this is definitely my last post from Alaska. The movers come on Wednesday and Rayna and I leave Thursday. I can't believe it's already here. If you had told me 4 years ago I would be this sad to leave Alaska, I would have thought you were crazy. God has really blessed us here. I'm glad He brought us here (despite my protests) and I'm glad He doesn't always give us what we want.

I know it's been a long time since the last post-- we've been having computer issues. This may be my last post from Alaska. Rayna and I have less than 2 weeks before we leave. I was hoping we would get to do more around here before we left but it just hasn't panned out. The weather's been pretty crappy and John's been working nights. But last week we went out to McHugh Creek and hiked around. It was perfect-- John's one day off that week that he didn't have to do anything and the one day it wasn't cloudy or rainy. Here's Rayna hiking with John.




Here is Rayna sitting in front of McHugh Creek.

Here you can see the Turnagain arm (the water) in the background. I'm definitely going to miss scenery like this.

Here's a picture from the most recent "photo shoot" that Carina did with Rayna and Abigail. They're both 11 months now and unfortunately we won't get to see them grow together anymore.