Another Road Trip

Friday meant more football down South. Olivia went with me while Emily and Lucas stayed home. In 33 hours we went 758 miles, watched two football games and did a little shopping. Sometimes I think I'm crazy. 

Just past Anderson in the middle of nowhere I came around the corner to a road block and men with machine guns. Pretty crazy. They told me that in the next 10 miles there was police activity. I wasn't to stop, get out of my car and to report suspicious  activity to 911. Crazy. Ends up a man shot a guy, fled and was hunted down and killed (he was armed and not right). I for one am thankful to the Troopers keeping my family safe. You can read about it here.

Not much further down the road I was held up by road construction. It delayed me 30 minutes down and 30 minutes back.

Colony is one of the few schools that have a pep band. This band has uniforms and have a marching routine. They even traveled with the team to Fairbanks!!

Another field with a beautiful backdrop of mountains.

Elijah, #21, running the ball in the JV game. He made a touchdown in the first few minutes of the game and I missed it. I was so upset. I missed the turn and by the time I realized it, got turned around and fought rush hour traffic they were 5 minutes into the game.

Then he hurt his knee and didn't play the rest of the second quarter.

He iced and sucked it up for the varsity game, but again, the coaches chose to play the same 15 kids on both offense and defense so he hardly saw the field. Here he is doing the long snap. He got to do one punt return that ended up being an onside kick that went right to him. He got it and got nailed, but hung on to the ball giving us great field position. We had a 13-0 lead that turned into a 19-23 loss. Extremely disappointing for the team. Tremendous poor coaching decisions by the first time coach (who is early 20's and IMO isn't old enough to be coaching this group). That destroyed our chances of making the play-offs. We have to win our last game to a team that destroyed us last year plus we are relying on team "a" beating team "b" which we all know never works out.

One of Olivia's friends from school was there. They colored and played tag. She had a wonderful time.

Just wanted to show you how we were playing in the dark under the lights.

The game ended at 9:30pm and we drove into Anchorage (about 40+ miles where I had a hard time seeing as I seem to have lost my keen night vision) to Dorene's house except she wasn't there. She had just come home from the hospital on Thursday after getting a full knee replacement and was back at the hospital with breathing problems. We visited with her daughters and then went to bed. In the morning everyone was sleeping (they didn't get home until 5am) so Olivia and I decided to eat, shop and hit the road.

I took her to Toys 'R Us where she went up and down every aisle twice looking for just the right thing. Her dad had given her $20 for the trip. She picked out something for Lucas, too.

Then we went into Bed, Bath & Beyond because I had never been there. I wanted to buy everything!! Aren't these appetizer party plates the bomb?! I want them all and I want my house done and I want to entertain. Wishful dreaming. We got Emily a gift here.

We finally hit the road about 12:30. I wanted to get going because there was a lot of flooding going on that has closed roads. I didn't want to get stuck or end up driving in the dark.

We stopped at the Mt. McKinley viewpoint so Olivia could Phoon. :)

You can see how the peak is in the clouds.

Rivers were flooding everywhere. Too much rain in the hills.

It was flooded on the other side as well.

After the Park the canyon was down to one lane.

I could see ahead they were doing some work.

This river is usually 12-14 feet below the road. It was within two feet of the road and was washing it away. You can read about it here.

Finally got home at 7:00pm... there were construction delays. The skies were beautiful.

The kids went to Grandma's and Homer and I went to a bonfire. It was great to see my favorite Mickelson family.

Today I worked in the yard, but will save those photos for a post in the morning as my eyes are crossing I am so tired. Unfortunately our work was cut short when a wind and rain storm came in fast. Ending up knocking out the power for over an hour. We played board games with the kids by flashlight. I hope it clears up for tomorrow. I have so much that I want to do, but for now I need sleep!!