Pets on Parade!

This is my tribute to the 4th of July, since we didn't do anything this year because we were in the middle of the woods.

It's always fun to look back on old pictures and laugh at a)the outfits, b) the haircuts, and c) the activites. This picture features all three of those things- I am wearing a red tank top that I had sewn myself (I remember thinking it was so cool...), my sister and I are both sporting less than flattering haircuts, and we are proudly participating in the annual 4th of July Bend Pet Parade. And in the left side of the picture is some lady dressed as a jellyfish... which was a totally normal thing to do in the totally awesome Pet Parade! Kids who didn't have pets pushed toy baby strollers with their stuffed animals riding along, and I remember seeing a lot of red wagons carrying fish bowls with clearly suffering goldfish. And the best part were the free popsicles after.

Magic Magic.

In an effort to lighten things up concerning our driving trip, because it was really fun, here are four silly pictures of memorable events.
We stopped for lunch at a lake in the Yukon, and there were two gray jays that ate bits of our sandwiches out of our hands (Taylor informs me that he has had loads of gray jays eat out of his hands before, but this was all new to me):
That night, we camped at a supposedly closed campground (the signs said closed, but the gates said open) and Taylor was getting a campfire ready to start, when it started all by itself!
One of the best stops on the Alcan is the Liard River Hot Springs, and everyone who is cool stops there for a soak. A blizzard started the next morning, and the air was freezing cold. That's why Taylor looks like a marshmallow- a marshmallow drinking Coors Light:
But I wasn't looking much better. The combination of prescription glasses and beanies is a very unfortunate one indeed:

The Car, With Us, On the Road.

Every time I try to write an intro for this post, I erase it, because what can I really say about the trip down the Alcan. It was over 3,000 miles, and took us about 9 days, but those are just numbers, and numbers can't tell a story.
So, first, here is a list of the animals we saw in herds and flocks: buffalo, caribou, stone sheep, black bears, sandhill cranes, big horn sheep, arctic swans, wild horses, and a lone fox. So great.
We saw a lady die, we saw trees dying, and we saw a wild horse dead with his legs frozen out parallel to the ground, just like a toy. I guess that's what happens when winter is coming.
We almost died, too, trying to cross the Canadian Rockies in a forty year old car without chains and in the middle of a blizzard. I've never been in a position before where I thought, "Well, I guess this is it." And what do you do then? Nothing, because when we die isn't our choice, and it's so terrifying to realize that. But we didn't, and a miracle is all that can explain why not. It's also terrifying to realize that God is everything, and we are these little nothings, and it's God that decides all.
But we ruled the mighty Alcan. We melted it's little face off with our very presence. It's already crying, dreading the day we drive back up to Alaska.