James and Sharon along with Jonathan and Rachel!

It was wonderful to see them again and to hear about all the great things that are happening at Tanalian.*  (They also visited us in 2009.)  It was also nice to have some Alaska conversations in Baltimore!

They’re also fabulous baby-holders and toddler-occupiers! 🙂

*For those of you reading this who aren’t my family (or perhaps an Alaskan reader who also might have heard of Tanalian), Tanalian Bible Camp is a camp that my grandparents started 50 years ago.  James and Sharon have been the directors of the camp for over 20 years so I’ve known them since I was a teenager (over half my life).  I also remember when Rachel and Jonathan were born! I was both a camper and a counselor there for many years.  TBC was a really important part of my life for a long time and I miss being able to fly out there every summer.  I hope Ellie and Mark will get to be campers there some day.

I was last in Port Alsworth in April 2009 – here’s some crazy pictures of my visit there, including when we flew within 10 minutes of an actively-exploding volcano!  Rachel – do you remember when we didn’t have five kids between the two of us and we could just fly off easily for visits here and there?  That was the easy life! 🙂