Denali National Park

During our first week in Alaska, we all packed into Adam and Andrea's minivan and drove up to Denali National Park. Denali is the native Alaskan's name for Mount McKinley. As you can see, we got excellent views of Mount McKinley on our drive up before we got to the National Pak. On our one full day in the park, we took a nine-hour bus ride on a school bus. We had a very entertaining bus driver who gave us lots of time to stop and see animals such as eagles, mountain sheep, bears, caribou, and moose. However, we never did see Mount McKinley on that ride and it was a long ride for a baby and a toddler. All in all, it was a spectacular, but long day. For Bonnie, Allison and I, it ended well. We went to one of the best restaurants we have been to in years: 229 Parks, which is about five miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park. We were then going to take care of Chloe and Owen while Adam and Andrea went to the restaurant, but we were too late. They'll have to try it later.

Into the Wild!

One of our favorite experiences in Alaska was hiking up to the Harding Icefield close to Seward Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula. The last part of the hike was all through snow and it was steep, but definitely worth it. The icefield is huge! It's vastness was quite humbling. We hiked up with a young couple who were not wanting to see bears, so they made lots of noise and no bears were spotted!

We will post more, don't worry!

Bear!

One of our Alaska highlights was waiting for this bear to come down to the river to catch a couple of salmon. We were at the Russian River falls and met a fish and wildlife worker (he counts the salmon...all 134,000 of them) who told us this bear comes down several times a day to catch fish in this spot. It is always the same bear. It really made our day and was worth waiting for!

Kahuku High 2010 graduation

Graduation!!!

Getting my diploma.

The processional.

Singing the natioanl anthem and Hawaii Pono'i with the Vocal Motion seniors.

Giving my Valedictorian address.

Waving signs in one of the songs in our Songfest medley.

My friend Alayna getting her diploma.

Singing the Alma Matar

After graduation. I had to take off all my leis before going to
our graduation party. My neck was super sore by the time the lei giving was over.

Winding Down

The school year is winding down for us; I only have 1 week of school left and Mom has 3. Everything's coming to an end and summer is finally in sight! Earlier this week I had my last Vocal Motion concert, and it was a great concert to end on. Luckily we performed for 2 nights, because the Hawaiian section in our first concert was kind of a disaster :P

The seniors were recognized and we gave each other leis; an old tradition.

The tennis season also ended a few weeks ago. I didn't make it to states because I had to play the 3rd seeded girl in the round of 16 in the qualifying tournament. It was a fun season though and I won a lot more matches than last year.

Mom also managed to win her school $5,000 by organizing a program where 50 families cut back on their energy from last year. Her school won the contest not only for the district, but for the whole state!