Well, we are home again, after a very early and long Sunday.  The highway to the north is already closed due to a bridge being washed out, which doesn't really affect us because it is 5 hours to the next big town going north.  Our concern was going south, toward Wasilla.

On Saturday evening, we drove down and looked at Montana Creek at three different points.  All three places were flooded. Montana Creek campground was 2 feet under water, and part of the creek was running through the culvert for the bike path under the highway.  Out Yoder Road, we couldn't even get close to the bridge, as the creek was running across and then alongside the road.  Out Montana Creek Road, the creek was eroding the road on a corner, and had eaten the dirt road down to one lane.

We heard reports that Willow Creek (30 minutes south of us) was expected to cross the road sometime after midnight.  We had decided that I should go down and stay in Wasilla Saturday evening, and Craig would stay home with the kids, just in case the road was shut down, as I was continuing to have contractions, although they weren't consistent or regular.  My brother showed up that evening, and said that it didn't appear to him that the road was in any danger, so we decided that I would just stay home.

Little Willow Creek

We went to bed, and I woke up at midnight.  I gave the baby his pacifier back, went to the bathroom, and thought I would check the latest press release on the highway.  It stated that they were probably going to close the highway in Houston, due to flooding of the Little Susitna River sometime after 11pm.  Here it was already 12am, so I called the Emergency Operations Center, and they said there was water in one lane, so the highway was closed to one lane of traffic, and was holding. 

We made the decision to all head into town, so that they weren't trapped up here for who knew how long, as a lot of times the highway gets washed away when the water flows over it.  So, I packed up three days worth of clothes for the kids and I, while dh pulled things together he might need for work and for the house project.  We left the house at 2am, hoping that the highway would still be open.

When we finally got to Houston, where we thought we would see the river practically running across the highway, we saw that all the water problem was from the ditch overflowing onto the northbound lane of the highway!  I was riding in my brother's 4-wheel drive pickup, and dh was driving the kids in the minivan.  He called me from his cell phone and said, “You got me out of bed for that!?!”  LOL!  It was rather anti-climactic!

We got to my parent's house at 3:15am, and settled down to finish our night.  We got up at 9:30am, went to church at 1:30pm, and headed home.  When we got hom, the phones, cell phones, and internet were all down!  Apparently, a piece of a cabin floating down Willow Creek severed a fiber optic cable that was buried under the river, and about 1,800 people from Willow north to Healy (about 180 miles of road) lost telephone, cell, and internet service for 21 hours, from Sunday into Monday morning.

So, instead of my dh being able to work from home today, he had to drive back into the city (about 2 hours south), where he is staying the night, because he has to be in town again tomorrow.

Talk about a saga…

We had another little adventure this evening, that I will blog about later.  Right now, I am going to go get some sleep.  I have a midwife appointment tomorrow in Wasilla, so I better get some rest for the trip to town tomorrow.

I will try to post some more pictures of the flood soon.

On the way in *TO* church, we saw a fox cross the road!  We didn't see him this closely, but it was really neat to see one in the wild.  The little kids were sleeping, and B was at the cabin with his grandparents, but A was really excited!  “That was cool!” he said.

Last summer on our way to church, we saw a grizzly cross the road.  That was REALLY neat too!

My husband gave me a new digital camera for my birthday!  I received it on Monday night, and have been taking pictures ever since.  Yesterday I took the kids down to the lake to play and of course I HAD to take the camera with me!  Here are a few pictures that I really like.

We went down to the river today with a fellow homeschooling friend and the kids spent the whole time creating dams, levees and lakes, and then letting a little leak start.  They had a grand time learning about the power of water!  I stopped by the library on the way home and picked up a video about dams, natural disasters, and weather.  They watched the one on dams, and really enjoyed it.  Guess that is what we will study in science for a little while!  I told them that if it was nice tomorrow we might go back to the river.  I am taking a good book with me this time, as my friend won't be able to go again tomorrow. 

I will post pictures of their creations and some of them in front of Mt. McKinley later.

Wow, it has been *WAY* too long since I wrote here.  I really wanted this to become a journal, as I never seem to be able to keep a written one.  I can type so much faster than I can write, and I can actually multi-task with the kids better when I type.

Yesterday, we had a nice time with a big group of other like-minded homeschoolers.  We were all Christians and are all homeschooing without government intervention.  We met at a park with a big field where the kids played Capture the Flag, Soccer, Kick-ball, and Red Rover, a basketball court, playground equipment for the little kids, and a covered pavilion with picnic tables for the mothers.  It was a little on the cold side and actually rained at one point, but we all had an enjoyable time in spite of the weather!

The library summer reading program up here is on Medieval times, so the closest Science Center (99 miles away!) came and talked about and showed the kids reptiles today.  The kids got to touch a baby alligator, a monitor lizard, a box turtle (really a terrapin), and a ball python.  Did you know that a monitor lizard cannot open it's jaw after it has bitten something unless it hits it's head against something, that a monitor lizard stores it's fat in it's tail, that ball pythons can't hear, or that an alligator's back is bullet-proof?

Nothing like hands-on science, is there?

Oh, and the homeschoolers in the group raised their hands to answer the questions the most, and their answers and observations were very intelligent!  The Science Center employees were very impressed.