Break Downs and Black Bear - Oh my!

So right after Mexico I left to drive up to Alaska for this summer season. We had a great start until just after the Canadian Border when we broke down in Lethbridge. After a nice gentleman stopped to help we asked if we could find a phone book to call a Bishop from our church - once he found out we were mormon he called up his "mormon friend" they gave us some numbers but they lived closest to the mechanic so we asked and they were so nice to let us stay with them Monday night.

Well Monday night turned into Tuesday for the evaluation, Wednesday to fix the car, Thursday to finish it and have the highway close north of us for a freak white-out snow storm and we finally left Friday.

This family was so nice they not only housed us but also gave us food, took us on multiple tours of the town, insisted we go to the town auction, watched american idol with us, and introduced us to some boys from their home ward. And come to find out the Dad is SANTA CLAUS - seriously in the winter he dresses up like Santa for the local mall- complete with Reindeer and he had some great stories. He also invented a brand of Cheetos that they only sell in Canada too - so crazy.

Yeah he invented these, and we tried on the Reindeer Bells too!

Now we didn't just take and take, we were able to clean and polish their cabinents after we insisted on doing something, also got grease off the ceiling and wiped off the blinds. And Hana was able to call her sisters in for help too - their daughter was living in Texas and needed a ride for her board examinations for dental hygine school and Hana's sisters lived on either side of her so one picked her up and took her to the other's house for the weekend and got her to her test on time too. Now up here in Alaska we were able to pick up their niece from the airport to get them on a bus up to Denali for their summer jobs and swing by and say hello as well. The connections have just been crazy but we were so appreciative of the help.

The rest of the trip ran smoothly, driving up the Alcan and into Alaska - we saw lots of animals and did pretty well on gas and although we were a little stressed we all made it in time for work.