We celebrated Jacob's birthday in Anchorage; two cling together in the Bay of Bengal

As already noted, Margie and I had brought the two little ones home to spend the night with us so that Jacob and Lavina could go out and have a Jacob birthday date, all to themselves. Now, the night was over and it was time to take Jobe and Kalib back to their mom and dad and eat a birthday lunch with them.

I had planned to have Margie drop me off at the airport so that I could fly to Barrow, but then I had to postpone my flight until early Monday morning, as I just could not get everything done that needed to be done.

I found Jobe ready to go, however - looking quite dapper in his new hat.

And Kalib was ready with his spatula. It was time to head to town, to celebrate the birthday of their father, our eldest child.

We left the valley in fog and when we drove into Anchorage, we found this snow-laden truck, creating its own mini-blizzard.

The plan was to meet at the Spenard Road House. Charlie arrived just ahead of us and walked to the door, his shadow tagging along.

Amazing, isn't it? How such a slender guy can cast such a burly shadow?

Kalib momentarily replaced his spatula with Color Crayons, most of which would wind up on the floor.

Jobe, of course, intently observed his surroundings. He is a most observant little tot.

And so I remembered that night 36 years ago when I took Margie to the labor room in Provo, Utah. She had been looking forward to giving birth to our first baby, but now she was not happy. It hurt and she did not want to go through with it.

"I've changed my mind," she said. "Take me home."

She wasn't joking, either. She was very serious. When I refused to take her home, she got quite upset with me.

Later, though, as she held this little one to her breast and then offered me a kiss, she completely forgave me.

As we sat there, remembering, Jacob put Jobe on my shoulders and held him there. Lavina could not resist and so took my camera away from me and turned it back on me.

It doesn't matter whether she is using the most simple, low-quality point and shoot or her iPhone, Lavina knows how to take a picture. She could be a pro, if that were her heart's desire.

She caught it all, right here - the sadness that I cannot conceal, even in the most happy situation, coupled with the essence of all that I have to live for.

I hope you catch this one soon, Suji - your little love Jobe, with your Uncle Bill, half-way-around the world from you but traveling this hard part of the journey with you.

And you, too, Gane. Maybe one day we will have a little granddaughter niece for you and she can be your little love.

That's Carl, Rex's friend that he met through Ama, sitting with us. As for Rex and Ama, they are right now driving through British Columbia, headed toward the Alaska Highway so that they can drive to Anchorage and then catch a jet to New York.

In the past week, Interior temperatures have been as cold as -50, so I am a little concerned about this drive.

Muzzy had missed the dinner, but insisted that I come out and say "hi" before we left.

Margie wanted a mint, so I stopped at the Holiday Station by Merrill Field. As I went in to buy her one, this plane came by on final -reminding me of a promise I once made but can now never keep.

And then we set off to drive home.

It was foggy on the Hay Flats.

My plan now was to get everything done by 10:00 PM, 11:00 at the latest, go to bed, get up at 3:30 AM and then head back Anchorage and to the airport, where my flight was scheduled to depart at 6:00 AM.

I was well on track to meeting that goal, when Lightroom misfired, and then launched a two hour process to diagnose and repair itself and then, at the very end of that process, declared the catalog to be corrupted beyond repair. So I had to start anew. There would be little time for sleeping ahead of me.

And this one from India:

The Bay of Bengal, about 30 miles south of Chennai: They play, and cling together.

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Saga of the spatula continues; Bangalore girl

Today is Jacob's birthday, so yesterday I drove to Anchorage with Margie so that we could pick up the little ones and bring them home with us. This would give Jacob and Lavina a chance to go out on a date, just like they used to do before the babies came along.

As we drove towards town, we saw that this blue car had left the road and wound up on the other side of the fence. There were a number of police vehicles around, but I saw no ambulance. I hope this means that no one was hurt, but I don't know.

When we arrived at the house, we found Kalib with his spatula.

Lavina wanted me to take a picture of her and her boys in their Christmas jammies so that she could make a family Christmas card out of it.

Kalib put on his jammies, but still he kept hold of that spatula.

The idea was to get Muzzy and everybody posed, but Muzzy was shooting all over the place and Kalib had momentarily replaced his spatula with a shovel. All he wanted to do now was to shovel snow - Christmas card pictures be damned.

So, do you think I managed to pull a worthy Christmas card picture out of this chaos?

I don't know. I haven't looked at "the poses" yet. We will find out in time.

Soon, Kalib was dressed, had once again recovered his spatula and was ready to head back to Wasilla with us. 

When he realized that his parents and little brother were not coming, too, he cried a little bit, but held fast to the spatula.

Now it is late at night and Kalib lies in bed, next to his grandmother. The spatula is nowhere in sight, but still Kailb will fall asleep.

As for little Jobe, tied snug into his cradleboard, he has already fallen asleep.

And now, one frame from India:

Bangalore girl.

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The sun rises over the Bay of Bengal

It was still dark when nephew Vijay knocked came to get Melanie and me at the Chennai hotel where he had put us up for the night, and it remained dark as we walked about one mile to the beach.

Vijay was eager to show us a sunrise over The Bay of Bengal. As the dawn glow began to light up the eastern horizon, we could see a low band of clouds that was almost certain to the block the view of the rising sun, but we decided to hang out and watch anyway, to see what it would look when the sun did make it over the clouds.

A bird flew by.

Chennai fishermen paddle into the dawn to make their living.

A wave rolls past the fisherman.

We cannot yet see the sun, but it is reflected off the half-moon above.

The sun makes it over the clouds, over the fisherman.

Two men walk by with a dog.

This happened yesterday morning. Obviously, circumstance has prevented me from keeping anything close to a daily blog of our travels in India. I think circumstance will continue to do so for the remainder of the trip.

But I was just reading the Anchorage Daily News online and they ran a series of pictures taken in April, so I think it will be alright if I post most of my India material - including the wedding - after I return home.

And Vijay - thanks not for showing us the sunrise, but for everything that you did for us during our stay in Chennai.

You are a great host, nephew.

(As always, a click on a picture will reveal a larger copy of any image.)