Thursday, August 18, 2016

Horse Races!

Us girls got to spend last week in Denver, which was so, so fun.  It was the first time we'd been back in the summer in a very long time and it made me miss it big time.  But I have way too many pictures to go through and my ears are still plugged from my flight on Tuesday (flying with a cold is a real bummer.  wah.) so I'm just going to do a #tbt post to the weekend before last when we finally made a trip to the horse races.  :)

Last year it seemed like we were at the horse races every weekend, but this summer has been so crazy and we hadn't gotten to go at all.  We finally had beautiful weather and no plans, so after church and naps we packed up the girls and whisked them off to Canterbury Park.  It's always such a good time, the girls have a ball picking horses to bet on with Dad, running around the huge playground, watching the races (we won 2 out of 3 that we watched!), riding ponies and petting animals. 

The weather was absolutely perfect, and needless to say we all had a blast.  Such a fun family day!

- K

 
These bunnies were a hit.  They would have snuck them home in their pockets if they could.






 
Watching the horses with dada.

 
Such a cutie with her little bet ticket in her hands.  She was feeling nervous about her pick.  ;)


Such a perfect day!
 


 
This one is usually the stinkiest about pictures, but look at that cute smile!  Of course Lyla ducked out...
 


And then Evie ducked out...
 


Does anyone else have this hard of a time getting a family photo?
 


Almost there...
 


Got it!...kind of.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Splash Pad Adventures

Last week was a hot one so I took the girls and a friend over to a local splash pad.  It's not your typical splash pad, it has more of a natural look and includes lots of little waterfalls for the kids to climb around on.  When Lyla was just over one we went to this park all the time, but we've barely been back since. 

The girls had so much fun running around, mostly in opposite directions.  Lyla kept yelling "this is the best!"  I stinking love her enthusiasm and excitement over the smallest things.  I sure hope that never goes away!  Sis was pretty cute, tackling all those big rocks in the waterfalls and insisting on doing it all herself. 

It was such a blast, we're going to have to get back over there a few more times this summer!  Here are some pics.  :)

- K



 
"This is the BEST!!!"  :)

 
Chillin' like a boss.








Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Ice Cream Social!

I love having get togethers for our girls and their friends, but since both of their birthdays are in the winter I thought it would be fun to throw something casual together this summer.  So, last Saturday we got out our kiddie pool, mini jump house, and lots of ice cream and called it an ice cream social!  The girls couldn't wait for their ice cream party, but didn't quite understand why they had to wait for the actual party to eat the ice cream.  ;)

The day also happened to be Lyla's half birthday, which we didn't make a big deal of with our guests, but it was sort of a little nod to our 4 and a half year old.  The day was so fun with good friends, great weather, and delicious ice cream.  You really can't go wrong with that combo.  :)

Here are some pics!

- K

 
Diggin' into that ice cream!




 
Homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich!  Heaven.

 
Ryan was offended at the amount of ice cream I'd put on my sandwich and had to show me "how to do it right."







 
"Mooom, enough!"

 
I love this picture.  A teenage neighbor drew the one on the right.  The one on the left is Lyla's replication.  haha!

Monday, August 8, 2016

Alaska: The End!

We finally made it to the final Alaska post!  Before the trip, 10 days sounded like kind of a lot to spend with kids way outside of their time zone and their comfort zone, but it ended up feeling like the perfect amount of time.  The girls were awesome and adventurous, and although I got a 5:30 wake up call almost every morning, they slept better than I anticipated.  Most nights.

Besides all of the big excursions we got to go on, we were also able to take advantage of all the local sights.  We all had our fill of fish tacos, we saw the brand new museum, went to the nearest glacier, and Ryan and I even got a couple of gym dates in.  One of which was followed by a rendezvous with Alycia and Colin at the Red Dog Saloon - home of the famous salmon chowder that Ryan has been telling me about for 10+ years.  Ask any trainer - cream cheese salmon dip, salmon chowder and bloody mary's are always a good choice for a post workout snack.  ;)  BUT, let me tell you, the chowder did not disappoint.

The trip was so amazing!  Here are some pictures from our sled dog excursion and glacier trip.  :)

- K

 
Evie loved Aunt Dodo.  Aunt Dodo is Ryan and Alycia's aunt that would always call them dodo birds when they were kids.  She became Aunt Dodo, and the name has stuck.  ;)

 
On our way to the sled dog adventure!

 
The sled dog camp was up in the mountains.  We learned about the dogs and how they train for their races.  And then Lyla raced across this bridge.  ;)

 
Sis has always been a bit more cautious than her big sis.  But she's a pretty good little daredevil pupil for Lyla most days.

 
We got to have the dogs pull us around a bit.  The girls loved it!

 
Lyla was in the cozy zone almost the whole time.  :)


 
It was cute to learn about the dogs and their personality traits.  These guys and gals really love to run!  As soon as they get people loaded up on the cart they all bark like crazy in anticipation.

 
The kids got to pet the dogs - the nice ones, anyways.


 
A couple of the girls had just had puppies and we got to hold and cuddle them.  The camp encourages people to hold them to socialize the pups early.  We didn't have any complaints.  :)





 
Sharing some hot chocolate.  :)

 
We went to a salmon hatchery one day, which was pretty cool.  I neglected to take any pictures of that, but afterwards we headed to lunch where Ryan had this monster.  He'd had his fill of fish tacos at this point.  ;)

 
I loaded up on cuddles from this tired little girl.

 
Another day we headed out to the Mendenhall glacier.  They had some paths you could hike around, and occasionally there would be bears found in the water.  No such luck this time, but we had fun exploring.


 
The wildflowers were amazing out there.

 
Evie wanted to go her own pace, so we ended up wandering around on our own mostly.

 
She had so much fun collecting rocks and sticks.  :)

 
Lots of rocks.


 
Look at that glacier peeking through!

 
We didn't get that close to it, but it was so cool to see!

 
I spy a cutie pie!

 
Organizing her collection.

 
When I saw her up there I had a serious heart attack.  And then I realized there was a big ledge on the other side and she wasn't actually to going to plummet 50 feet down.


 
Such a fun time!  I think we'll have to go back someday.