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.

Alaska: Continued!

More Alaska pictures!  It was easy to keep ourselves busy in Juneau for 10 days.  The city was so peaceful and beautiful.  We were surrounded by water that looked like a mirror, snow capped mountains and the most beautiful wildflowers I'd ever seen anywhere.  Not to mention the bald eagles - they were everywhere!  You'd be driving and see a group of 20 of them, just walking around near the water.  I'd never seen anything like it.

Probably the coolest adventure was the bear excursion out to Pack Creek.  Ryan's family had done the excursion multiple times, and it is stunningly beautiful - plus you get to watch bears just roaming around, catching fish, taking care of their babies.  Pretty cool!  It was a full day adventure, and kids were not allowed.  I was having some trust issues at the time ;) so we canceled the babysitters and I volunteered to stay behind on the bear adventure so I could keep my eyes on the 3 cutest little girls.  There were rave reviews from everyone when they got back, they got to see lots of bears and even one mama with her two little cubs.  Most of the pictures don't really do Alaska justice, but when I was going through our camera and came to the ones Ryan took at Pack Creek, I was pretty awed.  He would probably say it was just because of his amazing photography skills.  ;)

My favorite excursion was the deep sea fishing.  People are often surprised when they find it out, but deep sea fishing is one of my all time favorite things in the entire world.  I realllly love it.  I can't fully explain it, but there's something so peaceful about that ride out.  The ocean wind is whipping around you and most everyone is kind of quiet with anticipation (and because it's usually pretty darn early).  I don't know, it's just my favorite thing.  We got to fish for salmon and halibut - two fish I had never caught before, and it was so fun.  And not just because I caught the first and most fish on the boat.  ;)

Here are some photos from our adventures!

- K

Ryan and Colin took a hike while everyone waited for those lazy bum bears to make their appearance.  Pretty beautiful!

 



A mama and her cubs.  :)

 



I think this might be Merida's mum?  ;)  (Please tell me you've seen Brave...)

 



This guy is just exuding bear swagger.

 



 

Of course we made time for ice cream in between adventures.  :)

 

The guy behind us offered to take a family picture, then took one single picture and raved that it was a great one!  He obviously missed his calling as a photographer...our family has never looked better.  ;)

 

After Sis finished her cup she demanded dad's cone.  :)

Fishing day!

 



 

The whole group - Aunt Dodo (have I ever explained her name? :), Pop, Uncle Colin, Grandma, Ryan and me.

Such a cutie.

 



 

Humpback whales!

 

 

My halibut!

 

Ryan caught the biggest one of the day!

 

 

We even got a couple of salmon, but they were much trickier to catch.

 

Ryan was feeling the PETA love and helped a few little salmonies escape.  ;)

 

Our loot!  There was a one halibut per person limit, and 6 salmon per person.  We obviously failed to max out our salmon intake.

 

We even fit in some family photos since everyone was in one place at once!  Sis was thrilled.

 

Look at that view!

 

Aunt Dodo snuck these on her cell phone while the photographer took the real ones.  :)

 

Aunt Alycia, Uncle Colin, and Brailyn

 

Grandma and Pop and all the granddaughters!  Those granddaughters are pretty lucky if you ask me.  :)

So Far, So Good!

Last week a neighbor brought us a HUGE zucchini from her garden.  Lyla and I had just finished reading The BFG and we joked about it being her snozzcumber.  It was gigantic!  The best part was that I'd tucked away a little zucchini oat chocolate chip cookie recipe on Pinterest, and it gave us the perfect excuse to whip up some homemade cookies.

It's been a while since I've baked with the girls, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time Sis really got to get her hands good and dirty with some real baking, not just our simple no-bake cookie balls.  Ahh, I had forgotten the joy that is baking with a 2 year old.  I'm not joking when I say we completely started over twice, and it is a real live miracle that we ended up with something edible.

I had to fight back my frustration occasionally, especially when on our third attempt I turned around to see most of the bottle of vanilla poured into our mixture.  Luckily I could pour it out, and we went on our way with the rest of the recipe.  (I have no idea how much vanilla actually ended up in those things, but they did turn out - and even tasted pretty darn good!)

It's easier for me to laugh now, thinking back to Evie grabbing every.single.thing. and dumping it in the mixer, then looking at me with wide eyes, like "oops?"  Lyla was just too cute the whole time.  She is becoming the best little helper, always in a hurry to help me do anything and everything, and kept pep talking us throughout the spills and messes.  "So far, so good!" she kept saying, even when a mountain of salt ended up in my mixture.  (Not so easy to pour out.)  Her optimistic little spirit kept me smiling and reminded me that it's about the experience - not the messes.

They eventually went down for naps and I finished the actual baking part myself - in peace and quiet.  :)  After naps we headed to a friend's house and brought some cookies along.  The little girls dressed up and an impromptu tea party broke out - complete with real tea.  It was so darn cute

It's always more difficult, more messy and more time consuming having mini helpers in the kitchen, but it's also just about as sweet as it gets.  Their tiny fingers and excitement to be helping, their proud faces when they've completed the job, and the jumping up and down before that first bite.  These days can be so hard and messy, but they are the very, very best.  And a little dose of optimism never hurts.  So far, so good!  :)

- K

 

This girl loves posing for a picture these days.  :)

Cutest little helpers.

 



 

Love these tippy toes.

Those blurry, eager hands.  :)

Tea party time.  Cheers!

 



Sis opted out of the tea party.  Forever doing her own thing.  :)