Katmai Trip - Valley of 10,000 Smokes

For day two at Katmai we booked a bus trip out to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes - which is pretty much the only place the road goes from Katmai. I was pretty excited to check out the geologic aftermath from one of the largest eruptions in the 20th century (1912 to be exact!). After a leisurely breakfast at the lodge, we headed down the trail to meet up with the bus. We had to make sure to leave a little bit of extra time after all the warnings of bear closures. 

Sure enough - it was closed because a bear was taking a swim! We actually walked up in time to hear the Park Ranger telling everybody that this was Holly (Bear 435), one of the more famous bears at Katmai. She adopted an abandoned bear cub while she had her own younger bear cub - pretty unheard of in the bear world! She apparently decided both of the cubs were old enough this year to strike out on their own and was enjoying a leisurely swim in Brooks Lake all by herself. 

I honestly didn't realize bears would swim around so long for fun. It reinforces the fact that I think bears act like big, overgrown dogs. Who may try to kill you in most circumstances...

There were so many people walking around camp with *gigantic* lenses on their camera, I was having a bit of lens envy. I've really only ever seen people taking photos of birds with those kinds of magnifications, but the birds were getting absolutely no attention here. So I took some photos of the ducks that were swimming by all slowly trying to strike up some interest. Poor guys just don't stand a chance to be noticed with the bears around! 

And since I was zooming in on the ducks, I also happened to notice this bee feasting on the fireweed. My first thought was that I should follow him back to his hive and steal some honey - fireweed honey would be the best! Then I remembered the last bee I took a photo of tried to attack me and I decided I had enough of the nature photography for a now...!

Once we made it safely across the bridge, we headed off on our tour. Each tour has a park ranger that rides along and narrates different stops along the way. Our tour guide kept telling us how lucky we were because the first tour she was assigned to was completely fogged in. She said she was standing in this spot describing the mountains and forests that no one could even see. What a way to start a new job!

Our awesomely rugged tour bus. The drive out has three river crossings and the bus handled them like a champ. Definitely not your ordinary school bus. Plus there were seat belts! Is that a thing yet in school buses or just because we were fording streams?

One of my friends at work, Tiffany, happened to book a trip to Katmai at the same time we did. Which also happened on our Juneau trip in April! I feel like I rarely see Tiffany in Anchorage, but we like to vacation in the same spots apparently - I should ask her where "we" are going next! :)

Now that is a huge pile of volcanic ash! Novarupta, the volcano that formed/erupted in 1912, spewed out lava and ash for days. The ash is solidified now and is up to 700' thick in places. The ash layer and lava engulfed the rivers turned them to steam - which created thousands of steaming fumeroles, thus the name! It took decades for the mass to cool down, but unfortunately, there is no longer any smoke. But they still kept the Valley of 10,000 Smokes moniker. :)

In that same amount of time, the rivers have managed to carve their way back down through the volcanic rocks and create some pretty cool gorges. We hiked down to the valley floor to find the "waterfall" - which was basically a roaring river dumping out into a calmer stream. More of a hydraulic jump than a waterfall if you ask me...!

Look at all that ash! And I have no idea why it weathered the way it did at the top, but it looked like a giant Hershey Kiss to me. Or I was hungry from the hike down and wanted chocolate. Who knows?

Our friends even took a picture of us at the waterfall! It's rare we get a photo together these days. Plus we looked much happier here than the sweaty mess we had become on the hike back up to the visitor's center. The sun actually came out and warmed this valley up quite a bit! 

(As a side note - did I mention we are going to Texas in a few weeks? I'm going to melt!)

Tiffany and Stephanie tried to walk up and down with us, but we were a little too slow for them. These two are hiking champs! Thankfully, they were happy enough to hang out with us at the bottom and top. Sorry we're so out of shape, ladies! 

We actually spent a lot of time at the river. The way the water was roaring in the air was almost hypnotic. Matt kept shooting slow motion videos trying to see what was actually happening at slower speeds. I kept zooming in and trying to freeze the foaming water. It looked so neat!

Then I was trying to figure out how to capture the flowing water without a tripod. I managed to get a decent image while holding the camera as still as I could. 1/6th of a second sounds pretty fast until you are trying to hold a heavy camera steady! Luckily I managed to get one that was in focus. Woo!

(Please excuse my photography nerdiness...)

On the hike back up, the fireweed was lit up in the sun and definitely made the hill look like it was on fire. It also made me worry that summer is wrapping up - these things only go red when fall is approaching. It's too soon! :(

Overall, the tour day was awesome! I wasn't sure how it would compare to hanging out and watching the bears, but being able to hike though such cool geology definitely won me over. And we still got to see the bears when we got back to camp. Next up - fishing with the bears tomorrow!

Not sure how ready I am for that...!

Katmai Trip - The Falls

Thanks to my sister generously offering to watch the boys for a long weekend, Matt and I finally got to go to Katmai - aka the park with all of the bears! We have been wanting to go pretty much since we moved here, but it's not the most little kid friendly park... Needless to say, I have been brimming with excitement since we booked the tickets! Camping! Bears! Fishing!

And...

My first ride on a float plane! I think you can fly straight from Anchorage, but we used our miles to fly to King Salmon, then hopped on Katmai Air for the flight over to Brooks Camp. Katmai is SW from Anchorage, down on the Alaska peninsula, but there aren't any roads into the Katmai area. So float plane and boat are the only options to get there!

The plane was only half full, so I asked the pilot if the passenger seat up front was open. He said yes, but no cameras were allowed up there. Well I was no longer interested in the seat, so Matt took it instead. I didn't get that many great photos on the flight anyhow because of the weather, but I wanted to have the option to take photos!

Finally made it to Brooks Camp! There is a lodge at Katmai run by the same people who run Katmai Air, but we opted for the *much* cheaper option of staying at the campground. It's about a 1/3 mile down a trail and is surrounded by an electrical fence. When you first arrive at Katmai, they have you watch a safety video on how to behave and what to do if a bear approaches closer than the recommended 50 yard safe distance. They also made sure to point out that the fence around the campground is bear "resistant", not bear "proof". Got it!

We walked down to camp, set up our tent and dropped all of our extra food and gear in the storage buildings in the campground. They ask they you walk around with no food or drinks apart from a bottle of water, so we have to put away all of our snacks. In the time it took to set-up and then head back to the lodge, these signs had been put up on the trail halfway back to the lodge. We both went a little bit on high alert after that!

I have been watching the Bear Webcams online with Thomas the past few weeks to show him where we were going. He was pretty worried that we weren't taking any of the "red stuff" (bear spray) with us, but I managed to convince him we would be ok. Camp is back to the right in this photo. You have to cross this bridge which is not bear proof, then walk about a mile or so to the falls. This bridge gets "closed" quite frequently due to bear activity - they made sure to show us photos of bears on the bridge to ensure we know it's not a safe place to spot for photos.

We finally made it to the bear viewing platform (which is a safe place to stop and take photos!) and the first platform we went to was further downstream than the falls. But there was still a bear hanging out in the river fishing. I was pretty sure we spotted some cubs with this momma bear, but they were pretty well hidden by the time she wandered into a good photo spot. :)

Then we made it to the main falls platform. So many bears!!! They were all very focused on the fish in the river, though some of them were making more progress than others actually catching the fish...

Like this big ole guy in the corner staring down in the water with a longing look on his face. I didn't see him catch any fish while we were there. I'm honestly not sure I even saw him try to catch any fish. But he is obviously not in danger starving to death - he has clearly been feasting all summer! 

Speaking of which - the first weekend in August isn't considered the peak time to go to Katmai because the fish aren't running quite as much as earlier in July. But there were obviously still plenty of fish in the water and they were nonstop trying to jump up and over the falls. I would guess that more missed than made it while we were watching, but a few made it up! Also, since it wasn't the peak season, we didn't have to worry about waiting for a spot on the platform to watch the bears. I heard in peak season, it can be a 3 hour wait - crazy!

This guy was hanging by himself closer to the platform and he looked more like he was enjoying a day at the spa rather than trying to fatten up for winter. He was in the midst of foaming water up to his chin. He would look at us, then look at the water, then look back at us without a care in the world. 

I looked away from Mr. Relaxation to watch the other bears fishing, so I was shocked when I looked back and the "lazy" bear was walking off to chow down on a tasty salmon. 

I'm assuming he took the fish over to a gravel bar to enjoy his meal without having to worry about dropping it in the water. The sea gulls were hoping that he would drop a few pieces of fish that they could swoop in and steal. Steal after the bear left, of course, they were smart enough not to try and steal the fish *from* the bear...!

Also, I don't think the bear left them any scraps at all. Bears and I might agreed that salmon sushi is the best, but I draw the line at eating the bones and such. 

He wandered back to his jacuzzi pool to relax in the water. This time I kept an eye on him to see how he had snagged that fish. A few minutes later, he stuck his head into the water and emerged with another fish. Impressive!

This time he decided to go ahead and eat the salmon where he was - less of a crowd than eating near the birds! We watched him do the same fishing move several times while we were there and he only missed once that I saw. A very proficient fisherman... Fisherbear?

We finally got hungry enough that we decided to walk back to camp. After watching them in the water for so long, I was motivated enough to make plenty of noise on our hike back. I was "Hey Bear!"ing all the way back to camp. Though apparently some people that we met on the plane did the same on their walk back shortly after us and they had a bear walk out of the woods and saunter up the trail to within 6' of them before turning back to the woods.

Sooooooo the "Hey Bear" must not be a flawless method. Uh-oh...

Air Show

I have only been to an air show once when Matt and I were first dating. I don't remember that much about it, but I recall it being fun. We tried to go to one when living in Houston, but after sitting in traffic for over 2 hours just to get to the show exit, we turned around and went home. (The traffic was somehow even worse past the exit!)

But when we saw the Joint Air Force / Army base up here was putting on a show this weekend, we thought we should take the boys. Then we heard the traffic on Saturday was as bad as the Houston one and almost gave up. But we planned our trip so that we would get stuck in the traffic right at a good nap time for the boys. We were ready for the worst!

Except there was zero traffic! We were on base and walking amongst some very cool planes in no time. How awesome! (Except for the no nap part...)

One of the first planes inside the gate was a B-52 Bomber and they had the bottom door open to walk underneath the plane. The boys did not appreciate they were getting to walk in what would otherwise be a very bad place to be standing!

I have to confess that I am pretty bad at identifying planes, so I wasn't even sure this was a B-52 bomber. Luckily, I happened to catch the tail of the plane in another shot and was able to do some quick internet research. Turns out this exact plane is the *youngest* in the B-52 fleet and turned 50 a few years ago. All the articles I could find also mention it was sent to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, so I guess several of the planes on base travelled quite a ways to get there. Lucky for us!

There was a C-17 flying around doing demonstrations and I am 100% sure that it was an Alaskan one, we have met several C-17 pilots up here. Plus it has an Elmendorf banner painted on the tail! ;)

On to the helicopters! We had to get a photo of Thomas in the pilot seat of a Blackhawk since he is named after a Blackhawk pilot. He wasn't too sure about sitting up there with all of the instrumentation, but he gave us a big thumbs up anyhow!

Henry, on the other hand, couldn't be bother to look at the camera because he was ready to grab the controls and start flying. Could these two be any more different? 

I couldn't get a decent photo of the exterior of the Blackhawk because so many people were crowded around it to get photos sitting inside. But I did snap a photo of the Apache sitting next to it so you could see the skis on this landing gear - the Blackhawk had them as well. These helicopters are obviously set up for flying in Alaskan terrain!

I saw an ice cream truck and thought the boys would love one of those character ice creams on a stick that you always see. Except they were all sold out of everything except these popsicles. They didn't seem to mind too much that they weren't a cartoon character. I was kinda bummed though - those thing always looked fun to me as a kid!

Next we headed over to the C-5 Galaxy transport plane. I was thinking we would just pull the wagon through the plane, but the ramp was a little steep. So Matt hung back with the wagon while the boys and I walked through! I had been explaining to Thomas the other day that there was a plane so big another plane could fit inside of it and he didn't believe me. I was pretty excited to show him I wasn't making it up!

The downside to those popsicles we gave them? They looked like little goth boys! Ha - it was dark enough in the plane I didn't get a great photo, but the dark lips were funny enough to share even with some blur. Plus Thomas looked so concerned about sitting in the plane - I think he wanted to get through the giant plane as soon as possible!

I would also like to point out I managed to get them to both wear plane themed shirts! I had zero success in trying to convince Henry to not wear his new Star Wars swim trunks. Whatever - not a battle worth fighting... 

As I got the boys settled back in the wagon, the loudspeaker made an announcement about the next aircraft, which neither Matt nor I really paid attention to. Matt asked if we should put the headphones on the boys and I figured we didn't need to yet since I knew the Blue Angels were last. Matt decided to just go ahead and put them on anyhow.

Thank goodness! The next thing we knew, this aircraft was screaming into take-off and roaring up into the sky. Matt and I had our hands clamped over our ears and I had to yell above the noise "Good call, honey!" We scrambled to put our ear plugs in while this monster aircraft was not right above us. What the heck is that thing?!?

Turns out, that thing is a F-22 Raptor *and* my new favorite aircraft. This thing was amazing!!! It was loud and fast and doing things that I've never seen an aircraft do. It's a stealth aircraft, but it was not exactly flying in "stealth mode" today - it was in full blown show off mode!

Before it landed, the Raptor did a few circles with a World War II era bomber, the P-51 Mustang. It was so neat to see how much things have changed in the past few decades with aircraft. The Mustang sounded almost distinguished compared to the angry and intimidating roar of the Raptor. Also I was a little amazed that the Raptor could pace the Mustang without falling out of the sky - I had assumed it had to go as close to Mach speed as possible. ;)

Last, but not least, the Blue Angels took to the skies! They were flying five F-18 Hornets at the show today, so four were in a fairly constant diamond formation and the fifth one was doing the solo runs by himself. 

Thomas was super excited about the Blue Angels, the base is just north of town and they had been practicing their maneuvers over the city the last few days. They did a few runs that were visible from the daycare and all Thomas could talk about was how these planes were flying straight at each other, then went straight up like a volcano (with accompanying hand motions). He was in awe as the planes did their numerous fly-bys as such close distances. 

The solo plane kept getting me though! The Raptor had stayed relatively close to the base with his maneuvers, but the Angels went far enough away you would lose track of them. Then all of a sudden this super loud plane was zooming over your head with no warning. Thankfully, they keep it below Mach 1 by staying at ~700mph or less. :)

Overall, the show was awesome and the boys made it through almost the whole thing before we started losing the youngest one. Not bad for accidentally skipping his nap time! The only downside is that the Arctic Thunder show is only once every 2 years. :(

Can't wait for 2018!

Glacier Cruise with Justin

Matt hasn't been back to Texas since we left, so he hasn't seen some of his friends in almost 3 years! I figured that's way too long to not see some of your close friends and decided to invite one of our good friends up for a visit. I don't think I've ever invited Justin for a visit that he hasn't accepted and moving to Alaska hasn't changed that! He booked a flight up the same day I suggested it and even managed to get a direct flight both ways - lucky guy...!

He was here for several days and almost all of them were so rainy. (Boo!) He kept assuring me he was more than happy to just hang out with us at the house, but I was still bummed. I want everyone who visits this state to love it like I do. So I was still hoping for some sunshine and optimistically booked a glacier cruise out of Whittier the one day it *might* not rain quite as much.... 

I always worry about missing the tunnel into Whittier because it runs on a strict schedule. So we usually err on the side of arriving way too early and find some way to entertain ourselves in Whittier. After we hit the Frito Pie and Donut hut (the best!), we headed out to do some exploring. I had discovered this rushing stream on our first trip to Whittier (and first Glacier cruise) and thought the boys would like it!

Except the little guys thought it was a little too loud. I had envisioned them throwing rocks in it, but it was a bit too scary for them at the first location we stopped. (Ok, scary for me too if I am being honest. Rushing water and toddlers make me nervous!)

We walked downstream a little ways where it felt a little bit safer to throw rocks. Except they still weren't interested. In their defense, the water was moving pretty darn fast. The waterfalls further up hill were throwing all kinds of water spray up in the air - at least the waterfalls were benefitting from all the rain!

Then a weather switch somewhere got flipped and the clouds started to break up. Soon the sun was shining and it was a whole different day! It went from blah to gorgeous in no time! With all the green and bright blue, you could almost imagine you were in a tropical paradise (with glaciers!). 

We drove to the end of the road (it doesn't take long!) to soak in the scenery and the sunshine. It's a little hard to make out the town in this photo, but you can clearly see the giant cruise ship back at the docks. It is so massive compared to almost everything else in Whittier. I can't even imagine the bottleneck it causes when all those people disembark!

Finally off and cruising! This time I opted for the shorter cruise that went from Whittier to Shotgun Cove then on to all the glaciers in Blackstone Bay. Even though it was much shorter than the 26 glacier cruise I took with my mom and sister, I'm not convinced we didn't see more glaciers today since the last cruise was during awful weather. 

You honestly couldn't have asked for a better weather day. The captain on the ship kept commenting on how lucky we all were for how nice it was. Matt and Justin pretty much spent the whole cruise out on the deck - it was a little windy, but otherwise perfect. And the two of them got to see chunks falling off of the glacier more than once. Matt was a little skeptical he would enjoy the cruise, but even he was a little amazed at the glaciers once we were up close and personal (in his defense, he didn't realize the glaciers would be right up to the water!). 

The boys were more interested in hanging out inside than venturing out on the decks - a little bit of wind really does them in. But they still seemed to be having a great time! Thomas was dutifully marking any wildlife he saw in the cruise guide and tracking our ship's position on the monitors. 

Henry happily played with his magnets and Alaskan animals before realizing it was way past his naptime. Once he started throwing his animals under the table, I decided it was time to try and lull him to sleep. A few minutes snuggled up in my lap and he was out - success!

Overall, it turned out to be a great day and from what I can tell, the best part of Justin's visit to Alaska. We also managed to fit in a moose and bear sighting, so we accomplished everything on his list except seeing the Northern Lights. You'll just have to come back in the winter for that one! (As a bonus, it's still fun to play outside when it's snowing - rain, not so much!)

Bear Paw Festival

As I have mentioned several times, summer in an Alaska means *so* many festivals. I think you could probably find some sort of festival every week. Since mom was still in town for my Friday off this week, we decided to take the boys up to the Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River.

Henry saw the horse rides and was pretty insistent on riding a horsey. Thomas wanted nothing to do with the horses, which worked out well once I realized a few turns in a circle on the horse was $10. I went from trying to convince Thomas to join his brother to quickly deciding it was 100% cool if he didn't want to ride. 

Lucky for Henry, I had already promised him a ride before I found out how pricey it was. Though he looks a bit concerned in this photo, he actually seemed to enjoy the ride overall. It certainly didn't hurt that Nonni was walking along with him telling him what a great horse rider he was!

And I forgot his sunglasses again. I am the worst at remembered his shades... :( 

They had these giant Tundra comic panels for the kiddos to color. The coloring discs didn't really work all that well though, so the boys lost interest pretty quickly. When we went by at the end of the day we discovered that the discs were actually watercolor and they hadn't set up the brushes and buckets of water earlier in the day. No wonder it didn't work too well!

The boys had zero interest in the festivities apart from the carnival rides. What a surprise... And Henry is now big enough to ride some of the big boy rides. We were a little worried about how he would do once it started moving, so Nonni went along. Then Henry decided to sit in the front where no adult could possibly squeeze in. Thankfully, the ride was uneventful...!

Nonni was not that interested in the giant slide, so she offered to take photos of the boys and I on the ride down. I love the giant slide - I would imagine the boys will get tired of it before I will! 

The "flying" ride was super popular today, so Thomas ended up having to share a helicopter. The little girl who had already claimed the helicopter wasn't at all bothered about sharing the front seat. He piloted his helicopter with his usual seriousness. Nonni thought it was hilarious that he was so focused and refused to make eye contact the whole time the ride was going (like usual!). It's not like I could have gotten a great photo of him even if he had looked at us - those windshields are so hazy & scratched up!

It was quite obvious he had fun on the ride though! This boy loves helicopter rides - we obviously named him well. :)

Henry was too little for the helicopters, so he decided to go on the carousel ride instead. Henry was obviously in a horsey mood today!

Once we blew through all of the ride tickets I bought, we headed over to the playground next to the rides to burn off a little more energy before heading home. I'm not sure who found these glass marbles to be more exciting me or Thomas. I thought they looked super cool with the sun flaring off of them! 

They climbed and slid and ran around like crazy boys! I think I could have saved my money and just gone straight to the playground. I feel like this is a lesson I re-learn over and over... ;)

I finally pried the away from the playground with the promise of a funnel cake before we left. But it was so hot that I had to make them wait quite a while for it to cool down. You can see how happy they are about waiting to eat it. Ha - poor guys!

We even managed to find a guy making balloon animals on the way back to the parking lot. Henry was very excited about getting a bear in an airplane, but Thomas only wanted the airplane. The guy making the balloons tried to convince him to add an animal, but Thomas was insistent on only the airplane. Thankfully, Henry had more than an airplane, because he let his balloon touch the ground and it popped the back of his plane. But with the added bear, the rest of it managed to stay together. Whew!

Once we made it back to the car, these two were passed out before we even got back to the highway - the sign of a truly successful outing! :)

Fourth of July in Homer

I'm just going to be upfront with you all - this post has way too many photos. I usually do much better with culling through my photos, but there were just so many good ones! I managed to get it down to 62(!), but that is many, many more than a usual post. I debated splitting it into three posts (one for each day!) to hide the fact I was having trouble, but confession is good for the soul. So fear free to skim or take a break if needed!

On to the massive cute kids overload... :)

Matt planned a motorcycle ride with his buddies over the 4th of July weekend, so he missed out on the epic trip down to Homer with my family and all of the friends we were meeting down there. Although, I am not sure we could have crammed any more people into the Pilot - Thomas was delegated to the far back. Between that and a recently potty trained toddler, we planned on making several stops. 

Just like our last trip to Homer, we packed a picnic lunch and stopped for a kid break at the playground in Soldotna. The weather wasn't nearly as nice this time, but the boys didn't seem to mind at all! 

Surprisingly, Thomas bee-lined straight for the big slide. All of the slide time at our neighborhood park has obviously paid off, he's not afraid of the slides at all anymore! 

Henry was a little skeptical about the big slide, so his Aunt Heather went down with him. I may have given her a safety lecture about making sure to hold on to his arms and legs while going down. Ever since a friend's daughter got a broken leg while tandem sliding, I might be a little paranoid about sliding with kids...

Not to worry - the slide went just fine!

And Henry decided he could do it all on his own! My boys are getting so brave.

Which kinda scares me a little...

Not sure who is having more fun singing "Ro, Row, Row Your Boat" here. But my money is on Heather. Ha!

This year I got Thomas to stand on the correct side of the cut-out, but he wasn't that much more cooperative on that side. Such a difficult model! 

Finally made it to our house in Homer and Thomas was ready to put together some Legos! I let them each pick out a set at Target last week with the promise that they would get to put them together and play with them once we got to Homer. They immediately started yelling about their Lego's once we were in the house. Thomas very nicely put together Henry's space lab set for him first.

What a good big brother!

After a short rest, we headed over to hand out with Rachael & Brittney (plus kids!) at the condo they rented. We picked up take-out for all of us, but the super cool salmon and halibut cookies were from the bakery in Soldotna. James was really working hard at getting the boys to share their cookies, but Thomas was not convinced. In case you can't tell, Thomas is telling me James should have some of the white cookie (ie: Henry's!).  

After a few tears were shed, everyone got part of a cookie. James was definitely a happy camper!

Living the wild vacation life with kid's cartoons and books about Alaska. ;)

Once I pulled my camera out, Rachael was quizzing me about camera settings and using the flash properly. I ended up taking some photos to show her the effects different settings have on the images. The boys were playing with James' Lite-Brite in a dim part of the house, so it gave me a chance to show her the ISO adjustments when using the flash isn't an option. You wouldn't get that cool Lite-Brite glow with a flash firing off! 

The next morning, Dad and I went off to the Two Sisters Bakery to procure breakfast and we all got to try delicious goodies. Henry was a little overwhelmed by the amazing chocolate roll. He just had to take a moment to let the yumminess sink in!

Or he was telling his that his ear hurt. I can't exactly remember which...

Trying to get everyone ready to go play at the beach with our friends...

Have I mentioned recently that Henry is two? Oh the two's - how I have not missed you.

We managed to get to the condo just in time to interrupt the girl's brunch. We had missed Lauren last night because she was already in bed. She's gotten so big since we saw her in Texas last year!

Lottie and Lauren looked so cute eating their food together. And unlike my boys, there was no yelling or throwing food at each other. So peaceful!

We finally headed down to the beach! It wasn't quiet as calm and sunny as it was on our last visit. The waves were actually pretty exciting!

Exciting to me that is... Thomas wanted nothing to do with the waves and wind this morning. He came down to see it, then bee-lined back up the beach to play in the sand. No matter how much cajoling Heather and I attempted, he could not be convinced to go back to the water's edge. 

Henry, of course, was more than happy to chuck rocks into the water - waves or not. This little guy is developing quite the throwing arm!

I couldn't find either of our kites when I was packing up the car and was a little devastated about not having them. Before I went out and bought another one, I texted Matt to whine a little. Amazingly, he had enough signal to respond that they were in the Pilot. 

What?!?

Sure enough - the Minion kite (from our Homer trip 2 years ago!) was hiding in the back storage compartment. I was so excited, that I was ready to fly it! It was a teensy bit windy for kite flying, but I finally managed to get it in the air. And then almost dive-bombed Brittney & Lottie... 

Thomas was so upset with me flying the kite when he had decided it was too windy for kites. After I crashed it a third (or fourth?) time, he ran over and grabbed it before I could. No more kites for me apparently. Sigh... Such a little dictator!

These two aren't holding any grudges over the kite! And quite frankly, they are adorable. Lottie wasn't too sure about the wind, but she was happy enough when she was facing away from it.

And can I just say that cloudy days are my favorite for photographs of people? So much better than dealing with the harsh shadows of Alaskan sunny days! :)

Rachael had to buy Lauren a bunch of long sleeved clothes before their visit since all of her usual clothes are for Texas summers. But she looked super adorable in all of them! So much purple and pink cuteness!

Thanks to the house being right on the beach, the girls kept telling us about all the otters they had seen. Then a few more swam up to say hello! I had my wide angle lens on, so I had to run back inside to get my zoom lens. In my absence, they took up watching positions on the beach and left a perfect little hole to frame the otter. I love this photo! :)

Mr. Otter even hung out long enough for me to get a decent shot of him. He didn't seem to mind the clouds and wind! 

We came prepared for some serious beach toys with a variety of toys and trucks. Of course, the boys were most interested in simply shoveling sand into the giant bucket. Whatever makes them happy!

These two got put safely up on the log away from the sand, but then Rachael convinced Brittney that the two girls needed to have some sand play time! The two of them weren't quite sure what to think about this stuff they were sitting on...

Brittney was concerned that Lottie was going to try to eat all of the sand on the beach and we managed to convince her that Lottie wouldn't do such a thing. Which, of course, meant that Lottie immediately tried to eat it. We were trying to help you out, Lottie! Way to prove us wrong...!

Lauren loved sitting in the sand! She was kicking her legs all around until she had a half sand angel created. It was adorable how excited she was sitting there!  

My favorite photo from the beach! Mom and Heather took off on a walk around the corner of the beach and Henry lost it - he wanted to go for a walk too. I couldn't exactly abandon Thomas, so I asked dad if he would watch Thomas or walk with Henry. He took the little guy for a walk and Henry was so happy to hang out with his Grandpa. And they made an adorable sight. :)

The boys always love checking out all of the float planes on Beluga Lake every time we drive past on our way to the spit. Our rental house must have been on the flight path to Beluga Lake, because they were flying over head all of the time. This was the only one I got a photo of one - some of them were much closer. But I liked this photo anyhow because it seemed fitting to have the stars & stripes represented for the 4th of July!

After the nap stop back at the house, we headed to our favorite spot in all of Homer - the playground! I tried to get Thomas to do an excited pose for the photo and this was the best he could manage. I promise, he was super excited, even if he could only half lift his arms for me. ;)

Last year, Matt kinda tricked Thomas into going down the super tall slide and he wasn't super thrilled about it. This year, he had no problem going down all by himself - though he did keep demanding a proper countdown...

Henry also decided to go down on his own, but his expression was a little less certain than his brothers. Although, it is very similar to the one Thomas had last year!

And then Nonni went down the slide! Well look who is being adventurous with her grand-kids...!

Unfortunately, our very favorite part of the playground wasn't working! The pump was not pumping out any water. We both tried pumping it, but no luck. Thomas was super bummed. :(

Luckily, this playground has plenty of other exciting things to play with - like this wooden xylophone! The two of the were dueling with the mallets!

Henry was a little obsessed with the train and was very insistent that Nonni was the conductor. The steering wheel is much too tall for the little kids, but he was just fine with that, because it was Nonni's job.

Who do you think looks more excited here? I can't quite tell. ;)

Nonni what has gotten in to you today? Get down from there, young lady!

Henry was all about the slides today! It was actually super easy for me, because he didn't even need any help climbing the steps to the slide. I got to just stand at the bottom, take some photos and then keep cheering his on!

The next morning, we headed off to breakfast with big plans to go to the playground again. Hey, whatever makes the boys happy when it's gloomy outside!

Also, Henry has apparently moved into his super cheesy smiling phase. I kinda love it! 

Heather tried to convince Thomas to climb up the ropes by demonstrating how easy it was. He was not convinced... I happened to fall off of one of those things as a kid, so I am not a fan. Amazingly, I didn't do any serious damage, but I did lose the skin off the back of one ear.

And I like my ears. So no more! 

He was much more easily convinced to sit on her lap to use the excavator. Both boys loved the excavator, but it really is too big for them. Honestly, it's really hard to do with a toddler sitting in your lap. It's not the best design for the what is supposed to be the younger kid side of the playground. (I am 100% sure I complained about this last year...)

 I managed to convince Henry to try out the tire swing! We had a tire swing in our backyard growing up and it is has happy memories associated with it (unlike the rope thingie!). He seemed pretty excited about it, but was ready to move on to something new 15 seconds later. That was pretty much Henry's MO this morning...

Dad wasn't with us for yesterday's playground visit, so Thomas wanted to show him the water sluice and how it wasn't working. Dad said his Aunt's water pump would occasionally stop working and that you could get it going again with some water. So I went off to fetch some water and we tried to get the pump going again. Unfortunately, the problem appears to be that someone has dumped a ton of tiny rocks down in the pump and the water didn't do the trick. Super bummer!

Luckily, our friends just happened to show up and all the sadness about the non-functioning pump was forgotten! Thomas was super excited to show James all around the exciting playground!

The swings quickly became the place to be! Except for Henry - I think he was off playing in the train again.

James apparently has a playset at home with a swing, so he was super happy to get some swinging time in. I think he sat there until Rachael's got tired of pushing him. 

Brittney and Duncan tried to convince Lottie that sliding was super fun! I am not quite sure she believed them...

Henry and James needed no convincing though! The two of them went down this slide over and over again. And for the most part, they even did a great job of waiting for the other one to get off the slide before headed down. Safety first! 

Rachael got talked into taking James for a spin on the excavator. He was even more excited once his momma realized it actually spun in a circle and didn't have to dig in just one spot. ;)

The whole crew finally getting to enjoy some sunshine! It went from cloudy as all get out to actually be a teensy bit too warm! Well, at least to the Alaskans in the group. The Texans probably thought we were ridiculous with out "I'm going to melt!" proclamations. 

Everyone else was headed back north after the playground, but we were staying for another night. And this time, I remembered to make reservations at Captain Pattie's so I could finally get my awesome seafood! They are so kid friendly there - in addition to the awesome kid cups, they put down a mickey mouse plastic mat underneath the high chair to catch any spills or drops. Henry was convinced it was a party for him - ha!

At lunch the other day, I ordered a halibut sandwich that came with a huge slice of red onion. I pulled off the outer two rings to keep and put the rest of it on my plate. Thomas ate all of his food and then slowly put his hand on the onion while asking "Are you going to eat this?" When I told him I wasn't, he took it and proceeded to eat the whole thing.

Raw onion.
All by itself...

He had the worst onion breath! And of course, he was stealing red onions again tonight at dinner. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come. He had the worst onion toots that night. Ugh. No more raw onion, little man!

After dinner we stopped to get gelato and these two sat at the counter and shared a bowl of "ice cream". They did pretty good passing it back and forth. I think "share!!!!" was only yelled at a sibling once or twice...

We stopped by the toy store in town after the playground visit and much to our dismay, it is closing! But much to our delight, everything was on sale. I amy have gone a little overboard buying them fun new toys. I really only intended to buy Legos, but they didn't have any and once I started looking for a substitute, I may have gone a little overboard. 

And that's how we ended up playing T-Ball in the garage after dinner. They were both super excited to play and Thomas was actually pretty good! Especially since he kept closing his eyes when he was swinging... ;)

We'll have to work on that!

We had Henry on the wrong side at first because I keep forgetting he's totally a lefty, but we got him on the correct side and helped him swing it. We kept telling them they could take three turns before switching, but Henry was a "one and done" every time. 

This guy was having a blast though! The next morning, they kept asking to play, so they entertained themselves while I packed up the car to head home. Who knew my kids were so in to T-Ball??

Overall, it was a great weekend even with the uncooperative weather. As long as you've got friends and family, these boys are ready to party! 

And congratulations if you actually made it all the way to the bottom and read all of the words! I promise to go back to a normal length post with the next one. I just had so much fun hanging out with everyone and wanted to be sure it was recorded for posterity! :)

- Jen

p.s. You'll have to excuse any typos. I'm not going back and re-reading all that. Ha!

Glatfelder Cabin

Since we stayed so late at the picnic yesterday, we decided to forgo trying to get on the road last night and instead packed up and headed out early this morning for our cabin far, far away... In total honesty, when I was booking the cabin, I thought it was at Quartz Creek - which is about a 2 hour drive south on the Kenai. Instead, I booked a cabin at Quartz Lake which is over 6 hours north by Delta Junction. 

I was so surprised the cabin was available, that I quickly booked it before someone else got it. In retrospect, that should have been a clue that something was amiss. I was completely bummed out when I realized my mistake, but Matt was so excited about our rustic cabin - even with the looooooong drive! Hopefully it's a good mistake!

All ready to go! You might notice an extra traveller in the back - since we are going to a public use cabin, the dogs are totally welcome. We figured it's been a while since they have gotten to vacation with us, so we packed them in the car along with everything else! Eliza is hunkered down in the floorboard of the middle seat, which she seemed pretty happy about. 

According to maps, Quartz Lake is a 6 hour drive from Anchorage. But there isn't a setting to toggle on for traveling with kids... Thankfully we weren't in a hurry, so every time someone yelled they needed to potty, we could pull off for a rest stop. And with a recently potty trained toddler, there were a lot of stops!

Not all of the stops were this scenic, but Matt has been along this route before and knew of this super pretty location when someone was proclaiming their need for a bathroom. Also, both boys are now pros at peeing while standing on the side of the road. Life skills, right there!

9 hours later, we finally got to the lake and packed up our backpacks for the trek to the cabin. It was only a 1/2 mile from the road, but we were trying to minimize the number of trips and these two require more gear than they can carry themselves. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure they only have toys in those backpacks...

But they look so adorable that I can't even be mad at their slacking off in the gear carrying realm. 

The girls at least carried their own food! They haven't used these packs in a long time, but they didn't seem to mind carrying them as long as they got to tag along. Plus the two of them were so excited they basically pulled me up any of the inclines on the hike. Win-win!

I was convinced at some point that we had missed the cabin because it felt like we had been walking *forever*, but that was apparently just because the boys were forcing us to walk much slower than usual. After the last little hill in the trail, our cabin in the woods appeared. It was just as rustic and fantastic as it looked in the photos online!

We had been telling Tommy the cabin had a grass roof and he was super excited to see it in person. There was a cluster of fireweed on the one side and a tiny pine tree growing in the front! It's named after a guy who came up to Alaska from California and decided to live off the land here in the 1940's. He built a trapper style cabin after his first winter in a raised platform tent(!). This isn't the original anymore, it was rebuilt sometime in the 90's. You couldn't guess that from the looks, though!

Thomas is super, duper excited about the cabin! He kept exclaiming about how it was made out of trees! We tried to explain that most houses are mostly made of trees, but he wasn't having any of that. This cabin was trees and houses are not made of trees!

The one platform bed was right against the window at a perfect level for them to see the woods and anyone who happened to wander by on the trails. You could even see the lake from this window. 

The other window had a nice view of the bathroom... ahem... Outhouse. I wasn't sure how keen these two would be on going to the outhouse, but they loved it! I am pretty sure I racked up 10,000 steps just walking them back and forth to the outhouse. Thomas asked me why there was a moon on the side and I was trying to explain what mooning is and then realized I wasn't even sure if that was why there was a moon and that I was telling my 4 year old about mooning people.

Not my finest parenting moment...

The girls were just as happy with the accommodations! 

Matt even hiked up a big sleeping bag for Natalie to lie on. She has started moving slower and taking longer to get up and down. Poor girl is getting old and he just wanted to make sure she was comfy on the wood floor. What a good dad!

It ended up taking forever to get the boys to go to bed because of all the excitement and the daylight in the cabin. I ended up having to sternly (and repeatedly!) tell them to close their eyes to try and get them to just rest long enough to pass out. Henry snuggled down into his sleeping bag at one point and that was the end of his fight - he was out in no time. Maybe I need to buy these boys eye covers!

The next morning, we had a lazy breakfast at the cabin and then headed out to check out the nearby trails. What a gorgeous morning and nice view, huh?

We headed away from the cabin and the trails wound along a bluff with not much clearance on either side. It was a little bit more stressful than we had planned trying to make sure the boys didn't miss a step and slide off the trail. "/

We finally ended up on the beach and that was much more pleasant! Of course, it's an Alaskan beach, so it's super rocky. The boys immediately remembered their favorite water activity and started chucking rocks in. You can see the girls also remembered their favorite activity and were off running into the water. 

Natalie looks so sporty and athletic out there waiting for Matt to throw her a still. And then there is Eliza... Of Eliza, you are the most awkward & spastic dog. I still love you, you crazy thing!

More rock chucking! I may have found Henry's plumber's butt a little too cute to resist taking a photo. What's the point of having kids if I can't embarrass them with photos 15 years from now?!?

We ended up going to the nearby town for lunch and so the boys would take a nap in the car. Both goals were accomplished and then we headed back up our trail to the cabin. It was a little more peaceful without the dogs this time and I managed to get a super sweet shot of Henry & Matt walking together. :)

The boys were back to their window watching. When I let them pick out the toys they wanted to bring, Henry mostly packed his animals and was waving the moose at anyone who happened to walk by. At least he had a fitting animal - we saw them several times while we were here. Thankfully each time was from the car! They all had calves and momma moose are not to be messed with!

As you may be able to tell from the picture, the boys were starting to get a little stir crazy after we had been back at the cabin for a while. Henry was alternating between pretending the beds were horses and harassing his brother...

Cabin fever so soon?!?

So we went back to the beach and threw more rocks in the water! Henry is developing quite the throw. Thomas usually gets a little more distance, but Henry is catching up!

Then Matt managed to convince the boys to strip down to their undies and go play in the lake with him. Honestly it didn't take any convincing! Thomas said he didn't have a swimsuit when Matt first asked and Matt told him that he could just go in with just his undies. He said "Ok!" and started stripping clothes off - ha! The three of them had a grand old time splashing around, but couldn't quite convince momma to drop her camera and join them... ;)

When they finally got out, I loaned Henry my outer shirt and Matt dried Thomas off with his before putting his clothes back on. We probably made quite the sight coming back!

All packed up the next morning. I didn't think to take any photos of the whole cabin, so I didn't get any photos of the woodstove (that we absolutely didn't need!) and the random furniture someone drug up for a table and cabinet. But I did manage to get a photo of the bed. I was so proud that my hiking pack was getting some use after about a 8 year hiatus, that I got a photo of it propped against the bed. It was obviously not the softest bed and my (also 8 year old) sleeping mat is not holding air anymore. Guess who was constantly waking up to try and blow more air into their mat.

Now guess who has already ordered a new mat??

Matt is obviously a little more loaded down that I am. As a matter of fact, I think he mostly crammed the bulky, but light stuff in my pack. Thanks sweetie! :)

Most of the trail to the cabin is in the woods, but the stretch near the parking lot has great views of the lake. It was a fun trip and I was a little sad to be leaving so soon. But the kids did well enough that we will definitely be trying to check out more of the public cabins. Just maybe ones that are a little bit closer...! 

Company Picnic

It's been a rough year in our industry and things are getting cut left and right. So imagine our delight that the company family picnic made it through the budget cuts! It happened to fall on the day that we had planned to drive out of town for a trip up north, so we had the best plan of taking the kids over there to wear them out and then packing up to hit the road. 

I went and got the boys from school and we just happened to have the wagon in the car for the impending trip, so it didn't even matter that we had to park pretty far away. They got to ride in leisure to the event! As soon as we got close, they spotted the bouncy house and wanted nothing more than to run straight to it. I conned them into taking this photo together before I would let them go play. You can see Thomas isn't quite looking at the camera - guess what was right behind me??

I ran through the obstacle course with them a few times, but they are pretty strict on extra items going through and both my camera and Thomas' glasses had to be left in the wagon. So no photos. :(

After a handful of times through, I finally managed to pry them away by pointing at the brightly colored maze across the field. They insisted on a wagon ride over, but once we got there, they were off and running again. It may look like they are giving each other a fist bump in this photo, but Thomas was really trying to ward Henry off from beating him to the first turn. Ha!

They kept running back to the dead end with the thousands of eyeballs. They would yell "The eyes, the eyes!", run around the maze and then crash back into the eyes. I couldn't tell if it was cute or a little creepy... 

Matt finally broke away from work to join us, so we finally sat down to eat some food. That and there was a brief downpour of rain, so the play time had to be paused either way. Luckily, I came prepared with raincoats! They must have had a new caterer this year - there was a station with fruit and cheese plates. It may sound fancy, but it's also perfect toddler food!

Of course, this guy went off with his dad to the ice cream station, so his smile is just a little bit bigger. Don't worry - he shared with his brother! :)

Then we headed over to the bounce house. We avoided this one earlier because it had big kids bouncing on it, but we realized the guy running it was doing a great job of ensuring the bounce sessions had similar sized kids. The boys had a blast bouncing around and managed to bite it in several spectacular collisions without a single tear! 

But then they were ready to tackle the inflatable obstacle course! And Matt even offered to go with them so I could get photos of them in action. WIn-win!

Except for their socks. They ran to the entrance from the bounce house and the tarp was covered in rain puddles. They seemed utterly confused as to why their socks were wet. Silly little guys!

The three of them got to run through it together since Henry is so little. Thomas was off and running before his brother had a hope of catching up.

If you think this thing looks familiar - you are right! It's the same course they had at the Solstice Festival the other day. It's a small town and pretty much every festival has the same things to play on. Though the Bucking Salmon was missing this year, Aunt Heather would have been so disappointed!

I had to run to the end to make sure I got a photo of Thomas sliding down. He was through the whole thing in no time. His best friend and him had been doing races and he had only been a teensy bit slower. So I think he was making sure he beat his little brother.

Henry didn't need much help, but he was certainly a bit slower. He struggled to push through the pylons and needed a little bit more time on the ladders, but he made it! And I think Matt was worried about him sliding down. He's obviously the more caring parent - I let him just careen down all on his own. 

Either way, I think this little guy had a blast! And I didn't catch it on camera, but I am pretty sure I saw Matt smiling too!

We managed to pry them away by pointing out the balloon animal tent. Which was totally our mistake because the line was moving way slower than we thought. Thomas was about 100% done with waiting for his balloon. 

Henry was a little more patient, but not super excited about having to sit in this chair while other kids were getting their balloons first. The guys were completely going in order, but that's a bit hard for a two year old to grasp... ;)

Thomas finally got his and was absolutely thrilled! They had so many cool designs they were making and he could not be budged from wanting a light saber. The guy even offered to make him a two sided blue & green one, but he insisted on the standard one bladed green light saber. Hey, at least he went for the good side of the force this time! 

Henry was equally bananas (ha!) over his monkey. He went through about 5 choices before he settled on this one. He saw a version of it sitting on the guy's shoulder and once he heard him the guy describe it as "Monkey *with* a Banana" he was sold! And he made sure to repeat over and over again the monkey needed his banana!

Overall, it was a great time. We stayed much later than we intended to, but the boys were having so much fun that it was worth it. We'll just have to get up early tomorrow to have enough time to get to our cabin at a reasonable hour. Who needs sleep?!?! ;)

Solstice Weekend

If this morning was any indication, I have to worry about the long stretches of daylight getting to my boys than the long, dark days in the winter. They were both in a crazy mood this morning! It started when Thomas realized that one of the streamers in the play room had fallen off the wall (I think because of the heat this room gets in the summer?). I decided they had been up long enough (since Henry's birthday!) and pulled them all off the wall.

The boys flipped out:

Who knew crepe paper streamers could be so exciting?!? Henry kept wrapping himself up like a Christmas tree. I think he was intending for them to be necklaces, but since he had so many, they ended up everywhere!

I am not 100% sure what Thomas was trying to do. It looks like he punching them in slow motion. An hour or so later, these things were scattered all over the house and in hundreds of pieces. I finally told them to throw all of the scraps aways and they did! I said it knowing I was going to have to do it later and then magically all of it was in the trash. Awesome!

Since the summer solstice is almost here, it is time again for the Solstice Festival downtown! This time, Matt joined us and it is no surprise that we ended up stopping right away to watch the skateboarders. I am quite sure Matt is thinking he could have done all of these tricks back in the day. (I have no doubt he could, these boarders weren't all that impressive. At least not during warm-up.)

But Henry was impressed enough for the two of them. I snapped this photo and it felt like a total deja-vu...

Because I have an identical one of it from last year with Thomas! No doubt these two are brothers, huh??

Back to the present! They didn't eat any of the food I bought them last year, so I got smart this year and packed them a lunch. They were happy as could be with their sandwiches and chips. Much easier and *much* cheaper. Mom win!

Also, you might be able to tell from Henry's hair that it was super windy downtown! After Matt and I tracked down a hotdog cart, we found a place to picnic on the (mostly) calm side of a large sculpture. Thomas ended up finishing his food first, so we kept him busy by having him run across the lawn to tag different trees. Such cheap entertainment! ;)

Matt had eyed a snow cone stand and bought one for him and one for the boys to share. Thomas wasn't too sure about the snow cone, as you can probably tell from his expression. He ate a few bites then decided it was too cold and tried to foist it off on me. I fed most of it to Henry since bubblegum and tiger's blood isn't my favorite combination. 

We finally headed off to the kid's play area and found the obstacle course from last year that Thomas has been talking about all morning. I figured Henry might be able to do it on his own, but after the slight fail on the last inflatable I decided it was worth the $1 to go with him. Of couse the guy taking tickets neglected to tell me I couldn't take my camera in until after Matt and Heather had gone down the sidewalk to watch Thomas do the course.

"It's ok, you can just put it here on the ground."

It was in that moment that Henry was almost left to fend for himself...

I ended up leaving it against my gut reaction. I told Matt the guy had it as soon as I saw him through the mesh and the guy gave it to him. Which was both good and bad. There is no way he had seen us together! But my camera was safe...

Whatever. It gave Matt a chance to get me in a photo for a change. And Henry did need a slight boost on this ladder, so I guess it worked out in the end. Pfffft. 

I bought Thomas two tickets, so he was ready to go again as soon as he went through it. He looks a little grumpy here because he is ready to go and the guy has not taken his ticket yet. And they told him he couldn't wear his glasses, so he was having to squint in the sunlight. This guy is like his momma - never without his shades!

Also, I have no idea why he suddenly wanted to wear his outfit we bought him in Hawaii. I tried to talk him into a different pair of pants, but he insisted he wanted to match. I have learned long ago that clothing battles are pointless, so he got to look tropical today. :)

Henry didn't seem to mind sitting with his dad while waiting for big brother to go through the course again. Henry also chose his own clothing this morning and picked out the exact same shirt that Thomas wore last year. Ha!

Thomas climbing up the last big ladder. He had to pause to read the sign before he would climb up it (even though it was round 2). I was watching him climb up like a champ and was a little impressed with how defined his calf muscles have gotten. My oldest is definitely a little boy and not a baby anymore. *Sniffle, sniffle*

And it looks like he has even figured out how to drag his hand behind him to keep from going too fast. Which means no terrified looks like last year. Sigh... Too smart for me to get any hilarious photos!

We headed back to the rest of the kids area and found the obstacle course they both loved last year. It's hard to tell from the photo, but Henry was killing it on the hopping! He looks like a little kangaroo bouncing around. :)

Thomas was speeding through the tunnel like an old pro. 

Some of the bigger kids were jumping over these wickets, but Thomas decided that walking over them was quite sufficient. Heather and Henry decided even that was a stretch and ran patterns through them instead. Hey, it's not like there were any instructions!

Henry has grown quite a bit in the last year, but he still needed help walking on the rounds. Aunt Heather to the rescue!

Last, but not least we headed to the giant sandbox! So much sand and so many kids! When I was putting the boys to bed tonight, I asked them what their favorite part of the day was. Independently, they both said "Dump Truck!" - they had both been playing with some version of a dump truck in the sand box. Makes me glad we built them one this year!

Last, but not least - cupcakes! Promising cupcakes is pretty much the only foolproof way to get them to give up a fun activity and move on. And these cupcakes were delicious! Henry didn't seem to notice that I gave him less than half of my cupcake (probably because I scarfed it down!). 

Of course, he managed to still smear cupcake all over his face. I'm sure some day he will be a super neat eater, but that day has not come. In a total oversight, I left the package of wipes at the house, but I managed to clean up both of them with a bottle of water and one napkin. A true Super-Mom moment!

All done and headed back to the car! Henry kept lagging further and further behind. I can't blame him - it was way past nap time and they had been having tons of fun! Of course, in true toddler fashion, he fell asleep in the car 5 minutes before we got home and refused to nap once we put him in his bed. Thomas looked like he would take a nap, but he heard Henry talking and was out of bed too. 

So we gave up on naptime and pulled out the bubble machine! No one can be grumpy when they are playing with bubbles!

Of course this guy started trying to eat them. I told you, the sunlight was getting to them - ha! Overall, it was a great day and the predicted rain held off for us to have a fun time at the festival. A few more weeks of this insane daylight and we'll start losing it again. We fully plan to enjoy it while it lasts! :)

Tour De Cure

I had one of those moments a few weeks ago that falls into the "Well it seemed like a good idea at the time". I decided to join a few friends to do the Tour De Cure - a charity bike ride for the American Diabetes Association. While I still thought it is a great cause, it was rapidly approaching and I haven't touched my bike in at *least* 5 years.

"Better get back in shape by Sunday!"

I tried to ride it around the neighborhood last weekend. Let me try and excuse my poor performance by the fact that my neighborhood is pretty hilly. I was either rocketing down the hills without any pedaling or dying trying to crawl up them. I took the above photo and sent it to Sam & Eric with the caption: "There is a 99% chance I am going to die on Sunday." 

Friday was my day off and Matt had to go to work, so I decided to load the bike into the car and try the Coastal Trail to see how badly I was going to die on the 25k course. I parked somewhere that looked reasonable on the map and headed out with low expectations. Even the signs were ominous!

Wait? Is that almost a smile? I hadn't gone all that far by this photo, but I wasn't dying... Maybe the hills in my neighborhood really are ferocious and I could handle the near downtown topography. Whew! 

Also, I have lived here almost 3 years and this was the first time I had been on the coastal trail. I am the worst Alaskan!

I went up the trail, back the other way down the trail and then realized I needed to head back to my car to make my next engagement. (I was treating myself to a movie. Woo-woo!) The morning had ended up being a great one for getting some time outdoors. Just cloudy enough that it wasn't super hot while cycling, but overall gorgeous!

And I found a whole flock of ducks. Quack, quack! I actually took the photo to show the boys, but I have proof that I did actually enjoy this bike ride and was no longer convinced my odds of dying were 99%. Once I got home and could look up where I rode on a map, I figured I had ridden about 8 miles. If I could double that, then I was golden!

Also, this was right before I was putting my bike back in the car and realized I had never reconnected the front brake when I put the tire back on. Apparently I favor my back brake because I never noticed...

Race day! The best thing about riding the shortest possible route offered was that we started last. No early morning rush to get there in time. In fact, they had the time wrong, so we ended up starting late and I got to enjoy my free coffee. Woo!

Our team ready to go! I was the only one not properly representing team Bearded Monsters! Terry put me to shame with her awesome faux-beard and of course the guys were already covered. You might also be able to tell that the weather went completely south right when we were lining up. The rain started as soon as they started their safety spiel. Thankfully, they talked quickly so we weren't just standing in the rain. Also thankfully, the rain let up about 20 minutes later, so it was only miserable for a little while.

Me and my trusty Rockhopper made it! I didn't get any photos because we really only stopped once - we needed a granola bar break right before the biggest hill. Eric & Terry were super patient with Sam & I going slower than their usual pace, but we all made it with no problem. And the only wildlife we saw was a moose that wasn't at all interested in us. 

The best part was getting to travel the wooded trails all through the city. You can feel amazingly in the middle of nowhere just a short way away from the main roads. It didn't hurt that everything is super green and lush right now. It was truly a breath of fresh air! :)

The girls seem much more excited about the team photo at the end than the guys! And they could not be goaded into wearing any of the cool props. You'll just have to trust me that they had a good time too! ;)

But my favorite part was when we got to the finish line and this little girl came up, thanked me and handed me this. I had no idea what was in the tiny bag she was giving me, but it seemed rude to not take it. Then I flipped it over and saw it was a medal.

I got my first medal you guys!!!

What an awesome day! And I'm going to try not to neglect my bike for the next 5 years. Now that I know I can make it up and down some of these trails, I really have no excuse! :)