San Antonio & James' Birthday Party!

After a few fun-filled days in Houston, we finally made it over to San Antonio. I think Theresa was a little horrified that we would be in Texas for almost a full week before we made it there. But I did plan more time with them to try and make up for it! (Also, this is a super long post because it was a fun-filled time!)

Anna convinced Nonni to play cards with her as soon as we got there. I'm not sure who was more excited about it - Nonni is a bit of a card shark. And you can just barely see Meredith in the background - she adopted a new hobby of wearing socks on her hands. I kept thinking I was misplacing my socks the whole time I was there, turns out she's a bit of a sock thief!

We went to Anna's cheerleading practice Saturday morning and neither one of us got any photos because the other 4 kids were running all over the place. Luckily there were a ton of empty fields for them to stretch their legs in, but it was all hands on deck for containment. James' birthday was right after the practice, but we ended up arriving a little late. Rachael planned the party at the children's museum in New Braunfels and the kids were so excited when we got there! But since we were late, the boys only got to play for a few minutes before it was time to eat. They could not be convinced to take their astronaut costumes off to come in to the party room (hey - at least they came)!

James had a lot of help blowing out his candles... Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind! And once my two realized there was cake involved, they let me take the costumes off long enough to eat some cake. 

Literally long enough and no more. While everyone else hung out, my two were back at it. There were space ships to land!

And of course, there were ambulances to get to the hospital! I was actually born (prematurely) in New Braunfels and took an ambulance shortly after over to McKenna Hospital, so I thought this ambulance was pretty darn fitting!

Thomas insisted that I sit in the back on the stretch so he could take care of me. He carefully gave me several shots (also fitting giving the whole rabies debacle that was coming...). Henry more just ran up, hit me with the reflex hammer and ran off. Gentle, he is not!

Except with the baby dolls! This kid loves playing with the baby dolls. He carefully feeds them and carries them around. I guess he's still trying to prove he would take care of the baby sister he keeps demanding from me. (Side note to clarify - there is no baby sister on the way, but one of his friends at school has a baby sister and he points it out *all* the time!)

He finally put the baby back down to sleep and wandered over to try out a high powered banking job. (It did not last long!)

Thomas was over in the grocery store trying to figure out why his register was out of tape. Ha - I have no idea if he knows what goes in there, but he clearly knew something was missing!

Nonni was on re-stocking duty. Thomas looks like he is comparison shopping on some canned goods. Probably mimicking how his mom is always checking the sodium levels on the canned beans. We use the heck out of canned beans in our house, but I try to not buy the total sodium bombs... "/

It forever to convince one of my boys to go outside and Henry was the first to grudgingly go out there (I may have carried him out). I'm not a mean mom, there was super fun stuff out there. And Henry realized that pretty quickly! 

The water gun required a separate knob be held down, so I'm doing so fun gymnastics to help him shoot the targets while getting a photo of him. But he actually managed to get it in the hole to spin the disc while I was getting photos. Go Henry!

Then he started climbing up this big tower of wire mesh and giant plastic discs. I tried to go with him, but the route he chose was pretty impossible for an adult (apparently my mom found a different route later and went up to the top with him!). Thankfully Anna was more than happy to help boost him if he needed it. 

Henry's bravery inspired the birthday boy to give it a go as well! James wasn't too sure about it until he saw someone else his size try it. It is a pretty big & intimidating tower!

Thomas was still inside playing with a new blower. This one had a separate craft area where you could cut up a paper cone to see how well you could get it to soar upwards and not to brag, but I made the best one there. Thomas was wowing all the other kids with how awesome his cone was. I made another one to show him the difference in how you cut it can be dramatic. It flew pretty awfully and he told me I should just throw it away. Such a sweetie...!

Finally I convinced Thomas to go outside and he was up the tower with his brother in no time. And just like Anna, was giving Henry a boost when he needed it. It's awesome when the kids work together so nicely! :)

The kids were finally all worn out, so we left the museum birthday party and headed to Rachael's house for birthday party, round 2! All of their extended family came into town, so they hosted a dinner and play time at their house. We have been super excited about visiting them (again!) ever since Justin had sent us a video of him and James tractor racing. Of course, Anna knew where the tractor was, so she got the first ride!

Thomas was happy enough to settle for pushing the toy lawnmower until he got a chance to ride. We obviously don't have a big enough lot for a riding lawnmower, so he knew the push mower was just like dada's! 

After patiently waiting, Thomas got his chance on the riding mower. And he took it very seriously! He was a little jerky on the power at first, but he was soon tearing around the yard. (There may or may not have been a near collision with his momma when I was trying to get a video to send to Matt). You can see Henry in the background is headed to check out the recently abandoned push mower. 

Except the toy push mower wasn't good enough for Henry. He instead tried to use the real tractor... You can see how excited he is thinking he is going to go for a ride. Sorry little man - you would be too dangerous with that much horsepower!

Finally it was piñata time! And since it was a Cars themed birthday, it was a Lightning McQueen piñata! The birthday boy obviously got the first go at the piñata. He got a few good whacks in - he must have done this before!

Thomas definitely knew what to do with the piñata - they have had them several times at school parties. The first time I saw him with one, he was super upset because all of the big kids knew things would fly out and Thomas didn't, so they beat him to the goodies. But this older kid in his class gave him stuff when he realized Thomas didn't get anything. So sweet!

Know he has figured out how to hit the piñata hard and run for toys. Smart guy!

Henry clearly had no clue what he was doing. He was swinging the bat one handed and the piñata came back and hit him. Henry was not impressed...

Wallace had absconded with one of the push mowers and was happily "mowing" the front yard until he finally noticed it was piñata time! James nicely handed over the bat after his second turn, so Wallace would get a chance to help out in the piñata beating. :)

Anna was the first one to knock it down! We actually went through a few more rounds after this - it was one stout piñata! But once Anna knocked a decent sized hole in it, James got a chance to finish it off. The benefit to being the birthday boy!

And once there was enough candy on the ground, the parents decided it was probably safer to take the bat away. There were a few near misses with kids lunging for candy while other kids were still whacking the piñata. So Justin ended up dumping out the rest of the candy for a candy free-for-all.

But where is my candy hound? 

There he is! He had taken off to go claim the tractor once he decided piñatas were not for him. But once he realized there was candy on the ground, he came running back at full speed!

Which is the exact opposite of his brother! Thomas picked up a partial cup of candy, threw it to me and then took off for the recently vacated tractor. He was in such a hurry that he ran over & smashed a can of coke (on foot!) and didn't even seem to notice. I'm pretty sure if Theresa had been sitting one more foot to the left, he would have bowled over her as well. He only had eyes for the tractor!

These two clearly need a toy tractor. We did discover shortly after this photo that the weight limit on that trailer might be less than they weigh, but no one was injured in the derailment... Whew!

Thanks for having such an awesome birthday party, James! :)

The Woodland's Children's Museum

I had lunch and dinner plans with friends today that were both on the north side of town. I didn't figure trekking across town twice in one day was all that fun, so I decided to find a fun place to hang out and kill some time with the little guys after lunch. I vaguely remembered there being a Houston science museum extension in the Woodlands mall, so I googled it and set off to find it. Well somehow I wasn't paying attention and ended up at a completely different children's museum.

An awesome children's museum!!

And since it was a weekday, it wasn't crowded at all. The boys were so excited to have the awesome fire truck all to themselves!

Thomas was most excited about the lights that would turn and flash on the top of the truck. It didn't make the fire truck noises, but the two of them were more than happy to provide the soundtrack for their fire-fighting adventures.

There was even a fire pole to slide down! Thomas was obviously not too sure about it, but after I talked him into trying it, he was all about it! Henry was not at all interested in trying to grab the pole across the gap - in his defense, he doesn't have quite the reach of his older brother..

The museum even had their absolute favorite play area - a grocery store! This register didn't have a moving conveyor belt, but it did make the scanning "beep" if you passed something in front of the sensor. That was clearly Henry's favorite part!

Of course, Thomas was all about the train table! Henry was mostly just causing derailments and driving his brother crazy trying to push Thomas' trains off the tracks.

Henry got bored that Thomas wasn't playing train demolition derby with him and wandered off. There was a ball on the floor by the train track and Henry grabbed it, walked around the wall of marble pipes and immediately put it on the Bernoulli blower. I was impressed, we hadn't looked at this table at all and he knew just what to do. Either he's a genius or we go to * a lot* of museums...!

After we had been there a while, Henry started to get pretty tired - no real surprise as hard as they were playing! He was doing the run away and hide toddler business, so I took him over to the most open area to try and keep an eye on him. Sine he just wanted to sit, I made him this awesome train out of the big foamy blocks. He seemed pretty happy with it - but Thomas, my train lover, was not impressed. He started knocking it down as soon as I finished it.

So rude!

So we ended up making this spaghetti wall monster of his own creation. Henry rotated between helping us and sitting in the truck in the background. For some reason, he liked sitting in the driver's seat chilling. At this point, I figured they could do whatever made them happy! In the end they ran out of energy in time to go meet Nonni & Grandpa on their drive past us to Galveston. Wore them out, then gave them ice cream - they were snoozing in no time. Winning! :)

The (So Crowded) Perot!

Just like last year, I had the genius plan of getting breakfast with the Hoyts (at Cafe Brazil!!), then wearing the kids out at the Perot Museum before heading off on a long drive. Except I didn't take into account that today is Labor Day and all of the school aged kids had the day off. And apparently everyone was trying to wear their kids out at the Perot!

It started off just fine, we got there and stopped to play in the musical forest. And just like last year, Pawpaw was just as interested in the instruments as the kids. 

And Henry beelined for the frogs as soon as he saw them - though he was markedly braver about climbing on them this year. Thanks for the added stress, Henry!

This year, my parents didn't end up joining us because Mom wasn't driving with me (yet!), but Aunt Jo ended up joining us instead since she had the day off work. The boys don't get to see her nearly as much as everyone else, so I was super excited she could hang out with us! They were obviously pretty excited too!

And I have to say that I love Pawpaw joined in the frog climbing photo. :)

Henry seems a little unsure of how to play with his boat when they are soooo many people crowded around the water table. 

Thomas was having similar problems in the farmer's market area. Once he claimed a basket though, he was back in action shopping for his fruits & veggies!

And dutifully dumping them into the restock bin before headed back to complete another shopping list. He honestly didn't seem to mind the crowds as much as his momma did. 

I finally managed to convince them to go outside and play in the sandbox / dinosaur dig. It wasn't nearly as crowded since it was quite warm outside. 

But most of it was shaded, so the boys didn't seem to mind at all. They even let me take "posed" photos of them! And this totally American Gothic pose was all his doing. I just told him to smile (and got the usual half hearted "cheeeeeeeeeese" back).

I thought that maybe the upper floors wouldn't be as crowded since it's not quite as geared toward kids. But there were dinosaurs up there and I was sure my boys would love that! Unsurprisingly, they were more drawn to the touch screens than the giant skeletons... 

And the animal that finally piqued Henry's interest wasn't even a dinosaur - it was the moose! I'm still not 100% sure why the moose was in the dinosaur exhibit, it was some sort of comparison on having to fighting for mating rights. But the boys were pretty happy to see an Alaskan "friend"!

Of course, it is still an awesome museum away from the kid's area, so they had plenty of interactive things for the boys to play with. Thomas was especially excited about this giant magnetic Triceratops puzzle. 

Henry was less excited because he couldn't figure out how the pieces went on his own and my offer to help him was definitely rebuffed ("I do it!!!"), so the two of us ended up wandering around to look at the rest of the exhibit. Henry was looking this dinosaur footprint and as I was trying to get a photo of him admiring it, he tried to climb on it...

Then he tried to pull the rock hammer off the wall. Although, I was a little more proud of that because - rock hammer! Future geologist! :)

We finally left the dinosaurs and made it down to the climate / earth floor. The boys were super excited by this tornado generator. There was also an earthquake generator, but that had no interest in trying that out. I guess they get enough shaking action at home. Speaking of which - I know Texas and Alaska have a bit of a rivalry going on but they didn't even mention the largest earthquake in North America on the sign about earthquakes. They listed a lower magnitude one in China instead for their description of "big" quakes. Soooo rude!

After a long nap and even longer drive, we finally made it to Houston! The boys were ready to burn off some newly formed energy, so Jack and Mia took them out to play on the trampoline. Henry was so funny, he kept yelling at everyone that he was bouncing because he kept falling over. So we ended up taking turns so that Henry had his bounce time and everyone else had theirs. Silly Henry!

Of course, Jack and Mia wanted to show off for their favorite little Alaskans, so my two sat on the side to watch their Jujitsu demonstration. Jack was showing off his mad rolling skills!

And then they started doing bounce competitions. I didn't have my shutter speed up high enough for how fast they were moving, but I still love this one because Jack was so high up in the air and even he seemed a little surprised by how high up he was!

Good air, Jack! :)

Cute Cowboys!

After our day at the zoo, we headed over to Dallas to spend time with Matt's parents. There is always something fun from Grannie waiting for the boys when we come to visit and today was no exception! She made them the most adorable cowboy outfits and got them hats & bandannas to complete the look.

Most adorable little cowboys ever!!! And you might notice they also have horses...

Grannie made the horses out of pool noodles! They are the cutest googlie-eyed horses ever! I decided such awesome horses needed names, so I encouraged the boys to pick out names for them. Thomas names his horse Chocolate Milk - which is in line with what I used to name animals growing up, like our bull AJ (short for Apple Jacks). 

But Henry...

Henry decided to name his Jennifer. Not sure if I am flattered or worried given the way he was throwing Jennifer around. Given that mischievous little grin, I am going to go with flattered.

Thanks for such awesome get-ups, Grannie. I love my little cowboys!!!

Fort Worth Zoo

Today is Nonni's birthday, so we decided to hang out with her and Grandpa all day. Since we got rained out of visiting the zoo on our last trip and the boys love going to the Alaskan zoo with their Nonni, we figured it was a great activity for her birthday!

I have spent the last few weeks pumping the boys up for how much fun the zoo was going to be. I love our Alaskan zoo, but it's fairly small and limited to pretty much just arctic animals. I just knew the variety of animals at the Fort Worth zoo was going to blow their little minds!

I don't know why I was surprised they wanted to go to the snake & reptile exhibit first - they are two little boys, after all... And they were even up to petting the snake! So they have to be cajoled into petting a furry goat at the fair, but a slithering snake? No problem!

I feel like we were in this exhibit forever looking at snakes. Probably because the lighting was so challenging and I was playing around with my settings trying to get decent photos. Reflective cases are a bit hard to work around...!

We finally made it back outside and started wandering around. We opted for the stroller rental because it is a lot of walking and I wanted to maximize what the boys got to see. The fact that it provided a little extra shade for my two pale little guys was a nice bonus! The kangaroos were also all about the shade - it was a hot day! And shout out to the kangaroos - they were always one of my favorites because they are my highschool mascot. Go Roos!

This boy *loves* maps. Paper maps, digital maps and big maps on signs. He was so excited about how this giant map, but was quick to point out the water park was missing from this map because it's a fairly new addition. How is he so observant?!?

Giraffes - so pretty and graceful until you see them trying to eat. Poor guy was really having a hard time grazing. I guess that's what happens when you blow through all the low hanging leaves. ;)

Doesn't Nonni look like she is having the best birthday ever?? She was helping Henry feed the fish in the pond. He had the right concept, but is aim was not so great...

Lunch time! I think I was more excited about the Burger King crowns than my kids were, but they wore them anyhow. And for the record, Thomas' obsession with eating raw onions hasn't gone away yet. Poor Nonni was on the receiving end of the "Smell my breath!" over and over again. Good thing Nonni is a loving person!

We headed over to see the primates after lunch since it was mostly indoors and it was getting hot outside! Henry was not at all interested in standing at the window to see the Bonobos (I think I spent my childhood thinking they were Chimpanzees). This was good planning on his part, some other little boy came over and was standing next to Thomas when this Bonobo suddenly whipped around and smacked the glass super hard. The boys both screamed a little - Thomas is still giggling about it in this photo, Henry was super glad to be far, far back. Ha!

Of course, their dad is not one to be upstaged by a primate, so he had them shrieking and laughing by steering their cart every which direction - including a little bit of off roading.  

We finally made it over to the water park that is inside the zoo. They pretty much kept asking about the water park as soon as we arrived, but I made them wait until we saw all the fun animals because I figured they would be out of energy once they ran all over this place. And I was right - they had such a blast playing with everything. They both even managed to go down water slides all by themselves - though I didn't get any photos since I was obviously keeping a close eye on them. 

They had these water toys you could buy to spray your friends and this giant wall of knobs and faucets to refill the toys. I didn't buy them the toys since they would have a very limited use in Alaska, but they were more excited about spraying water with the wall of knobs. Simple pleasures...!

Overall, they had a blast despite the huge difference in temperature from home! And Nonni seemed more than happy to spend her birthday hanging out with all of us.

Happy birthday, Nonni! We love you whole bunches!

Annual Trek to Texas!

It's that time again - we are headed to Texas! We've been counting down the days and the boys couldn't be happier to be headed down south to see their grandparents and all the aunts, uncles and cousins (related or assumed)! 

I thought we would try something new this year and take an overnight flight. Of course, there aren't any this time of year without a layover (or twice the cost on American), so we picked the best one we could with a long enough layover in Seattle to eat and wear them out.

In the end, the second leg was pretty awful because Henry couldn't stay asleep and kept waking his brother up. I managed to keep him from waking the whole plane up, but none of us really got much sleep by the time we landed in DFW at 6am.

Oh well, we tried... 

Thank goodness, we could hand off the boys to my parents as soon as we got to their house, so Matt and I could crash for the morning. Then eat and take another nap with the boys by the time they finally got tired. After we were all mostly human again, we headed off to the park to get a little bit of fun time in. 

It was mostly a waste of a day for us, but Henry and Thomas didn't seem to mind at all. 

Riding on a plane, seeing your grandparents and playing in a park all in the same 24 hour period is plenty of excitement for them. I wish I had their boundless energy, but I'll settle with being happy we survived the trip down once more! :)

State Fair

This year, I moved out Texas trip a bit earlier to coincide with the Labor day weekend, so the only state fair visit we were getting this year was in Alaska. Unfortunately, the schedule moving meant we only had one Friday to choose from and Matt wouldn't be able to join us thanks to his busy hunting schedule (and work, obviously). I figured the boys were getting big enough that the three of us could split food and still get a reasonable sampling of fair food awesomeness!

I purposely wore them out this morning* so they would fall asleep in the car well prior to their usual nap time. This had the added benefit that we got to the fair right at lunch time. Nothing like corn nuggets and cheese curds to start the day off right! I also wizened up this year and brought bowls along for them so they didn't have to deal with unwieldy paper plates and boats. Plus they could keep eating while being pulled around in their trusty wagon! 

Of course, the most important thing for boys to see at the fair is the lumberjack show. It is the highlight of their day. Thomas was seriously stressing out about making it to the show on time and kept pointing the show area on the map. You show that kid a location on the map one time and he does not forget it! (I think the map may be his second favorite part of the fair...)

Also, the day turned out to be gorgeous and sunny, so we were totally over dressed. Henry kept complaining he was hot while we were sitting there, but refused to leave to go find a t-shirts. I finally had him stand behind me so he could sorta be in the shade. Thomas was hot, but not going to miss his show to remedy the situation.

Most of the lumberjack activities involve actually chopping or sawing wood in some manner, but those honestly don't look very exciting in photographs. But the lumberjacks trying to knock each other into the water? That turned out some awesome expressions! And just like wrestling, it's totally over dramatized and stages, but still hilarious.

The log rolling was my favorite - even with it being staged, I would not have the balance to run on a log and still manage to kick water at the other guy. So kudos to you, lumberjacks!

After the show, we wandered around to find some indoor activities. We found a craft station to make lollipop spiders. Henry needed a little bit of help from the volunteers, but Thomas managed to make his spider by himself! But Henry did turn his hat backwards all by himself - he's naturally that rad. ;)

Finally my favorite part - the barnyard animals! This farmer pulled out one of the newly hatched baby chickens for the boys to see. They seemed impressed, but didn't want to touch the little chick... It's times like this I feel my kids are missing out on not having I ton of farm animals like I did growing up. :(

On to the petting zoo! I tried to convince the boys to feed the little animals, but that was a firm "nope". 

They would try to pet the goats while I was feeding them though. In their slight defense, these goats are intense trying to get food from the people in the enclosure. If you even act like you have food they are all about you!

Henry checking out the goat house and trying to convince the goats to go in their house. Ha - not while there is food around! 

After walking around the barn, that little taste of freedom meant they no longer wanted to ride in the wagon. I let them pull it around for a little while, but managed to convince them we would get to the rides a *lot* faster if they would let me pull them. (You can probably tell by their footwear what weather I was expecting...)

Ride time! Henry is still short enough that I have to ride the rides with him, but the two of them decided they wanted to ride in the front of the dump truck. I wasn't sure if that was ok, but the ride operator told me it was fine to ride in the truck in front of them and just keep an eye on them. Perfect for photos!!

We had planned out our meal plan for the day before we came to the fair and I planned our route accordingly, but somehow I forgot where the mini-donuts were. The boys could not be persuaded to eat an elephant ear instead, so we had to wander around until we found the donuts. Thankfully, the boys were appreciative enough of my efforts that I didn't grumble too much about pulling a super heavy wagon in the heat. (Just a little grumbling, I promise! Mostly under my breath, too!)

But as usual, all good things must come to an end and it came shortly after the donuts. A mix of sugar, heat and pure excitement all combined to a little bit of a toddler melt down. Thankfully the (best) wagon (ever) has seatbelts in case you have to strap your kid in to get them safely back to the car. And Henry was mostly recovered before we left, so we had time to stop and grab kettle corn for the drive home. It's the little things in life... :)

*Thank you bounce house for enabling me to wear these two out almost any time it is really necessary. I don't know how we would survive without it - especially in the middle of winter!

Job well done! :)

Final Soccer Game

Thomas enjoyed the first session of soccer so much that we signed him up for the second round as well. Henry started tumbling again as well, so the week nights have been a little bit stressful. But I did remember to pack the camera for Thomas' final soccer game!

The first session had eight teams for the 4/5 year olds, but second session had only two. Thomas didn't seem to mind playing the same team every week and he got to switch to the blue team. For the record, the red team had a much better supplier for socks. The blue socks were the bane of my existence every time I had to get him dressed. (And I *could* have bought new ones, but since Sports Authority went out of business, we pretty much lost our only sports supplier in town!)

Of course, the last game had to feature rain. We may not have been the best soccer parents and skipped several games when it was raining too hard. The league plays rain or shine, but we figured our four year old didn't need to know that. But since it was his last game, we made him go. He was obviously super thrilled about that...

Oh and our coach had to bow out a few games ago because she had a baby! The first time she was missing, no one was helping the kids, so I tried to coach them based on what I remember her doing and I was awful! According to the super helpful kids, I wasn't telling them what to do well enough and my own kid kept running off to the playground. I was so grateful when another dad showed up and saved me. 

I am many things - soccer coach I am not.

Thomas finally got into playing once he realized the rain wasn't holding anyone else back. 

Henry wants so badly to be playing with the big kids that he tries to help Thomas get his ball every time it goes out of bounds. Thomas doesn't seem to appreciate the help... 

It's hard being the younger sibling, Henry. You have all of my sympathies!

Line up for the last game! It looks like Thomas is the only one standing at attention. Matt can probably take credit for that. :)

The chaos of little kids chasing the ball hasn't really changed much from the first session. Thomas does great at keeping up with the pack and he does a little bit better when he has the ball to actually kick is most of the time. Woo - progress!

Henry of course, hates sitting on the sidelines. Usually we go play at the playground next to the field, but since everything was soaked I didn't think that was a good idea today. So we went exploring to find the moose statue at the front of the school. Since we had just seen the moose in the yard, he was even more excited about them. He kept giving them hugs and tried to kiss them (I did intervene on that one!).

Other than being a logistical pain some nights, it was a great soccer season this year and hopefully we can get both kids playing next year! Go soccer!

Dinner Guests

It's rare that we have company over for dinner during the week because kids and work and all that jazz, but we made an exception today! Two of my good friends, Chris & Kelly, are moving away  and I wanted to have them over before I left on a long trip to Texas and missed the chance to properly say goodbye. 

As it turns out, they weren't the only guests to show up for dinner! 

We were standing around chatting when we noticed this adorable moose calf chowing down on some greenery in the back yard. There haven't been hardly any moose sightings in the back yard this year, so it was super exciting! And he didn't seem too bothered by me taking photos from the safety of the porch. Though he is quite clearly keeping an eye on me...

Matt missed seeing the baby calf because the little guy wandered off shortly after the photos were taken and Matt hadn't quite made it home yet. 

But a few hours later, Daddy Moose showed up to say hi! I honestly don't think we have ever had a bull moose wander into the yard. I have no idea if single dad's exist in the moose world, but that was the consensus from the four of us. 

He just walked over the fence like it was no big deal. This was also the point Matt suggested I should come back inside. Don't worry - I was headed that way! Thank goodness for good zoom lenses that keep you at a relatively safe distance... ;)

Daddy Moose hung around the yard for a little while as well to enjoy our greenery. I was worried that he was going to step on the kid's sandbox, but he thoughtfully steered clear!

What a gorgeous guy! And Matt must have cleaned the windows recently because the photos turned out crystal clear in spite of being shot from indoors. (Safety first!)

A proper dinner party with Alaska wildlife to send our dear friends off to the lower 48. We are going to miss you guys terribly! :)

Katmai Trip - Fishing With The Bears

We aren't the biggest fishermen in the world, but our friends recommended getting a fishing guide while we were there and fishing the Brooks River. The river runs between Lake Brooks and Naknek Lake (the camp is on the shore of the Naknek). I can't find the actual length of the river, but I'm guessing it's maybe a mile and a half? We booked a full day of fishing and the plan was to spend the morning on the upper part of the river, then fish downstream of the falls after lunch. 

After our campsite breakfast, one of the camp employees very nicely drove us up to the start of the river and with the plan to walk back toward camp while fishing. It was so windy this morning that all of the boat fishing trips got cancelled and the wind was making white caps on the lake. The same lake that was feeding the Brooks River... 

I don't know how the current is when there isn't a lot of rain and wind, but to me it was going very strong and I was super uncomfortable for the first part of the day. I had my camera in a dry bag in my bakpack and never once thought it was safe to pull it out. At one point, I tripped and fell in the middle of the river, but out dear guide, Nick, managed to catch me before I went under. That certainly didn't help my sense of security...

Matt apparently was not having any issues with the current and immediately caught a fish. And I had to carefully make my way down to him to get a photo of him with his salmon. He looks pretty proud of catching the first fish, huh?

And the second fish, and the third fish, etc. I think he only caught the one salmon and the rest were Rainbow Trout. I didn't catch anything in the upper part of the river, but I was much more concerned about staying upright than fishing. Even the guide thought the water was a little too high in a few places. We had to get out of the river and walk through the forest to get around a really sketchy part. 

After lunch at the lodge, we were ready to get back at it! We ran into Tiffany and Stephanie at lunch and they were all kinds of excited from fishing the lower falls. I figured I didn't care so much about fish, but I was ready to see the bears! We hiked up to the falls platforms and got in the water a little bit downstream of the falls. 

Matt was ready to start fishing again, but I was much more excited about taking photos of the bears! It's a different view than you get from an elevated platform and I was having a blast watching them! Also, Matt's practice fly rod has paid off, he certainly looked like he knew what he was doing. I, on the other hand, have never used a fly rod in my life. I don't think I embarrassed myself too badly, but the fish obviously weren't too impressed by my technique...

Not that I didn't already know this, but the bears were much better at fishing than me! (The birds and I might be on the same skill level.) 

Turns out, I am much braver with my Canon Powershot than I was with my big Nikon. I have less of an emotional attachment to my little camera and the zoom on it was actually super impressive! The photo quality is a little less, but overall the little guy did a great job. I ended up with a collection of photos from the Nikon, the Canon and our phones. I'll let you try to figure out which photo was shot with which camera. ;)

I saw this big guy start meandering our way from the falls and I was definitely keeping an eye on how close he was getting. He caught this fish as he was walking downstream and I thought he was close enough that we should probably move back to the other side of the river. In case it's not super obvious, we are standing right in the middle of the river while fishing!

Anyhow, I say "Bear" just in time to hear Matt yell "Fish on!". Not the best time to be catching fish, honey! Luckily, we were able to move to the other side of the river and the fish stayed on the line in the water. We pulled him out to let him go once the bear had moved on. Crisis averted!

I may not have a fish, but I did want a photo of me with the bear behind me! Priorities... :) 

After we had been fishing for awhile, another bear wandered up from downstream. We backed up again, but this bear definitely got more attention because (according to our guide) she is a troublemaker. How so?

She has two cubs and she has a bad habit of leaving the cubs on the side of the river while she goes in to the river to fish (sometimes pretty far away). The cubs can be hard to see if they aren't moving, so sometimes people end up walking between momma bear and the cubs, which makes momma bear super unhappy. She has never been aggressive toward anyone, but she will run back to the cubs and freak the humans out.

Thankfully, we knew they were there and could steer clear of them!

I think that look on Matt's face is "She's still far enough behind me, right?"

She was by far the most successful bear I have seen so far at catching fish. She would catch one or two for every one she would bring back for the cubs to eat. The two of them would get all excited and start fighting over who got the first first. Siblings...

They were mostly waiting patiently beside the river, but momma would wander back and convince them to walk in the river. As soon as she was far enough out though, they seemed to prefer to be back on the bank. Or maybe they just didn't like me taking photos of them? That's some serious side-eye the cub is throwing my way. 

They were cute enough that I braved pulling out the Nikon. You can barely see Momma Bear on the bank (right above the tip of my lens). I'm not going to lie, I was much more interested in photos than fishing. Our guide figured that out pretty quick and nicely offered to hold my fishing pole so I could snap pictures. :)

But I did fish some and I finally caught one! Matt didn't believe me when I kept saying that I didn't care if I caught one and he said the size of the smile on my face in this photo proved him right. Ok, I was pretty happy to catch a fish - especially since it was the first catch with a fly rod. Wooo! 

We finally decided to head back to camp. Nick said we could either go back to the platform and hike down the road or we could walk down the river to camp. Well that's not a hard choice at all - let's go for the fun route! There were a few spots that were a little high, but the current was much calmer than it was on the upper river. Having never used waders until moving to Alaska, the novelty of walking in the water with them on has not worn off! 

After fishing, I told Matt the only thing that could make the vacation even more perfect was a spot at the fireplace in the lodge to hang out for a while after dinner. It had been full every night, but today there were two spots waiting for us! A perfect ending to a great trip!

Sunday morning, we woke up later than we planned (sleeping in is awesome!!), but we still managed to have time to make our camp biscuits & gravy, pack up our gear and make it to the pre-flight weigh-in by the requested time. We had just enough time to buy postcards for the boys before it was time to board our float plane. Perfect timing!

It was an awesome trip and I highly recommend taking a trip to Katmai if you are ever in Alaska (or come up here for it)! Thanks again to Heather for watching the boys so we could go. Can't wait to go back!