Cabin and Camping Fun

I know I said that we were going to try public cabins closer to home this year, but the boys are convinced that Glatfelder Cabin is "our" cabin and have been asking to go back all year. So we figured we might as well just go back to the cabin they love so much. And thankfully it didn't take nine hours to drive there this year (thank you for the distraction, mini-DVD player!)

These boys love everything about staying at the cabin, even the oatmeal and hot chocolate breakfasts! They were even excited about the new sporks I bought them!

Henry was less excited about waiting for his breakfast to cool off enough to eat it...

Ready to face the new day and hike out from "their" cabin!

They are little troopers with the hike back and forth to the parking lot. They just refuse to walk in the front - spiders tend to span the path with invisible threads of web and whoever walks in front gets to find them all...

We decided to drive up to Fairbanks for the day and check out Pioneer Park. I'd never been to Fairbanks at all, so it seemed like a fun day activity!

Needless to say, the kids were more than happy with the awesome park to play in!

Don't worry - we didn't leave the girls behind this year! They were more impressed with the shade than any other aspects of the park, but they are just happy to be hanging out on the family vacation!

Natalie would not be still long enough for me to get a photo of her. There was just too much to look at and investigate!

In case you can't tell, Henry is yelling "All aboard!!!" for the train on the playground. They were super excited about the train.

And the moose swing...

And the paddle boat. And the sign post. Pretty much everything was awesome to them. :)

I was most excited about the funnel cake, but apparently I am expected to share it?!?

The next morning, we got up and the nearby wildfires had gotten much closer. It was super smoky over the lake. Luckily for the fires, it started to rain, but it was less exciting to think about spending the day cooped up in the cabin. So we decided to head back a day early and find somewhere to camp on the way home. 

Obviously this is always our back-up plan and we had all of our camping gear with us! Glen allen looked to be rain free on the radar, so we headed that way and Matt took us to a campground at nearby Kenny Lake that he had stayed at before on one of his motorcycle trips.

The tiny general store even had all the supplies to make smores! The boys were definitely loving this part of the camping trip!

The campground wasn't that full, so the boys decided to practice their soccer skills! Henry just started this year, but already has a blast trying to kick the ball away from his brother...!

Last breakfast of the trip! Thomas ate all of his oatmeal and wanted more food, so he got a bagel too. I swear that kid has a hollow leg sometimes.

It was a great trip!

Maybe next year we will branch out to trying a new cabin... ;)

Company Picnic

One of the favorite family events returned for the 4th year in a row! (Well for us - it has definitely been a thing longer than we have been up here.) And this year had pretty awesome weather to go with it!

The obligatory "Smile and hug your brother before you get to go play" photo! They seemed to know the drill this year and didn't complain too much.

The inflatable maze won out for first activity. I followed them around a few times, but they are getting harder to keep up with in a giant maze and I finally gave up and waited at the exit for them to tire out.

I noticed the wait for the balloon artist wasn't long at all, so I convinced them to go there next. They still weren't impressed that they had to wait at all...

Unsurprisingly, they both ended up with light sabers once they knew that was an option. Though they were both clear that they wanted a good guy color and not red. 

The picnic had a Lego play area this year and they were both all over it. The had a blast building cars to race down this giant ramp. Henry could just barely get his car up there, but he managed!

They have played with these Lego plate spinners at other events before and always seem to love them. We should probably just make the investment and buy the lego motor to make our own...

Of course, they are both still perfectly happy playing with the giant Lego Duplo blocks as well. Anything Lego makes them happy!

Once I finally pried them away from the Legos, we made it over to the giant obstacle inflatable. It's always one of their favorites to play on!

Just like last year, they spent most of the runs through the course trying to beat each other. But unlike last year, Henry is getting closer to beating his brother. 

But even if he can't seem to quite beat his older brother, he still has a blast trying!

Dinner time! Which is about when we finally found Matt- not sure how he manages to always arrive after the hard core running around... Good planning on his part?

My youngest is such a ham for the camera...

Though this face is not him hamming it up. This face is the first time their dad convinced them to try pop rocks. He isn't quite sure what to think of them...

After they finished they food, they were off trying to sword fight again. It was a pretty epic battle of brother vs. brother. But the real danger wasn't from a brother, it was from the somewhat pokey grass...

Yup, the grass popped Henry's balloon. This face was also not him hamming it up, he ran up quite distraught about his light saber. Such a sad face! Luckily, we were about to leave anyhow and they always have going away treats for the kids. A bag of brightly colored candied popcorn was able to save the day from being a total disaster - whew!

(Getting a new light saber would have probably been *more* effective, but the line was beyond ridiculous at that point...!)

Summer Sprinkler Fun

One of the best parts of having little kids is that the most mundane things sometimes turn into the most fun. Like watering the lawn...!

These two were laughing and shrieking so loud that I came out to see what the commotion was. And ran back to get my camera to get some photos of all of the fun.

Henry had to run over and tell me that the sprinkler got him! I would have never known, Henry! :)

I think Thomas was trying to block the water with his hand...

Clearly that did not work out as well as he had hoped!

Henry was more into running through it the spray at his version of full speed! And if that isn't a look of pure joy, I don't know what is!

Thomas was timing it so that he would try to run through the yard before the water came back and got him. So he looks a little more stressed than joyful...!

Either way, nothing says summer is back in Alaska quite like sun, green grass and playing in the water.

Except maybe the fact that the float planes are constantly flying over the house again! Always a welcome sight and sound in the summer. :)

Random May Photos

It feels like the more random things that happen in the month, the less likely I am to have my camera with me. So I'm thinking the random photo post at the end of each month might be a recurring feature...

Matt's parents came to town this month and if you looked closely, you might have spotted them in the background of the birthday party photos. I didn't do a great job of getting them front and center though, so they put up with a mini photo session with the boys after the fact. Such good sports! :)

I didn't get any close up photos of the cake at the party either! In my defense, it was right after I came back from vacation, I was drilling and just overall a little stressed out. I did manage to get a decent photo of it the night before - the side pieces were trying to slide off the cake while the icing was still soft, so I used marshmallows to prop them up until the dried. I was pretty proud of myself. :)

Grannie always come bearing fun gifts and this time was the Paw Patrol vest she made for Thomas and a Ninja Turtle costume for Henry. They were both pretty pumped!

I didn't get left out of the balloon making at the party! Ben made me this super awesome praying mantis! Matt wouldn't let him sleep on his side of the bed, so he had to hang out in the chair instead.

So rude to my new friend!

They had a "muffins with mom" morning at daycare, so I got to have breakfast with these two adorable guys. I still think dads win with their "donuts with dad", but the muffins were pretty tasty! 

Matt had to work super late one morning and wasn't coming home until the donut stores were open. I felt bad for Matt, but he brought us donuts and that was pretty much awesome. Look at all those sprinkled donuts! 

We finally got around to checking out the Aviation Museum while the grandparents were in town. And they had this super rad play airplane! The boys also got the chance to try out a flight simulator. Based on their skills, I would not recommend flying with them until they figure out that planes belong in the sky, not running into houses...

Thomas and I at his graduation from daycare! They called their names and had them walk across the room with their diplomas. It was the most adorable thing!

Henry was pretty excited about it as well - though I bet he is going to miss having his brother next door all day. :(

The two of them were less excited about the crawfish boil we took them to. They were not at all certain about these "bugs" we were trying to get them to eat. In the end, they seemed to like them!

Henry was most excited that his shirt matched the crawfish. And the giant cooler of them crawling around was the highlight for most of the kids at the party!

Our friend John was in town for a conference and brought them these Minecraft swords that are thankfully super soft. They have no idea what Minecraft is (I don't either...), but they love their flame swords. They insisted on sleeping with them and did these totally awesome poses for a photo thank you.

Note Eliza in the background - she is ready to bolt if they get a little too enthusiastic with the swords... :)

I never make it on any of the hikes after work that all of my coworkers seem to. But I did this one day! And I did not do so great...

Apparently not hiking much makes you a pretty bad hiker. At least I was with two of my friends that didn't give me too hard of a time about bailing before the summit. (Near Peak is ironically further than it looks...)

We didn't get into the after school program at Thomas' school, so we are on the hunt for an after school activity for him. He did a trial at Tae Kwon Do and while the first time was a bit of a fail, he had a blast the second time. He got to break one of the boards and I am pretty sure that's what sold him on it. ;)

Daycare "Graduation"

The daycare started a new tradition last year to hold a graduation party for the kids that will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. I vaguely knew about it last year, but this year his teacher gave us the tiny cap & gown and I was definitely having a moment about my son growing up too fast. 

I insisted on taking some photos of him in the cap & gown and he thought he was too cool!

Until I took too long and he was so tired of photos. I swear this kid has hardly any patience for his mom who loves taking photos of him. Boo!

Henry, on the other hand, wanted to be in photos! No cap & gown for you yet, but mommy will definitely take photos of you anytime! 

50-50 odds on whether this mommy will make it through the ceremony without tearing up... Too much growing up for one month!

Thomas Turns 5!

Thomas is 5 and I am having trouble believing that 5 years have passed since this awesome little guy joined our lives.

I got back from the girl's trip the night before his birthday, but wanted to still make him something fun for his actual birthday. Luckily he wanted brownies and ice cream, so I wasn't having to try and decorate a cake while making dinner! Doesn't he look super excited about being 5??

We had his birthday party the following weekend, so that's when the decorating really started happening. To be honest, I was fully aware that I was going to be swamped with work as soon as I got home, so I planned ahead and ordered all kinds of cake decorations from Etsy. Those ladies are incredibly talented with fondant and I was more than happy to support them and save myself some stress!

In case you couldn't tell / don't have kids, Thomas wanted a Paw Patrol party. I tried to stick to the theme as much as possible. See those orange things in the dog bowl? You might think those are Cheetos, but they are Puppy Tails! Also, I found this table cloth at Target that you can color on and it was Henry's favorite thing of the day. (Well that and the new Paw Patrol "Ryder" vest that his grannie made for them.)

We again invited the whole day care class to the party and definitely got more friends than last year. But still shy on the girl's - though one more than last time! Three girls this year! :)

There was the usual chaos and pockets of calm. I did my best at hiding toys that I thought might get broken or cause too much trouble. The costumes and playmobil sets were definitely the favorite. Except for the inflatable dinosaur, the girls loved him!

As usual, I made way too much food for the day. I think it's expected at this point though, so I would hate to disappoint! Also, I think this is the only photo that I managed to capture one of the grandparents! Grannie and Pawpaw came up for Thomas' birthday, but I think the noise finally got to Pawpaw, he disappeared upstairs after an hour or so. (I don't blame him!)

I finally managed to get the crowd of kiddos outside and playing in the yard. As always, the bounce house was a huge hit!

Clearly Henry has been chowing down on some puppy tails... Also, the girls were so much crazier than the boys in the bounce house. As a mother of only boys I am so confused by this!

Finally it was pinata time! Thomas got to go first, but then we only made through about 4 more kids before his bestie, Marek, took the dinosaur out! He knocked him off the string and before we could string it back up, he had bashed the dino in with his bat. 

You can imagine the chaos that followed. I ended up taking the dino remains upstairs and dumping the goodies out from the upstairs landing. It lasted maybe 2 seconds...!

Finally cake time! I was so concerned with getting photos, I failed to notice that Thomas was trying really hard to get his party hat on...

He finally gave up and just blew out the candles. :)

Present time! The kids are so fun during present time. Half the time they tell Thomas what they got him before he opens it, but all of the time they are so excited when it is their present being opened. So adorable!

Also, I again bribed my friends to come make balloons for the party. Ben doesn't seem to mind making balloons if we feed him and it's a great excuse to invite the two of them to our house all the time! Kathryn ended up losing in a sword fight to Abby, so there will probably need to be a rematch.

It was a great birthday party for my not-so-little-anymore guy and I'm glad so many people came over to help celebrate. Happy Birthday, Thomas! :)

April on the iPhone

It feels like my poor camera got a little neglected this month, so here's what the fancy schmancy camera missed this month...!

Henry loves being a little bit silly during Kiddie soccer. He's definitely improving overall, but he has his moments...

We finally had the Tomahawk Steaks for a game night. When the guys were butchering up their bison, they kept a few steaks on the giant ribs to make these awesome caveman looking steaks. I got the third one since I was pulled into duty several times over the days it took to process so much bison meat!

My boys making dinner for me! Theresa found the recipe for Anna to make and passed it along as one the kids could easily make. I had to help when they decided their fingers were too cold from the frozen raviolis, but otherwise they did everything. Yay!

I don't think we had any particular reason to go to the Nestle cookie store, but we did and the cookies were delicious. Who needs reasons when there are warm cookies??

I've been trying to play more advanced games with them since I have so many fond memories of playing with my family. (And there's only so much Candy Land I can take.) Henry gave up on me after a few minutes, but Thomas and I played until the bitter end. I beat him, but just barely - this kid gives me a run for my money with games!

I made the kids BLT sandwiches for lunch and Henry proceeded to pick off the "gross" stuff and reassemble his bacon sandwich. Yup, that's pretty much what I did as a kid too, so maybe he will come around...

Haven't had a kiddo fall asleep on me in such a long time. I think my leg fell asleep, but it was worth it to get some sleepy cuddles from my little guy!

Family picture after our whale watching cruise in Seward. It's been such awful weather that this burst of sunshine definitely had us all smiling! 

The Legos are taking over. They were such a disaster and Thomas wanted to build some of his kits. So I sorted them and re-bagged all of his kits. It took forever, gave me a crick in my neck and Henry has already destroyed half of them again. At least Thomas was super excited...

The Anchorage sign that summer is getting close - the hotdog carts are back! Yes!!!

Got Henry a new rainsuit for school and he insisted on the Camo pattern. I think I heard him muttering something about hunting bears with his dad. Obviously need to keep an eye on this guy...

Trip to Texas = Trip to Chick-fil-A. Chicken biscuits, you make my heart sing. As amazing as always! :)

And of course, What-a-burger too! Mostly to send photos to Matt. I am the best wife! ;)

The Lido Deck on our ship - you can see why I called it the party deck. Though Theresa and I avoided it during the day, we did sit outside two evenings to watch movies. Super fun!

We did manage to get one photo together! It was such a fun trip! :)

The day after the cruise, we went on a field trip with Wallace's class to a super cool amusement park in San Antonio. And look who found me? Hi mom! :)

And to top off the Texas trip - I finally got to see Alton Brown! Thanks to the move to Alaska and then being 8 months pregnant for the last show I bought tickets for, my mom and sister went in my place. So 3 years later, I got to try again! :)

And I am no longer the only AB fan in my circle of friends. Brittney & Rachael were both super pumped to go see him as well. (Theresa opted to hang out with Josh for their anniversary instead - weirdo!) The show was great and a trip to Austin with my girls was awesome!

Cruising with Theresa

After our awesome girl's ski trip last year, I opted for somewhere warmer for this year's girl trip. Luckily Theresa was on board for something new and we decided to go on a cruise! I have only been on one cruise, but it was fun enough that I was up for doing it again - though with a change on the room choice this time. (Accidentally booked four of us in a tiny interior room - not the best choice...)

We were trying to fit in a cruise between multiple events and managed to find a Carnival one that fit perfectly for both of our schedules. It left out of Galveston, so we even got a short road trip from San Antonio complete with road trip snacks! Once it departed Galveston, we had a fun day at sea, a day in Cozumel (see the port above), a day in Yucatan and another fun day at sea before returning home. As a side note - our room at the back of the ship had a decent sized balcony and it was awesome!

The best part of a balcony on the back of the ship was getting a nice view of the Pilot (or Piloto if you weren't in the US) boats escorting the ship through shallower waters. Also the views in general, but I really liked the Piloto!

We didn't have anything planned in Cozumel, so we just walked through a bunch of shops and got a snack once we got hungry. Also, we had to get the Mexico cokes - while in Mexico...! Once we got tired of shopping, we found a spot on the beach in the shade to hang out. I was trying very hard not to turn lobster red on this trip!

On a related note, we found the perfect deck for us to hang out on the fun days at sea. The Lido deck is where the party is happening, so we avoided that one. And the other upper decks were generally super crowded and not a lick of shade for this poor Alaskan. But the lower deck off of the ballroom was perfect - breezy, shady, close to food and restrooms. It was pretty much all the senior citizens and us. Perfect!

We did book a tour on the Yucatan spot. There were a ton to chose from, but we were both sold on the Foodie & Photography one. It pretty much is perfect for the two of us! It had several food and historical stops in the old town of Merida. First stop was the Mexican bakery with a few tasty treats for us to try - yum!

The bakery was next to a large traffic circle where they are working on a monument to their Mayan roots. Our tour bus did several circles so we could all get photos, though it didn't help the people on the right side of the bus very much... we chose our seats well! :)

We did a short walk down one of the main streets that has the historical mansions. There were two equally impressive "houses" next to each other than belonged to sisters. Apparently their dad was smart enough to know that they better be equally grand. I thought it was interesting that the historical society in charge of the houses is very strict on what repairs can be done (no painting!), but the were ok with stabilizing this large sculpture at the top that was in danger of falling. 

I didn't get many photos of the food after the bakery because I was slowly starting to melt. It was over 95 degrees and I was dying. The air conditioner on the bus wasn't quite up to the task of keeping the bus cool, so I just decided to survive by napping. Luckily we got back to the ship safely and we could retreat back to the safety of our old people deck - ha!

Overall, it was a great trip and I had a blast hanging out with Theresa. A week with the bestie in the sun was just what the doctor ordered! :)

Easter Egg Hunt

I have a pretty poor track record with remembering to make a big fuss out of Easter. Usually a grandparent mails us some sort of package to save me from myself, but this year I was on it! It was a combination of the Easter Train and a coworker who still thinks easter egg hunts are the bomb. So I actually made them Easter baskets and hid eggs!

They were both pretty pumped about the baskets, but not about waiting to hunt for eggs. I told them they couldn't start looking for the eggs until their dad was up. I tried to get them to pose on the stairs for photos while we waited and this was the best I could get out of either one of them...

Finally Matt was up and the hunt was on! Thomas was clearly paying attention, because he went straight for the easy to spot eggs.

In Henry's defense, he was having a little bit of trouble getting to any of the eggs... You can also see that Thomas wasn't that situationally aware - that green egg is in the same spot as the last photo. ;)

Henry got away and managed to start collecting his own eggs. Go Henry!

Don't worry - Matt doesn't play favorites and was running interference on his eldest as well. Henry thought this was so entertaining he didn't go for the egg Thomas was madly trying to get. 

Thomas definitely ended up with slightly more than half, but no one seemed to notice, so it was close enough. ;)

After they ate enough of the easter candy out of the eggs, it was time to do their easter crafts the "easter bunny" brought them. Thomas needs no help to do his except the occassional check "is this right?"

Henry still needs a little bit of help, so Matt and Henry worked together on the bunny car. 

Both of the boys thought the carrot shaped race car was the funniest thing. I mean, not as funny as the wind up rabbits I bought them that "poop" out jelly beans. But maybe a close second!

I remember having fun with the stained glass things when I was a kid and Thomas seemed to enjoy it as well. The colors weren't super bright, so it was almost impossible to see the pink, but he painted the whole thing anyhow.

Henry, on the other hand, was not so impressed by it. He painted part of it, bent the tool and then spilled his paint. I offered to help him finish it, but he was "all done!" Okie dokie, little man! ;)

Are you wondering where the dyed eggs are? About that...

I bought new egg dye kits and was super pumped about doing them today. So I went to boil the eggs this morning and realize all the extra eggs I had bought at the store were brown eggs.

*face palm*

My enthusiasm was quickly drained away and I didn't bother going to the store to get even more white eggs. So we'll just save that egg dye for next year!

Whale Watching

Everyone tends to get a little stir crazy in early spring when the snow is still around, but not really great snow anymore. Knowing it's a rough time of year, I booked us another whale watching trip our of Seward, hoping we didn't end up with the crazy rough seas that we got last year... 

I haven't seen this sign up at a playground because we are usually avoiding them for that very reason. But we couldn't come to Seward and not play in the playground!

Plus you can tell it was a pretty nice day out - no jackets! The sun was shining and the skies were clear - a perfect day to be boating. Or, you know, pretending you have a skateboard and running up the ramps... :)

"All aboard!!" I'm so proud of him for not smashing his face like he did two years ago in this park. Though to be fair, he didn't have a cookie in his hand to protect if he fell. ;)

On the boat and ready to find some marine life!

As always, the otters are the first ones we found out of the harbor. I didn't have the super fancy zoom lens this year, so you get normal photos. Sigh...

They were being ridiculously cute and several of them were chasing each other around. It's probably the most active I've seen them!

Those are some pretty gorgeous mountains today. Also the spot of Matt's goat hunt later this year. Looks pretty rugged to me... Good luck, honey!

Speaking of the goats - one was just hanging out at the tops of a scree slope hunting for some food. These guys are super impressive where they like to hang out - there was one up the hill a little bit laying down on what looked like a very tiny ledge!

Finally found a pod of Orcas cruising around the gulf entrance. And you see that tiny fin in the background - it's a teeny baby Orca! Eeeeek! 

The boys got tired of looking for whales and wanted to color instead. We have done this enough to have plenty of entertainment options available! (For some reason today they wanted the markers instead of the crayons.)

I feel like the Harbor Seals don't much care for the boats. They are always throwing some serious side eye at us when we cruise by...

The obligatory bald eagle! :)

And finally, my favorites, the noisy and kinda stinky Stellar Sea Lions. I can't decide which one is my favorite in this photo, the two trying to bite each other, the other with the backwards "rawr" or the big guy in the middle staring dreamily at us. I pretty much love them all!

And this is what a successful boat trip ends up looking like near the end. This guy doesn't always take naps anymore, but the running around the playground and the boat rocking were too much for him to fight today. (Not pictured, Henry napping on me...)

No gray whales again this year, but still a fun day trip for all of us! :)