The weather has turned gorgeous up here, so Matt and I decided to make the most of it and take the boys out for some fun. We had talked before about going to Eklutna Lake and scoping it out, so no time like the present!
I'm sure if you had asked Thomas what his preferred mode of transportation would be, he would choose to walk on his own. But if that wasn't an option (because we want to go faster than a snail...), I am sure he would choose his dad carrying him. He's gotten to the point where he will climb into the backpack rig without too much prompting. Yay!
Heading down from the walking path to the lake. Having never been here before, I don't know if the water is higher or lower than usual. I do know it was still pretty brown and there were still a few patches of snow. Those seem way more treacherous when you are wearing sneakers and carrying kids, by the way!
See the mountains all around? See the lack of snow? Apparently that is super unusual this time of year. We lucked out for our first year with a mild winter and an amazingly awesome spring. I'm wearing short sleeves - unheard of!
As awesome as the sun was, I started to get worried that Thomas was going to get a sunburn on his face. His baseball hat my parents got him is super cute, but not so great at covering the sides of his face. So I tried to convince him to wear my hat instead. I don't mind getting burned if it keeps him from it. (Note to self - bring sunscreen next time!)
The beach of the lake was super muddy. Matt had the foresight to wear his boots, but I was stuck jumping around puddles and tiny rivers of water to get around. And as you can imagine it was super slick.
We retreated up to the rocky part and let Thomas run around. You might notice he isn't wearing my hat anymore. He wore it long enough to laugh and let me get a few pictures, but then decided he didn't want it. Luckily, he didn't get sunburned. My face was fine, but my arms definitely got some color. So at least I had the smarts to put Thomas is long sleeves!
His favorite activity of the day? Throwing rocks! We were safely away from anyone getting hurt as long as he didn't throw backwards, so we let him have fun with it. The boy is developing quite the throwing arm!
I can't let him have all of the fun, can I? I think he would have been more impressed by my throwing skills if he had looked up long enough to see them - he was too busy hunting for his next rock to throw.
All in all, it was a fun day with the boys. Not a long trip by any means, but enough to test out the kid carrying packs for future use. I think Henry slept the whole time, so he may not have even noticed we were out in the gorgeous Alaskan "wilds". :)