I never mentioned the May motorcycle trip the guys had planned this year because I did a horrible job of blogging in May. They had originally intended to take the Dalton Highway up to Deadhorse / Prudhoe Bay - which is pretty much the furthest North in Alaska you can get via roads. Unfortunately the Sag River near Deadhorse experienced massive flooding and washed out part of the road. This road is mostly used for commercial hauling - featuring heavily in Ice Road Truckers. Given they were limiting loads through the area and the commercial use gets priority, they decided to take a trip on the Denali Highway and over to Kennecott.
The trip may have been off for May, but it was not forgotten. They decided to just wait for later in the year and try again. They ended up choosing the weekend that my parents were in town - which is both bad (because they like Matt) and good (help with the kids!).
And the original pack of 5 motorcyclists had dwindled down to 3. Sam and Matt were taking off together and meeting up with Steve in Wasilla. Sam was off today and managed to get packed up before Matt, so he came over to wait / help with last minute things like airing tires up.
I drug the boys outside to say bye to their Dada way too soon. I didn't realize he was still packing, so they found ways to entertain themselves in the front yard. I had just cleaned the wagon out for my parents to use for hauling them around the zoo today, so that was the toy of the moment. Thomas pulled his brother all across the yard and started to go up the hill to the backyard before I detoured them.
Then Thomas decided he had done his fair share of pulling and wanted Henry to pull him around. Henry tried, but he wasn't quite as skilled. He did move his older brother around a little bit though!
Finally Matt was ready to go! The boys attacked their daddy with enough hugs to last for the days he would be away. They are super excited to send him off on his trip, even though I am sure I will be hearing "I want dada to tuck me in!" at bedtime tonight.
As a side note, this is my new favorite picture of all of my boys! So adorable! :)
On his last trip, Matt took off so fast I didn't get any good photos of the boys waving, so this time I moved them to the cul-de-sac where they would have a good view and I told Matt to not just buzz by us! (Documenting this moments is important!)
Sam backed his bike into the cul-de-sac first to give Matt room to turn around. The boys excitedly waved to him. He happily waved back to them - I am sure we would see a grin if he wasn't wearing a helmet. How can two adorable boys not be grin worthy? :)
Henry was ready for his dada to roll down the driveway! I had asked Thomas to make sure Henry didn't leave the safety of our spot in the neighbor's driveway and he took his job very seriously. He leaned a bit too far in one direction and Thomas pulled him back - ha!
There he goes! Thomas was too busy holding Henry to wave, but Henry was waving enthusiastically enough for the both of them!
Here's hoping he has a great trip and comes back with lots of fun photos. We will certainly miss hime, but we are vicariously following along with the journey! :)
On a related note, I added a new bumper sticker to my car. This are very common in Anchorage and I thought since I had a vested interest in motorcyclists being safe, I should add my car to the population. Plus it was available in pink and I am not really able to resist that.
Be safe out there people and keep an eye out for motorcycles. :)