Trip to Alaska

It has taken me a long time to get this blog posted--but I had a lot of pictures to sort through, and we have been very busy, and . . . I have lots of excuses, but I think I should get on with posting about the trip. . .

August 20-30th
We flew to Alaska to see my friend Sara and her significant other, Jay. The plan was that Bry would get some Moose hunting in and fishing in with Jay; while Sara and I took the kids to see some sights. (Most importantly we wanted Cea to meet Sara and Jay's 2 dogs--Jed and Laney.)
We did have a good trip. Mircea loved the plane ride. When we got to Sara and Jay's house (which is very cute!) Jed (the dog) loved the kids and Laney (the other dog) wasn't so certain about this crazy little girl who was running around like a crazy chicken.
The very next day, Friday, Cea and Laney were best friends. Jay and Bry packed up their hunting gear and the canoe and they headed out on their trip to the Kenai peninsula where they would go hunting on the Moose River. That evening we get a phone call, Bryan has the flu and is puking hard and they aren't going to be able to head out. That night I get the flu as well.
Saturday rolls in after a hard night of being sick--YUCK! I am exhausted, Sara isn't feeling too swell either, and so I spend the day resting, while Sara watches the kids--she decides to buy the movie Madagascar, as Cea watched movies the whole day (which she loved). That evening I am feeling better, and we find out that Bry is doing better as well, and they have headed out on their canoe.--the rest of the hunting trip is on the previous blog posting.

We had a great time in Alaska and Do plan to go back. The following are little snippets of the trip--some of the different places we went--I wish I had used my camera more--oh well!


Day 1, August 20th Thursday, The plane trip and arrival

She got the window seat!
Other than worrying the pilot was going to land in all the water, she did great!

Casper seemed to deal just fine with the plane as well (though we were glad to get off)

Cea and Bryan with all the luggage
(we packed for 10 days--but used their washing machine as well!)

An evening Snack being prepared (smoked salmon and cream cheese--it was delicious)

Poor Casper with his splint on
He did great the whole trip, it didn't slow him down at all!

This was Cea's comfortable bed in the craft/gun/fishing/etc room

A very familiar scene in the back of Sara's car.
The dogs mostly went everywhere with us--much to Cea and Casper's delight!
No one seemed to mind being crowded together.

August 21-22nd The boys went hunting (check out the hunting post) and we all were sick. Needless to say we didn't take any photo's.

August 23rd Sunday
Sunday, Sara, Myself and the kids head to morning meeting--we follow Gary and Doris. Then we have lunch at Gary and Doris' place where we also hang out with Serena, Rachel, Jeff, Dane and Faith.
It was great to see Gary, Doris, Serena and Rachel. I love where they live! They all seem to be doing fabulous, and it was awesome of them to hang out with us!

Casper was the center of attention with the girls!

Did I mention he had their undivided attention?!

He definitely was held and hugged and awwwwed over. And the smile indicates he ate it up.

Sara and Porsche

Casper, Porsche Doris, Rachel, Gary, Serena

August 24th Monday Going to the Aquarium

Playing with some of the awesome toys Jay's mom sent over!

Snuggling together in the back of the car. Laney and Cea were best of friends.

Out at a rest stop

Thank goodness they provided free strollers at the aquarium!

They had great interactive area for Cea to play (and Sara too!)

We realized that we forgot to put Cea in a life jacket, so that was quickly remedied.

Checking her controls

Casper gets a turn at steering

He liked touching the different animal pelts too

A picture of us on a video screen

I like the bright feet

He was right up close to us! Way cool!

Touchy Feely

It was great!

More looking and touching

We got to see his tricks

We were at this area a long time. It was a lot of fun.

Casper checking it out




Isn't he cute!?!?!

This boy just loves his mom! :)

Cea had fun running back and forth at the window



Octopus
(We learned that they had had some octopus babies, but they all got sucked into the filter and died. It actually made me feel good hearing this, because of the different fish we have had that have died. I figure if real fish scientists have troubles at times keeping things alive, then we really aren't doing so bad!)

Seeing how Cea measures up!

Our favorite item in the gift shop

Look closely, there is a rainbow

Of course we had to get some ice cream!

Going home

Sara and Laney

We stopped by to see a glacier:
Casper and Sara

Cea, Porsche, Casper

Cea took this picture of Sara, Porsche and Casper

The boys are hunting for moose, but we saw this Mama moose and her baby as we were driving home. They were right next to the road.

Right before we took this pic Laney had been sleeping with her head in Casper's lap. It was really cute. Sorry we missed it!


August 25th Wednesday A Day at the Zoo. The Wolf Exhibit ROCKED! I really liked the zoo. All the animals were out and visible. Most of them were very close to the fence, so we got to see them close up. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. Many of the animals were indigenous to Alaska, which made it even more interesting.


The petting zoo consisted of what all petting zoo's have--GOATS.

1 of many bears in AK.

The Big Bad Wolf. (Cea called him that)
This exhibit was made up of wolf siblings, as they had been rescued out of their den as babies when their parents "died". It was fascinating to see them.
They are big and intimidating. I would NOT want to meet one in the forest!

Cea watched them while eating a peanut better and jelly sandwich
And they watched her like she was a peanut butter jelly sandwich

more of them

up close

our friend the squirrel










Cea did great at the zoo--we appreciated her great behavior!



ugly toe nails! ewww!


cute porcupines (Cea, Jay and Bryan actually were walking around a trail and ran into one on the wild, and Jay collected some of the quills for Cea)




Giving Mom a pretty flower she picked

This bear was close to us, and again, I would prefer to never run into these animals in the wild!

Aren't the mushrooms totally cute?!?


The other day, I met a bear. . . He looked at me, I looked at him, He sized up me, I sized up him! . . . So I did run . . .

Another cute mushroom--You can almost see the elf or the smurf living in this!

Sara was good at lifting Cea up, when she needed to look over something

The butt view of a polar bear. he was big!

We saw Moose!



Almost time to go!

Hehehe I was walking "behind" them when I saw this, so I took a picture and showed Cea. She laughed so hard she almost cried.

Getting a smushed penny and then heading home, as the boys called and said they were home.


August 26th Wednesday Visiting the Conservation Preserve, "the Tunnel"

It was WET
we stayed dry in the car for a little bit

baby moose


bear swimming and playing with a log

Casper getting a big damp

soggy

walked right up close to the fence

Look Bryan--a Moose!
bear in a tree

We really enjoyed the the fact that though it was raining, we saw all the animals, and they were out moving around and very close to the fence.

Then we headed off to the tunnel that Jay and Sara said we had to go through.
It is a 2 mile tunnel to Whittier and they insisted that we have ice cream there. They thought we would enjoy the tunnel. Uh, the tunnel was quite lame, and to top it off, the ice cream shop was closed--and here we had told Cea to stay awake so she could get some ice cream. The town was quite a dumpy town of NOTHING, but we finally found a shack that did say they had some soft serve ice cream. Bry went in with Cea and ordered her a cone and him a fudge sundae. Cea was given her cone, but then the guy at the stand couldn't get the frudge to work, so bry said that he would just like a chocolate cone, but then the guy couldn't get the chocolate ice cream to work, so Bry said he would take just a vanilla cone (this was after standing around about 15 minutes waiting for the guy to figure out how to work the machines.) Well they guy went to get Bry a cone, and Bry heard him say "oh no, this can't be happening", and then he didn't come back for a while, and then he handed bry a cone with a tiny bit of ice cream,--the vanilla ice cream machine had broken down. So all in all, if anyone plans a trip to Alaska, do feel free to decide not to visit this place. Grin snicker snort!


it is 1:42pm (you can only drive through at certain times, as you share the tunnel with the train and it is one way)

Approaching the tunnel
in the tunnel

Don't worry, all was forgiven after we had a DELICIOUS dinner of frosted flake covered halibut, beets and greens, green beans, couscous with sundried tomatoes.

We are eager to dig in! Thanks Jay and Sara--it was a great dinner!

We enjoyed all the meals Sara and Jay fed us--they are great cooks!--waffles, crepes, turkey and spinach meatloaf, cap'n cruch encrusted halibut, french toast, soup (for when we were sick), etc. They have a great place, and were fabulous hosts!

We went to Wednesday meeting at Jeff and Lynnette's house (Julie their sister and one of our minister's had just flown in to be in Alaska for a while, so we got to see her as well).



August 27, Thursday Shopping, Haircut, fishing and Porsche and Sara finally getting to hang out with each other!


Casper's first haircut
Bubbles to keep him distracted

Snip, Snip, Snip
He did a great job of sitting still!
Such a big boy!

Checking out the Costco in Alaska


Sara and I did get 2 hours to ourselves on this trip as well. So we went to a restaurant downtown. Sara told me what to order, and well, we shared an appetizer of calamari, and then I had a fabulous dinner of halibut cheeks I believe, while Sara had a crab louie salad and then of course a scrumptious dessert. We both shared with each other and had a good time visiting. Of course we left the camera with the boys, as they took Cea and Casper fishing. . .
Cea and Jay fishing

Daddy, Cea and Casper fishing

Look! A fish! Sweet success!




August 28th, Friday, A Day at the Alaska State Fair

We also went to the Alaska State Fair. It was kids day, and Jay was working out of his Truck for the fair--where he teaches people about fish and such, (as he is a fish and wildlife biologist person). He had an awesome display and was teaching little kids how to cast with fishing poles! It was quite the popular exhibit. The fair was a scaled down version of the Puyallup fair, and well those of you in Nebraska who visit and are used to the Johnstown Fair--well you can consider it about oh a 100 times bigger than that! grin! Our fave part of the fair (besides Jay of course) was when we visited the National Guard/Army exhibit and they had a blow up obstacle course that kids could go on. Cea was the smallest kid to go on it, and she did AWESOME! We were/are quite proud of her! She blitzed right through it, and only hesitated a few seconds at the top of the big slide which was really a scary drop, but down she came on her own! hooray!

Playing with a car race track in the morning
Bry casting

petting a tortoise

looking at an anaconda (one of Cea's favorite songs is "green anaconda")

We all shared a turkey leg, it was yummy

petting pelts

Getting ready at the national guard exhibit

ready set go!
Go Cea!
Through the tunnel

up the wall with a rope

over and down

up the long ladder

down the big slide!
WAY TO GO!

A view of the fair

Casper and his new hat!
The cutest mountain man in AK

Cea getting ready for a little Alaska gambling

Guess what is under that?



You put money down on which color you think the mouse will choose to go down the hole.


We get to see Jay again!

Munching on Fair food!
Casting with Jay



The view around the fair


August 29th, Saturday
Then Lynnette (whom I am named after) invited us to their house for dinner and a night of music. We brought an ice cream cake as it was Casper's first birthday. She made an awesome meal called haystacks which had boar and elk in it. It was fabulous and she gave me the recipe, but we will have to make it with sausage, beef or chicken--not as exotic/exciting as what she serves! To top it off, people had brought presents for Casper, so he did get a full blown party. The music that night was phenomenal, some amazing singing, and the instrumental playing was so neat!!--guitar, violin, bass, dobro, etc.

Mom, Casper and the Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake

Guess who is ONE!?!
(if you look on the right side, you can see that Cea blew his candle out for him!)
Casper just kept wanting to grab the fire--he can be a lot like his dad!

All the kids at music night

They were sweet and brought presents for Cea too!

Casper and his presents, clothes, books, toys, . . .
Thank you Thank you Thank you!


Eating his ice cream cake!

The cold didn't seem to phase him

Mom and Dad with their one year old!

What a big boy!

getting EVERY last drop!

We took off the sticky clothes--and he got to wear one of his presents.

Lynnette making Casper giggle

Music time

It was great music

Sara and Jay (Sara left that night for a business trip, so this is the last time we saw her before we left! we missed you Sara!)

Tromping around in some b-day clothes (instead of his b-day suit!)

Cea liked playing with the big girls!

Dancing to the music


Playing and dressing up
Singing

We were sad when it was all over


Jay cut up some Salmon he had caught when he and Bry went fishing that morning.
(It was a girl salmon--he showed us all the eggs)


August 30th Sunday Our last day
We went to meeting with Serena and Rachel for our last Sunday there--this meeting is actually very close to where Sara and Jay live. Ironically, at 2 of the 3 meetings we attended; Bryan was related to someone! And then to top it off one of the couples was heading to our church convention in York, Nebraska, and so I told them that my sister would be there with her family, and another lady told us that she used to be a roommate with my twin's mother-in-law.--How wild is that?!?!


A chocolate fountain
and 2 very tired kids

Saying goodbye to the dogs, after making sure she had eaten all of the raspberries off of the raspberry bush in the back yard

Again, Thank you so much Sara and Jay for hosting us!!

Thanks again Sara and Jay for having us! You were great to house us for 10 days! We will definitely be back. (Bry says he is coming back next September--he wants his moose! and fish.)