Exit Glacier

We saw so many glaciers while driving through the state of Alaska.  I had never paid much attention to them but this time I saw their beauty and was in awe.  Exit Glacier is near Seward and is right off from the highway.  I decided I wanted a closer look.  There is about a mile and a half hike from the parking lot to the glacier.  It was a pretty easy hike for the first half.  Then it became a little perilous.  The women stopped here.  It was about 100 yards or more from the glacier and very cold and windy.

Look how awesome that ice is.

 The boys and Dad hiked the last 100 yards till they were right up next to the glacier.  Exit glacier is too unstable for them to touch or climb on but they were so close to it.

Alaska

From June 14-28 we had the opportunity to visit Alaska.  We miss Alaska.  It was so great to go back.  Somehow I convinced my mother to come with us and oh what blessing that was. We flew into Anchorage and spent several days sightseeing there but we also traveled to Seward, Chitina, and Valdez.  What a beautiful state.  Unfortunately we ended up getting sick.  At one point or another 5 out of 6 of us ended up at the Doctors and being put on antibiotics.  We had conjuctivitis, tonsilitis, strep, bronchitis, and more.  It was insane.  Despite the unfortunate trials we all ended up having a blast.  We went on a cruise, camping, fishing, hiked to a glacier, toured museums, ate great food, and we can't forget the many trips to the hotel pool.  When Nana asked the boys what their favorite part of the trip was they both agreed that swimming was the best.  I could have stayed home and taken them swimming.  Oh well, I had fun doing the other stuff too.

Anchorage Market

We went to a market in Anchorage that was filled with attractions, food, and shopping.  This man was walking around with his bird and let the kids have it climb upon their shoulders.  The boys thought it was amazing.

 Jordynn was worn out from all the excitement.

This was a pretty sweet band from Elmendorf.  The kids had fun dancing to the music.  We loved visiting the booths that were there.  Nana was such a blessing to have with us that when we found a booth selling mammoth hair we had to get for her to say thank you.  Only Nana would appreciate mammoth hair that much.  Haha.  Thanks Nana for making our vacation an actual vacation.

Half Marathon!

After I had Braelynn I had a hard time getting myself motivated to run again.  So I decided to set a goal for myself.  Something that would challenge me.  Well, I certainly was challenged.  My friend Kari invited me to run the half-marathon in Anchorage with her.  This is us BEFORE the race.  (I wasn't smiling by the time I finally crawled across the finish line.)

I trained pretty consistently for a couple of months.  But three weeks before the race I got sick.  Sick enough that I couldn't run.  I ran a little bit the week of the race and felt really good.  I knew I could finish the race so started mile one slightly optimistic.  Kari is in awesome shape and for the first couple miles I ran with her thinking I was awesome.  Then she finally admitted I was SLOW as tar and went on without me.  Haha. (Kari finished with a time of 2:00:09.  WOW).  It wasn't long before I ran into trouble.  You see Mountain Home is flat.  Very flat.  Anchorage is not.  Hills.  Mountains.  I was unprepared.  I was right that the distance wasn't a problem but the hills, oh the hills, they destroyed me.  I heard rumors during the race about the last mile containing a killer hill.  It wasn't just a rumor.  I was determined not to stop.  Some lady stood outside her home sipping coffee and chanting "good job. You are doing awesome."  I wanted to kick her in the knees.  It hurt so bad.  But I didn't stop.  I finally made it up the hill and finished my goal with a time of 2.24.24.  Whew.  So glad its over.

Chitina

Ahh Chitina.  Chitina was an adventure.  My camera battery died at Chitina and I have no pictures.  I hijacked this picture from the Bodkins blog.  But I do have lots of stories about charming Chitina.

We arrived in Chitina and the men (who were very anxious to go fishing) quickly set up the tent and unloaded the trailer and ditched, I mean left, their wives and children behind.  The men took four wheelers off into the wild to fish in some very remote area of the Copper River.  Meanwhile, the women CHEERFULLY finished setting up camp.  We had a tent and lots of bedding and a glorious, nasty outhouse.  Yuck.  (I like to camp with a camp trailer and a bathroom and kitchen and bed.)  But I was determined to not be a poor sport.  Besides the Bodkins were there and Kari makes everything better.  The kids had a blast digging in the dirt, throwing rocks in the creek, and exploring the camp site.  After a really great camp dinner we decided to take a hike.  Bad Idea.  Ten minutes into the hike sweet Hannah fell.  I was expecting a skinned knee and fat lip.  Unfortunately Hannah ended up with two gaping holes in her head.  Big enough and deep enough to see her skull.  We raced back down the mountain and Kari, Hannah, and I jumped into my truck and headed for town and a dr.  Leaving behind Nana and 6 children.  Poor Nana.  Halfway to town I realized that I had all of my kids clothes, pillows, blankets, DIAPERS, still with me in the truck.  Nana had nothing.  We made it to Chitina and found out they don't have a doctor.  Closest doctor was an hour and a half away.  911 gave us directions and we started driving.  Hannah was a trooper.  We got to the small clinic in Glenallen and met Dr. Carl.  He was nice. He very nicely told us they didn't have any type of drug to knock her out for the stitches.  After many doses of benadryl and dramamine and two injections of a sedative Dr. Carl was hoping that Hannah would sleep through the stitches.  He numbed her with a local anesthetic but Hannah is strong.  Even after all those sleeping meds Hannah refused to sleep through anything.  She fell asleep dozens of times but woke up everytime Dr. Carl came close to her.  After several hours we had to resort to plan B.  I wrapped Hannah in a blanket.  Pinned her arms down and climbed on top of her.  Another worker in the clinic held Hannah's head and Dr. Carl began what was suppose to be a ten minute stitching job.  45 minutes later Dr. Carl had done all he had the heart to do.  The whole agonizing time Hannah yelled.  She yelled that we were all bad people.  She yelled for me to get off.  She screamed, I want candy.  And the most heart wrenching moment of all was when she yelled Daddy, please save me.  Ahh Hannah, You are a fighter.  On the way home she finally allowed the drugs to take her under and she slept.  We got back to camp around 2 in the morning.  Nana was relieved to see us.  She had been sitting in the tent keeping watch over 6 children for 7 hours in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by bear infested woods and mountain men with only a camp chair to defend herself.  I knew my children were in good hands.  The next day we avoided hiking at all costs and simply tried to enjoy the great outdoors.  We celebrated Trayton's birthday party (I'll post that later) in the afternoon and the men came home later that afternoon with lots of fish.  Jonathan caught 24 coho salmon and one king salmon.  The Bodkins caught even more.  Congrats boys.  Jonathan's king weighed in at 25 lbs.  That is a big fish and oh is it yummy.  We spent one more awful night shivering in  tent and left after breakfast the next day.  I have to admit I was glad to leave Chitina behind but so sad to say goodbye to the Bodkins.  Thanks Bodkins for an AWESOME vacation.

Valdez

We didn't experience Valdez the way we should have.  We only gave ourselves one day to site-see and most of that day was spent recovering from our trip to Chitina.  First I had to wash the filth of Chitina of my kids and myself (that was a chore).  Second, I had to figure out what to do with over 100 lbs of salmon.  Jonathan was sick.  So sick he couldn't get out of bed.  That meant I had to deal with fish by myself.  I met a cool fishermen down near the docks named Mike.  He owned a fish processing shop.  He's been cutting and preparing fish for over 20 years.  He laughed at me and my lack of knowledge about fish processing but was really cool and helped me out.  After all that we took a trip to a local park and let the kids play while Nana and I visited.

Resurrection Bay

Our favorite part of our Alaska Vacation was the five hour cruise we took out of Seward, Alaska.  It was amazing!

This is Jordynn and I on the dock waiting to board the boat.

Check out those mountains.  Gorgeous.

Braelynn and I from inside the boat.  They assign a table to each group of passengers.  We had the most awesome table.  It was on the second level so we could see EVERYTHING and it was located right next to a door so it was easy to get outside.

It was pretty cold outside.  What with the wind blowing across the glacier water and all.  So even though its June we had hats and coats.  Jordynn looked awesome with her beanie and huge glasses.

They brought up a bucket of water for the kids to stick their hands in to see how cold the water really is.  Then the rangers on board had some cool demonstrations to show how the animals stay warm in the cold water.

The rangers gave the kids work books to color in and answer questions about animals.  They had lots of fun working on them inbetween running around outside looking for the whales.

I love how beautiful the water is.Oh and the kids are pretty cute too.

After they completed the required pages in their workbooks they were sworn in as honorary junior rangers and are posing here with their badges.

During one portion of the cruise we were out on open water (and no longer in the bay area).  Jonathan didn't like the open water much.  Especially when we stopped to watch a humpback whale swim by.  He turned a lovely shade of green.

We were blessed to see several whales during the cruise and every time I tried to catch a picture of its tail coming out of the water.  I pretty much missed it every time.  If you look close you can just make out the disappearing tail.

Again look close.  You might just see it.  At one point we saw a whale actually jump out of the water.  Amazing.  I LOVED seeing the look of awe on my sons faces.

We went by this stretch of bay area where the rocks along the cliffs were FILLED with sea lions.  It was incredible.  You could see them swimming in the water, basking on the hot rocks, and diving in again.  So cool.

This trip was awesome.  I hope we get to do it again.  At first the kids were just excited about getting on the boat.  Then they served yummy salmon and prime rib for lunch and the kids thought they were in heaven.  Then came the whales, sea lions, puffins, sea otters, mountain goats, eagles, and more.  Can't get much cooler than that.



slime!

 A few weeks ago the kids had the opportunity to make their own slime.  I did it while Braelynn was sleeping because I figured she would just eat the slime.  It was really simple to make and I can't believe how long it entertained the kids for.  They stirred it, squished it in their fingers, tossed it back and forth to each other and made a wonderful mess.

This can't be comfortable!

X-Man Part 2

Trayton wanted to make sure that everyone knows he was an x-man too.

The boys sure loved the attention they received from having their cool summer hair cut.  I sure loved shaving it off.