oh we're back!

Well we never left but I sure did take a break. SO much has happened. Recap!!

My parents came to visit in early September and stayed for almost two weeks. It worked out great with my schedule plus I was able to take a couple of extra days off to enjoy the time while they were here. Lots of adventures and pictures to share from that visit including a train ride to Seward, overnight at a cottage on Resurrection Bay, and then a trip up to Hatcher Pass.

Then a few days after the 'rents left, my buddie from Sacramento came up to see us TOM!! Tom spent a little less than a week but we fit in a lot of fun during that time. Always good to see Tom.

So let's start with the 'rents visit. Didn't take long before a baby moose came to our freaking door to say "hello"! Pretty cool experience to be that close.

Dance class is always a good time. If you can't smile while watching 10 little 3 year olds dance, then you have no soul.

Well Alyssa doesn't count, she was having a bad day. She fell and hurt her knee and messed up her tights...so she didn't want to dance. I just like this picture that I thought captured her sadness.


We were lucky enough to share my Dad's 65th birthday while he was here. We were going to go fishing like last year but evidently the fish weren't cooperating, so we decided to spend it with the family in Girdwood. It was a great choice. First stop, lunch at the Bake Shop. Check out those flowers!

...and then a tram ride up to the top.



LOVE this one.



Somebody's having a good time.

Chillin' with the girls in the courtyard at Alyeska.

We've started the girls' addiction a little early. Here they are enjoying their afternoon Starbucks fix.



Girls sharing their delicious treat with the local wildlife.

Then a quick hike up to a local waterfall.



On the way home we got another surprise, the bore tide! We've been in Alaska for over 6 years and we hadn't seen the bore tide until that evening on the way home. The wave was about 3 or 4 feet high...pretty cool.

Tomorrow, we'll pick up with the birthday celebration that went on that night.

...hope this helped keep you awake tonight Tom...

Happy Birthday Christin

Lordy, Lordy. Christin's .... uhhh .... twenty-eight??? Whatever, she looks great and acts like she looks...young! That's all that matters. Happy birthday, sis! Love ya!

We always joke that Katy has her "isms"...well so does Alyssa. She has the strangest ways of saying a few words. One of those words is thirsty...it sounds more like "surstay". Either way, she's a ham and she knows it.

We were watching the video and Katy wanted me to take a video of her too. So not to be outdone, here's Katy. You'll hear two of our favorite words she's saying now...family is fanimy and comfortable just sounds cute.

Katy entertains us again

A few weeks ago after Lisa returned from her trip, she mentioned on facebook that she heard the girls singing "All By Myself". She called me at work and asked if I had taught them that while she was gone. I have to admit the idea is pretty funny...Lisa leaves for a week and when she returns she hears her 3 year olds singing that song. How pathetic was I!?!?!

So we have been trying to catch them singing it on video but no luck...until the other day. Katy was sitting on the toilet waiting for the urge and I asked her to sing. To my surprise, she did!

Day 3 of the Denali Highway

Day 3 started with tons of rain. The girls each woke up once and had meltdowns in the middle of the night. Still not sure what happened...waking up and realizing they weren't home?...I don't know but they were screaming for a while. But besides that 15 minutes, the night went great. We had another pancake breakfast while the rain stopped and we weighed our options. We had about 275 miles left to drive and intended on being on the road at about 10...but really, no hurry to get home.

I forgot about this picture being taken. Just some good ole fashion pancake shenanigans.

Since we were in no hurry, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to fish ONE MORE TIME! We went back across from the campsite to where a little creek connects a couple of lakes. I had read that the fish in here were SO easy to catch...but then again I read that about all the places we had tried. I wasn't expecting anything again...but...

2nd cast and I came up with a beautiful little Grayling! I've never caught a grayling before so was completely stoked...despite it's unimpressive size.

All in all, I must have caught 10 or so. Most of them were pretty small but a couple were decent sized. It didn't matter. I was LOVING it!!

And the girls got their first close up look at a fish. They thought it was hilarious...especially when it kept slipping out of my hands when I tried to pick it up.

Nothing sexier than a woman fly fishing!!

I had to show off and go catch one more for a nice close up after I saw how I was handling the first one.

So about 2 hours later than we wanted to leave, we finally got on the road. This is just around the corner from where we stayed looking back at one of the lakes. Such a gorgeous area...we'd love to take our kayak back here and do some exploring.

Now I have to admit something...we're not real happy with our pictures. All of these have been touched up because at some point during the trip (probably the first night) I screwed up a setting and every picture after that came out very dark. So to salvage them, I edited the heck out of them. So they aren't perfect...but you can still kind of get the idea of how beautiful this area is. Lesson learned.


These next couple of pictures are from the same area and one of the most beautiful places we've seen. The pictures do not do it justice at all. This place was amazing.




So that's it. We got to Glennallen at about 2pm and had a long lunch and fueled up. The girls slept most of the way there. We had 190 miles left to get home and drove straight through! I think the girls slept most of that second leg as well so they were asleep for probably 5 hours that day...took a while to get them to sleep that night.

So I hope you can tell we had a great time. It truly was an amazing experience that we recommend to everybody. I know I'll remember this forever.

Day 2 of the Denali Highway

Day 2- The plan was to take our time in the morning, have a pancake breakfast, do some fishing, and then drive the last 100 miles of the highway (70 of it was unpaved) with plenty of rest stops along the way. Then spend quite a bit of time at the Tangle Lakes and push on another 75 miles or so to our next campground. After only 20 miles of driving we realized that was not going to happen!

First, let's check out our view from a few feet from our campsite. To the left:

...and to the right:

What the...?!?! Yeah, I wasn't expecting to take that in when I soaking up the scenery.

Despite the visual setback...on with the fishing!

...and rock throwing!

Notice the bear spray on my hip. We never saw one but boy did we feel like we were in the middle of bear country.

Concentration.


Plumber butt.

And I always love the crying pictures.

One last picture of the river (sans naked guy) before we left.

We noticed that the blueberries were just about ripe.

Back on the road.




The one lane bridge that crosses the Susitna River.

Looking back at the bridge



It was shortly after this picture that we saw a caribou up on a hill. We stopped and watched him running full speed to the left and disappear. A few minutes later we spot him again running full speed to the right. I have no idea what was chasing him but it was something exciting.

Girls still hanging in there and even trying out the binoculars.

Found this spot and I couldn't pass up the chance to fish here. It was BEAUTIFUL!!

The girls did their part...throwing rocks!

Not catching fish so I kept changing flies.



Getting into the Maclaren River valley...some of the most beautiful scenery on this day.





Finally at about 5pm we made it to the Tangle Lakes campground. What we originally thought was going to be a quick stop ended up being our final destination for the evening. Just too tired at that point and it was a nice campground. So we drove around a couple of times before we settled on a spot. Not a bad view.


After dinner, we ran down to the lake so I could try my luck at fishing. Again, I was SKUNKED!!

Time for a quick story before bedtime.

Kendra asked how the girls slept on the trip...all things considered, not too bad. The first night we didn't even try to put them down until pretty late. They fooled around for a while but eventually fell asleep and slept with Lisa in the big bed. I slept up front by myself. We didn't want to run the generator all night so it did get kind of cold in the RV. Next time, we'll bring many more blankets! The second night, they slept great. I think we all laid down together and they both were asleep within a minute or two. Lisa and I were able to sneak out and get the fire going again and enjoy the peace and quiet for an hour or so. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.