Rafting - BRRRRRRRRRR!

I don't know if anyone's ever mentioned it to you, but Alaska can get cold. Even though we were there in the summer, we certainly got a taste of that by going white water rafting. We were so excited to go, Rob and I both had been as teenagers but not since then. We opted for the class 3/4 rapids and were very much looking forward to it! We almost bailed on the trip because our colds knocked us down but we rallied - I mean, really, how often do you get a chance to raft in Alaska? (Alaskans, put your hands down...braggers).

We showed up at the staging area and put on our dry suits. Those things were hysterical, we felt like sumo wrestlers. They go on over your clothes and are super air-tight so they're all puffy and filled with air.
Thank God for the suits, though, otherwise we'd have seriously frozen our butts off. We rafted down the Mat-Su river which is glacial run-off, our guide said that it runs around 34 degrees during the summer, yikes!
We had such a blast and were so thankful for the suits. Our hands were the only thing exposed to the water and by the end they were completely stiff and bright red - ouch!

Luckily, the rafting company had a photographer posted at one of the dips - fun pics!!! We were with a travel agent and her daughter from the south, they were a lot of fun. And, get this! Our guide was actually from Ft. Collins, what a random, small world!

I'm so glad we went, we had a great time. Check out our happy faces here - I love Rob's Michael Jordan tongue. Um, and by the way, where did the front of our boat go? Oh, and the icing on the cake? We saw a moose on the way home! So cute!

More Alaska Fun

I've been totally slacking on updating the blog - as evidenced by my still blogging about Alaska even though it was several weeks ago. I miss our sweet Abby so much, though, and have been reminiscing about all the fun we had with her while we were there. Just a few more pics to wrap up our trip, I promise...or maybe not so much..heh heh

Reading to Abby every night and tucking her into bed was such a sweet way to end the evening. Snuggling with her was the absolute highlight of each day. Plus, it was too cute: Every night she would close her eyes and "randomly" point back and forth between her and whoever was going to read the book that night...the magical wandering arm has chosen!

It was also really neat to visit Chris' Base and get to see his plane and everything! It was cool to see him in his element, plus I'd always imagined his plane was huge but it was absolutely awesome to see it in real life!

Check our Abby standing in the plane for perspective- she looks so tiny!

We all took turns pretending to be pilots - let me just say it was much better playing pilot in this huge cockpit rather than the tiny little Lear Jet he used to fly - not to sound like an old lady, but that one totally made me throw my back out getting into it! Sheeesh...

Captain Warren and co-pilot Abby at the helm. Wait, is it a helm in a plane? I'm pretty sure it's not.
Mom and I made pretty sassy pilots, methinks...although neither one of us seems too interested in watching where we're going. Not a big deal to us, but I'm sure it would be quite scary to be our passengers.
Meanwhile, I also played navigator / co-pilot...all those hard core seat belts were pretty cool until you imagine WHY you need to be harnessed into tightly. Yikes. You can let me off at the next stop, mister.

There's a little bubble-window from the cockpit back to the back of the plane, clearly designed so the Captain can make fishy faces to all the troops and cargo in the back.

One day Rob and I went golfing, it was gorgeous! Unfortunately, we both came down with colds so our game was not fully up to speed, but we still had fun and enjoyed the scenery and non-stop daylight.

Another day we went to play at one of Abby's stomping grounds...literally! It was one of those bouncy playground places. The place was so fun, no matter if you are 5, or...ahem...33...and we were off and bouncing! We had a great time playing with Abby...my favorite thing was this huge pillow-like trampoline in the middle of the room. So much fun! Of course, you really could only have about 2 adults on it total otherwise the poor kids would go flying off like pieces of popcorn. I learned quickly not to do full bounces when Abby was near the edge - scary!

Anna chose not to participate. How nice of Mom and Jen not to make her feel left out. :)

Rob and Abby on the slide - so cute!!

Abby and I on the little car-bike thingies. Those were so much fun! Who cares that I was the biggest kid out there.

I was cracking up and having a great time and eventually Chris joined us. I thought I was tall for those things and had to squinch up like a pretzel to drive it, but check out Chris! Hysterical.



Man, that was a fun place. How come they don't have a fun place like that for grownups? Oh wait, they do. It's called Vegas.

Speaking of all things good, after all that bouncing, we sure did earn some ice cream! Slurp!

More hiking!

I have to say, I'm super envious of all the amazing hiking opportunities they have in Alaska - one day we went to a place called Hatcher's Pass which was only about a half hour from their house!

It was gorgeous - super duper green but the distant mountains still had snow on them.

We hiked initially as a family which was great, the hike started out nice and easy, the paths were really well maintained. Jen was a trooper carrying Anna in the baby bjorn, I think it was Anna's first hike! Good job!

After about an hour, the girls turned back for lunch and Chris, Rob and I continued on for another couple of miles.

We had a great time. The path would wind and twist through the trees and next to the river and then come out into large clearings where you could see forever.

At the end of our hike we had quite an entertaining adventure with a dead car battery, but I've gotta say, we met some super nice people who helped us out, thank goodness we didn't end up like a Readers' Digest story: Dead Battery, Dead in the Wilderness. haha!

Apparently, a Flattop is not just an old school 80's hairdo...

...it's also a mountain in Alaska. We went hiking with Chris and Abby one day and Grandma Lisa was sweet enough to wait for us while we were gone a few hours. Fun in the car:
First we carb-loaded at a pizza place called the Moose's Tooth.

Next we got bundled in our rain gear:
Then we were off! The weather was pretty chilly - it was raining and we were so high we actually hiked up into the clouds!

It was gorgeous, though, and quite a fun hike.

I wasn't sure how far Abby would want to go but she was hard charging! She was pretty brave but we were nervous sometimes and had a tight grip on her during the slippery and steep spots.


I love this video, Rob and Abby make me laugh...

We almost made it to the top but the rain had made the steep railroad ties pretty slick and coming down them was challenging for adults, much less 5 year olds, so we turned around with the top in sight.
The clouds started breaking as we came down the mountain so we actually got to see more of the scenery - it was like we did two separate hikes, the visibility was so incredibly different. From Flattop on a clear day, you can apparently see the inlet and all the way to Denali, but that day, we just caught glimpses of the valley and inlet through the clouds.

Rob even carried Abby during the last part - now that's service with a smile!

I always love a good hike with fun people and great scenery- Good times!

Niece #2!

One of the major highlights of our Alaska trip was getting to finally meet our new niece, Annaleigh who truly is such a sweet happy baby! She's super mellow and incredibly content to just hang out in your arms, swing in her little seat or go to town on a Binky - her favorite vice. We came at the perfect time, she was 8 weeks old and super alert, at that perfect age where she would make eye contact and SMILE! We were goners...

Auntie Beth takes a turn:
Now, Uncle Rob: It was so sweet, she seemed to always fall to sleep when Rob held her - he is pretty comfy, I agree. He was holding her when that gnarly earthquake hit and I felt good knowing he would totally protect her.

And, Grandma Lisa certainly got her fill too, clearly Anna will never be neglected or unloved. :)

Abby is such a sweet big sister to her and always so excited to kiss her or hold her.

More Anna pics:


Hanging with my two nieces was amazing...it's cute to see Abby holding on to Anna and looking at her with such adoration.

Listen to the stuff Abby says to Anna, it's adorable:

Here, Anna is chilling in Uncle Rob's arms - I LOVE the smile he gets from her! Too cute...

So, I told Anna she is not allowed to grow any before we get to see her next but she was strangely silent. How rude.