Alaska Adventure Day 4

We've settled into our routine. I get up and drive Jon to work at 7:20am, come home and sleep until 8:30am, then rush the kids down stairs for the hotel's continental breakfast before they close it down at 9am. I could feed them in the microscopic kitchen in our room but if I can start off the day not mopping up split milk or sweeping up crunched Cherrios, I'll take it. After breakfast we clean up the room, get dressed and set off for the library or park. At 11:30am we go have lunch with Jon then back here for naps by 1. While the girls sleep Caden does some school time then enjoys having some quiet time with his straws or a movie. I  love the two hours where the kids are occupied and I have sweet freedom to run errands or read a book. If I was home there would be a to do list a mile long that I would either ignore while paying the price of guilt, or plug away at it while longing for time with a book. My two hours a day of vacation. We pick Jon up at 5 and have dinner then set off for our evening activity. Today it was glow in the dark mini golf. This place was cool. 

It was a jungle themed room with all these animals and murals lit by black lights. The balls glowed, the clubs glowed, our teeth even glowed. They gave us glow in the dark braclets so it was an immediate hit with Ella.










Caden got a hole in one on the last hole. He was standing on the green and when the ball went in all these sirens and bells went off and he went FLYING out the door. No joke, the kid jumped a foot in the air, spun around, and was gone.  It was HILARIOUS!! If you know my son at all, you know that he does not like loud noises so the volume mixed with the surprise of it had him moving like he's never moved before. He was encouraged back in the room by the promise of a "hole in one" prize -the flashing green button on his shirt. Ella was bummed that she didn't get a prize so we celebrated "a game well played" for all with a stop at McDonald's for soft serve on the way home. The kids are already asking when we can go back but Caden always adds, "but I'm SO NOT going to get another hole in one next time".

Alaska Adventure Day 3

 This is the Army hospital on Ft. Wainwright where Jon is working for this 6 week stint. We joined him for lunch on day number three. It still makes me smile to see him in uniform. :) We spent the day exploring the base and making up an itinerary of all the things we wanted to do while here. This base has some of the best play grounds I've ever seen so checking them all out went on the top of the kid's list. We found the library, swimming pool, children's play center, and PX. I was spent after all that exploring so decided that dinner out was called for. We ate at a Mexican restaurant called, Tapatillas. IT WAS GOOD.

 Bought Caden this sling shot, may not have been my best move but boy does he love it. The kids spent the majority of dinner wadding up and shooting their napkins at one another. He's a pretty good shot!

 Kind of proud that we got all six of us in this shot. Thank you iPhone camera.

Senor Tapatilla I presume. 

We ended off the day utilizing our amazing babysitter. I took Jon on a date to see "The Green Lantern" (his Father's Day request) and Ally put the kids to bed. Bringing her was the BEST decision!

Alaska Adventures Day #2

 Day two was also Father's Day. My little Ella got up before everyone else and made Jon breakfast in bed. She poured a nice big bowl of fruity pebbles with a side of Diet Mt. Dew. It was so sweet because no one encouraged her to do it and I didn't even remind her right before bed that it was Father's Day the next day.

Soon we were all in bed and just enjoying being a family together again. Thats the thing about kids, they drive you nuts half the time and are melting your heart the other half.

 June 19th also happened to be a big celebration called "The Midnight Sun Festival". We headed to downtown Fairbanks where there were games, food venders, music, entertainment and to Ella's great delight, pony rides. She is simply fearless with animals. She went right up to one of the larger ponies and made friends but when it came to riding time she wanted the big horse, Typhoon.

 Our little cowgirl. She is such a joyful spirit with so littler inhibition. She talked to the trainers and wanted to know every aspect of horse care and their personalities. Then she helped talk to a little girl in in line who wasn't so sure about getting on the back of an animal three times her size. Ella encouraged and walked next to her for most of her ride. When we got to the live music she just started dancing and spinning around although every one else was enjoying the music from their seats. Well, who can blame her with a 60's cover band belting out "Mustang Sally"? I will forever have this picture of her running to the middle of the crowd and just losing herself in the music with a big puff of blue cotton candy in one hand.

Caden wasn't interested in riding the ponies. He was the horse whisperer. There were these two one month old ponies just wondering free in the park area where the horse rides were. No fences or harnesses, just walking around but very skittish. Kids kept trying to get close enough to touch them but the ponies would run whenever they got near. Caden has this very zen vibe about him. He was quiet and slowly walked behind them for at least a half hour and eventually they were comfortable enough with him to let him get right next to them. Seriously everyone just kind of stayed back and marveled that the ponies let him stand with them and walk with them. 

 After pony rides and too much junk food the next obvious activity was hitting the bounce house, bounce obstacle course, and getting into an inflatable arena where you pad up and fling an inflatable mace at one another trying to knock your opponent off their inflatable pillars. Jon and the kids + Ally did this activity. There would be more pictures of it but Danali kept trying to crawl up the exit of the bounce house when my back was turned. Look at the air she's getting. She was thrilled!

Ally was fearless at climbing the rock wall. Scaled right up to the top. 

 What a fantastic day.

Alaska or BUST!

A couple of months ago the Army decided that they needed Jon in Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks Alaska for 6 weeks. They gave him this news while he was in the middle of his 3 months away in Texas and he passed it along to me while I was trying to make Easter special for the kids when really I just wanted to mope from missing him.  Needless to say I was UNTHRILLED. Okay, that's not a word, but it applies. He suggested we join him for part of the time he's away (really just to try to make me feel better on the close of ANOTHER holiday spent apart) and after talking to a friend who spent some time in fairbanks we decided to head north for 3 1/2 weeks. I was looking forward to exploring new territory but I was not excited about flying with three children alone or entertaining them all day while Jon was at work so we enlisted our 12 year old neighbor and baby sitter extrodinaire, Ally, to come with us and thankfully it worked out for their family too. 

Danali was very proud of herself for figuring out the seat belt. She latched and unlatched it repeatedly for the first 20 minutes of the flight and after making friends with the guy next to us tried to do his seatbelt too.

 She was equally thrilled with the air and dinging of the seatbelt sign above her.

 

About an hour into the 3 1/2 hour flight she was simply spent. Caden and Ella enjoyed complimentary DVD players and backpacks full of snacks until about 11pm when Caden finally decided to conk out. 

So we begin 3 1/2 weeks of exploring our surroundings, enjoying new adventures, and making the most of each day...either that or we begin 3 1/2 weeks of stepping all over each other as we cram 6 people into a one bedroom hotel suite, pulling our hair out as we try to keep three children entertained in a place where they don't have any friends and the weather is totally unpredictable. Come what may as long as we're together. 

Alaska Adventure Day 1

We got up on day one ready to begin what Caden refers to as, "our big Alaska Adventure". He is the king of catch phrases and one liners. I am the queen of sleeping in the car on road trips but I couldn't put my camera down long enough to nod off. The scenery from Anchorage to Fairbanks (about a 7 hour trip) was breathtaking. 

 You really do feel like you are at the top of the world here. You know when you look out over an expanse of sky and it seems like it goes on forever in a continuous blue plane? Here the clouds bend  towards the earth, like you're in a snow globe.

 This was taken at 8 pm. We are in the summer of no night here. I think they get like 101 days of daylight.

 And this is just some weird building we saw along the side of the road.

 We stopped for a picnic lunch and this was our view...which we enjoyed from the van. There were mosquitoes EVERYWHERE and wasps. It was like we were in a horror movie. They surrounded us and kept flinging themselves against the windshield and windows making little pings with their fat little bodies, bloated on the blood from other sight seers.

 The kids did great on the car trip but we were really happy to finally arrive at our hotel. Caden looked around, tossed his bag on the floor and declared, "yup, this'll do".

Family Photos

I have a computer full of family photos, other people's families. My last family photo was taken several years ago and doesn't even include our best looking family member (you gotta admit, all those baby curls pushes Danali just over the edge of being too stinkin cute). I don't know if it's because I become a total nightmare when family photo time rolls around, or if being photographed is especially difficult because I'm a photographer, but whatever the reason, it has been way too long and has been a thorn in my side. FINALLY we have some family photos (thank you Alexys J Photography) and I am thrilled! Now I'm in a wall display quandary. Frames or stand out mounts? Living room or family room? Size, feel, and texture of the display....I have almost as much anxiety about how and where to place the photos as I did about about everyone's hair and clothing on shoot day. Oh, well, at least I will rest well tonight knowing they exist.