Riding the Denali Park Road

Ryan took advantage of a few days off to enjoy riding the Denali Park Road.  He and Brooks each packed up a bike trailer with gear and food and took off!

They rode a park bus to the end of the line and enjoyed some wildlife through the windows.

The end of the road.  90 miles or so from the start.

Gorgeous country out there!  We are going to have to take the time to ride a park bus as a family before we leave.  Doesn't he look a little cold to you?

The trekkers!

Here comes Brooks up the hill!

They camped out under a magnificent sky!

They made it a little over 60 miles before deciding that if they wanted to get home that night, they had better catch a bus back to the Jeep!  63 mles in 1 1/2 days is a LONG way!  

The Last Adventure of Summer

Literally the last day before our first real snowfall, Ryan was able to take a bike ride up on Murphy Dome, down to the river and did some hunting and fishing. He had a great time.

A ptarmigan, which we ate for dinner the next day.

The river is starting to ice over, even more so now that we've had a week and a half of winter weather.

He had a little trouble with his fly getting stuck on the ice, and this was the result. No fish, just ice caught that day.
Still enjoying his mountain bike and being in the great outdoors.

Look Mom, No Wheels!

Training wheels, that is! Kimberly finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. It all started when our neighbors gave us a BUNCH of bikes that their kids had outgrown. We got all sizes and kinds! In the bunch was a pink bike with flowers on it. Kimberly loved that bike and REALLY wanted to ride it. Unfortunately, there were no training wheels. She was told that if she learned to ride without training wheels, the bike was hers, but we weren't going to move the training wheels from her other bike. Needless to say, this was sufficient motivation for learning. She just decided she could do it and took off! How exhilarating! We are so proud of her!




Hopefully he'll be next:

New Bike

No, not for Ryan, for Kim. We finally bought her a big girl bike. We found a really good one at the Ft. Lewis Thrift Shop. It is in great shape and seems to be just the right size for her. It's all right that it's red, because as she told me, "It's almost just like pink." She also picked out some training wheels at the thrift store, but they were too big, so we need to find some different ones.




Glade now gets sole occupancy of the tricycle. He looks excited too.

Da Beach

Last post, I promise. I just haven't been on for about a month and a lot has happened. Thanks, Honey for getting the pictures onto the laptop so I can do this.

Last weekend we drove up to Olympic State Park and played on the beach a little bit. It was really neat. The sand was black (volcanic, I'm guessing) The air was cooler than inland (thank goodness!). The water was very cold. The sand was steaming (technically, the water was evaporating, I guess) and the wind was blowing it. It was very cool! We didn't get any pictures, which is a shame, but oh well.

Then we drove down the cost a little bit and found a good place for a bike ride. We rode about 12 miles and then played on the beach a little more. By this time it was getting cool outside. It was really fun though. We found a Lot of sand dollars. I collected some to keep. I thought they would be fun to decorate a bathroom.

Here's Ryan and Glade. What a beautiful day!



Kim with a whole (almost) crab. It wasn't alive, but it was the best one we found. There were a lot of top shells hanging around though. By the way, Kim is wearing Ryan's swim shorts with a rope around the middle. She got her shorts wet earlier in the day and didn't want to put them back on.



At this point the tide started coming in and the kids were cold, tired, and hungry so we headed for home (or hotel sweet hotel). We stopped and ate seafood on the way home, which was great, although I am not a huge seafood lover.

Jeremy told Ryan he liked it here when he was assigned here for a medical rotation and we are starting to agree whole-heartedly. This is a beautiful area. We also went up to Mt. Rainier a week or so ago, but didn't have the camera.

Yellowstone

Ryan's sister, Leah, came up to the cabin on Saturday with her family. We all went up to Yellowstone for the day. It was great to be with everyone. It was a pretty crazy day though.

Kim made good friends with a step-cousin Sarah. They were really cute. They would hold hands and run see things together.




The girls. Kira, Petra, Kim, Sarah, Talia at Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.



Glade and I at Canyon.



Ryan rode his bike 54 miles and was planning to meet us later in the day he was very speedy and got there an hour before we did. He had a great time riding over the mountain and got a pretty good sunburn.




Ryan and Kimberly at Mammoth Hot Springs.



Ryan and Reed, the kings of cool.




We all went back to the cabin for a quick dinner so some could head down to Idaho Falls. We went down the next day for Father's Day and thus ended our vacation. From there it was on to Washington, without the help driving. We took two days, but we did it.

Rails-to-Trails

So, I guess there is this nationwide program called Rails-to-Trails that takes old railroad beds and turns them into trails for biking and hiking, or walking, I guess, since a railroad is not very exciting of a hike. We drove out to one in Hilliard on Saturday between conference sessions and rode the section they have there. I was a little worried, since I haven't ridden outside for a while. You know, pregnant, little baby, wintertime, I have had all kinds of excuses for not riding! :) I have been riding on the rollers inside a little bit, which is good, but lately I have just been itching to get outside since the weather has turned nice. So anyway, we rode the 6-mile trail and back and I actually did pretty well after the first few miles. Lucky for me, Ryan was pulling the kids in the trailer, so I had a little easier time of it. It was a good ride, although very straight and flat. It was nice to get a little bit out of the city and enjoy being outdoors.