There's gold in them hills!

One fun thing we did with Grandpa and Grandma was go to Gold Dredge No. 8 for a gold mine tour.  It was a little rainy that day, but we still had a great time.

First we took a little train ride and learned about how miners removed gold from the ground.

Then we went to the gold dredge.  It was huge!  This is the big machine they used to extract all the gold that wasn't very easy to get to.  It was amazing to learn about all they did to make this work!

After that they handed out sacks of pay dirt and we all panned for gold!  Someone's got gold fever!

Everyone got some gold and it was such a fun outing.  I love that tour!  The gold dredge is right by the Alaska Pipeline too, so we were able to see that as well.

Fun with Grandpa and Grandma

We had so much fun with Grandparents!  Grandma brought this fun book back from Denali with her that the kids all enjoyed (can't you tell from their faces?).

Grandpa and I looking at an Alaska atlas.

The Santa Claus House in North Pole!

Santa's reindeer behind the Santa Claus House.

We loved having so much family here this summer!  We'll have to do it again soon!

Cranes

Every summer we get a couple of cranes in our yard.  They are fun to watch and look at up close.  One thing we really enjoy about Alaska is all the wildlife!

Birthday Girl

Someone in our family turned 3.Liberty had a fun birthday with Grandma and Grandpa still visiting.  Kimberly made this unicorn pinata that we all enjoyed.

I made her a unicorn cake.

Glade made some party hats.

Liberty loves Glade!  He gave her lots of presents!

A stuffed unicorn!

"Oh, I just love it!  It's so cute!"

Grandpa enjoying the grandkids he hardly ever gets to see!

We sure love our Liberty!  We are glad she is part of our family!

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!  

Family Galore!

We were so lucky to have so much family visit this summer!  First Grammy and Grandad came with late birthday gifts for Glade and early for Liberty.  Grammy also brought Kimberly a beautiful quilt.

Libby's gift.  It tells her nursery rhymes.

Grandad was a good sport about reading to the kids.

Then the uncles came.  Ryan's brothers Rich and Reed flew up to be here for a week.

We celebrated Grandad's birthday while everyone was here.

Glade and Liberty being cool on Uncle Rob's motorcycle.

Ryan's brother Rob and his son Dominic rode up here all the way from New Mexico on that bad boy!  It is currently in our garage and for sale.  What an epic trip!

Grandma and Grandpa came the day before Kim's baptism so it was a full house for a day or two.

We love our Grandparents!

Grandparents and kids!

Everyone that was here for Kim's baptism.  So nice to have everyone here!

10 Year Trip

A few weeks ago Ryan and I took advantage of his parents being in town and took a trip to Anchorage and Seward.  It was so fun to spend time just the two of us.  We had gorgeous weather until we were driving back and enjoyed a few Alaskan things that we haven't done before.

The weather was perfect on the drive down and Denali was out!  Gorgeous mountain!

We spent one night in the Marriott in Anchorage.  It was super-nice!

We were able to attend the temple the next day and enjoyed the beautiful flowers there.

Then we drove to Seward.  We did a glacier cruise and saw a lot of animals.  Here are some sea otters.

Bubble-net feeding humpback whales were another treat.

Sea lions on the rocks.

The glaciers were amazing.  They were a lot bigger than they seem.  They were also really noisy.  We saw a few small calvings, which was awesome.

And the icing on the cake, orcas!  We went out of way and saw several pods of them.  They were wonderful.  There was even a little one that stayed right by it's mom.

The next day we went out on a fishing charter.  It was a little chilly and I got a little seasick, but overall it was a good time.

We caught 2 halibut (yummy!) and 4 black rockfish.

I am so lucky to be married to such a great guy!  It was nice to just focus on each other for a week.  We love our kids, but they always need things and sometimes it's nice to just remember why we love each other.