Fossil Hunting

Andrew's coworker had given him a map with the location of a great place to hunt for fossils near Palmer. The road leading there was crazy, making us very thankful for 4-wheel drive! Once there, it was an embarrassment of riches. When I was a kid finding a fossil was kind of a holy grail, with bragging rights for years. I didn't find any back then so my inner child was squealing with each fossil find. We found so many we actually put them in a pile to sort out our favorites to bring home.

Here's a few of the pictures and the last is my favorite finds. Andrew found a big petrified wood stump but it was still dirty when I was taking pictures. Maybe I'll add them in a little later. . .

P.S. I think it's hilarious that in most of the posts from the last 2 months my family is on some sort of 45 degree slope.

Alaska State Fair

Andi was sobbing that she was too short to go on most of the rides. Especially this one.

The fair was really fun although it was much, much smaller than The Puyallup so we were probably unfairly comparing them the whole time. It was also so windy that entire tents and kiosks were blowing away - the girls found this extremely entertaining!

Flattop Mountain

This weekend was supposed to be gorgeous in the Anchorage area. Sunny and temps in the 60s. In my attempt to cram as much into our schedule before the snow hits (and I probably won't stop even when it does!) we tentatively planned on hiking up Flattop Mountain. Andrew twisted his ankle this last week and we woke up to heavy fog but we went anyway and were much rewarded.

The girls did such a good job. The hike is about 3 miles round trip and is divided into 3 sections with a total elevation gain of 1280 feet. The first section is a pretty easy hike. Section two is a little tougher and with a higher elevation gain. And the 3rd? It's a rocky scramble to the peak. We made it about 3/4 of the way up the third section. It was sad that we didn't get to summit (we were so close!) but it was literally an on all-fours kind of scramble and it was just getting a bit too scary/tough for Andi. Arlie and I may have had a bit of summit fever and really wanted to keep going. Kit was the tie-breaker and let us know with her shrieking she had had enough of the wind in her face. So it was down we went, enjoying the scenery from the opposite direction.

I expect we'll all sleep really well tonight!

Hope

We took Harvey out for probably the last weekend of the year to visit Hope and do a little goldpanning.