Reflections Lake

We took an early hike around the very aptly named Reflections Lake this morning. The irises grow wild here which is weirdly fascinating to me. Arlie kept insisting to Andi that the cottonwood on the ground was "sheep fur" and so it is.

Whittier

After the Portage Pass trail we went down into Whittier where we had dinner at the Inn at Whittier (delicious) and watched boats go in and out of the marina. Then we took Andi to the beach. She talks all the time about how much she misses the beach and how sad she is that we can't go very often anymore. She tied on her superhero cape for the occasion and played with kelp to her heart's content. Then it was time to go back through the two-and-a-half mile, one lane tunnel through Maynard Mountain which I finally got a picture of for Andrew.

Portage Pass Trail

Lots of pictures ahead. I just like to warn you. I took over 250 photos today so I actually think I did a pretty good job narrowing them down!

We hiked Portage Pass trail today which kind of has two parts. There's the kettle ponds and the view facing Whittier which includes Prince William Sound and then there's Portage Lake and Portage Glacier. It was phenomenal, beautiful, amazing hike.

OK, I'm adding in a few more pictures. I just can't bear to delete them off the camera so I know that I'm attached!

Summer Solstice Festival

 

The girls and I went to the Summer Solstice Festival today in downtown Anchorage. It's hard not to celebrate 22 hours of functional daylight, right? We stood in a loooong line for the kayak pool and it was totally worth the wait.

 



Here's Arlie getting her instructions.

 

And here she is leaving everyone in the dust! I heard the helper telling her how good she was at it. 

Arlie definitely has a gift for picking up athletic things quickly!

Andi was content to have her helper push her around while she made a few dips in the water with her paddle.

So profesh!

Kit was only concerned about what we were going to eat next! We tried "gourmet" tater tots and some really good cupcakes.

Because I can't help myself.

Summer Hikes - ERNC

The girls and I went on a hike at the Eagle River Nature Center today. Sometimes I feel bad because Andrew is stuck at work and we're going out on these adventures without him. Then I remember that kids at home = destroyed home. I prefer them working off their normal kid energy in nature. :)

We took the Albert Loop trail which is only about a mile long. We walked past rivers, creeks, beaver dams, and more wildflowers than you could shake a stick at. I let Arlie use my phone and she was particularly enamored of the flowers as you can see in the last picture. It was great seeing what she felt were the best parts of being outside.

Mt Baldy II: The Conquering

I'm going to start this off by talking about photography and what it means to me. I love taking pictures. LOVE. I've read the studies that say taking photos means you'll remember less of the experience but I don't think that applies to me. Photos are my language. I rarely set things up and I love to see if I can capture the essence, the feeling of what we're experiencing.

That said, you can imagine how it killed me that I not only forgot my camera, but also my camera phone on this hike. We went hiking with my friend Tiffany and her kids and Tiffany was nice enough to take photos on her phone and send them to me. If she wouldn't have had hers I'd probably have come home afterwards and sketched it. LOL.

I mean, the two of us got five kids six and under up to the summit of a mountain. There were tantrums going up, there were tantrums going down. But we all perservered and we did it. And we took the hard way - apparently there's an "easier" route and we missed it. We literally walked straight up the face of a mountain. I'm so freaking proud of our kids. Their first summit! For the rest of the day I was under the influence of some pretty crazy mountain-climbing endorphins. I wanted to shout in people's faces, "We just climbed a mountain! Booyah!", so it's probably a good thing that I just went home afterwards. Heh.