Andi's Fourth Birthday

It was Andi's birthday and it was a fun day. She got to wear her princess dress backwards and was first to do/get everything today (a big deal in a family of five!). We went to Chuck E. Cheese which Andrew and I were kind of dreading but ended up really enjoying. It was the best one we've ever been to: clean, enthusiastic and friendly staff, and lots of games. I didn't get any photos because we were too busy chasing kids and having a blast!

We came home for cake and presents. Each birthday I ask the girls what kind of cake they want. Andi asked for a, "chocolate vanilla ice cream cake" in a kind of way that made me think this was a very big soon-to-be four-year-old's wildest fantasy, a dream that she wasn't sure could even come true. I couldn't make it, but I could sure buy it. Heh. The birthday candles disappeared out of the drawer but I don't even think she noticed she was blowing out Ikea tea lights.

Here's Andi's birthday questions (a few were omitted because she's still a bit too young for them):

1. What is your favorite color?  Pink

 2. What is your favorite toy?  Sticky Spider-Man (editor's note: the last photo above).

3. What is your favorite tv show or movie? The Simpsons. (editor's note: not sure if she's actually even seen it)

4. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Fruit and noodles and pizza.

6. What is your favorite snack?  Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

7. What is your favorite animal?  A bear.

9. What is your favorite book? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

10. Who is your best friend?  Maddie.

11. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Surprise (editor's note: ????)

 12. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go camping in the motorhome.

 13. What is your favorite drink? Apple juice.

 14. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

15. What do you want to be when you grow up? Bike rider.

18. I am afraid to ... be in the dark.

 19. Name one thing you do really well? Play checkers. (editor's note: um, this one is a surprise to me. I didn't know she even was aware what checkers were! The way she answered it all nonchalant was pretty amusing as well)

 21. What is your favorite time of day? Going to school (editor's note: she doesn't go to school yet).

  24. What makes you feel sad? Dreaming about monsters

 25. What makes you feel happy? Aunt Heather and Shannon.

26. Pretend that you can fly wherever you wanted. Where would you go? To the stars.

 27. If I could choose a different name, I would choose…Abby.

28. Where do you want to go on vacation? McDonalds.

 29. What is your favorite thing to do with Mom and Dad? Watching a show.

Junior Golf Camp

Last summer Arlie decided she wanted to play golf. Neither Andrew or I play and we're not sure where this idea came from. She had to wait a year but finally she was old enough for the Anchorage Golf Course junior golf camp. She's only two days in and is already planning next summer's camp. :)

Andi wants to play now too, but I suspect it's because she believes it's the ticket to getting behind the wheel of a golf cart.

Byron Glacier

Even when Andrew wants to stay at home and relax on the weekend I have a hard time doing so knowing that our sunny/non-freezing time is limited. It probably gets on his nerves seeing me pace like a tiger in front of the southern-facing windows, and by Sunday he's agreed to do something, anything, with me.

Bryon Glacier had been on our to-do list anyway. Heh.

 

The hike had wildflowers on both sides the whole way up. I'm going to do an entire post on the wildflowers later because it really is something special. . .

 

We were curious about this hike because people kept talking about how neat it was to get so close to a glacier. But their pictures would be of them standing on what looked like a snowfield with the glacier right behind them. We could not figure out why hikers would not just go a few extra hundred yards past the snowfield and touch the real glacier.

 

 

And once we got there we figured it out. When you take your picture close to the Byron Glacier (like those people above) it looks just like a snowfield. And because of perspective, it looks like the "real" glacier in the background is much closer than it actually is. It's actually very, very far away and would be one heck of a tiring climb.

 

Luckily there's no reason to do it. There's a pretty awesome glacier to explore underfoot.

 



You have to wade through the fast-moving, ice-cold streams to get to the best parts of the glacier.

Want to make your feet really mad at you? We'd wade through one ice water stream and then wait for our feet to stop hurting before we went through the next one. It was when the water starting coming up to my knees that I'd start making high-pitched, strangly noises. It was COLD.

This part of the glacier was the hardest to access but well worth it. We were being conscious of safety which is good since the melting glacier dropped a rock just a few feet away from us at one point. There was a cave further in where a stream was coming out but was too dangerous to explore or photograph. The warm wind coming down through it felt pretty eerie.

Short fireweed looking away from Byron Glacier and towards Portage Lake.

The girls found a small, dead fish in a puddle in one of the parking lots of the Portage Lake Visitors Center. I know it was probably dropped there by a bird but I prefer imagining it grew up in the puddle until the summer sun started evaporating it's home.

Iceberg in Portage Lake.

Hatcher Pass

We'd been up to the Hatcher Pass area earlier this year when we visited Independence Mine. We had to wait a few more weeks for the pass to open due to snow. It's mind-boggling to see the changes that just a few weeks makes here in Alaska.

My family from far away!

Summit Lake.

Our area of Alaska is covered in wildflowers right now, Hatcher Pass is no exception.

The edge of the waterfall looking towards Willow. We just went to the summit of the pass and back down the way we came (from Palmer). We know the drive from Palmer to Anchorage is mostly pretty, and we know the drive from Willow to Anchorage is mostly. . . not.

We're Heaters. We look for rocks. It's who we are, it's what we do.

Quartz sandwich.

Andrew living life on the edge.

This one's for Kit. And Andrew.

The view from the summit looking back down. It's almost unreal!

Homer

Long post, lots o' pictures, blah, blah, blah. I had a lot of fun photographing our four fabulous days in Homer, and even Andrew took a few pictures (hint: I'm in them!).

There's nice walking/biking trail that goes the length of the spit.

When we first got to the spit I felt pretty bad since I had planned the whole thing. We had driven five-and-a-half hours and were committed to three nights at an expensive RV park and it didn't look like there was much to do besides fish. The private beach was rocky and we had passed all the stores miles ago in town.

We decided to make the best of it and for an activity we'd walk down the spit as far as we could go. Then we discovered that we hadn't passed all the good stuff. We found shops, restaurants, bakeries, and plenty of pretty scenery further. Whew!

Bird's the word.

The ladies! Kit wanted out of the stroller.

This was the view from the front window of our motorhome from our camping spot. I took this at about 11:15 pm.

Then later that day we thought we'd check out the other side of road from our RV park. Real beach! We've visited a few saltwater beaches in Alaska (Whittier and Seward) but this was the first that gave us the ocean experience we are familiar with. The smell, the wind, the sound of waves, and actual sand! Our time in Homer was getting better and better.

Arlie was the chickeniest chicken that ever chickened.

Sunset looking back up the spit towards Homer.

Saturday morning we went for a walk to eat some brunch at La Baleine. It was so good!

Pieces of coal caught in the sand ripples.

 

We tried taking pictures of our "treasures" instead of keeping them but we still ended up bringing a bucket full home. Oh, well.

P.S. I also added a few more pictures to the Portage Pass post if you're interested.

Mt. Baldy 3: The Baldening

I wanted to take more photos of the people on this hike since it's so easy to get distracted by the scenery but Kit and I ended up bringing the rear. Like, the really far back rear. So I got a lot of faraway shots which turned out neat too (thanks to Sophie for the close-up of the kids).

We hiked up the saddle this time which was 1,000 times easier with the kids than when we went up the face. We still got all the satisfaction of reaching a summit without all the scary parts. Except one: towards the end of the hike one of the kids yelled, "Bear!" and my heart went up into my throat. I started to take off my pack to get the bear spray when I came around the corner to see them pointing to a lost stuffed animal laying on the trail. That was pretty funny.

Also towards the end of the trail there's an abandoned cabin next to a pond. The kids enjoyed cooling off in the water on the way down. We couldn't have asked for a better day!