Glacier Boat Tour 2009

On Saturday, August 22 our little family took quite an adventure.  We took the train from Anchorage to Whittier, AK.  In Whittier boarded a boat that took on a fifty mile round trip tour of Prince William Sound.  For those of you that remember and for those of you that don't, Prince William Sound was the site of the Valdez oil spill back in 1989.  Anyway, the crew served lunch as we traveled out and then we spent a couple of hours traveling up to two major glaciers. Since we took this trip last week and this week has been really busy, I can only remember that one of the glaciers was the Belliot Glacier.  I can't remember the other one and I am going to blame that on "Mom Brain".  After the boat tour we re-boarded the train to ride back to Anchorage.  Although it was a long day, we had a wonderful time as a family.  We have never had time to do stuff like this together and I am really enjoying spending time with just our family.  I think that we will be occupied for a long time exploring the state of Alaska. 

My Little Musician

Andrew and Averie have a Drum that they play with all the time.  However, lately, it has been Averie's favorite toy.  She will sit for twenty minutes and play her drum.  She stand up and holds the drum, she bounces her bottom up and down while she is playing the drum, it is just hilarious.  Anyway, I took a couple of pictures of her today and thought I would share them.  

Salmon Fishing...

Bruce and Greg went fishing early this morning.  They fished about an hour and a half and brought home 5 silver salmon.  One of the fish that Bruce caught weighed about 20 pounds.  They cleaned them and they are in our frig.  They had a really good time and I am glad that Bruce is finally able to do some things that he likes to do, versus working all the time.  

some videos

First Hike in Alaska

We went on our first hike in Alaska yesterday.  We drove about ten miles out to the Eagle River Nature Center and hiked for about 2 miles.  We have purchased hiking backpacks to carry the babies because strollers are not an option out there.  The first picture is the view at the start of our hike.  

Averie proved to be quite the hiker.  She LOVED it!!  She smiled and talked the entire way.  She also jumped up and down in the backpack which was quite fun for me.  I know these look like they would be heavy, but the pack itself just weighs 4 pounds.  It really wasn't so bad.  Oh, Averie also loved pulling my hair!!
When Andrew first got in his pack he was very nervous.  After a while though, he was smiling and happy just like his sister.  

We hiked out to this hollow tree, which proved to be a good place for taking pictures.  
Our first family photo on a hike in Alaska.  Aren't you all very proud of me for doing this?