Camping at the Matanuska Glacier

This weekend we traveled north about 90 miles to Glacier View, AK. We camped at a place called Grandview RV Park. The weather was great and we had a great time. This area surrounds the Matanuska Glacier. This is a "valley" glacier and it is HUGE!! We have hiking backpacks for Averie and Andrew that we took with us so that we could go hiking. You can drive right down to the glacier and then walk, or hike, right out onto the ice. SO COOL!!!

Bruce hiking on the glacier.

My foot on glacier ice!!

A nice hiker offered to take our picture at the end of the hike. We were all out on the glacier together. Good times!!

Visitors from Alabama....

My parents and my grandmother came to Alaska on June 29th and left on July 9th. We packed in tons of sightseeing while they were here. We went to Whittier, Seward, Anchorage, and Wasilla during their visit. Andrew and Averie seem to be crazy about their "Gram" and "HeyDaddy". Andrew especially loved "HeyDaddy". They took tons of pictures while they were here, so there is no way that I can post them all. Here are a few of my favorites.

This is a picture of me, Bruce, Andrew, and Averie hiking out to Exit Glacier. Andrew is a GREAT hiker. He loved it!!

Averie couldn't quite make it all the way out to the glacier, so Gram stayed back with her while we finished the hike.

I think Bruce is ready to be done with this hike and Averie's crying. Haha

Andrew and Averie eating a cupcake at the Saturday Market in downtown Anchorage.

These next two pictures are of me and mom and me and dad on the wildlife boat tour that we took in Seward, AK. It was a really great excursion!

Singing....well sort of....

Camping...

We took the camper out for a test spin on Memorial Day weekend. I was nervous because Averie and Andrew had never slept in a bed that was not a crib or a pack-n-play. They slept in the double bed in the back of the camper and they did GREAT! They had a hard time going to sleep, of course, but once they were asleep, they slept all night. This first photo of them sliding together at the playground.

This picture is of Andrew and Bruce having breakfast at the table in the camper.

This picture was taken outside, under the awning of the camper. We were just sitting outside relaxing and they started to laugh at each other. VERY CUTE!

Precious time....

I know that it does not look like night time, but this picture was taken at about 8:00 pm. I had been sitting on the floor playing with them and I got tired of the floor so I hopped up in to Averie's mini chair. Those are really comfy, by the way. Over the course of the next few minutes they both crawled up into my lap. They crawl, climb, roll, and slobber on me all day. Sometimes I get really frustrated with them, but at night I am the only one that will do. They don't want anything to do with their daddy or anybody else for that matter. At night, I am on duty no matter what, and I love it!!

Warm days....yeah!!!

Our weather has warmed up quite a bit. Andrew and Averie want to be outside every minute that they are awake. I feel like we have been set free from the snow and harsh winter. When it is sunny outside there is no place on earth more beautiful than Alaska. We are really enjoying being able to go outside and play. I took this picture on one of our walks the other day. I know that she is my child, but I think she is the cutest little girl...hehe!!

Bright nights....early mornings....

Way out here in Alaska we have really short days in the winter and really long days in the summer. Right now we are having days that last about eighteen hours of daylight. When we arrived here last year it was the same way, but the babies didn't seem to have any trouble with the long days. This year, however, we are having lots of trouble. I can't really blame them because the light really tricks you. Really sunny days are harder because the babies get sun in their rooms until about 9:00 pm. I have black out shades on their windows and that helps a TON, but it doesn't make the room completely dark. Tonight we attempted to put them to bed about 8:00 pm. As you can see in the first picture, Andrew was having none of that. This is him standing, looking out of the window at 9:20 pm. It is still really bright outside.

I took this picture a few days ago at 11 pm.

The sun starts coming up by 5:00 am. Andrew is already an early riser and because of the long days he sometimes will get up really early. On this particular day he was awake and ready to party at 5:45 am. I took this picture of him sleeping in his car seat at 11 am. He didn't make it to lunch. He was really tired and out of it the entire day. I usually try to get him to go back to sleep but that day he just wasn't having it!!