Weekend Adventures: Just Hanging Out, Thunderbird Falls, and the Summer Solstice Festival

So once we got home from our little trip to Valdez Nathaniel began to prepare for his bear hunt. He entered a drawing and won a guided bear hunt, which is awesome...except that there will be a bear on my wall😭😭 as he was preparing for his hunt, we found out that his grandmother passed away. I've talked about her a little bit before but she was a wonderful lady who battled emphysema for years. She is a very loved woman who is missed dearly. Nathaniel received the news and then left the next morning on his hunt. He had a great time and I know it was good for him. I truly believe that fresh air can heal the soul. 

The bear. I so do not want that in the house😭

As soon as he got home from the hunt he was off again for a two week TDY. The kids and I mostly just hung out while we was gone but we also did some fun stuff. We walked down to Ship Creek (the portion that's on base) a couple of times and threw rocks in the water. Caden and Isla had so much fun each time we went. 

We saw a moose that day too! The pictures are terrible but it was a cute moose.

We enjoyed a ton a sunshine!! We found some new-to-us parks, saw bears, painted rocks, all sorts of fun stuff!

He is so handsome

With Gigi's help we planted a garden!!

I got this picture one day. She is so stinking cute! She looks so babyish here, I love it!!

A mama bear and three cubs! They were so cute I almost died

Then Nathaniel made it home! He got home on a Friday and on Saturday we went to the Summer Solstice Festival! 

 We hit the Saturday market first and got Isla this crown. But if she won't wear it then someone has to😉

Blue lips from eating cotton candy haha we go to as many festivals and fairs that we can but we really don't spend that much money. I usually pack the kids a lunch, plenty of snacks, and water. It kills me to buy them food because they never eat it. But I will get them popcorn or cotton candy (they had cotton candy once this entire summer)! We don't buy souvenirs either. If there's something we really like we might get it, but we don't typically just buy stuff (however, I did get that crown for Isla. That was rare and I had just gotten Caden something the day before. I try to be fair. Plus the crown was three bucks--I couldn't pass it up! I had one when I was a little girl.). So we get to do a lot of fun stuff and we're frugal about it! 

 

I'm a little out of order now because we actually did Thunderbird Falls before we did any of this other stuff. Thunderbird Falls is easy, well traveled, and popular. It was easy for the kids and they had a blast (well, Caden did haha). If Isla had actually walked it would have been an easy and fun hike. But, in typical diva form, she only walked about one-fourth of the way. Nathaniel carried her for a while and I carried her on my back in my Ergo for a while. She HATED it. But we did the entire hike and I'm glad we forced them to have fun! haha 

Looking at the falls!

Aren't these roots the coolest?!

Terrible picture of me but look at how mad she is lol I carried her all the way back up like that. It was hard work! 

Weekend Adventures: Valdez

Summer is officially over😭😭 I'm not a summer girl but I really enjoyed this summer! It was so sunny and warm. We did so much stuff and a had a great time. 

The day after my 27th birthday (27 years old?!?! How...why...seriously, why?! Last I checked I was like 23. Sigh.) we drive five-ish hours to Valdez to go "camping". Honestly, I didn't want to go. Like, what's in Valdez?! Can't we just hike around somewhere close by and then come home to sleep in our own beds?? Camping just ain't my thing. But I sucked it up and went anyways, because I'm awesome like that😋 actually, it's because 1) I didn't have a choice and 2) we said we weren't going to waste time while living in AK. So we went. And stayed in a cabin. So, yea...we went "camping" hahahah

Not great quality but let's be real here. iPhone pictures taken while in a moving car are NEVER good quality haha

But this one is!

Summer in AK=filthy windshields. And usually a crack or two. Or a thousand. Somehow our windshield made it through breakup season and summer without a single crack or chip. Of course, now I've just jinxed it. 

He is so blasted cute

Happily watching a movie. We bought the DVD players specifically for this trip. 

Look at this cute little cabin! And that cute girl on the porch! We went with a bunch of people from Nathaniel's unit. A few people rented cabins, at least one went tent camping, and all the rest had RVs or campers or whatever they're called. Maybe someday we'll get one. I could "camp" that way haha

We walked down to see the catch of the day! Ew. But yuuuuummm

Oh look, Caden's throwing rocks in water. Literally his favorite thing on earth to do. 

S'mores and pj's 

The next day a bunch of the guys went fishing in the morning. I'm glad Nathaniel got to go but we were so bored in the morning. 6am is a great time to wake up while camping, according to my kids. We made our own fun but it was a relief when they all back (around lunchtime). 

That's a wide sidewalk that she's next to, not the road. The road was on the other side of the grass behind the sidewalk.

This big tic-tac-toe board was fun!

We walked down to a fish fry! It was yummy and it was free! It was also gorgeous and HOT. If it gets to like 80 degrees, we're dying! 

We drive out of town a little ways to check out the waterfalls. They were beautiful 

We hopped the guardrail to get closer. That's safe, right? I ripped my new jeans on the guardrail too😭 also, he's way too big to be holding like that!! 

Super cool train tunnel with a cool story! 

Sleepy little girl 

We went back into town to watch a local guy feed eagles. It was so cool!!

 Pictures do not do this experience justice. I posted a video on Facebook a while back. If anyone wants to see it, I can repost it.

More eagles!

And then we drove home the next day! It was short and sweet and we had a great time. We got to hang out with friends, eat some darn good food, and see new things. We got to go geocaching for the first time, throw rocks in waterfalls, and get eaten alive by mosquitos. 

As soon as we got back on base we saw a bear! So cool! 

Weekend Adventures

We moved back to our beloved Alaska at the end of December and we've decided that we won't miss a single second of this amazing opportunity. When we lived here before (as a military family, 2010-2013) we didn't really do anything. We went to the Saturday Market once or twice a year and watched Netflix. We hiked the most basic, most popular mountain, Flattop, once. Once in three years. We both worked and then when Caden was born I felt like we couldn't do anything because we had a baby. We still did a few things, such as the Conservation Center, Bear Paw Festival...and that's all I can think of. We didn't waste time here before, we just didn't spend it they way we should have. But we were so young (it's only a two year difference, yet we've changed and grown so much. I would hardly recognize my old self if I happened upon her) and were new parents and it's ok. We've been given another chance and we're seizing it😊

In the last seven months we've done so much. We've been on some fun adventures together! Now, our adventures aren't anything compared to stepping foot in the Arctic Circle or attempting climb Mt. McKinley (Mt. Denali now. But I think I'll probably always call it McKinley!) but we have so much fun. We find the parks and kid friendly hikes and eat. That's my kinda adventure😋 I wanted to talk about the fun things we've done and kind of make a series out of it. The summer's halfway over so I have some backtracking to do (as usual😉). 

So Nathaniel was gone for five weeks in April and May but as soon as he got back we got started on our adventures. First we went to the Anchorage Market and Festival (we've always just call it the Saturday Market), which is always fun. 

 

 

We went to the reindeer farm out in Palmer. Nathaniel ended up with a four day weekend the weekend that he came home so we had a couple days to explore😊

It was cooooooold!! Even though it was May, it was frigid. 

Petting a cute little pig!

This adorable pup became Caden's bestie. I wanted to take him home so bad!!

Hanging out with Bruce Wayne. The bunny version, not the superhero/multibillionaire/secret identity of Batman. Too bad 😂 

Feeding Dolly! She liked to eat sticks

Feeding the reindeer!! Their lips felt so cool and they have no front teeth! Their antlers are very sensitive and we were asked to be sure not to touch them. 

The reindeer were so sweet. I loved them. We also fed elk. They were adorable! 

I scored this beauty. I'm pretty sure I bought this sweatshirt on the way home but now I can't remember when I got it!

The next day we drove to Talkeetna. I ❤️❤️❤️ Talkeetna. It's such a cute little town!! That's one place we actually did go to when we were here before! We went before I was even pregnant with Caden. 

We went to an awesome park just outside of town!

We walked into town and walked around for a couple hours. It's such a cute place! 

Lunch at Mountain High Pizza Pie! So yummy! Nathaniel had green chile chili. In Talkeenta, Alaska. So weird haha we sure miss green chile on everything!

We walked this little historic trail. Super short but interesting.

We walked down to the river. Caden got to do his most favorite thing on earth: throw rocks in water 

The oldest building on Talkeenta!

This is outside of Talkeetna but it's gorgeous. 

So that was one weekend! We had a blast. I'm so glad we're getting out and exploring!