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!