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!