Day 1: The Market and a Boat Ride (Kallie put her gum on the Gum Wall - a highlight)
Day 2: Seattle Center, an awesome playground and the Children's Museum
Day 3: The Aquarium
Icing on the Seattle Cake - riding home in the Disney plane!! Tinkerbell was on the side. Travelling by myself with the kids was not fun and don't want to do anytime soon even though they both were great!
On the way to my brother's, we met up with a great friend and her kiddos (we were pregnant at the same time). It was fun to watch the girls interact and play, and I got to meet her little boy and pester her with questions about boys!
We also met up with a great friend and her twin boys we knew in Oklahoma. Kallie and her boys had such an awesome time playing together and makes me wish we were closer so they could do it more often.
Kallie at the park - getting a high five :)
We had some Easter fun with an egg drop / hunt. It was crazy crowded but Kallie managed to get some bubbles and a few bits of candy. She had fun anyway.
Kallie fell in love with her new cousin. At first she was nervous but then wanted to be wherever Clara was. It was so sweet! Kallie is going to be a great big sis'.
We spent about a week in Texas visiting family and meeting the newest addition, baby Clara. We had a wonderful time! First half was with my parents out in the country. Just gorgeous weather while we were there. Bluebonnets were everywhere too!
And Kallie learned to ride a bike (with training wheels) and became an expert by the time we made it to my brother's.
Kallie of course had her tradition of popsicles with Popsy. She also helped plant a garden, rode and drove the gator, swung in her tire swing and pretty much spent all day outside.
We spent the weekend down in Girdwood enjoying the time away (i.e. swimming pool). We spent a lot of time at the swimming pool, took the tram up the mountain (so sad the small amount of snow at the base), ate some good food and went ice skating on a pond, which was a little unsettling to think you're skating on frozen water that could break but it was the real deal pond skating just like the movies. Pretty cool! Oh, and I got a massage which was wonderful.
is some SUNSHINE!!! We had Christmas in Cabo this year. Sunny and 75, just beautiful.
We had a great time visiting with family, and Kallie loved playing with her cousins. The guys went fishing one day and played golf another. The gals got massages and we all got to meet some dolphins. The kids loved playing in the water and could stay there all day. Of course, Kallie loves sand.
Almost all day wildlife cruise. Poor Kallie was cooped up on a boat but she didn't seem to mind too much. It was a beautiful day and we did see a lot of animals: sea lions, puffins, humpback whales, orca whales and sea otters. Plus some glaciers and great scenery.
We spent lots of time on the dock pointing out jellyfish, too. We were ready for bedtime that night.
Day 3: Sled Dog Rides, Exit Glacier and the return Train Ride
I was really excited about this portion of our trip. I thought Kallie would love being around the dogs and you even got to play with puppies. True to their word, we did get to hold puppies. And it was fantastic!
This is a video of the dogs. They were super excited to go running (wish I could say that).
This is a video of our ride.
We took a pretty narrow path to get right up to exit glacier. Kyle even got some glacier water for us to drink. Kallie's favorite was playing in the water, dirt and rocks.
We had a great time doing all the touristy stuff. I think a few "tourists" were annoyed with a 2 year old running around but I just let Kallie keep singing the same verse of the same song over and over and over just to annoy them a little more.
Train ride back was pretty brutal. We were ready to be home. If there was any way to ride the train down and have your own car to drive back, that would be ideal. Next time we head to Seward, we'll do more hiking, kayaking and outdoorsy stuff.
Our Alaskan "vacation" this year was to Seward. We decided a train ride would be a fun way to get there so that's what we did.
Day 1: Train ride to Seward then Sea Life Center and park
It was a really beautiful ride, though 4 hours long. Only problem was we had to get up so early! They stopped the train around Turnagain Arm as there were Beluga's eating up salmon. Cool to watch.
The Sealife Center was pretty neat too. They even had an exhibit where you could touch starfish and other sea animals. Kallie was not thrilled. She did enjoy checking out the other animals, though.
We headed to the park afterwards, which Kallie always loves. She's such a ham.
We checked out the docks to see what people caught that day. Someone had caught a 200 lb halibut. It was huge! Bigger and taller than Kyle. Now that's a lot of fish.
View from dinner:
Beautiful rainbow on the way back to our hotel:
We had a fun first day. Seward is a beautiful town (and very walkable).
Next up...Bubbie & Bapaw's house! She got to spend a lot of time with her cousins and had more pool time. I was able to see her over a weekend too!
She had awesome time here too. Poor Kyle was left with Skype and FaceTime for 3 weeks. It was really long and tough to be gone from her that long but I know both grandparent's had a blast.
By the way, the sunset was at about midnight when we flew into Alaska. Beautiful but, it was nice to have a normal day/night for a few weeks.
I had some work to do in the L48 so took Kallie with me to spend 3 weeks with grandparents. This was my first flight from Alaska with Kallie by myself and it turned out pretty good.
We left for the airport at about 1 AM. Never ever doing that again to save a few $$. Way too early but at least Kallie was not too crazy.
First stop was my brother's house. They had an awesome kid's pool and Kallie kept asking to go back.
Next was to Lolly & Popsy's house. As you can see, they did a lot. Even a trip to the Frio where she said she was a "river rat". Her hair started to curl up too in the heat and humidity.
What a blast Kallie had! Next up...Bubbie and Bapaw's!
One weekend I headed out on a girl's trip to Seattle (the perfect middle spot). It was a fantastic time of adventuring, shopping, and catching up. And Seattle was great, too.
Hot spots included: Gum Wall, Pikes Market, Space Needle, Bainsbridge Ferry, Fish Chunking and Coffee Runs with some unsual sites along the way. Lindsay has better pictures on her phone so I'll upload if I get more.
Our time together was so refreshing! Hopefully we can make this an annual occurence (or at least every few year). I vote Napa next!
Of course I couldn't stand being away from Kallie that long but looked like she had a fantastic time with Dad. Lots of time at the park (when did she get so big?).
Farmers Market runs, Costco lunch and picnic while watching Frozen. So glad they both survived! :)
We spent some time in TX in March with both families. As you can see we all had a wonderful time. Kallie did some planting/gardening, reading, feeding the deer (and turkeys), cow petting, gator riding, and having her first taste of s'mores.
We also played at the Woodlands Children's Museum, more reading, golf cart riding, swinging, feeding the ducks and turtles, and exploring.
Our first weekend to get out of Anchorage, we headed south to the Wildlife Conservation Center. It was a beautiful sunny day for winter and it was a gorgeous drive.
The Wildlife Conservation Center was really neat. You can drive around it or get out and walk the loop. We got out and walked around with Kallie. There were so many animals to see and a lot really close up. We saw moose, musk ox, wood bison, elk, bears, foxes, owls, deer, lynx, bald eagles and more. Well worth the trip.
It was getting close to lunch time so we decided to head to Girdwood. We rode the tram up and ate lunch at the top of the mountain at the Alyeska ski resort.
Our ulterior motive was to check out the skiing and get the scoop on where everything was. We definitely have the itch to go soon! Too bad the weather has been too WARM.
There are some fantastic hiking trails too so we will definitely be back if not to go skiing.
