Take a Hike!

Yesterday (April 29th) Dad, Mark, Keith (both vendors), and I took a hike to the Mendenhall Glacier. The huge amount of snow made the journey much more difficult. We took a path that led off the main road. We thought it would lead back to the main route, but we were wrong. It led through a crazy trail to a rocky mountain face that we climbed and then right on the other side was the glacier. It was absolutely amazing and so much fun! We all got to actually touch the glacier. Definitely the highlight of the trip! =)

Dad and I, we finally got a picture together!

Ok, these pics aren't in order, but this is a closeup of part of the glacier.

I made it!!

It's kinda hard to see, but the white fluffy things are mountain goats! There were seven of them, one more thing to add to our wild life list.


Dad and I trying to figure out how to get across a raging river, it looked easy until we got into this position!

The inside of a glacier cave. The ice was crazy blue. We aren't sure if the ice is actually blue or if its just the shadows and light that make it appear blue. Anybody know?

Some sweet river pics!

Dad hiking in the snowy forest.
The glacier from a distance.

Ok, the rest of the pics are from our drive from Fairbanks back to Anchorage.

Ok, first isn't that a cool pic? Second, see the tallest two mountains in the distance to the left? Well, we're pretty sure that is Mount McKinley (a.k.a. Denali) the tallest mountain in North America.

Another animal group to add to our wildlife list... CARIBOU! We saw eleven of them (split between two groups) while we were driving.

Some pretty mountains.... there are a lot of them in Alaska!

So we came from the nicest hotel in Alaska called the Captain Cook, to this old cabin without running water, a record player, and animal fur hanging everywhere called Trapper Johns! It was really cool!

I let Dad have the bed with the dead wolf hanging over it!

This is my bed and the door led to a little wash up station with a bowl and pitcher and a creepy "hair dryer" that looked like it would set my hair on fire!

More pretty mountains... I think I'll stop labeling these.

Our final animal count is: 14 moose, 11 caribou, 7 mountain goats, and around 30 eagles. (We only count the wild ones, not the ones we saw at the refuge and we also don't count the dead halibut we ate, the stuffed animals we saw, the animal skins we saw, and the everyday ravens and seagulls. Just wanting to be clear.)

Well, we leave for Seattle tonight, and will be home tomorrow (late).

Finally, we found some time to upload some cool photos of our trip:

This is Mt. Redoubt, which started erupting in March, but is still spewing clouds of gas. They expect another lava eruption anytime. We are looking at it from the Kenai Peninsula, across Cook Inlet (on our way to Homer). We're about 20 miles away! There's still volcanic ash all over the streets and plants.

This is a sunset from our Anchorage hotel room. We're staying at the Hotel Captain Cook--one of the nicest places in all of Alaska.

At the Soldotna show (the first one), we got the coveted "bear booth." Steph thought of putting one of our catalogs in the bear's claw.

We saw some eagles on our drive to Homer, but the best shots we got were at a trash dump. I guess eagles are pretty much scavengers. They sure look beautiful, though.

Speaking of beautiful, here's a shot we're going to send to Irish Dancing & Culture magazine. In the background is Homer Spit. It's pretty much "the end of the world."

This shot is from Homer. It's the halibut fishing capital of the world. We've been eating lots of halibut on this trip--yumm.

This is from Homer Spit too.

This shot is from a scenic overlook as you enter Homer, Alaska. I've been told Homer is the prettiest place in Alaska. It's hard to argue. And we had an unusually beautiful day for our visit.

One of several wild moose we've seen on our trip. This was one of three who crossed the road just ahead of us. Alaskans find this pretty ho-hum, but it's still cool to us. Note: 162 moose have been killed by motor vehicles on the Kenai Peninsula since last July!

This cool shot was taken on our way back from Homer. In the foreground is a Russian Orthodox cemetary. Cook inlet and a mountain range we don't know the name of is in the background.

This is the Turnagain Arm--on the way from Anchorage to Soldotna/Homer.

This is a mountain (duh). We stopped at a wildlife conservation area where they have various Alaskan animals behind fences. These are elk.

A genuine grizzly bear (called brown bear here). It was inside a fence.

A moose.

More later!

Alakan Mountains....and Moose!

Hey everbody, Steph here! Sorry we haven't posted yet. We've been extrememly busy. It feels like we've been gone for weeks instead of days! Don't believe we've been that busy? Well, here's proof.

Since Sunday morning we have...

• Ridden in 3 airplanes, a taxi, a bus, a monorail, a huge van, a rental car, and walked for many miles around Seattle and airports.
• Been to the top of the Seattle Space Needle. (Its' amazing how easy it is to lose sight of a building that tall. We got totally lost trying to find it.)
• Seen the famous fish-throwing fish market and the rest of the interesting (and sometimes odd) stands in the Seattle Public Market.
• Seen 7 moose!
• Seen a ton of bald eagles and several, well, non-bald eagles.
• Visited an animal refuge and saw a bunch of animals including some brown bears (i.e. grizzlies)!
• Driven from Anchrage to Soldotna.
• Seen two active volcanoes with smoke bellowing out (pretty sweet).
• Seen the Portage Glacier (from a distance).
• Drove from Soldotna to Homer and drove along the Homer Spit (BEAUTIFUL!).
• Eaten hamburgers, pizza, a pile of amazing seafood (clams, oysters, crab, shrimp), the nation's best calm chowder, halibut tacos, fried halibut, fried halibut (we like halibut), Alaskan Amber (for Dad of course), and i had my first cream soda!
• watched "Bourne Identitiy" in our hotel room.
• I practiced dance and dad worked out (we're not complete bums!).
• been at the convention all day today. (it's acutually still going on, just taking a break to blog!)
• I made a little 2 1/2 year old friend named Clara. (She was SO CUTE!)
• Taken a ton of videos and photos that we will try to put up soon! (we're having some technical difficulty with the videos. ) =)

After the convention we're driving back to Anchorage.

Well, we miss you all and will see you when we get back! More posts to come!

10th Annual Bunny Pictures

When Madison was 4 months old we did our first spring bunny picture in front of our pink azaleas. Here are this year's pictures. Same ears--same azaleas.

Pictures from Taylor's Surprise Party

FINALLY, here are pictures from Taylor's surprise party which was held at the Wallis Home. Below, the girls wait for Taylor in Helena's room.

Taylor was VERY surprised when she opened the door!!!!

Many thanks to Helena for planning and hosting the party. She did a fantastic job!

Lunch was pulled-beef barbeque sandwiches, and we had ice cream sundaes for dessert.

To get her group gift, Taylor was sent on a scavenger hunt.

Her treasure was buried, so she had to dig for it.

The group gift was cash to go on a shopping spree.

Taylor and her sisters:

Taylor and Coleman:

Taylor and Auntie Beck:

Taylor with Mrs. Wallis and Helena. Thanks again for hosting such a fun afternoon!

Taylor with Marie Hughes, Rachel, and Sarah. We are so glad you could be in town for Taylor's party.

The gang!