A Sincere Apology for Being a Total Slacker

Life has caught up with me lately, and there has been no time for blog posts. (actually, I'm in the middle of a really good book) I have pictures of Alaska that need to be put into a gallery, pictures of the girls meeting the cows at Maryann and Clinton's farm and so much more. I also need to finish Maggie's paperwork for preschool - do they really need 8 pages of paperwork? She's 3! Oh, and we're going camping this weekend - so there's all of that to do too.

And right now I need to clean Maggie up because it's time for ECFE.

So, if I find some time later I may do some of the things on this list.
Blogging may not be one of them.

Here's a picture of Maggie to tie you over. Mmmmmmmmm Peeps.

Parke and Krista's Wedding

We just got back from the wedding. It was a nice little affair at the local public ski area. They rented out the Community Center on the grounds, which is an A-frame chalet with a view of the ski jump area. Really cool.
If anyone is reading these blog posts, please leave a comment. I'm am damn sick and tired of coming up with blog posts and pictures when I don't even know if I have an audience!
I'll post pictures later. Maybe.
Kiss my baby for me!

All I Want for Christmas is Whales and Puffins

Yup, I was prepared to check whales and puffins off of my "to do" list and be content with living the rest of my life in Minnesota with no grand urges to travel the world. Ha! As Bryan said earlier, we saw all kinds of things on our little boat trip, but not a whale or puffin was to be found. Dangnabbit!
Here's us in front of the boat we took out on into Resurrection Bay and beyond. We used Renown Tours and had an absolute blast.



Here's some pics of our trip to Seward in random order:
Seward Harbor











Dall's Porpoise









Mommy and Daddy Big Boat No Big Fish












Seward Highway










Can you tell by the pictures how balmy and tropical it is in Alaska this time of year? This next picture was taken after we rounded a corner and came face to face with a couple of glaciers. The boat captain said the air temp would drop about 20 degrees after we took the corner, and he was right! I estimate the air temp was 10, with a constant 30 mph wind. Got the Southern boys on the boat with us off the deck right quick! We had the whole front deck to ourselves!










The snow field off to the right of this picture is one of the glaciers that was blowing cold air on us. Notice the huge chunks of blue ice on the shore. Cool.










Here's a picture of where an avalanche went into the water. Considerably less scary than the avalanches that come right up to the side of the road on the ride down to Seward! I'll post those pictures next.














On the drive to Seward, first you see the sign, then you see the reason for the sign!
No Stopping? No Problem!














One last picture before I go to bed. Here's me next to a snowbank up on Turnagain Pass. The snow has been melting for a while now, I'm not sure how deep this was to start with. This is a cutout snowbank, not a pushed up snowbank. Crazy.

Moose Breath and Moose's Tooth, Another Perfect Day

Hey all, Mary here. Just in case anyone was confused - or cared - this post will probably be dated Saturday, but it's still Friday here - and Bryan's last post was made on Thursday night not Friday like it says.

We took another trip down the scenic Seward Highway again today, but only went about 40 miles down to the end of Turnagain Arm. This is a picture of the inlet that you drive along. You can see the mud flats in the picture here because the tide was out, yesterday morning, this was all covered in water.


We went to see the animals at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It's a wildlife rehab and education center that has moose, bears, elk, Sitka deer, bison, caribou, muskox, coyotes and other animals. We had a great time and took a ton of pictures. I also got up close and personal with a moose!













Unfortunately, there was a fence that you can't see in these pics. But he did stick his nose through and I was able to pat him on the nose. I got to pet a moose! How cool is that?!

After our little day trip, we went out for a late lunch at the Moose's Tooth. It is a pizza place/brew pub here in Anchorage. This is the second time we've eaten here since we've arrived and it was killer. Highly recommended to anyone who happens to make it up here.

Anyway, that's enough for this post. I'm going to go through our pictures from the boat trip in Seward and hopefully make another post tonight.
Kiss my baby for me!

What a day!

Ok. The scenery here is amazing. The people here are fun. We didn't see any whales, but we saw harbor seals, sea lions, bald eagles, and Dall's porpoises. We drove the 3 hours to Seward, did the 4 hour cruise, and drove back and went out for an amazing dinner. There are many stories to tell, but I'm tired. Here are some pics that don't do justice to the amazing scenery:

In Alaska

Well, we made it. Here's a view from the airport. You may have to click on the picture to get a decent view of the mountains in the background. We're driving to Seward in the morning. I'm sure that we'll have much better pics to post tomorrow night.

See that flat-topped mountain over toward the right of the picture? It's called flat-top mountain. Parke's place is just down from there. That's how it was explained to us. Nice chalet type building that Parke has been doing a lot of work on.

Too Much Fun

It was absolutely gorgeous here on Saturday - 60 degrees and sunny - a perfect day for Leah's 2nd Birthday Party. After dinner the kids went outside to play and Lori got these pics of Mao Mao and LeLe. These pictures evoke scary thoughts of the two of them as teenagers. Just 14 more years and Leah's on the road with Maggie laughing her butt off in the passenger's seat. Oy vey.
My mom told me that Maggie's working the "gas" because Leah's feet don't reach the pedals. She also forgets to steer, but that's a story for another day.







Here's a couple more pictures of the two: