Alaska #1

May ended with our trip to Alaska.  Jared's sister moved up there last August, we decided to get up there as soon as they were done with school, just in case she decided one Alaska winter was enough for her!  Thankfully, she didn't!  And thankfully we made it up there for some wonderful family fun and got to see the Lord's beautiful creation that is on display everywhere you look in Alaska!

Our trip started with some family fun!  We got in late Saturday night, at 11:00pm, but the sun was still shining so we were filled with energy and able to chat!  Sunday morning came early and we were off to church then back to the house for some quality cousin fun!!  The kids were entertained most of the day by these balloons!

Here they are about 9pm, bouncing away in their pj's!  Thomas loved this!  Getting to be outside, with his cousins, jumping.

Monday morning we headed down the coast on Highway 1 towards Seward.  Everywhere I looked caused my mouth to drop open at the majesty of creation.  I couldn't get enough pictures along the highway.  Out one window was snow, the other, dry mountains with waterfalls of snow melt running down.  Around every turn was more beauty.

The boys did a great job on the 3 hour drive.  They kept themselves entertained with some fun car activities and keeping their eyes out for a moose.

(these picutres should actually be after the conservation pictures, but just go along with me!)
Monday late afternoon we got into Seward and went straight to the Aquarium where the boys were able to get up close to all sorts of sea life.  This was extra good timing for Thomas because they were right in the middle of studying the ocean at school!

Benjamin was fascinated with everything:

Thomas was excited to tell Grammy Berry that he got to meet some Puffins.  This one was super friendly.  If you waved at him he would wave back, the boys loved it.

They had this awesome touch pool, which was probably Ben's favorite.

Eventually we made our way downstairs to this awesome scene!  A 1700lb Stellar Sea Lion named Woody, was gracefully swimming around.

We ended our tour back at this fun boat play area and got Thomas to take our picture.

Now back to the first part of our day:

This is one of my favorite shots, not amazing quality or anything, just the beauty of the snow, mountains and water.

We came across the Wildlife Conservation Center that my parents had visited and raved about.  It was a great place to see the wild life that Alaska has to offer. We saw Moose, Bears, Bison, an Eagle and so much more!

Thomas saw the snow up in the mountains and desperately wanted to play in it.  He was thrilled when we found this pile of collected and dirty snow and went to town.  Isn't it amazing there, just check out the background.

We stayed in Seward at a holiday inn with a pool.  Imagine swimming in Alaska!  We actually had to go to Walmart to get bathing suits because who brings their bathing suits to Alaska!!!  Well, the hotel was fine, until the electricity went out in the middle of the night and the elevator starting beeping.  Oh well, always an adventure.  Thomas favorite part of the hotel was bed hopping.  Every boys favorite part of a hotel!

We had a chance on Tuesday to take a boat tour and see some wildlife in their natural habitat.  It was amazing!!  We saw birds, an otter mama floating on her back with her pup on her belly, goats climbing the mountain side, porpoises, someone saw a bear on the mountain side, a bald eagle in its nest and just the beauty of the landscape.

The best part was when we saw the stellar sea lions lounging and barking and then saw 4 killer whales (orcas) swimming on down ready for a hunt.  It was amazing to see them, real life national geographic's played out in front of our eyes!

While on board, Thomas got pinned as a Jr. Ranger.  He had a book he had to complete and then had a whole ceremony and everything.  It was cute to see him take it so seriously.

Part of the cruise was a salmon and prime rib lunch, which was fabulous, on a little island.  We got to explore and skip some rocks.

On our way back to Anchorage we made a little detour to a glacier.  Well the road was closed up to it, but we got a great view and had a fun snowball fight.  Off the overpass looking down into a river we saw some HUGE moose tracks!  They had to be the size of my head!!  The view was breath taking and the camera was dead!!  I got a bunch of pictures of the snowball fight, the view, Nope... Oh well

IT was amazing to have a couple days to just take in the beauty of God's Earth.  We spent the rest of the time enjoying family and checking out their area.