Alaska Trip

We got back Monday from our trip to Alaska to visit family and celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. We had such a good time. It was great to see cousins and relatives I hadn't seen in over ten years. We met lots of cousins' spouses and children. The kids did really well with all the new situations and new people and had a blast with new cousins.

This was at the airport, waiting in the security line. Our kids had never flown before, so it was all very exciting.

Aubrey wasn't too sure about the airport, but she made it through. She really thought it was strange that we all had to take off our shoes. I think it's strange, too--very odd behavior at the airport.

They all really liked the "people movers."

 

They were pretty funny during take-off: "Why are we still on the ground? Are we in the air yet? WE'RE IN THE AIR! WE'RE UP IN THE AIR! WE'RE FLYING!!!" We tried to shush them but it was obvious to everyone around us that this was their first time on an airplane. :)  The older kids all did well on the plane. We brought plenty of snacks and activities. Grant did pretty well, all things considered. I wrestled him for the first two hours. My arms were so tired by the time he finally gave in and fell asleep for 40 minutes. Then I wrestled him some more after he woke up. He wanted to get down and walk around and constantly tried to twist his way to the floor. It was a pretty exhausting flight, but he didn't cry too much, so we were thankful for that.

We had breakfast at my grandparents' house the first morning. It was a yummy breakfast, too, with eggs, sausage, fruit, and Grandma's muffins and coffee cake. Mmmm. The kids had fun riding the four-wheeler and playing outside with the tether ball and squirtguns.

We went over to visit my cousin Heidi and her kids (her husband is a police officer and works the night shift, so he was sleeping), and the kids hit it off. Bryson and Blake are a year younger than Kari, Eli is a year younger than Joel, and Brook is a year younger than Aubrey. They had fun drenching themselves in the sprinkler while we were there. The weather was great the first few days, better than the weather at home when we left.

The kids got to play with more cousins when Greg's cousin Janelle and her family came over to where we were staying at the Wick's. Here's Aubrey with Adrian. Their kids are ages 8, 6, 4, and 2, and ours are 7, 5, 3, and 1. All together we had ages 1-8! :)

Kari and Joel on the trampoline with CJ and Megan. I love how Megan is the only one smiling for the camera--so sweet.

We went over for a waffle breakfast at my cousin Cheryl and Philip's house Saturday morning--more kids to play with! Can you believe the view off their deck? It's unreal, and I didn't even get photos of the entire view of mountains and the glacier. It was great to catch up Cheryl and to see her family in person. It sure would be nice if Oregon and Alaska were a little closer. Sigh!

family photo on their deck

We had a family get-together Saturday afternoon and evening. We all gathered at Aunt Sondra and Uncle Phil's home, chatted, and enjoyed some good meals together.

Grandma reading to Aubrey and Joel

Aubrey and Aunt Alene (Grandma's sister from New Jersey) bonded while we were there. They spent lots of time together looking at books, doing puzzles, and having good conversation. :)

Family just hanging out in the afternoon

Zeke (Clay and Kellie's 11 month old) slept in Grandma's arms all afternoon.

Aunt Debbie showing Grant the fish. He loved the aquarium. He also loved the stairs at this house, and I spend a large portion of the day chasing him and saving him from those stairs.

Aubrey with Aunt Alene and Aunt Myrta, Grandma's other sister who came for the week.

At the anniversary reception/celebration the next day.

Kellie, my cousin Clay's wife, made the cake. It was beautiful!

The kids singing a song at the reception.

Siblings--Dad, Aunt Sondra, Aunt Brenda, Aunt Lynda, and Uncle Darris

The whole family! (5 cousins weren't able to be there, but it still was a pretty big bunch)

Our trip wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly nor been nearly as fun if it hadn't been for these people. Greg's Uncle Scott and Aunt Marianne let us stay with them the whole time. They picked us up from the airport in Anchorage, housed us, fed us, arranged for us to see family, and just made our trip a really good one. Every evening after we put the kids to bed we stayed up and chatted with them (they got us on Alaska time and we stayed up way later than usual with all those daylight hours). It was great to reconnect with them and have a place to relax at the end of each full day. We really enjoyed our stay with you guys. Our kids think you're great, too. :)

Lunch at the airport before we boarded our flight to head home

On the airplane again. The flight home felt longer than the flight there because we were so much more tired. We wrestled Grant again for a couple hours before he fell asleep in my arms. He fought sleep and screamed for abut 20 minutes, but it wasn't too bad. The kids enjoyed both flights, especially the drinks they got two times on each flight. :)

And this one is for you, Aunt Marianne, so hopefully you'll see it. He does that thing with his feet on the tray at home, too. :)

New favorite Aubrey quote

Conversation in the car:

Aubrey: "Joel, guess what I'm thinking."
Joel: "I don't know, Aubrey. I can't read your mind."
Aubrey: "That's right. You don't know my mind, because my mind is special."

Yes, Aubrey, your mind is very special. :)

Moved

"Bye, bye, old house!"

 With the help of our friends and family (lots of help--thanks so much, everyone!) we moved out of our old house on Saturday and into our new house. We are s-l-o-w-l-y getting things unpacked around here. The house had no window coverings when we moved in, so Greg has been installing blinds in every spare minute. It's work, work, work around here! (Notice I am blogging and not working at the moment. Everyone needs a break, right?) We leave in a couple days to go up to Alaska for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary celebration, so I have to unpack just enough to be able to pack up for the trip. The kids have never been on an airplane, so that'll be exciting, and they haven't met most of the family we're going to see up there, so there will be many introductions. Its going to be quite an adventure for us. I can't wait to see everyone and celebrate with Grandpa and Grandma. Sixty years is pretty amazing!

We're going to enjoy our trip, and then we'll come back and work on putting our house in order.

Sunriver 2011

Lots of fun memories with the family--bike rides, outer space themed shirts/stories/crafts/activities/song, cousin time, bumper cars, big slide, barricading the stairs for walker Grant, Benny the Beaver in a space suit, lava caves, swimming, Mavericks, good food, game nights sans kids. There were some other not-so-fun memories like being sick the first night, getting little sleep in the same room as Mr. No Sleep Grant-man, Aubrey giving herself a black eye on the pool slide, and coaxing Kari to ride her bike home after a spill and minor injury on her bike half-way through the ride, but the good FAR outweighed the not-so-good, and we had a GREAT time with the Moffat family on this trip. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad, for making it happen and for all the amazing things you planned for the kids. They are going to have some wonderful memories of Moffat family vacations.

The 4th

Swimming in the early afternoon


Grant tolerating the water--not cracking a smile but not fussing either.
My family humoring me by wearing red, white, and blue and letting me take their photo before we headed over to our friends' for a BBQ.




Photo by Kari :)

Happy water fight

The temp got up to 83 on this day, truly justifiable for water fun. These two had a blast together. What started out as "rain on a sunny day" turned into throw water at each other from close range. Amazingly, there were no tears, just peals of laughter.