On June 26th, Matt and I packed up our 9 month old boy and braced ourselves for the longest 14 hours of our lives (labor comes in a close 2nd). That is right, we went to Alaska!!! At the airport, we were told several times that we were crazy to fly that far with a baby and there were moments I had to agree with them. Harrison was a trooper though. I am going to brag on my sweet pea for a moment because this is much deserved....Harrison never cried on the plane!! Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of work. He got restless and required a lot of entertaining, but he did it! The plane ride home went just as smooth and I could not be more proud of my little frequent flyer (I will soon post on the rest of our summer vacations, hence the lack of blog posts).
Our visit with Courtney and Ryan was wonderful. It was so much fun to see where my sister has been living for the last 2 years. I will admit, after a week in that beautiful state, I was a little jealous of the time she has there. So much to see, so much to do. Matt and I plan to go back someday because there is only so much you can do in one week, especially with a baby (that you are trying to keep on what is left of a schedule after a four hour time change).
Courtney and Ryan have a beautiful home on the Elmendorf Airforce Base in Anchorage. They treated us to wonderful dinners and beautiful sight seeing. Other than spending time with my sister, the thing I was most looking forward to was the wildlife in Alaska. My prayers were answered (ask and you shall receive) and I saw some amazing animals! I am still jealous that Matt and Ryan came across (within 20 feet!!!) 2 black bears on the 16th hole of their golf game. Harrison and I made out pretty well on our wildlife finds, we saw 7 moose, 4 bald eagles, 2 mountain goats, 30+ sea lions, hundred of puffins,......AND 4 WHALES!!!! Matt and I also enjoyed some hiking (2.8 miles above sea level!) sans HD, thanks to Courtney who wanted to soak in every minute with Harrison.
The weather was a nice break from the heat and humidity of home. We enjoyed temperatures in the 60s and even though we had several days of rain, we did not let that slow up down! The hardest part of the trip was adjusting to the 24 hours of daylight. Boy does that mess with your mind. Thank goodness for blinds and blackout curtains!
The weather was a nice break from the heat and humidity of home. We enjoyed temperatures in the 60s and even though we had several days of rain, we did not let that slow up down! The hardest part of the trip was adjusting to the 24 hours of daylight. Boy does that mess with your mind. Thank goodness for blinds and blackout curtains!
It really was a fabulous week! Here are some pictures of our trip!
Family!
Auntie Coco, Uncle Ryan and cousin Spencer
Courtney's neighborhood at MIDNIGHT!!!
Harrison and Spencer quickly became buddies!
Hiking
No one was at the top to take our picture so I took one of our shadows :)
Animals!!
Clockwise: At the Alaska Zoo, Sea Lions on a rock, a moose outside our car, and a whale right beside our boat!!
This is a picture of one of the bears Matt and Ryan came across on the golf course but the picture isn't too great since all they had on them were phones to take pictures.
