Our Life in Alaska and Beyond

The next day (which was also Robyn's 7th birthday! We celebrated with cake a few days later.) we drove with Mike and Kay to Whittier and went on a glacier cruise. It was fun driving through the tunnel, and then we had a gorgeous day on the water. We did the glacier quest cruise with Phillips Cruises & Tours and we saw so many beautiful glaciers and actually quite a bit of wildlife too! It was a fun time! Enjoy these pretty pics!

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These are all the pics I took with my big camera at Lake Clark National Park. We saw several bears, with an experienced guide with us at all times. I never felt in danger at all, and absolutely loved the time we got to spend here. It was an amazing experience, and I hope I'll be able to visit again someday! 🐻❤️🐻

Crimp Ear

We spent Father's Day out enjoying the most beautiful Alaskan summer day! We first went to Reflections Lake, and then we went to Eagle River Nature Center, and then that evening we went to the littles' school and played at the playground. We definitely made the most of this midnight sun. We had such a fun day celebrating Scott and all he does for our little family. We love you so much!

These first few pics are all from Reflections Lake

Before leaving Seward on Saturday morning we hiked to Tonsina Point. It's a beautiful hike through a mossy rainforest, leading to a pretty beach. It's fairly easy, just a little over 4 miles RT. Before turning around we explored the beach for a bit and the girls looked for sea shells. This was a fun hike and the girls were so good, too! Enjoy the pics!

We went on the "orca quest" wildlife cruise out of Seward with Major Marine Tours. It was a shorter one (four hours) and it worked out great for us! It was a little chilly, but we brought hats and gloves and stayed warm, and luckily the water wasn't too rough and none of us got sick either! We ended up seeing quite a bit of wildlife (including lots of orcas!) and it was so fun! We also were in Kenai Fjords National Park for part of the cruise. So beautiful! Enjoy these pics!

Resident orcas. I rented a telephoto lens which was so fun to use!

After tidepooling for a bit we headed to the Alaska SeaLife Center. We saw lots of cool birds, and it was fun to see the all the seals and sea lions and other marine life. The girls also enjoyed the touch pools. Afterwards we walked around downtown Seward for a bit. It was a fun morning! 

Horned Puffin

The next morning was a low tide so we got up and headed down to the beach! We found some beautiful starfish and saw some sea birds too! It was a little drizzly and cold, but not too bad! Enjoy these pics! ⭐️🌧️

We planned a big(ger) celebration for Scott's 40th b-day! He loves birds (especially owls) so I thought it would be fun to have a bird refuge center come and do a live bird presentation, and to also have a yummy BBQ lunch with friends. May in AK can be so tricky with weather, but we lucked out with a beautiful day and we had so many of Scott's friends and their families come. We originally reserved an owl to come, but just a few days before the party they emailed me and said the owl wasn't ready, but they would bring a red tailed hawk instead. We were a little sad, but then the day of the party they showed up and surprised us all by bringing a barn owl. It was so cool, and such a fun presentation, definitely a birthday to remember! We all love Scott so much and it was so fun to celebrate him turning the big 4-0! 🥳🧁🦉

Love the little party hat I made for the owl, haha 🎉

We hiked the Butte with Heather while she was still here for work, and it was so fun! Definitely not ideal conditions (a little snowy and muddy), but we still had a great time. It's always good to get outside and enjoy the fresh air! Afterwards we had Heather over to our house for dinner and games. It was so fun! Thanks for visiting us Heather!!

So cool to see this eagle pretty close to us while hiking! 🦅

Scott had a work conference in Portland, and I was able to join him! After being apart for so long, it was so good to be together! We loved being with each other! During the day, while Scott was at his conference, I got out and explored all over Portland using the TriMet, we'd usually meet up for lunch, and then we'd do something fun in the evening too. Such a fun trip together! While visiting Portland we couldn't help but notice so many unhoused people, which was so sad, and I know there aren't any easy solutions, but we still had a great time in a beautiful city! 

These first few photos were taken at the Lan Su Chinese Garden. It was so beautiful! There was a chrysanthemum festival going on, and I loved all the flowers! 11/14/23

One of the last things Scott and I did on our couples trip to the PNW was go whale watching out of Port Townsend. I was really hoping to see orcas, and we did!! We saw a family of four, the T123s! This is a family of Transient (Bigg's) orcas, including 38 year old Mom T123 (Sidney), 23 year old son 123A (Stanley), 11 year old daughter T123C (Lucky), and 5 year old daughter T123D (Darcy). I love all the research being done, including how to protect these whales and their environment, and I love how this included our boat staff being able to recognize this group right away. We didn't see them do anything crazy like breaching, but it was still so fun to see them on this beautiful day. 

Our tour also included a stop at Friday Harbor for lunch. It was a really cute town where we walked and shopped for a bit. We got a NYC style pizza from the rudest chef/employee ever, but it was ended up being one of the best pizzas and salad we've ever had, haha. While here we also saw a group of three missionaries and I always laugh when I think about the first two easily riding their e-bikes up this pretty big hill, and then the third one huffing and puffing his way up on a regular bike, lol.

After lunch we got back on the boat for a bit and we saw some sea lions and a tufted puffin! It was a fun day, and luckily no one got seasick!

One Sunday afternoon we decided to do a little birding at the bird refuge so close to us. It was a beautiful day and we saw several different birds! 🐦

Great blue heron

During the kids' spring break we went out to Antelope Island with Grandma and Grandpa Hadley. Scott had to work, but I took the kids and we had a great time. We saw lots of bison, went to the visitor center, and also walked around Fielding Garr Ranch, which was something I had never done before. It was pretty neat. Near the ranch we also saw a Great Horned owl, which was very cool! Enjoy these pics!

Such a beautiful, clear spring day! And early enough that there weren't too many bugs!

We got up early the next morning (you have to leave early to get a parking spot at the most popular hiking trails!) and hiked Avalanche Lake. It was so beautiful! It was a bit longer for the girls (about 5 miles round trip), but they did so good! The lake is just stunning! Enjoy these pics, although I feel like they don't nearly do justice for how pretty it really is!

One of the last things we did with Andy and Ali before they went back home to Alaska was go to the Tracy Aviary. It was a beautiful day, and it's always so fun to see the amazing birds. Enjoy these cool pics!

Also, I didn't get any pictures, but one of my favorite things we did with Andy and Ali while they were here, was play pickleball. We would play during the day while the kids played at the park, or we would get the kids to bed, and then go play at night. It was seriously so much fun! Ali played tennis in high school so she's really good. Can't wait to see them again and get some more pickleball in!

Green-Winged Macaw

We finished off our fun Spring Break week by running a race! Scott's work hosted a 5k at Wheeler Farm and our whole family ran it! Ruby did the whole thing while I stayed with her, and Scott stayed with Noelle and Robyn. They didn't quite make it the whole 5k, but did pretty good. It started kind of early and was still a bit chilly, but we had fun. Many trees were blossoming, and it was so pretty! We're hoping our girls will continue to love running! 

I can never get enough blossoms! 💗🌸

We had so much fun on our trip to California the week between Christmas and New Years. We surprised the girls on Christmas Day, and then drove down the day after Christmas. We ran into some construction traffic and traffic outside of Vegas that really slowed our drive down, but we eventually made it! We had some rainy weather off and on while we were there, but overall we had pretty good weather for the days we were in O'side. The days we were at Disney were a completely different story, haha. (Rainy posts to come, lol.) 

The girls loved the beach! They loved playing in the sand and wading in the waves. Our Alaska grown girls were the only ones swimming without wetsuits, haha! While in Oceanside we also enjoyed shopping and eating lots of yummy Mexican food. It had been so long since we had all been to Cali together and we had so much fun! Thanks so much to my parents for letting us stay in the condo!

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Yellowstone National Park! Grandma and Grandpa Burton and Aunt Chrissy also came with our little family, and it was such a fun trip! Yellowstone itself was super crowded, but we still had a great time! 

Pretty soon after Scott accepted the job at the U, we started to get excited to visit national parks near Utah, and we booked this trip to Yellowstone. We stayed in a cute cabin near West Yellowstone, and it was so fun! Yellowstone was so beautiful, and we got to see a lot of wildlife too! The whole trip went by too fast, and we definitely want to plan another visit! 

We came in through the West Entrance and pretty soon after spotted a herd of bison!

Living in Alaska got us into birding, and we're going to try and continue that here! Around the middle of May we decided to drive out to the Farmington Bay bird refuge and look for some cool birds! We saw quite a few and had a fun time! We'll definitely be back for a visit again!

Wild Teasel

Scott and I were able to go on a weekend getaway to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park! It was so beautiful! Even though I grew up in Utah, I had somehow never been inside either park, so this was so fun! We camped in Moab and spent some time in each park. I'll put all the Arches pics in this post and Canyonlands in the next post. We didn't really think about how dark it gets camping here, so we forgot to bring any sort of flashlight or lantern, lol! (Camping in Alaska it doesn't get dark enough to need flashlights.) We survived though, just using the flashlight on our cell phones, haha. 

We were able to leave the girls with Grandma and Grandpa, which was so nice to just spend some time with Scott. We had a wonderful time hiking and camping and enjoying the beautiful scenery! It was technically still spring, but it was pretty hot (90s both days we were there), but still so much fun! We'll definitely have to make it back again, with the girls next time!

Delicate Arch was the first hike we did. So beautiful and so amazing! 😍We started in the late afternoon, stayed for sunset, then hiked back.