Adventures

Anything in this family is an adventure, whether we are just getting ready for church or traveling across the country, but taking this crew on a hike in the Alaskan wilderness is especially...exciting, challenging, drama-filled...you can choose your favorite adjective there!

The day started for me at 6am. It takes that long to get everyone going by 9am! We almost made it out of the house on time and headed out for a hike on a gorgeous morning to Williwaw Lakes!

On the way we encountered our first bit of controversy. Along the road there was either a very large house cat or a small bob cat fishing in the stream! I'd love to show you a picture but the camera wouldn't work and by the time I had my cell phone's camera ready it was gone! Nonetheless, I say bob cat!

Here we have our next controversy. I found a trail online. It was called the Williwaw Lakes trail and described beautiful emerald lakes. That was not what we found, however. At the trailhead we learned that the Williwaw Lakes were about 12 miles through the mountains and could only be reached via several criss-crossed trails, beginning where we were! Oh well, we had trails and wilderness aplenty!

It was a pretty hike with some nice views of the Anchorage bowl and we even saw Denali! Once again, we are having some technical difficulties with our POC camera so I can't show you a picture. Here's one of the trail views with some of the kids waaay down the trail instead!

Probably the most exciting thing we encountered on the hike was a fast moving stream with a foot bridge over it. We stopped on the way in and out to enjoy the view, take some pictures and rest!

The kids did really well until it started getting close to lunch time. We made it just over a mile in then had to turn back. Luckily I had planned a picnic lunch for after the hike so everyone had lots of motivation to return! We didn't carry any snacks because we are still nervous about bears. With as many people we saw on this trail, though, I think our concern was unwarranted.

Spencer couldn't go on when were about 1/2 mile away from the trailhead so Scott and I took turns carrying him. I had Charlie on my front in the Moby and Bubs on my back! When I got too tired and the trail started going up hill I put him down. Scott took over carrying him in his arms with Wesley on his back! It was quite a workout!

Finally, we made it back, much to the kids' relief! We managed to hike about 2 1/2 miles, which is awesome for this family! Our picnic was well appreciated and enjoyed after all that work!

I don't know if the kids will grow up and see this as good times or whether they look back and think about how mom and dad tortured them in the woods! I hope that we are making happy memories for them, I know they are for me!

Running Out of Hair

While this has been just another regular week for the kids it has been a momentous week for me personally. I began my fitness journey on Monday and started running for the first time since Spencer was born, which is about five years! The base here has a fitness place called Arctic Oasis. It has an indoor playground with a gym allowing moms like me to work out while watching their kids play. Supervision is required of course, and I am so lucky to have such great kids to help me out! Isabelle and Desiree take turns watching Wesley and Charlie while Maddy and Juju keep Bubba in line. So far it's working out great!. Isabelle has also begun taking on a little more responsibility by babysitting for short periods. Having them get a bit older and more helpful has really made exercising possible for me. So, here is my progress so far: On day one I ran one mile in 15:45 which a whole lot better than I expected! The next day I ran a mile in 13:30! It was so exciting for me to discover that my body still worked pretty well! My main goal is to be fit. I want to run and not be weary, I want to enjoy playing outside with the kids. In addition I would really like to loose weight so that I don't feel so shocked every time I look in the mirror or see a picture of myself! It's kind of funny when you have an image in your head of what you think you look like then you see what you actually look like! So far, after one week, I am really enjoying running and I look forward to my time! I hope that my enthusiasm continues as that will make reaching my goals much easier! I should also add that the kids are having fun too. They have either been at Arctic Oasis playing or at the park and having a picnic all week. Getting out of the house makes the summer more enjoyable for us all. I will be keeping everyone posted on my progress and hopefully using that as way to keep myself accountable. I love hearing about everyone else working out so FB me with what you are doing each day!

Another big change I guess you should know about is my stupid hair. As you can see it's very very short! I buzzed it with the clippers because I was sick and tired of fiddling with it and it was bugging me when I ran! I know it's pretty extreme but it's comfortable! I change my hair almost as often as I change my clothes so who knows what I'll do next. The good thing is that there isn't much left so I don't have a lot to screw up! Maybe I'll start wearing wigs...

A New Start...Again

We FINALLY got our internet back so I can get back to blogging somewhat regularly...I hope. What can I say, life happens! Change comes so fast for our family these days, it's hard to keep track. Having babies around seems to emphasize that, probably because they change so quickly. Charlie is six weeks old already! He has gone from a sleepy newborn to a cranky farty pants sweetie. He smiles and coos and looks into my eyes. I love that part. But the part where he cries from about 8:30pm to 11:30pm every night...not so much! That's just his crying hour I suppose!

The kids are all home for summer, or what Alaska calls summer anyway. This whole week has been cold, overcast and raining. It definitely has forced me to get more creative about our summer acitivities. For one thing, we don't wait around for a perfect sunny day to go to the park. If it's only cloudy or just slightly raining, that's good enough for a park day! We were lucky to start the summer with some wonderful friends visit plus Granny and Grandpa Phil! We might possibly try a campout. Yeah, I know, we are crazy to even think of it with a new baby but, hey...if we wait until everyone is "big enough" it will never happen! I'm sure a few hikes will be in order and a trip or two to the zoo and museum, of course. I'll be sure to keep you updated and try to take pictures too! Thank goodness for my iphone or a whole lot of precious memories would go unrecorded!

Hopefully my next post won't be this lame, but I had to make an effort or else quit entirely! That's basically my mantra as I go through each day anyway!