Creamer's Field

We finally had a nice day today, so I decided to take the kids to Creamer's field for the nature walk. But since it was nice we had to start by going topless :). For those of you with dirty minds I was talking about the Jeep's top! Creamer's field was quite beautiful and we enjoyed wandering through the woods and fields.

Another Adventure

Well we are once again off on another adventure. Our three boys went to their first overnight camp this month. The boys started Camp Camo, a camp for kids in the military. The day of drop off was interesting, first off we needed to find the place and Alaska is not well marked!! Once we found the place trying to get the boys into their respective cabins. Then they were ready to kick us out the door. So the girls headed out to begin our testosterone free week, wooohooo! We started the week with some dinner. But of course it couldn't last. I have already received a couple calls from one of the boys wanting to come

Exploring

Well our month of exploring wasn't just done geographically but also physically. I started running again for the first time in years. I am not doing bad, I have managed to make it 2.5 miles a day and keep adding mileage every week. This is also helping me to not only get back into shape but also lose some of my shape. I have managed to drop over 10 inches off my body in the last month and hope to continue in the coming months.

The kids also did some exploring of sports. Giggles is still playing baseball and loving it and he tried out a soccer camp and ended up liking it as well.

Goobers has been doing multiple field trips with the youth center and I think his favorite was the River raft ride down the Chena river, I only say this because he hasn't stopped talking about it since then.

Sassy wrapped up her Tball and tried out a little cheerleading at camp. She was dang cute but she was not quite into the cheering part of cheerleading, she much prefers the dancing part.

While Thud looked into something a little more physical. He decided to give flag football a try. He ended up liking it alot but has decided to wait for next year when his daddy can be home and help coach his team.

He and the neighbor boy seemed to love the sport and it helped him to take a leadership role in a group setting which I was very happy with. The month of June was a very active one for us and I hope to continue that through the following months.

Riverboat Discovery

We finished out our month of Alaskan Discovery on the Riverboat Discovery that tours up and down the Chena River in Fairbanks. It was amazing! I really had my doubts going into the tour, especially since it was a pretty penny to do but it is worth doing at least once while in the area. First of the gift shop was AMAZING! and huge and it had a dining area with it as well. The insides of the vessels were very well maintained, and found that my kids have reached the age that I am no longer that cool mom. So they chose to sit separately from me but still with in my site.

Well the tour started off with a little introduction to a very prominent means of transportation in the interior of Alaska and that was the plane. We received a demonstration of a bush pilots take off and landing and even got to talk to one for a bit over the radio. It was very interesting.

We then moved further down the Chena and got a little history on the area and the family that created this tour over 3 generations ago. Further down the river we were introduced to another mode of transportation that is popular here in the interior and that is dog sledding!!

This was a great demonstartion on how they work with the dogs year around and how they train them from the time that they are born. It was quite amazing and you could tell the dogs loved to run!

After this we headed further down the river until it met up with the might Tanana River. The largest glacier fed river in North America. It was beautiful.

At this point in time we turned around and I figured that the tour was over but I was so wrong. The next area we stopped at is an area of land that they have set aside to show how the natives and early settlers lived. The only way to get to it is by boat and it was beautiful, almost looked like a rainforest rather than and arctic desert.

They had everything from cabins, smoke houses, old snow mobiles to gardens. It was quite amazing. There was also a place to pet the sled dogs and a monument to Granite, a particular sled dog that had the heart and will of a lion. Along with this they had native guides telling you about their cultures from their fish camps, to fur coats. It was very interesting.

All in all I would love to do this again to catch all the little things I might have missed. It was a very cool introduction to Alaska!

Checking out the Lakes

Birch Lake AreaOnce again we went exploring and found a military rec site that would be alot of fun if this blasted weather would ever cooperate with us. It had campsites and cabins and a great little playground. The day we went was cold(as usual) so the kids just played on the beach. They were more than thrilled to play on the playground and worked to make themselves as dizzy as possible. What goofy kids!! Goobers was just getting to big but he made a gallant effort to swing!

Denali Adventure

The month of June was spent playing baseball and doing a little exploring. One of the sites we went and explored was Denali State park. It was amazing and with views that rivaled Glacier National park. There were animals everywhere and scenes you could only see in movies. We only went down and spent an evening down there and I can't wait until we can go down for a weekend and explore.