Sunday, September 8, 2013

Carter Grandparents Visit

Some pictures from the Carter grandparent visit over Labor Day weekend. 

Grammy Jackie reading. Two of three are rapt with attention...

Grammy Jackie and Trevor working on THE puzzle. Trevor was laughing because right before I took the picture there was a surprising noise, causing Grammy to make one of her "eep!" sounds.

We went over to 100 Giants on Saturday to see the big trees. There's one.

Other children are unsure if they want to confront Darth Vader in the tree.



Trevor and John on the fallen tree

I believe this was one child with a bow and arrow, the other with a violin.

Nora and the boys



Nora and Papa Bill. She was pretty excited that we forgot her sippy cup in the car--bottles are super fun!


Ryan troll stopping the travelers

Bench quality testing

Log quality testing



Trevor said that he has decided that he only likes root beer at restaurants that make their own root beer. He may be a little high maintenance.

Trying a group shot. It was sunny on half the table though. Ryan was not into looking that direction.

Puzzle!

Sigh...

 Puzzle complete. Finally.

So time for board games!


The boys took off but Nora decided she'd stay for more pictures.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

Alaska Trip

We made it up to Alaska to visit my folks for a couple weeks and have quite a few pictures...

First stop was a park near the coast on the way to the airport. The kids found some geese to follow. There was a man feeding them and let the boys have a bit of bread to share. I think this first picture was of the boys being one with the geese--flapping their arms to show solidarity. 


Ryan was giving a bit of bread and found the goose to be a bit pushy--John described him as something like "here--take the bread! Take the bread!"

Nora was pretty thrilled with all the stairs and slides

Waiting to go through security--the boys declared each other as "airport buddies" and were holding hands for a while. Awwww...

At the Downtown Market in Anchorage. The boys got balloon swords and guns with holsters. Beware to all balloon bad guys...

Nora got a yummy balloon flower hat.

We went to the Eagle River Nature Center's junior ranger program. This particular day they were discussing and identifying animal scat. Here is Ryan shaping his non-bake cookie scat.

Trevor got his pile but did not want to touch it with his hands--so he managed to eat all of it sticky-free

Ryan on the other hand reveled in the stickiness.

These ones were also supposed to be scat of some sort and were baked while we went on our little searching for scat hike

We did not really find any wild animal scat but did learn a bit about berries and itchy leaves. Trevor was super interested on all the leader had to say on the hike. And stopped to look at baby salmon.

Ryan asked me to take a picture of just him and his rock.

John snuck in on the Ryan-rock photo shoot. It was not appreciated.

We took the kids out on the Thunderbird Falls Hike--it was just stroller friendly enough in most parts. This John and the kids at the platform above the falls.

Nora liked running around and walking on the platform but as soon as we hit dirt again she asked to be put back in the stroller.

At the bottom of the falls

The boys going around to get a closer look.

Cool tree

It was a bit rugged for the stroller on the lower falls part

John surprising the boys along the way.

Nora likes chairs

Even more exciting--a chair and a goofy brother.

Our big hike with the boys was Flattop. They did super well--everyone made it all the way to the very top with many steep parts and a bunch of rocks to climb up at the end.

Stopping to rest at "The best dang bench in the world"

Ryan was pointing out California

This boy managed to not fall off the mountain the entire time--an impressive accomplishment


Lunch at the top

My mountain men

Signs schmigns...

John, Trev, dad and I went on a Halibut charter.

The boys predicting the size of their fish

Trev did okay at first but then started to fade with seasickness

This was how he spent most of his trip

John's first catch! (hermit crab)


It was really peaceful. The sky and water blended into one another.


Awww...

Everybody likes bapa's hat

Cute but grimy

Wrestling time

Trevor and grandma making cookies.

We went to the zoo--and brought our own monkey he he he

Trevor next to the black bear skull

Ry head and polar bear head


Popcorn! Nora loves zoos!

Nora was excited to see so many different types of "doggies"

Orphaned moose doggies




Testing out the bear fence

Trev liked comparing animal skulls

Ry was happy to find a camel since he wore his camel shirt

Trev giving Nora a ride in--she seemed to really like it, he thought it was okay until she started grabbing his eyeballs.

Dinner at Asia Gardens with Great Grandma Betty.