on the trail

One day last week my family went hiking on one of the many trails around the city and of course I had to take a million and one photos. But hey, I'm fine with a ton of photos, because who doesn't want to look at pretty flowers?



I have my brother William here with me (he's the blonde one). He's an expert on plants and knew a lot of the names of the flora we stumbled upon. This flower is a Columbine and my favorite flower we saw on the hike.




William thinks these flowers are called Morning Stars, and I don't doubt his expert knowledge.







The flower on the left is called Bluebell and the one on the right is Lupine. It just amazes me how many different kinds of flowers there are and how intricate and detailed each one is. It's beautiful how each little part of the flower was made perfectly.







These pretties are Clovers, pretty common but I still love them. Who doesn't love a pretty purple flower?






This plant is Devil's Club. And that's my mom's hand. These plants are crazy huge. The leaves are around 16 inches wide, and the plant has been known to grow as tall as 16 feet!








Aside from seeing pretty flowers, we also stopped to sit on the bluff, which overlooked the ocean and the city below. It was a perfect view to see so many different aspects of Alaska: the forests, mountains, ocean, and city.

Also on our hike we ran into a baby moose. It was chilling out right on the trail. Moriah was excited about it because she thought that meant we would have to turn back and therefore not finish the hike (moose can be pretty dangerous), but after we stared at the moose and it stared back, it ran up the side of the mountain. On our way back we spotted the baby again, but it evaded us pretty quickly.









I really love being able to explore all the different places in Alaska (just maybe not so early, Daddy. :) ) and it's great to know that there are great adventures mere minutes from our doorstep.

the world is infinite

day 194








Yes, it is July in Alaska, but it seems like we traveled to a different world today. Just an hour outside the city there are glaciers and driving wind and rain (at least today there was) and I felt like we were on a different continent. The cold and rain and wind actually added to the fun as it made for a real adventure.







We sledded down the glacier and tried to stand against the wind, but it was so much fun we hardly noticed the rain soaking through our jeans. After about forty five minutes in the kids were ready to go, so we hiked back out and stayed in the comfort of a warm car.







Thankfully my friend is coming up so we may have to come back to this spot. It was truly an adventure.

Weekend at the lake

+ 365 photos





(day 188)

Every year my family and our good family friends get together for a weekend at the lake. They have a cabin on their own island on the lake (it's a huge body of water) so they always invite us down to go play with them. So this past weekend we gathered our things, all the important stuff like swim suits and brownies and cameras, and headed to go play in the sun!







The first day we didn't hang out on the water as we got there after dinnertime, so we mostly sat around and talked and played a million games of nertz and chinese war. Thus began the weekend long chinese war game with much screaming and slamming hands and annoyed parents and kids who were having too much fun to care. Seriously, that is the most fun card game around and it can last for hours or be over in an instant. Plus it's intense and the "turntables," as Adam would say, change in an instant (aka the tables turn quickly).






In between the chinese wars, we found time to inner tube. We (my family) donned borrowed wet suits and braved the fifty degree weather to get really wet, driving rain pierced into our skin. It was awesome. I bet animals think we're crazy, riding around on platforms filled with air, skiing along the edge of the water just for the heck of it. Or maybe the ducks just freak out when we try to run over them with the jet ski. Don't worry, they always swim under the water to get out of the crazy human's way.


(day 189)





This picture goes without saying, but everyone's hair ended up looking like we came straight out of a cartoon.







The second night we were there, us older girls (Natalie, her friend Lindsay, and I) all slept out in a tent on the dock. With the waves slowly rocking us to sleep despite all the crazy summer parties going on on the mainland, we dreamed of the next day of adventures. Don't you just love it when you've been out on the water all day and when you close your eyes you can almost feel the back and forth motion of the waves? I love that feeling.







(day 190)

The third and final day we woke up to beautiful sunshine and immediately got to work having fun. More jet-skiing, more inner tubing, more drying off by the fire, more chinese war, it was certainly the perfect end to an awesome weekend.






(Here's the group, minus a brother and the dads and myself.)

I hope you all had a great weekend as well! What did you do?