Aunt R and Uncle D!!

Aunt R and Uncle D also made the journey to AK this summer! We were so thrilled to have them come visit! Aunt R and Uncle D are so much fun! Aunt R always teaches me to just relax a little and to have. more. fun! And Uncle D is just great with the kiddos who think he is their own personal playground. 

They had THE BEST weather out of any of our visitors, including BeBe's past visits.

WARNING: Photo overload. I know BeBe is dying to see some more photos.

We couldn't pass up this beautiful photo op on the way to Matanuska Glacier.

There she is.
This is one of the most amazing places on earth as far as I'm concerned. And you just can't really appreciate its beauty, grandeur, majesty until you actually get out on it.

See, everyone has more fun with Aunt R and Uncle D around!

Sisters!

Sillies!

Beauty.

They spent a couple of days with us and then headed North to Talkeetna and to Denali National Park. They had great weather with amazing views of Mt Kinley during their travels. They saw a lot of animals in the park as well. Some people come to AK and never see Mt McKinley or any animals. They got lucky!
After spending a few days up North, they came back to Anchorage for a couple of days and then we joined them on their trip South to Seward.

Waiting on our dogsled kennel tour at the Seavey's place in Seward.

That's a LOT of dogs! They do a great job keeping it clean and smell free.

Woohoo!

Meeting the pups.

Wearing the 2013 champion's parka!
It went all the way to the floor on him.

The next day, we went on a SIX hour marine tour. I've been putting this adventure off since we moved here.  Six hours stuck on a boat with little ones did not sound like something I was ready to tackle until now. Lil Bit is pretty independent these days and doesn't require a stroller or to be held in a backpack carrier. And with Uncle D and Aunt R along, we would have three adults to two children. Sounded like good coverage to me! AND, the weather was beautiful! Sunny and 70! You can't beat that for a marine tour in AK.  So...we set sail!

We couldn't have picked a better day.

Seals!

Sea Lions.
Boo was sea sick at this point. Poor fella. He was telling us that his tummy hurt and then he lost all color in his face. And then...well, you know. But we had our sea sickness bags in tow, so no mess was made.  He perked up quite a bit afterwards.

Sea Otters!
These guys are THE CUTEST!

Glacier. I can't remember the name of it.

Aunt R and Uncle D

My crew.

Puffins

We also saw some humpback whales (they were kind of far away) and Dall porpoises. They are porpoises who have the coloring of Orca whales (killer whales). I had never heard of them before and thought they were so neat. They are FAST too! After our tour, the little ones and I drove back to Anchorage. Aunt R and Uncle D stayed in Seward that night and then headed down to Homer for a couple of days. They were able to see the salmon run down there.
They spent their last couple of days in Anchorage and were kind enough to watch Boo and Bit one evening so that B-man and I could go on a date night. Thank you!

On their last day in town, we went for a hike.

Hiking!
The mosquitoes were terrible. We had bug spray on, but they were just swarming everywhere. And, there was bear scat on the trail.
Luckily, we didn't have a bear encounter.

Gotta throw some rocks.

This pic is somehow out of place. I'm too lazy to try to fix it.
Just more sea lions from our marine tour.

We're so glad that they came to visit us! After we dropped them off at the airport Boo, Bit and I shed a few tears. Lil Bit said, "I'm gonna miss them." Me too, baby! Me too.

Butlers head North to Alaska

One of my great childhood friends, Allyson,  and her family were quite brave this summer and journeyed to AK. It's a LONG way from SC. There were 2 adults and 5 children in the group. And they handled it beautifully. I never once saw them flustered or stressed. I was so impressed with how well they traveled. It just proves to me that I don't handle stress well. I'm a total mess and I'm at max capacity with my two. A and R were so calm. I could definitely learn a thing or two from them. 

Here are just a few pics of our adventures together.

Boo and E. E is Allyson's nephew.
I think they were both excited to be "brothers" for their short time together.

We went panning for gold one morning.
It was a lot of fun and the owners of the gold mine were great with the kids.
We were successful too!

Mr. R helping C and E.

Only part of our crew.

Lil Bit helping me babysit the babies!
9 months old and they were champs!  You should've seen me trying to feed them bottles at the same time!!

A and her babes!

Miss C and Lil Bit exploring.

My girl!

I took 3,000 pic of them here. And they would NOT look at the camera. Not at the same time anyway.  So, I made some grand gesture to get them to look at me and instead of just looking at me, they repeated my gesture. Not exactly what I was going for but it turned out PERFECT!
(Sound familiar BeBe...monkey see, monkey do?)

Silly faces.
We were also nearly carried away by mosquitoes here.

Hmmm...

These guys were such troopers!

Hiking in Denali National Park.

A and sweet baby J!

Family photo.
Sort of.
Everyone is in there, just not looking.

Beautiful views on our hike.

The big little people earned their Junior Park Ranger Badges at Denali National Park.
Boo is totally into this Junior Ranger thing and plays Junior Ranger all of the time now at home.

I'm so happy they came to visit. It was so nice to chat with A and R in the evenings. I miss our people from home.
Boo and Bit have been missing them since they left and want to know when they'll be back to play. Next week is good for us, how about you, A??!!


Up next...the Faye B&B opens it doors again for more special guests!

Finally Caught Up!

 I think this post will finally get me caught up!

Another pic from our visit in SC.

My flowers and the blue Alaska summer sky at 9:30 at night.
I know y'all are tired of the whole 'midnight sun' thing, but it never gets old to us.

Boo and I took a bike ride together while Bit napped one Sunday afternoon.
We may have gone a little too far for the Lil Boo to handle. By the time we got home he was crying (tired) and hot.

Diggers behind the house mean diggers and Boo in the backyard!

Okay, it's been HOT here in AK this past week. 80s and 90s in places that do not see those temps ever. Records have been set all over the state. So, we had to find the closest thing to a beach that we could. This is at Goose Lake...the place where we went to watch the Iditarod Start. What a difference a few days make. The kids had fun, but I gotta say...it ain't no real beach. Lol! The beach was...dirt. Hmm. Not exactly what this beach girl is used to, but we made it work!

It was the place to be that afternoon!

She looks like such a big girl in this picture to me.

Sir Knight Boo and Hawaiian princess Bit!
He is her protector.

B-man getting ready to jump out of a Blackhawk helicopter.
Just another day at the office! :)

B-man took this one with his phone the other night at 0220 a.m.
Sun's coming up!

Our first visitors of the summer arrive tonight! We're so excited for our buddies to get here. The kids CAN NOT wait for them to arrive and I'm up early this morning with excited anticipation as well! We're going to have so much fun together and I can't wait to see some folks from home.

Sesame Street USO Show

The Sesame Street LIVE USO tour came to town a few weeks ago. The show was free and after forgetting about the first two show times, I remembered the last show and we headed over to the theater. The kiddos were beyond excited and I couldn't wait to see Lil Bit's face when Elmo walked on stage. The show's message was about moving and making new friends. Ya know who was crying? ME! 90% of my pals have moved already this summer. Ugh! It's a total bummer. But, whatcha gonna do, right?

Waiting for the show to start.

Boo was excited!

Their faces as Elmo and friends walked on stage.

She just couldn't get over it!

"It's Elmo, Mama!"

Thanks to the USO tour!!
It was so much fun and a day they won't soon forget.