Alaska: Day 21... museum & park

I know you must be thinking by now, "Will these Alaska posts ever end?  How long were they there?!"  Just bear with me... I have less than a week left to blog about!

Thursday, August 5

We headed downtown to the Anchorage Museum.  There was so much to do there!  We stayed for a few hours and never ran out of stuff to do.  It was fantastic.

After the museum and a little lunch the babies took a nap so I decided to head to Jacob's school with William, James and Olivia.  The elementary school is within walking distance so we had a nice little outing.

The three cousins had a great time playing together and it was relaxing for me just to sit outside.

This is the edge of the playground... isn't that awesome?  On Jacob's first day of school he saw a moose out there!

At one point William wanted to roll down the hill (which the kids sled down in the winter).  I was actually really surprised because William never wants to roll down any hill.  James decided to join him... but Olivia just marched behind them warning them of the dangers of rolling down the hill.  It was quite comical.

On the way home I told them stories of when Amy and I were girls walking to school together... and they had fun picking bunches and bunches of wildflowers for Grandma.


Coming up: a movie party and other fun stuff...

Alaska: Days 19 & 20... sliding and skating

Tuesday, August 3

During breakfast one morning I hear Rachelle and Amy exclaiming, "That's awesome William!"  When I went to see what the fuss was about I saw this:  

We didn't want Grandpa to make a rule about no sliding down the banister so we told William not to let Grandpa see him!  He was a pretty sneaky slider the entire time we were there.  Amy really wanted to try so one night after everyone was in bed Rachelle, Amy, and I attempted to do it.  It was way too scary on that steep banister though!  Jacob and William were pros by the time we left.

Wednesday, August 4

Amy and I took Jacob, William and Olivia to the Dimond Center for ice skating.  On the way there, William asked if we were going to march.  We got a good chuckle out of that... but it turns out he knew what he was talking about.  As Amy and I led Olivia and William around a lady on the side told us to have them march... that's how they teach little kids to skate!  I asked William how he knew and he informed me that Murray (from Sesame Street) goes to ice skating school--and they march.  Who says kids don't learn from tv?

But these two kids were great for their first time!  They hardly held onto the wall at all. 

William fell quite a few times.  I was afraid it would be traumatic... or that he'd cause a scene... but he just got right back up and kept going.  In fact, I think he fell on purpose a few times.

Jacob was awesome on the ice.  I tried to get some pictures of him... but he wouldn't let me!  This is the best that I got as he sped past!

By the end William didn't even need me to go around with him anymore.  We're going to have to find a place around here to ice skate!

Coming Up: another museum!

Alaska: Days 17-19

Saturday, July 31

Amy and I tagged along with my mom as she went to the Anchorage Farmer's Market.  The best part?  Mom treating us to a giant whole wheat cinnamon roll... delicious!  While we were out we did a little shopping as well.  Best part about shopping in Alaska?  No sales tax!  (Funniest thing while shopping?  The cowboy in the truck next to us tipping his hat at Amy.)

For dinner we decided to experience the Bear Tooth Grill.  It's a movie theater/restaurant... they took out every other row of seats and installed tables.  Pretty cool concept.  We took the whole gang to see Shrek Forever After.  It was an adventure to say the least!  Trying to balance the giant pizzas on the skinny little tables in the dark was crazy... and I had a tired little baby who did not want to stay seated.  It would have been a very cool experience sans kiddos.

After we got all the kids to bed we decided on a late night game of tennis.

We're really not much of tennis players... but it's fun to try!  And it was fun to listen the high school boys down at the end of the court with their weird/random/disgusting? conversation.  Gordon got there at some point and we played doubles... if you could call it playing :)  He was really good... so eventually Amy and I decided to go down to the track while Rachelle and Gordon played.  When we got to the track we discovered that the shed was open... and there were hurdles!  It was getting dark by now and we were afraid that there was a homeless guy or a moose hiding back in there... so we convinced Gordon to come down and get a few hurdles out for us.  It was so much fun to run them again... and finally we got the courage to raise them to the 100m height.  We thought we might be too old and out of shape to clear those again... but we could do it!  Little things give us a thrill.

Sunday, August 1

James was such a good cousin and took care of Ethan in nursery.  It's Fisher family tradition that on Fast Sunday we have a little family testimony meeting. We knew that the kids wouldn't sit through everyone's testimony... so my parent's bore theirs and then allowed any of the grandchildren time.  James decided to bear his testimony.  I thought for sure that he would need help.  I started to prompt him but he chose to ignore me.  He then bore the sweetest, simplest testimony--all on his own!

Monday, August 2

Dad and Rachelle took off work again so we loaded up the two cars and headed over to hike Eagle River.

William threw a major fit to start... but once we got going he mellowed out.  James isn't much of a hiker yet and had a hard time finishing the very short hike that we went on.  We did have a good time though...

 Everyone on the hike... except Mom, Amy, and Ethan

 William and Olivia found a beaver dam

William, James, and Olivia read the trail marker

My dad convinced them all to stand right here on the "secret portal" just to see if something would happen... nothing did except me taking the picture :)

Look at these amazing colored toadstools we found along the trail!

 It's a good thing that we brought two cars!  (Not that we could have fit into one...)  My dad, Rachelle, William and Olivia decided to go on a longer hike while the rest of us went home.  William had had a rough morning so I was worried... but Dad and Rachelle said that both he and Olivia did great!  It looks like they had a fantastic time.

Off they go

Oh no!  Who is in the tree behind William?  A Keebler elf?

Listening intently while Grandpa shows them the trail.

William and Olivia came home so excited.  William was so excited that they saw a chipmunk.  And after lunch Grandpa treated them to a donut... what can get better than that?

In the evening we made some matching t-shirts... don't you wish you had one?

Coming up: sliding down the stairs and ice skating

Alaska: Day 16... panning for gold!

Friday, July 30

We headed up to the Indian Valley Mine (on the way to Girdwood) for a little panning for gold. 

The people who ran the place were super nice!  The lady showed us how to pan and explained why the gold stays in the pan while everything else washes out (it has something to do with the weight of gold being so much heavier than that of water or sand). 

(James was a little more interested in the trucks than trying to get all the sand out of his pan.  It's a good thing that James was the one who ended up with only one speck of gold... because he didn't really care!  William and Olivia had vials full of gold specks!)

She even brought her little duck over to swim in the water while they panned.  The duck came over to eat some of James' sand!

The duck was probably more exciting to the kids than the panning.  He was really cute!

We also toured the gold miner's cabin and saw the old mine shaft!

Afterward, we headed over to Potter's Marsh to show it to the Pincock's... and to have a little lunch.

Coming up: the Farmer's Market, Bear's Tooth, and another hike...

Alaska: Days 13-15

Tuesday, July 27

Jacob had scout camp on Tuesday so the boys and I hung around the house and relaxed.  It was nice to rest after the crazy week we had had.  Amy got in on Tuesday evening with Olivia and Ethan... let more fun begin!

Wednesday, July 28

Wednesday morning we played outside.  Olivia wasn't too sure about the hammock at first (especially with those crazy boy cousins of hers).

A little later we went to Lyn Ary park again. 

 
James and Olivia really loved climbing up the rock wall.  When James got to the top he wanted me to let go... so he just hung there.  (He gets his hanging skills from his Grandma Fisher.)  Alexander was happy for someone a little closer to his size.  William slid down the fireman's pole for the first time... and loved it.  And everyone loved the tire swing.

On the way home we tried driving up Northern Lights to find some moose... but no luck.  But when we were almost home we saw a mother moose with her baby!  Hooray!


Thursday, July 29


Thursday we went to the Natural History Museum.  We did a scavenger hunt which the grown-ups found a little tricky... but the kids did great at!  James had great eyes and found the trickiest things on the list.  After we had found everything we brought it to the front desk and they were awarded with a shark's tooth.  Pretty cool.  The kids also had a great time digging for dinosaurs.

 don't be fooled... even though William was being a pill (can you tell by his face?) he had a good time

Coming up: Panning for gold!!!

Alaska: Days 10-12

Saturday, July 24

Saturday we attended my parent's Stake Pioneer Day Activity... unfortunately we got there too late for the program.  And it was raining.  But one thing we learned is that weather doesn't stop Alaskans from having fun!


After we got home and warmed up a little James and I decided to make butter.  It seemed a very "pioneer-ish" thing to do.

 

 

James thought it was super cool to make butter and loved shaking the bottle with all his might.

Sunday, July 25

Right after church we drove the boys down to see the Anchorage Temple.  They thought it was extra neat that they could look in the front windows and see a little of the inside.

 

The boys weren't being especially cooperative so this is the best picture we could get.

Rachelle sat down to dinner on Sunday and told us that she had seen Jessica Sant.  I thought she meant she had "seen" Jessica... you know, like someone that looked like her.  "No," she clarified.  "I talked to her."  We couldn't believe it!  Jessica was leaving that night so it was lucky that Rachelle had gone to a different ward that day!  The two of us have known each other since we were girls... but we haven't seen each other since she got married 8 years ago!  We tracked down her number and tried giving her a call to have her and her husband, Brian, over for dessert. I'm so glad that they stopped by!  It was so good to see them.... and in Alaska of all places!  

Monday, July 26

It rained all day so we decided to check out the Dimond Center... which is a mall/ice skating rink/library all rolled into one.  There are also a bunch of taxidermied animals which were fun to look at... but I neglected to take pictures.

Coming up: Amy arrives with her cute kiddos...