Alaska

 Our time in Alaska was bittersweet. It was great to be with family and friends and hard to say goodbye to the family we had lost. In June, my Grandma Jane passed away and in July, my cousin Loren. We got stuck in Chicago and missed Loren's funeral, which was one of the worst days of my life. Everything went wrong. But we made it there eventually and we were just glad to arrive. We had a small service at the house for my Grandma Jane and saw family and friends. I hadn't seen my mom's cousin Tom in years and he said to me, "So, how are you doing? Every time I turn around you're swelling up with babies. You guys done yet?" HA! So blunt~that's our family. We laughed and cried. The whole trip. 

The kids' first time playing together at the park. They are all eating tootsie rolls in this picture.

We went to Sourdough Mining Company for dinner one night and Andrew had his fill of crab and I stuffed myself with halibut and corn fritters.

We all went bowling together, one of my family's favorite things to do. This is my Aunt Carol.

Gramma and Ella at the Saturday Market having lunch. 

The night of my 10 year reunion. Where does the time go? We had a nice time and it was fun for me to introduce my old friends to Andrew and show pictures of the kiddos.

Saturday Market with the family.

This was one of the only nights I got to see the mountains while we were there. The weather was cloudy so much of the time, but this picture captures how close and huge the peaks are to Anchorage.

I always have to make a trip to Great Harvest for fresh bread.  This was our trip there. 

My mom insists on us all getting matching shirts and going out for the day. Here we are this year in those shirts. 

The guys before a fishing trip. It was about 7am here and they caught quite a few that day. Bill, John, Andrew and Michael.

Pop Pops with John and Emerson. Those 2 are only 5 weeks apart from each other.  TROUBLE.

5 Cousins under 4. Ella, John, Emerson, Levi, and Peter. 

My cousin Michael holding John. 

Our silly and very last minute trip to Whittier. It was sunny in Anchorage so we piled all the kids in the cars and headed out. We drove right to the rain and had to wear clothes from Renee's trunk that were on their way to Salvation Army. We were all thankful for that bag because we were not prepared for the weather. It was fun anyway.

This is a little wagon I saw and I love what it says and the background of the Whittier board walk and boats.

Getting all these kids in a picture is a challenge, but they were having fun in the rain and eating candy.

Emerson was learning about snorting and I happened to catch this picture of him one night. He's just stinkin funny and so cute :)

My Grandpa had given us a bag of clothes for the kids and there happened to be some really old stuff in there that we couldn't resist putting on the kids. It was a serious flashback to our childhood and we laughed so hard. I love how Peter looks like a little posed 80's child model. 

My cousin Loren, who passed away, this is his daughter Regan. She is almost 2 and the kids loved playing with her. She looks a lot like Loren and my Aunt Carol. She's a sweet little one and I look forward to seeing her again. 

While we were in AK, John was learning to crawl. These little towers were  what he wanted to reach for most, so we would set them up and watch him go. By the time we left, he was up on all fours and getting a few knee lengths.

Regan and I. 

All the cousins!

S'mores face on Levi! Our last night we had a fire and roasted marshmallows. 

Baths followed after the marshmallows. 

Bath, bed, and we flew out the next morning for Oregon.