Alaska 2010--TONS of Pictures!!!

After a 4:00 am wake up and a rush to the airport to make a 7:30 flight, we began our trip to Alaska to visit Roy's parents. We were a little nervous about how a certain someone would do on two flights, but we were shockingly surprised about how good both he and Caroline did. A little Benadryl helped and bringing his car seat, was a great idea too! Actually, we were complimented several times by passengers, flight attendants and people in the airports on how good they were?! When we landed in Anchorage, Roy and I were so relieved!!!! Roy's face makes me laugh in this picture!!

Approaching Alaska. So long, 100 degree temperatures!!!

Roy's dad picked us up in Anchorage and then he flew us out to Port Alsworth. By this time, the kids were getting sleepy. This picture of RoyBoy cracks me up. It looks just like Roy when he was little:
Caroline sat on Roy's lap in the cockpit for a little while. Caroline is our daredevil, believe it or not. She plays it safe, but she loves speed and adventure!

Our first full day in Alaska, it was rainy. It pretty much rained each day we were there but it was still very relaxing and the highs stayed in the low 50's all week!!

My in-laws live on a pretty lake with a rocky beach so each day, the kids loved to go down there and throw rocks:

This water is FREEZING, but that didn't stop Roy Boy. He went through many outfit changes each day:

Caroline learned how to skip rocks...so did I!

We took lots of rides on 4-wheelers. RoyBoy LOVED this one. He called it his jeep and he took many imaginary trips to Harris Teeter and CVS.


We took a big hike one day up to a beautiful waterfall and we had to watch out for bears along the way:

I made it! Roy was worried about me, but it was no sweat. I could have done that thing with my eyes closed:)

Tenalian Falls is such a pretty and peaceful place. It's hard to describe the beauty.

We skipped more rocks up there....

Later that day, Grumps took the kids up in the air for a plane ride. Caroline was first and LOVED it. She felt so cool wearing her own headset:) Here she is getting ready for take off:

Coming in for landing:


After the flight:


Roy Austin ironically was terrified to go. When we got near the plane, he was clinging to me and shaking his head very seriously and saying, "no, no...". Roy went with him and he still screamed when I handed him over. Look at his face!! But Roy said by the time they took off, he was fine:

Okay, here is where our trip got interesting. One day Roy decided to take us fishing so we loaded up after lunch and got into the boat to head out. Long story short, Roy's godparents and some of their children were vacationing right next door. As we were heading out into the waters, we stopped to see if one of the grandsons wanted to go fishing with us. The boat was at a standstill and RoyBoy (who was top heavy from his life jacket) jumped down from the bench and fell onto a rough, metal edge. I knew he had hit his head hard, but when I picked him up, blood came gushing from his forehead. Thank the Lord, Roy's godfather (who is a surgeon) was standing on the shore watching us. Roy yelled at him to meet us in the port and we took off. I pressed baby wipes against the wound (by this time, blood was everywhere). When I removed the wipes, there was a hollow HOLE in his forehead!! It was pretty scary. Roy docked, I handed Roy Austin to him and he and his godfather took him off on the 4-wheeler. This town reminds me a little of Walnut Grove from Little House in the Prairie--it's very small and remote. There normally is not a doctor around, but there was a camp in session and so including Uncle Dick, there were 4 doctors in town!! When I reached the infirmary, RoyBoy was being numbed and about to be stitched up. He was SUCH a trooper. Uncle Dick said in all of his years of practice, Roy Austin is the toughest (meaning strongest) patient he's ever had. He never cried and he actually fell asleep during the process! Warning: the next few pics are bloody, but they do not do the incident any justice. Reality was much worse! (oh, and I did not take these!! Uncle Dick and Roy did!!!!)



Afterwards, we were told to keep him awake for a little while, which was hard because it was nap time and he was exhausted. When we got home, I showed him some M&M's and he was wide awake. Notice the 4 dumdums in his right hand that he ate back to back!

RoyBoy and his new favorite doctor, Uncle Dick. After he got his stitches, Roy Boy became a little fascinated with Uncle Dick and always wanted to know where he was! Funny, but Uncle Dick also gave Roy his first set of stitches when he was a little boy:)


We went back out fishing the next day, which was fffffffreezing. Once we got out on the water, my face felt like it was going to fall off from the cold! Roy was a trooper and kept helping the kids fish, even though they lost interest very quickly. At one point, I sat on the shore with both kids inside my coat. I love this next picture!

Caroline and the fish she "caught". Roy actually caught it but told Caroline she did. She was so happy! By the way, Roy was a fishing guide in AK for 5 summers, so he is truly in his element up there. It is really neat to see!

Maybe this guy will be a fishing guide one day??

Here are some other random shots from our trip:




Roy looked over at one point and saw Roy Austin blowing bubbles in the water (again with his feet and legs getting wet): Jane was in Washington visiting Roy's brother, Edward, and his family. He just returned from a 1 year deployment in Afghanistan!! She came back to AK for the last half of our trip. The kids loved having their Nana there:

Roy's dad got the kids some silly bands one day when he went into town (see? Can't you picture Pa going into Sleepy Eye for the day???!!!). They were a hit! And by the way, I have silly bands all over my house, car, in my purse. They are everywhere!!

Probably the highlight of each day was our nightly bonfire we would have after dinner. Roy made one each night and we met outside with the Furman family for s'mores. It was very relaxing and fun watching the kids.

We hated to leave...especially the kids. They wanted to stay in Alaska for a longer time! We had a fun trip home with 2 excited kids:

Check out Roy Austin's face as we were coming in to land. We went through a few storm clouds and it was a little bit turbulent. Poor thing!

It was a wonderful trip but the saying is true, "there's no place like home!" It felt so good to climb into our own beds, even if it was 88 degrees at 11:00 pm!!