Heat Wave

It was 81 degrees in Juneau today!  A great day for a picnic at Eagle Beach, so off we went with the office guys and their families.  The tide was out so the kids and dogs had lots to explore.  Daisy found a half dead fish to play with in one of the tidal pools then found a very dead fish that she proceeded to roll around in until every inch of her body was coated in its potent scent!  mmm yummy(she got to ride home with daddy in his car).  The kids played in the sand and water.  By the time we left they were so filthy there were actually a different color.  I had to scrub them, really scrub them 2x once we got home to get them clean!  We roasted marshmallows and made smores.  Even Big A enjoyed 2, although she much preferred the roasting to the actual eating.  All in all it was a very fun relaxing evening.  We are all hoping this weather holds out just a little bit longer.  The only down side is not having AC and getting the afternoon sun beating down through our large picture windows in the front of the house...guess you can't have it all.

 Well the sun decided to shine in Juneau!!  And boy was it a beautiful day.  The kids and I met our favorite Juneau friends at a the trail head of Brotherhood Bridge.  This is a paved trail that runs along the Mendenhall River.  There is a great view of the Mendenhall Glacier from the trail head and with the fireweed in bloom it was absolutely amazing!  We hiked just over a mile heading off the paved trail onto a "secret" wood planked trail for part of the trip.  We saw mushrooms, squirrels, a Tlingit carving in a tree, all sorts of flowers and even greeted some tourists as they rafted down the river.   The kids had a great time exploring in the woods and thanks to Daisy Dog and our loud voices we didn't have to worry about the bears...

A&A have really taken to bike riding and are planning our first family bike outing.  Mommy just needs to get permission from the physical therapist before embarking on this adventure.  Hopefully we will all be headed to the glacier before summer ends for a biking picnic.

It was 6:30pm and I was cleaning the kitchen thinking I didn't have a post for today, then Little A came bursting in the door saying "mommy mommy, you have to come see, I rode my bike all the way down the street!".  So I grabbed my camera and off I went wiping my hands on my apron as I walked out the door.  Sure enough, with a little help from Dad to get started, he was off and riding.  All the way down to the end of the street!  Then back!  Never once falling!  

As I snapped away I could hear my neighbor cleaning his boat and was vaguely paying attenion to Daisy who was VERY interested in the smell surrounding his boat.  As Little A and family began their 2nd trek back down the street, Mr. Don my neighbor walked up to me with a cleaned Dungeness Crab and said, "Do you want this?"  "OF COURSE!!  THANK YOU!" I replied.   After giving my congrats to Little A and explaining to Daisy that this was indeed NOT her dinner I went inside to cook up that crab.  The meat is cleaned and waiting to be made into a yummy dip/dinner for our next dinner guest...whose coming?  (for whatever reason the pictures posted backwards so you see him ending first...oh well)

Eagles and Bears

With all these fun adventures we are having here in Alaska I figured it was finally time to start a blog.  This will make it easy for me to keep everyone up to date on the goings on in our family.  

This evening we enjoyed a great picnic at Eagle Beach with friends.  Eagle Beach is "out the road" about 25 miles. G and his buddy kept themselves busy building a fire from scrap wood and 1 match.  Thank goodness for our Eagle Scout who was able to get one going.  The views from Eagle Beach are amazing, even tonight when it wasn't so clear.  The kids found a old tree to climb on and of course they never get tired of throwing rocks in the water.  We saw quite a few seals pop their heads up, lots of sea gulls and some eagles which were so big we actually thought they were bears at one point.  

On our way home we decided to stop by the Mendenhall Glacier.  We had heard that a sow and her 2 cubs have been hanging around.  Sure enough as we rounded the corner on the path they were there!  How cool!  Mama stayed near the bottom of the tree while sending her 2 cubs up.  Then she went to the creek to try to catch some of the sockeye salmon that have made their way up to spawn.  We hung out for about 15 minutes and just enjoyed watching her.  She didn't seem at all phased by the crowd that had gathered to watch from the "observation deck" above the creek.