pumpkins

G's favorite time of year, not only because he can show off his pumpkin carving skills but because he celebrates his birthday! This year he started the carving with a tribute to mommy's favorite football team! Tonight we had A & A draw faces on their pumpkins for Daddy to carve. Little A's turned out great, unfortunately daddy made some alterations to big A's design which brought tears to her eyes...no worries, we will get another one tomorrow and "fix" it. Just what Daddy wants to do on his birthday...

On to other news, the snow is coming. We watched it come about half way down the surrounding mountains today. Everywhere we went the kids would shriek, "LOOK!!" It really does look almost close enough to reach out and touch. I just looked up the forecast and rain and snow are forecasted for Sat. Imagine, this could be our first ever Halloween in the snow...COOL...I think...

Today's pic is the Packer Pumpkin. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some of the snow on the mountains. Have a good day/night!

Hockey

This evening we were finally able to attend one of Greg's hockey games. They usually are scheduled after 8pm. I must admit I am very proud of him. He played over half the game and did pretty well. Especially considering he hasn't skated much in the past 10 yrs and he has NEVER played hockey before. Unfortunately his team lost 4-1 but it was a lot of fun to watch. Here are a few pics.

Hike with hubby

Happy Columbus Day! A federal holiday but not a state holiday here in Juneau. This allowed G and I to take a hike together. After dropping the kids off we headed over to East Glacier Loop trail with D dog in tow. It was a beautiful but chilly morning, 36 F. Armed with hats and glooves we set out on the trail. It wasn't long before we came upon some bear tracks on an icy bridge. Wondering how far ahead of us he was and not sure what D dog's reaction would be we decided to put her on her leash. Thank goodness we did because around the corner a few minutes as we came to the end of the second bridge, I looked off to my left and there was a big black bear less than 20ft away. We slowly backed up over the bridge. The bear didn't really seem to notice us or care. He eventually glanced our way and SLOWLY meandered his way onto the trail and away from us. It was a very cool experience. I was amazed at the bears disinterest in us. G was super excited as this was his first real encounter with a bear. He had seen one at the glacier this summer from the visitors viewing platform where they are known to hang out and tourist can come and watch them.

We continued on taking the left side of the loop, the "harder" side. We scrambled over some rocks and climb stairs and makeshift rock stairs. On this trail you climb for about 30 min before the trail sort of levels off. THEN you find "THE STAIRS"... Holy cow are these stairs. Somewhere around 200 of them. There are multiple platforms and they continue around a bend. As G so well put it, "just when you think you are done there is another set just waiting for you". Shortly after the stairs is a small trail that takes you to a look out point. This look out point sits above the Nugget Falls and looks out onto the glacier. It was such a fun hike. Even D dog enjoyed it. It took us just over 1.5 hours with a few stops for water and pictures.

Glacier Exploration (Tuesday 8/6 entry)

The sun was out in Juneau today and so were the people! It's amazing how many people emerge from their houses when the sun shines. Everywhere you go people are out walking the dog, the baby, riding bikes, playing on the playgrounds and just plain soaking up that vitamin D. Juneau is one of the only places I have lived where people truly appreciate the outdoors and the sun.

With the sun showing it's colors and the kids making me crazy, off we went to explore the glacier. I have to add that my children did NOT go willingly! They wanted to stay inside and fight. BUT mom was done! So with a few tears we loaded ourselves into the van. As soon as we got there they were super excited. We decided to walk down along the beach and over a few creeks to head to the waterfall. It was beautiful. There were dark rain clouds hanging over the glacier but sunshine and puffy clouds everywhere else. Also at 4pm the sun is pretty low in the sky so it was illuminating the glacier and the falls. VERY PRETTY! We found bear tracks, a big chunk of ice, sticks, rock piles, threw rocks into the lake and waded in with our rain pants/boots on. We even saw a rainbow!! I took way too many pictures but couldn't seem to stop myself. We never quite made it to the falls as we had to get back for dinner. The best part was as we were heading back the same kids who had resisted the trip were saying, "mommy can we come back again tomorrow?". I had told them they would have fun, I love it when I'm right.

Par-TAY

Today we hosted Little A's 5th birthday party at Mt Jumbo gym. A was so excited he could hardly wait, asking all day, "is it time for my party yet?" We had about 13 kids both from his old preschool and new one. They were able to run around and be crazy for 2 hours and painted pumpkins. Little A had a really good time saying as we left, "mommy that was a really fun birthday party".

Trails and local celebraties

I finally was able to make it to the end of a trail! We have started many but never had enough time with kids schedules. Today we headed out early to the Perseverance Trail near Downtown Juneau. This trail is an old mining road that leads through the Silver Bow Basin. The 1st part of the trail is quite a climb with a long cliff on one side. After that it levels out a bit, crosses several streams and has all sorts of debris/remnants from the mining days. There were quite a few hikers, bikers and runners out on it today. It is amazing to me to live in such a beautiful place! I imagine if it weren't for the rain and the lack of roads this would be a very popular place to live, especially with the hiking crowd. There are more than 250 miles of trails in Juneau and less than 200 miles of road.

After our hike I headed to the skating rink for Little A's hockey practice. He really is quite good, at least at the skating part. They do "superman slides" on the ice, chase eachother around, and "choo choo trains" with their hockey sticks. One of these days I will get a video to share.

This afternoon we had the pleasure of meeting Ted Sadler, aka "the mattress man". He is the owner of "The Mattress Ranch" and has the craziest commercials which I have shared with many of you through youtube.

Below are a few pics of the trail and one of Hockey, little A is the one in the back with the red socks.

birthdays and promotions

What a fun filled day. Little A turned 5 and Daddy got his long awaited promotion! Little A went to bed stating his favorite part of the day was the whole day and he didn't have a sad part. He was glowing all day, getting giddy every time we talked about him being 5. It was so fun to be around him today. If only we could harvest that innocent happiness.

Daddy put on another stripe today. Big A and I got to attend. I even got to participate, putting his new shoulder boards on. We have waited so long for this day! Congrats Daddy!

We ended the day with our favorite Juneau family and Mr B. for a family birthday celebration. So fun! Thanks guys!