Disney on Ice....

A few weeks ago I took Whitney and we joined some friends for an evening at Disney on Ice. The show included segments on Cars, Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Tinkerbell with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy serving as hosts. The kids seemed to really enjoy the show though none of us were real familiar with the Tinkerbell story. We'll have to read up on that one! They put on a great show with some pretty amazing costumes and scenery. It was fun night out!

Speaking of ice, Jim has been spending a some time on the ice each week. He started to play in a adult ice hockey league with games a few times a week. The girls and I have only been able to go to two of them so far as they start at 9 or 10:15 at night. He's scored a few goals in the games he's played in so far but is mostly excited about being back playing after 9 years off.

Here's a funny picture I got of Maren the other day chilling in the recliner and eating some chocolate she had snuck out of the pantry. What an easy life she leads!

North Carolina, Part 2...

The following day was Sunday so we headed to church in the morning after dropping Jim at his class. Afterwards, I wasn't real keen on spending all afternoon in the hotel room with the girls so we had some lunch and then headed along the windy mountain roads to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Upon reaching the parkway, we followed it south to Mt. Mitchell State Park. The drive along the parkway and up the mountain were beautiful with excellent vistas of the mountains and the beginning of the fall colors.

We arrived near the top of Mt. Mitchell hoping to make the short hike up the last 100 or so feet to the summit but they were constructing a new observation deck at the summit so it was off-limits. So we almost reached the summit of the tallest US mountain east of the Mississippi but not quite.

That evening we enjoyed a great dinner outside along the banks of the Catawba River with the rest of Jim's classmates. The following morning we headed up the mountains to Linville Gorge to do some rock climbing before heading home. We spent a lot of time hiking trying to find specific climbs as the guidebook wasn't great but finally found some good routes just not what Jim was looking for. Whitney had a blast climbing but had difficulty coming down so instead hitched a ride down clipped in with Jim which she thought was great. The girls were both flithy from all their scrambling but had fun and we enjoyed getting some climbing in.

North Carolina Part 1...

Last weekend Jim had a wilderness medicine course out in western North Carolina. We were excited to head out there to the mountains as we hadn't visited that area yet. While Jim went to class each day the girls and I played. Unfortunately the first day it poured all day long and I began to seriously doubt my decision about coming along for the trip after being stuck in a hotel room all day with the girls. We did find a nearby ChicFilA with an indoor playground for lunch but were unable to find any other fun indoor activities in the area for kids. Luckily by the next day the rain had cleared and we had a great rest of the weekend. The next morning we headed out to a local apple orchard for a tractor tour of the orchard and then headed out to pick our own apples.

The girls had a blast running up and down the rows of apple trees. I think I've found my new favorite kind of apple: Honeycrisp. It is a relatively new type of apple, try one if you can find one.

After the apple orchard we met up with my buddy Tiffany that had driven up from Charlotte and headed out to Chimney Rock Park. It was a cool park with lots of fun rock formations to hike around using numerous sets of stairs with the highlight being going to the top of Chimney Rock. The girls both loved scrambling around on the rock.

The park is built up the side of the mountain so it provided great views of the mountains and nearby lake and river.

We also hiked out to a beautiful waterfall before heading home.

House repairs, preschool, and sisterly love...

Well I'm finally getting caught up on the blog. It's been a busy summer with all the traveling and then the house repairs in between. Jim got the A/C drain fixed and a pump installed so now we can begin replacing the flooring. We've opted to do it ourselves since we have a hard time justifying paying somebody else to do something we can do ourselves. However it is a somewhat daunting project to put in over 320 square feet of tile and Jim has been super busy at work so it's been left to me to begin. Now if I could only find the motivation to get started! We also have a few other projects on the list to get the downstairs back in order so hopefully in the next month it will all be completed.

Whitney started preschool last week after missing the first few days while we were in Alaska. She goes 5 days a week for a few hours in the afternoon and has been loving it. Maren had a hard time the first few days we dropped Whitney off. However, since the day I took her to Chic-Fil-A for a play date after we dropped Whitney off she's been fine and seems to enjoy the time alone with Mom. Whitney also has started playing soccer in the last few weeks. Each game she gets a lot better but it is pretty comical to watch at times.

Lastly here is a cute picture of the two girls. Maren has started to insist on sleeping in Whitney's bed with her each night after scriptures and prayers. A few nights she's had to be put in her room after getting out of bed to play with toys. The other night I went to check on them and found them both asleep holding hands. Some good sisterly bonding!

Morning run-in..

I came within a foot of this the other morning while out running!

I
it is called a Virginia Oppossum. You don't normally see them as they are nocturnal but this one had found it's way out onto the bridge that I run across to the base. I didn't know what it was until I was right upon it and with cars flying by on one side and the wall of the bridge on the other side neither of us had anywhere to go so I skirted by as quickly as I could while he showed his displeasure by hissing and showing his jaw full of sharp, little teeth. Luckily on the way home there was less traffic so I was able to run into the road to get around. Definitely woke me up though!

ALASKA...

For our last adventure of the summer we headed north to Alaska. We have to visit every other year to keep our residency status so we can continue to qualify for the annual dividend. On that note we are very grateful for Gov. Sarah Palin and the Alaska state government that approved an energy rebate for this year to be given out in addition to this years dividend! It is always a pleasure to visit up there to spend time with family and to enjoy the amazing beauty all around.

Downtown Anchorage from the air

Our first day there included the traditional hike up Flat Top Mountain. It was a pretty cloudy day so we didn't have the great views that you sometimes get from there but it was fun nonetheless. Whitney was a super hiker and hiked the entire way (3.5 miles and 1550 ft. elevation gain). She especially liked the rock scrambling on the upper section.

Jim loaded all those rocks into the kid pack while his sister was kindly carrying Maren for him

That night we attended the wedding open house for Jim's younger sister. The next day Jim set out to hike Ptarmigan peak with his older sister while I flew out to go salmon fishing with Jim's dad on Olsen creek off the Beluga river. Jim's dad caught a rainbow trout but that was as good as it got that day. On our trip out we also stopped to set up part of their camp for the duck hunt that Jim and his dad did the next two days. The next evening Jim and his dad flew out to the camp to meet the Dittmans and get ready for the start of duck hunting season the next morning. While they were gone the girls and I enjoyed spending time with the rest of the family. We picked raspberries with Grammy in the backyard and spent some time at the zoo and Alaska Wild Berry products. The girls enjoyed the chocolate waterfall and getting to pick out some salt water taffy for a treat.

I enjoyed getting out for some morning runs and enjoying the beautiful views of the mountains and ocean along with being able to run some hills! Our last day there we headed back out to Olsen Creek with Jim along this time for some morning fishing and had some great success. I think Jim caught about 12 fish and I had at least six. Once the salmon enter the fresh water they begin to slowly turn red before spawning and dying. Generally the less pink they are the better the meat so you get picky as to which ones you keep and which ones you release.

Whitney's favorite part of the whole trip was getting to go for a ride in the plane with Pops and Grammy. We headed out on the red eye that night and arrived home the next evening just in time to prepare for the tropical storm that hit the next morning.

Zion National Park...

A week after our return from Europe we headed out west to Arizona and Utah to see some family and friends. We stayed with my grandparents in Phoenix on either end of the trip where the girls enjoyed being thoroughly spoiled and getting to go golfing, swimming, and drive the golf cart.

We spent the rest of the time at a ranch/resort outside Zion National Park. We met up there with some of Jim's good buddies that he grew up with and were roommates during college. The boys enjoyed some golfing and skeet shooting while the wives and kids enjoyed the pool and some hikes. Mostly we enjoyed each other's company.

Our last full day Jim and I hiked Orderville canyon with Dave and Chris. We took Maren along in the kid pack for the 11 mile journey. The hike began on dirt roads and a dry river bed and slowly dropped down into the sandstone slot canyon.

We had a few short rappels on the way and a few jumps into and swims across some deep pools (we rigged a line to run Maren across the jump/swim sections). The hike ended in the famous Zion Narrows for the last few miles.

The hike through the slot canyons is absolutely beautiful and the challenges that the water brings adds some fun and variety to the journey.