Whew! Well the summer has flown by and we're into the rainy fall. We were very busy this year with a lot of trips and family...and we'll keep doing a few more trips until the end of the year. It's been great but it's also been a lot. I think we're looking forward to hunkering down a bit more with the cold weather. June brought us varying members of the Harlos clan, which was super entertaining as well. Even though Alaska is far away from many of our friends and family, the exciting destination convinces people to make the trek to see us every once in awhile. We started our 3 weeks of family visiting by having dinner with my grandma before she started her cruise. The next day we picked up Drew's brother and his girlfriend. They stayed a week and overlapped one day with Drew's parents. We had a day with just his parents to regroup before Drew's sister and his cousin arrived. As usual, my angel mother-in-law helped get the house together and ready to go for another round of company. They were all together with us for about a week, and then his parents left and his sister and cousin stayed on for another week. So it was almost a Harlos family reunion, right in our little apartment. :) Drew and I tried to keep up our work schedule, but we kept busy on our days off touring around. We did a 3 day kayak trip, my first overnight in a single kayak, and we went clamming for the first time, which was a ton of fun. We did our best to convince everyone they wanted to come up again. Drew's parents are planning to be back in March, and his cousin is wanting to come back for some winter skiing as well. You might be on the floor in the hallway, but you're always welcome!
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| Hiking up to Byron Glacier... |
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| On the Trail of Blue Ice |
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At the Denali South viewpoint. It was super warm and sunny that day.
So glad to have family come up here! |
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Riding ATV's at Kyle's ex-mission President's cabin.
We spent a great day with him checking out Denali, Talkeetna, and chatting. |
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| Standard Drew Harlos breakfast for everyone. |
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| When Drew's parents got here they were able to spend the day in Seward on a wildlife cruise and hiking Exit Glacier. I had to work but I met up with everyone for dinner afterwards. |
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| At Exit Glacier. |
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| Having a surprisingly hard time getting a picture before Kyle and his girlfriend caught their plane. |
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| Kayaking in Blackstone Bay. |
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| Ice caves at Lawrence Glacier |
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| Camping at Decision Point. |
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| At the falls on our last day kayaking. |
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| Waiting for the tunnel... |
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| Bald Eagle mates |
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| The overnight clamming trip was my favorite. Woke up from a super good nap and spent the evening chatting over some good food. Can't think of a better way to spend my time. |
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| Drew's mom was a champ with the clamming. |
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| It took us awhile to figure out how to find them, but once we did we dug up a good amount of clams. |
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| Drew figured out why they call them Razor clams. |
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| Fish and Game took our butter clams from us. I guess they were getting people sick... |
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| I was glad to have the truck to climb into when we finished clamming. |
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| Cleaning the clams back at home. |
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| Squeezed around the table for clam chowder. |
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| Showing off some pictures, trying to convince these guys they want to come up again for another adventure. |
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| These two crazies headed up to our favorite hike on Kesugi Ridge after Drew's parents took off. |
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| It started out rainy but they got some good views of Denali by the end. |
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| Kayak shop party after work. |
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| Drew brought some Native food for everyone to try. |
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| Corey couldn't stomach the blubber and seal oil very well. |
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| Baby wolf at the Anchorage Zoo! |
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I was lucky to get off work early to meet up with Kendra and Drew on her last day with us.
We hit up Moose's tooth and the Anchorage Zoo before we dropped her at the airport. |
