Where did summer go part II

I felt like the other post was getting too long. I myself, don't like long things, long games, long movies, long car rides,  long blog posts so, I'm breaking it up into at least two things. Blah blah blah. OK after Alaska we did the Hiawatha trail. It's an old railroad line that has been turned into a bike trail. It's 17 miles long and we were all totally pumped to do it. We did one in Virginia called, the Virginia creeper, and it was amazing. We should have gone into the Hiawatha knowing that it was in the west and so we shouldn't expect the same beauty as the Virginia creeper. The Hiawatha trail was pretty, it really was, just not like the Virginia creeper.

Here we are at the trail head, The cute little ranger that was there giving us safety tips said she takes pictures of people all the time so it wouldn't be a problem to take our picture. She did great except she cut off the top of the sign that says Hiawatha on it. Not great. Anyway, along the trail there are nine tunnels that we had to ride through. We all had our own head lamps so that we could see in the tunnels.

This is after the first tunnel. This is the longest one and is over a mile long. It was only 40 degrees inside so as you rode through, it felt pretty cold. I am scared of the dark so I was pretty nervous the whole time especially since the ranger said that there are rain ditches on the side so don't get too close to the edge or you'll land in the ditch and you can't ride in the middle because there are people coming back through the tunnel so you need to stay on the side. I was imagining our boys, who were ahead of me, flying through the dark tunnel having the time of their lives until the ran into oncoming traffic. Thankfully that was just my irrational fear talking and we made it out the other side of the tunnel in one piece.

Just in case you don't know, 8,771 feet is 1.6 miles. That's how long that first tunnel was. It was pretty cool, even though it was dark and cold and a little nerve racking.

She loved being on the back of the bike. She was happy almost the entire time.

Along this stretch of the trail, we had to share it with the shuttles that were taking people back to the top after they had finished. The shuttles were school buses. I didn't love that part. But the boys thought it was pretty cool. Even though they got honked at. More than once.

See? It was pretty. Those clouds? Not so much. Yeah, not great.

This picture turned out funky because of the lighting but this is inside one of the tunnels. They were so cool.

This is the spot where we stopped for lunch. There is a bridge waaaaayyyy in the background of the picture. That bridge is part of the trail. At this point I think we still had ten miles to go. Which would have been fine except it started to rain. We aren't talking like a nice light rain that will cool you down and then stop. Nope. We're talking about a waterline break in the streets of heaven and the water came gushing out of the sky. We were hoping that it would stop soon so we kept going. It didn't stop. It was cold and wet and we got soggy and sniffly. We were totally unprepared for weather like that. See the shorts and t-shirts that most of my family is wearing? Yeah, that's what we had. Oh, M and K did have sweatshirts but that's it.

We put my sweatshirt on her trying to keep her warm. It mostly worked but her feet were still pretty cold. She was able to sleep for a minute but the trail was so bumpy with rocks that she would get bounced and wake up. 

I think we had about seven miles left to go. She was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. See how wet my sleeves are? By the time we were done, everything on everyone was soaking wet.

We had five miles left. The sun finally came out but we were passed the point of happiness for a certain five year old. He wasn't just crying, he was whaling. I tried distracting him, but it didn't work. he just kept saying his hands were frozen and he was too wet and cold. People would ride by and tell him that he was doing awesome. He didn't want their praise, he wanted to be done. By the time we made it to the bottom, no one was in the mood for a picture by the sign at the end of the trail. A few days after we got home, I was asking the kids what their favorite things are and what they like the least. When we got to him he said his favorite thing was treats and the thing he liked the least was,"long bike rides like Hiawatha. That was terrible." Now that it's over and we've had a few weeks to recover, we can talk about the adventure and that before it started to rain it was really fun and even after the rain stared, it was kind of cool to ride in the rain, for a little while. But we've all agreed that we did it once and don't need to do it again. We're calling it our rainy, cold, bumpy beyond belief, beautiful adventure.

BAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Holy smokes I love this picture so much! B sent this to us from work one day. He said they were using lasers and he wore the glasses to protect his eyes from stray laser beams. I honestly don't know how anyone in the room took anyone else seriously. I would have cracked up laughing if someone wearing these tried talking to me or asked me a question. I know this doesn't have anything to do with summer other than he works in the summer too. It's just so funny and needs to be shared.

I just realized that August isn't over yet so I haven't put August pictures on the computer, so you'll have to wait to hear about it. So what I'm saying is, I probably didn't have to put this on two different posts. Oh well. Hopefully I talk about August before Halloween rolls around. I make no promises.

Where did summer go?

Remember this? Probably not because this was the last day of school and I didn't put it on here. Anyway, I remember it like it was yesterday. I truly feel like it was yesterday. Why does summer have to go by so fast? I love having our kids home with me. I love that we can stay in our jammies in the morning and stay up late at night. I love the noise that they make and that we get to hang out during the day. I just love it! I just hate that the time goes by so fast. I guess since the time has come and gone, we can talk about it.

 June started out with a visit from my sister, T and her family. It was a great way to start the summer! They couldn't stay for as long as I wanted them to. Let's be honest, I wanted them to stay the entire summer. Fact. Anyway, the kids played games and I got time with my sister. It was a win win!

We went camping! This is me and B with my lovely sister, T and her husband, B. Weird! Just noticed that she and I have the same first letter in our name AND our husbands have the same first letter. Has potential to be confusing huh? I'll try to be clear. Anyway, we went camping at  Dworshak. We had high hopes to use the boat. We had borrowed mama B's boat for the summer. B was so excited to have it and be able to use it all summer. Welp folks, the boat didn't work. It truly was a sad day in B's life when he learned from the boat fix it man, that the carburetor and the water pump that B had him replace weren't actually the problem. The problem lay deep down inside the engine of the boat and would cost a lot of money to fix. So, using the boat at Dworshak was a no go, but we still had a great time!

We had brought our paddleboard and the kayak we had borrowed when we borrowed the boat. We brought our tubes and the kids had a smashing good time! They literally played in the water all day. For two days. They loved it! Watching our kids hang out with cousins is truly one of the best things in the world. I love it!

When these two are together, they are basically one unit. Where one is, so is the other one. C is 5 months older than M. They have been close their whole lives. We haven't lived by each other since they were 5 but when they get together, they act as if they've never been apart.

When these two are together, they are basically one unit. Where one is, so is the other. Sound familiar? I didn't know how to say the same thing differently. B is 6 months older than K and they have been close their whole lives. They have a stuffed dog named, Sparky. They have joint custody, if you will. One of them takes him and then when they see each other, they hand him off. The times that Sparky has been here and been misplaced, there have been tears shed. I'm pretty sure it's not because K loves the dog so much and can't stand to be without him. I truly think that it's because the dog gives him a connection with B. 

 We stayed in cabins

Played games at night

And played on the lake during the day. It was a total blast that ended too quickly.

Our big trip for the summer was Alaska. We went to see B's sister, J and her husband, K and their family. Alaska is beautiful! I feel like there is such unequal distribution of beauty. Alaska is beautiful and here, well, it's just not. So many parts of my life are chuck full of unequal distribution; boobs, brains, being 4'11. That's my dream height ya know. Anyway, Ah, Alaska.

We saw a bear! In their backyard! It was amazing! I had hoped and prayed that we would see a bear and boom! Day 1- we saw a bear! So, so awesome! We also saw a huge fox but no one got a good picture of it. Also in their yard and on day one. 

A moose! On the side of the rode. We saw a couple throughout the week. We actually saw a bull moose too but he's so far away in the picture we got that you can't really even see him.

 We went on this really awesome hike on a butte. The last half of the hike was stairs. If I remember right there was over 600 steps that we walked up. The hike was beautiful and the workout that came with it was just an added bonus!

We made it to the top and soaked up the amazingly beautiful views.

He narrowly missed death as he waited for us to get a picture of him falling off the top. 

We did not think that Alaska would be warm enough to go swimming in a lake. Every day we were there it was over 80 degrees. Every day K would tell us,"This is the hottest day of the year. It's never like this." Even though we didn't get a reprieve from the heat like we were anticipating, we all loved it. This is Nancy lake and it was beautiful! I hear the water wasn't too cold. I didn't get in because, well, I feel like if water is lower than about 98 degrees it is far too cold to be in. So, I named myself the official picture taker and stayed on the dock.

This was another gorgeous hike that we went on. As we were walking, K was in the front. Our K, like the ten year old K that went to Alaska with us. Just wanted to be clear. Anyway, he was in the front and as we rounded a corner, there was a black bear standing on the trail. K said he just stopped and  he and the bear had a staring contest. K won and the bear turned around and left. Thankfully he walked away with just a cool story to tell.

One night, B and I went on a double date with J and K. We went on a night hike. It's so weird that it doesn't get dark there. This picture was at the top of the hike and it was 10:30 at night. Or maybe it was 11:00. OK, let's compromise and say that this was 10:45 at night. So nuts! The hike was, I know, you're shocked, but it's true that it was beautiful. It was even more beautiful because we didn't have our kids with us. Don't get me wrong, we have great little hikers but we were happy to leave them at home for this one.

This was taken at the end of the same hike. It was just after midnight. SO crazy!

We did another hike where we did hand trams to get ourselves across

This gorge. The river is more than 100 feet down. It was so loud and so awesome and one of our favorite parts of the trip. The hike on the other side of the hand tram was incredible. We were almost done with the hike when people started hiking back up the trail telling us there was a grizzly bear with her cubs on the trail so to go another way. I wanted to go take a picture, B said no. Bummer!

We were there over the fourth of July. They do the fireworks at midnight so that hopefully you can see them better. I was surprised that we saw them as well as we did.

This was at 12:15 right after the fireworks ended. I thought that it would be hard to have it be light all the time. I discovered that it wasn't too bad. I told B that I could totally live in Alaska in the summer but the winter's would be too awful. All day light I could do, all day darkness? Not a chance.

The gang's all here. Well, except for their oldest, J, who is on a mission in New York. J and K have 8 kids. 8! I think that's incredible! I wish I could handle 8 kids. I think it would be so fun to have a big family but I know that I couldn't handle it. There are some days that I feel like I'm going to pull my hair out and we only have 4. Anyway, this picture was taken at a glacier that we hiked to. It was pretty awesome.

This was after the last hike that we went on whilst in Alaska. The babies were so tired from hiking so much. This was at Exit glacier. The cool thing about Exit glacier is that there are little wooden signs that have years on them. The years mark where the glacier ended in that year. As you drive towards the parking lot you see signs with a year from the late 1800's. J and K told us that in the 11 years they've lived there, the glacier has melted a ton. I thought that was pretty crazy.

I was looking through our Alaska pictures, (all 200+ of them and we were only there 5 days. Be thankful I'm giving you the abridged version of our vacation!)  and I saw this one. This is at the new base of Exit glacier. It was so windy. Truly, I almost got blown over one time when the wind caught the carrier I had on my back. Anyway, little miss A loved the wind! She would stand up in the backpack and just laugh and laugh into the wind. It was so funny!

All flight home from Alaska are overnight flights. The boys fell asleep almost as soon as we took off. The bright eyed one year old, did not. She slept for about 45 minutes and then no more. She was happy as long as she could walk around. Thankfully we were in the last row of the plane so she had plenty of space to walk around in. The flight attendants were awesome and let her walk into their little space back there. She would say hi to them and then turn around and walk away. She did awesome and when we landed little B sat up and said,"Whoa! That was really fast to get here!" We all had such an amazing time in Alaska.