Alaska! ~ July 6th - 13th 2011

Brandon and I had such a fun summer vacation this year. We went to Anchorage, Alaska.

Brandon had an Engineering Conference up there, and we talked my sweet sister Jessica, her awesome husband Coby, and their little chub-a-lub baby Kayson into coming with us. (But let's be honest, this party in Alaska didn't take much convincing, it kind of sells itself.)

My favorite little Kenzi face of all time!! Haha! The hat squishes her little eyes down on her chubby cheeks to make her look grumpy. :)

Our first activity upon arriving in Alaska was to drive to Seward, along the most beautiful highway in the Nation, and went on a Glacier Wildlife Cruise tour. Here are pictures highlighting that cruise.
Lots of Glaciers! (It was so neat to hear them calve.)





Harbor Seals.


Sea Lions.

Humpback Whales.


Sea Otters.

Puffins.


Bald Eagles.

Beautiful Islands and Scenery.

The flower blossoms were huge. Must be all those hours of daylight.

We would totally recommend the Kenai Ford Glacier Tour to anyone who goes to Alaska. Such a great way to see all the wildlife!

The boat ride put Kenz right to sleep.

I have so much fun with my little sister!

We went to Alaska's wildlife conservation center where we so many more native Alaskan animals.
Grizzly Bear


Elk.

Musk Ox.

Moose.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Healy, AK. It was the cutest little family cabin near Denali National Park.

We rode the Grizzly at the Totem Bar in Healy. So much fun!!

In much need of repentance of our previous night at the bar, :) j/k we visited the Anchorage Temple.

Brandon and Coby did a lot of waiting with the kids while Jessica and I shopped! :) After this trip they had much sympathy for us carrying the babies the 9 long months of pregnancy.

Denali National Park was so much fun. 70% percent of people who go to Denali do not see Mtn. McKinnley ... the highest mountain in the Nation... but we were some of the 30% ers! :) It did not disappoint.


We were able to watch the dog sled demo at Denali, and all of the pups were really friendly. They got super crazy when we would bring the babies close, so we kept the kids at a distance.




We ran into a baby moose, but we didn't want to get to close in case the mom came around.

We also went on some beautiful hikes while in Denali.



We saw more wildlife.
Baby Seagulls. . . . Jessica got attacked by their mother for getting to close. :)

Chipmunks.

After Denali we went back south to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.


We drove to the seaside town of Whittier, through the Nations Longest Underground Tunnel. (Brandon loved this.)


Exploring Whittier. Just a really small town with amazingly good fudge! :)

As you can tell we saw a lot of wildlife, hear are the Mountain sheep that we saw on the cliffs near the road. They are such good climbers.

We stopped an hiked Byron Glacier while near Whittier.


At one of Brandon's conference meetings they had the 4 time champion of the Iditarod as a motivational speaker.

Brandon and Coby in downtown Anchorage.

View from the plane leaving Alaska. What a beautiful state and such an awesome adventure!