*ALASKA*

Our first family trip:
ALASKA!!!
July 6-July 11 2011

Here is Kays and I ready for our 'red-eye' flight to Alaska.

Leaving the SLC airport at 9:48pm

I was so nervous to fly with a baby, but Kayson did really well. He didn't have any problems with his ears; he nursed on take-off and was sleeping when we landed. On the flight to Alaska, he mostly slept, but did wake up crying a few times. I was so worried about waking people up around us, but I think I was more worried than I needed to be. He would always fall right back to sleep.

We arrived in Anchorage, AK at 12:42 (keep in mind the 2 hour time difference) with our flight just being under 5 hours. After a little scare with the car rental place, we finally got our car and headed to our Days Inn hotel in downtown Anchorage for a few hours of sleep!

We woke up early the next morning around 6:30 to head to Seward for our Kenai Fjord Cruise tour.

Here's Amanda, Kenz, Kayson and myself ready for the cruise!


The scenery was absolutely beautiful! I couldn't believe how green everything was and how the mountains/cliffs dropped right off into the ocean.




There's a humpback whale in this picture, but you can't really see it well.

Coby~Kays~Kenz~Brandon

Kayson and his daddy, having a grand old time on the cruise.

It was pretty cold outside, so we would take turns going outside to site see, but had our little booth indoors too!


I couldn't believe all the wildlife we saw. There were bald eagles everywhere.

An island full of sea lions!

Harbor Seals

And humpback whales!!

It was so hard to get good pictures cause you'd never know when they would surface, but none-the-less, it was really neat.

Sea Otters

We also saw dolphins, but they were too quick to catch on camera.

So fun to see them though!

And more seals, just chillin' on the ice chunks!

The scenery was absolutely breath-taking.

Here we are in front of Aialik Glacier. It was huge!

Huge ice chunks/icebergs everywhere!

All of us in front of the glacier.

So crazy how the blue color shows through the glaciers.

Coby and I at the front of the ship!

We stopped off at Fox Island for a full course dinner!

All you could eat prime rib and salmon, with crab legs!

Ya... I mostly stuck with the prime ribs, but I did try the crab legs.... and they are disgusting! I am not a seafood eater, but just to please Coby, I decided to give it a try. I wanted to like them, but it had no taste, was rubbery, and tasted like oil! Not my favorite!

Coby was in heaven!! He loves seafood, especially crab legs! Here's all our food or I guess more appropriately, the remains! :)

Amanda, Brandon, and Kenz enjoying themselves some crab and samon

Kayson's first time to the ocean!

It was too cold to get in, but he loved looking at it and skipping rocks with mommy and daddy!

Kayson and Kenzington back on board the cruise ship!

Kayson was just charming everyone around us and was having so much fun!

A little girl from Germany who sat by us, kept saying he was "veild", we later figured out the translation...... WILD! :)

He is such a happy baby and such a great traveler!

Our cruise was amazing! I only wish we would have seen some killer whales.

I would recommend this cruise to anybody who goes to Alaska!

After the cruise, we headed back to Anchorage... with a few stops on the way.

I failed to mention that while we were in Alaska, Coby and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary!!!

It was such a fun way to spend our anniversary and I am so lucky to have Coby in my life!

We stopped to take some pictures by this beautiful river! The water was turquoise and so pretty.

On our stop, we saw our first wild life.... A dead moose by the river, and of course Brandon and Coby wanted to take a picture by it??!?? We then traveled to Whittier
We had to go through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel to get to this small fishing town. This tunnel was so cool. It went straight through the Maynard Mountain and is the longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America

Here is Brandon pointing to the entrance.

It seriously just goes straight through the mountain

Such beautiful scenery in Whittier!

The next day we then headed up to Denali National Park!

After a long drive, a few pit stops, and lots of treats.... we finally made it to the park.

We first went on a hike through the park. Kayson seriously squealed and laughed the whole hike!

Can you see what's in this picture?

If you look close enough, right in the middle of the picture is baby seagulls!

Perfect hiding spot from predators, but not from Coby and Brandon.... of course they had to try and catch one.... and they were successful! Amanda and I were yelling at them the whole time to stop, but I guess, boys will be boys! :)

So Amanda and I took off further down the stream while they were trying to catch a baby.... and here I am trying to defend the birds and tell the boys to leave them alone, when all of a sudden a different mother bird starts DIVING at me!!! It was so scary! They were all laughing so hard, and all I could do was scream and run away! It never got me luckily, but I can't believe that happened! Quite the adventure! :)

Wild caribou

Chipmunk, rock chuck, pot gut... what have you?

We also saw wild rabbits on the hike.

Amanda, being the cool individual that she is, decided that we should renew our "vows" on the hike, since we just celebrated our anniversary. She picked a beautiful boquet and acted as the "pastor" while Coby and I made up some vows..... probably the best vows I've ever heard! :)

Brandon was snapping away with the pictures!

I'm sure other hikers were wondering what the heck we were doing?!?

Although it was beautiful, I'm sure glad this was all for fun, and not the real thing!

Manda sure is amazing! :)

Notice the lovely boquet!

Here's more of the park

That night we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Healy!

This was our little cabin

We then went to the Totem Restaurant/Bar in Healy (only close place to eat) and
RODE THE GRIZZLY!! :)

Yes.... we stayed on this bucking grizzly for 8 seconds!

So much fun!