Alaskan Adventure: Family

Now that Jon and I have been back from Alaska for a week, I've been looking through the pictures and already wondering about when we'll go back.

Not only did we get to do and see so many things that people only dream of, we were able to spend some quality (albeit) busy time with family. The last time my siblings were all together was during Jon's and my wedding... 3 years ago. With all of us spread all over the world (Alaska, Finland, South Korea/Colorado) it has made our time together few and far between, but that much more cherished when we do get the chance to be together.

So to finish our trip off we took some family photos. Nothing fancy, but it's all of us together, and that's what matters.

Joel & Miia

Nate & Jess

Nate, Jess, Sammy & Ben (Jack was already sleeping)

The boys with Auntie Miia and Uncle Joel

We actually got them to sit nicely with us... miracle.

Sophia, Mari, and Grace 

Attempting a picture with Henry... not happenin'.

Rebecca and Eric with their munchkins... 

hopefully their Christmas card this year... because it's awesome.

And one more with our Aunt Kathy and Uncle Scott (who just happened to be in Alaska at the same time!)

Thank you so much Eric, Rebecca, Nate & Jess for hosting all of us and for making this one fantastic family reunion :)

Alaskan Adventure: Denali Round 2

As the skies were beginning to clear we made our way to a rest stop/tourist stop I wasn't that interested in the books or post cards, but the animal antlers were calling my name...

That thing was HEAVY... and it was only one. I couldn't imagine having two and then having the neck strength to actually move.

Moose impress me.

turning into a dall sheep.

no. big. deal

The to Jon's dismay I made him get involved.

he wasn't as excited as i was.

shocking, i know.

but my niece grace was MORE than happy to oblige her crazy aunt!

Ok, see at the very top of the clouds this white peaks? 

Yeah, that's Mt.McKinley.

Apparently, we were extremely lucky to see even this much of the mountain.

Like 90% of people that go, rarely ever even see the mountain.

John (the wheezing bus driver) explained this would be our last shot of it most likely, so we took pictures like crazy. 

Oh hello mr. grizzly!

The half way stop at Wonder Lake

The siblings

Becca and two of her girls. Sophia and Grace

Moose!

Later in the afternoon the sun relay started to break out and it was gorgeous view after gorgeous view. 

So as I was taking pictures out the bus window, I snagged a glimpse of a larger snow capped mountain behind us.

I, being the nice sister I am, abruptly woke up my brother Nate asking "Nate! Is that Mt. McKinley?? Is it??"

Why yes, yes it was :)

(this is without the zoom. that mountain is still HUMONGOUS)

So despite a dismal morning and a little bit of disappointment at not seeing the mountain clearly.

I'd say we got our money shots in, and the 11 hours on the bus were MORE than worth it to see that massive, snow capped mountain!

Alaskan Adventure: Denali

After our quick day in Anchorage we headed out again to Denali (Mt. Mckinley) National Park. We were off for two nights of camping and a day long tour of the park. 

To be honest, Jon and I were a little on the fence about going in the first place. It was a LOT of driving/sitting in a  short amount of days. We're talking 5 hours there, 11 hours on a bus on Sunday, 5 hour drive back monday, and then getting on a plane monday night for 5 more hours. Yes, 26 hours sitting in a 2.5 day period... not so much fun.

But in the end we were convinced, and I'm so glad we were! The drive there was gorgeous and the park was fantastic as well!

This was probably around 8 or 9 at night.

Note to self: Camping in Alaska in the summer without an eye mask... not advised.

Jon's and my tent had a yellow rain fly which made it "sunny" the whole night through :)

Jon was most definitely regretting my offer to buy him and eye mask before we left.

Our day in Denali started out extremely overcast.. but the clouds actually added a cool atmosphere. That and we were tired so we may have all passed out for a while.

We saw Caribou!

Denali is filled with animals and they are not tampered with in any way.

Just allowed to roam free and let random loads of bus riders snap pictures of them.

I truthfully thought that 11 hours on the bus was going to be bad, but we stopped every 1 1/2 hours or so which helped.

Alright story time.. so you see the man in the vest? That's bus driver John... who was great.

He did have this little microphone thing though to give commentary, but when he wasn't commenting we could just here him wheezing.

I'm talking Darth Vader wheezing, as in we were all staring at each other wondering if we were going to careen off of a cliff at any moment because our bus driver might die, wheezing.

When driving a bus is making you winded... it may be time to rethink a few things in life.

But other than that, perfectly lovely gentleman :)

Ok, so see all the nails protruding from the bottom of the sign?

Yeah, that's to keep away the bears.

They apparently put up a sign and it was destroyed over night, so they made another one... same thing. And now they made a third with nails.

Dall Sheep!

We saw herds of these guys all over the mountain sides.

A wolf, just running down the road... right next to the bus.

Ok, another story.

So whenever you see wildlife from the bus you are supposed to yell "STOP" so that the driver can stop and everyone can freak out and take pictures.

 Well, some people couldn't tell the difference between hikers and wildlife so there were A LOT of random stops going on.

We also had an old guy who was "that guy" on the bus.

"So is that wolf/caribou/moose/grizzly bear/ (any animal we saw) a loner? Do they usually travel in packs? etc."

This guy was extremely focused on the whole loner/herd mentality of every single animal

we were laughing pretty hard because you always knew the question would come after every animal we encountered.

Thankfully the sun started to peek through a little bit (although it didn't last long)

Next up grizzlies, moose, and the battle to see Mt. McKinley!