Welcome to Alaska, Mom!...and Sarah Palin's house

This January, mom came to Anchorage with me and Decker. This is Lake Lucille... the same Lake Sarah Palin lives on. We spent the afternoon looking for her house and gathering up courage to meet her. We thought we would drive out onto the Lake to go in front of her house...until I heard some cracking noises and saw this crack..Made me a little nervous in our little rental car, so we decided to drive right up to her driveway.

Her home is a couple of doors down from this Best Western where we took pictures with this Grizzley.Yes, that's her house to the right of me and Decker...

And yes, it is way windy and cold!

If Sarah Palin reads this...my mom says, "Run for President in 2012!"

The hotel room became the playground for Decker this week...he's grown a lot since his first visit to Alaska....and no throwing up this time! :)

Decker's favorite spot..His little bridge between our two beds...

Thanks mom for coming and spending the week! We'll do it again during a sunnier time! ;)

Love you!

Alaskan Vacation

Welcome to Anchorage AK!! I had a business trip in Anchorage...so what's better than to make it a little family vacation??? Alaska was still in the Brown Winter stage... but that doesn't mean we didn't see any wildlife coming out of hibernation...

A bald eagle lunching on the side of the Russian River ...Moose Poop... and Moose munching in the field...

and Dasher and Dancer hanging out til Christmas season comes again... Playing in the car rental...love your teeth!!
So much to see and do....
At the Hotel....

This is what we saw every morning. Decker peeking over his pack n play wanting to get out and play with mom and dad in the king size bed...

PLEASE????....

YEAH!! Dad is so fun! Your form is impeccable Decker, but we love this pic for his hair...

Hiking Thunderbird Falls right outside of Anchorage.

I've even got my own tree to hang out in...

...and what would Alaska be without snow??? This is Hatcher's Pass:

Self Family Portrait...

The SWIMMING POOL

I'm so excited to go swimming!!!

Or NOT!!!

Oh but wait... Mom's got the touch...

We're at the Anchorage Temple and Decker is waving "hi"

Dinner at Benihana's with my UAA Bookstore customers.

Decker will be the chef tonight.... You can't see it, but Decker is wearing a UAA baseball cap....possibly a future UAA Grad??So, we had a GREAT time, despite the fact that as soon as we landed and were waiting for our luggage, Decker threw up everything that we had fed him on the airplane- peaches, peas, crackers, cranraisens and probably more that I don't remember. Then having to change our clothes there in the family restroom and then him throwing up all night at the hotel. Then at my customer's store in Soldotna the following day, causing me to have to change clothes once again--lucky we had our luggage with us since we were switching hotels, and then again at the Outback the next night for dinner, and then finally at the ER on our 3rd day there--We were concerned he might be getting dehydrated because the diahrea had set in and he was losing all his energy. We had learned our lesson and Mike had brought a change of clothes for me and Decker just for that very situation. All in all, having to do laundry every day we were there and it seemed that I was always the one holding Decker every time he threw up made it for an even more interesting vacation. Oh and by the way...Decker is all better. He's in to everything and is just a bundle of energy. He is back to his old self and now we're just trying to get him back into a regular schedule and not going to bed at 11- 12:00 every night!