Hiking Up Gateway Trail

Last Saturday we set out on a hike up Gateway Trail.  It's close to home and we've wanted to go for a while  and finally got around to making the effort.  It's a 1.6 mile hike that we didn't complete.  Maybe we will make it all the way next time.  These guys just start complaining of being tired, bored, hungry, thirsty, etc... 

Josh reads the sign for us.  Now that he can read he likes to tell us what everything says.  

And we are off!

It was easy going at first but once we started going up into the mountain it was challenging.

I really had no idea that it was part of the National Forest.  

As the trail became steeper the complaints became more frequent.

We did let them stop for rests and water though.  

The trees were changing into their fall colors and were just gorgeous.

I took photo after photo of their beauty.

We collected pine cones and acorns to decorate with at home and it was fun to have the boys searching for these treasures and to hear them say, "I found one, look at this one!".

The littlest hiker fell down on the way back.  He just tripped on a rock and scraped up his arm.  He did not want us to touch it or look at it.  Poor thing.

Mr and Mrs Mustache go to Alaska

We were in Anchorage for the first couple of days.

We saw the largest chocolate fountain in the world.  There were no Oompa Loompa's.  

There was a huge market that had all kinds of stuff to offer.  Check out the size of that squash!

We had to stop of this garage sale because, really, who could pass up this sign?  But just to satisfy curiosity, it was not that exciting.  

We did some hiking and saw some beautiful scenery.

Just gorgeous!

Anchorage, as seen from the top of our hike.

We had some good food, really good seafood.  That is an onion loaf.  I had never seen one before.  It was yummy!

 We took cheesy photographs of ourselves when we stopped to look at the sights.

There was no one else there though and we had to have a picture in front of this!

We looked for whales but never saw any.

We stopped and looked at some glaciers.  The water was a blue that I had never seen before.

We panned for gold and found a little bit.

We stayed several nights in a beautiful bed and breakfast in Girdwood.  This was our view.  Not too shabby.

We didn't see any bears out in the wild.  I really wanted to but it seemed like every where we went there had just been sightings or there were some after we left!  This guy was behind a fence at the Wild Life Preserve and I used my zoom.

There were two of them and it was so fun to watch them play. 

We got to ride this gondola from Aleyeska Resort to the top of Aleyeska mountain.  It was a little scary.

There was a restaurant and glaciers at the top.  It was cold!

We had to eat outside, so we ate fast!

Since Troy was conferencing I spent some of my days just hanging out.  Reading, writing, looking around.  This was my view from where I "camped" out one day.

This spot was always crowded with fishermen but on this day, there were only a few.  I could learn to like fishing if this were my surroundings.



It was fun to get away and have some time to ourselves but we really missed our boys.  We are so thankful that we had help from our parents in taking care of them.  It's hard living so far from our family but I am glad that we got to spend some quality time with them this summer.

The Cascades

We went to the Cascades on Memorial Day and these guys were ready to do some hiking!  We put on sunscreen, bug spray and hats.  We were ready.

We took the lower path on the way there, which turned out to be the true hiking trail.  Not an easy path to take and I would not do it again with a 2 year old.  Here is the bridge we crossed to get to the trail.

Isn't this gorgeous! There were places that we would walk along and there would be a cool breeze.  It was hot so we really enjoyed it whenever we got a little of that "outdoor air conditioning".

An example of part of the trail.  There were several parts that looked like this.

Funny boys!

I promise I did not make them do this!

Some of the path would go right along part of the river.  In other parts the path was up higher or a little farther away.

Some of the time we spent trying to avoid slipping in the mud.

Troy ended up carrying Simon some.  This is a trademark look of Simon's.

Beautiful.  The roaring of the water was so loud.  It reminded me of this verse, "and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory."  Ezekiel 43:2

 A little fall, across the river from us.

We're almost there...we can see it!

And there it is!  It is so beautiful.  After that long hike we were more than willing to sit and relax a little.

The boys took their shoes off and maneuvered their way out to the water.

I stayed behind to take pictures.  Josh and Caleb both slipped and fell on their way back. 

Fortunately a hiker stopped to take our picture. 

The total hike was 4 miles and I think it wore all of us out.  I'm pretty sure that Troy and I picked up poison ivy, oak or sumac from somewhere out there.  Maybe it was when I squatted behind that big rock to pee.  Hahaha! 

When we got home and had our supper and our baths we lit up some sparklers.  At 8 o'clock, it wasn't quite dark enough yet but we were too tired to stay up any later. 

They liked having 2 in each hand!