Family

Caribou Grill – Glennallen, Alaska

Our first full day in Alaska we went out driving through the mountains. I made mention that I wanted to go into the mountains and we entered this trip with very little plans. Especially since the Coronavirus has been affecting all daily life everywhere. But I wanted to see beautiful scenery and I wanted to go into the mountains. So, our first day, we did just that.

p.s. I love that at home we have deer crossing signs. Here they have Moose and Elk crossing signs. However, we didn’t see any moose (or elk) in the wild until the last day. more on that to come.

Supposedly you can drive to this glacier. The roads didn’t look right or looked like we were going to have to offroad. Have you ever tried offroading in a minivan? Me either. Not sure I want to either.

This was the Matanuska Glacier. The Matanuska is Alaska’s largest road-accessible glacier, and it’s just 90 minutes from Anchorage. It is 27 miles long and 4 miles wide. It is located 100 miles North-east of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway. It flows about 1 foot per day. (more…)

Patchwork Moose – Talkeetna, Alaska

We ate breakfast at a restaurant called Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant in Anchorage the day before. Our waitress was so awesome. She asked if we were out of town or locals. When we told her we were on vacation, she asked where all we had been and where we were headed next. Then she suggested heading north to Talkeetna, Alaska. 

The next day we grabbed breakfast as we headed out of town headed north to Talkeetna. The waitress had given us a few different Alaska books to look at and mom and my husband did some research before we headed there. One of the things mom saw was a quilt store located in Talkeetna called The Patchwork Moose. Now, my grandma’s birthday is the same day as mine which also happened to be the week we were on vacation. Very few years have I missed celebrating with Grandma. So we decided to go to the quilt shop to bring grandma back some fabric from Alaska.

The Patchwork Moose

22262 Talkeetna Spur Rd
Talkeetna, Alaska

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TownePlace Suites by Marriott Anchorage Midtown, Anchorage, AK

We did something a couple of weeks ago… We went on vacation. Last fall hubby and I were actually looking into a vacation for us to go on when we stumbled across a really good deal to go to California. Not just California, Anaheim… Disneyland to be exact. 

Ever since my little was born, my mom wanted to take her to Disney. I kept telling my mom we needed to hold off until she was at least 5 or 6-years-old. Well, this summer she turned 6.  (Which means last fall she was 5… we were at the 5-6 time frame.) We discussed our findings with my parents and my Mother-in-law to see if they’d be interested in going with us. We came up with a game plan, a date, and booked our trip for this summer. 

THEN…

Covid-19 hit. Well SH*T. What does that mean?

We waited all spring watching the news, debating, talking, stressing, etc. Disney (both World and Land) shut down. I have a friend who lives in California and has season passes to Disneyland. I picked her brain every few days about… is it going to reopen, will this happen, should I reschedule, etc. Finally, she heard rumor that they wouldn’t reopen until January 2021. Crud. 

After quick discussion, we decided to start looking into new trip destinations. We couldn’t get our money back (side note… our lives are more important than losing money from a trip, I’m not stupid), but we could reroute our trip… This was all about the time that the one beach opened in California and 40K people flooded to it and they shut beaches back down. We decided that everyone would want the beach so we started looking for other destinations. 

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, etc. That’s when I suggested Alaska. It’s a state we’ve been wanting to go to… why not. We looked into Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau. We eventually landed on Anchorage. 

TownePlace Suites by Marriott Anchorage Midtown

600 E 32nd Ave
Anchorage, AK 99503

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Going on Vacation: Alaska – July 2020

Let this be known… I’m not here to debate if going on vacation was the right thing to do or not. I was stressed out in the weeks prior to leaving. Stressed beyond belief. I had a few meltdowns. I might be 2. Anyway… the point is… we went on vacation, we had a great time… And here’s what lead us to head to Alaska. We’ll call it the “backstory.”

The initial plans

Alaska wasn’t our first destination.

When my little was about a year old, we were planning a summer vacation. My mom kept mentioning that we should go to Disney World or Disneyland because the little loved Disney so much. I kept saying, let’s hold off until she’s at least 5 or 6. If we’re going to spend that amount of money, I want her to remember it.

Jump forward to last fall.

My husband and I were looking for a vacation for the 2 of us. I don’t know why I think we were just killing time one evening. That’s when he spotted that we could go on vacation to Disney fairly cheaply. Then the debate was on World vs Land. Eventually, we fell upon land because we’d never been to California. Okay, well he had for work, but does that really count?

We talked to my parents and his mom about going to see if they’d be interested. Yup. Got the older daughter on board… and plans started moving forward. (more…)

What Started Out As (Part 2)…

Who would have thought that mowing a lawn would have turned into this?

When we were told to stay indoors and social distance… I felt like I was lucky. I live in the country. I can easily social distance outside… and I’ve done just that. Plus, when you own livestock, you can’t just ignore them! Whew! So I’ve made myself busy this year both by landscaping my house and then moving on to my parent’s house. I did convince my dad to help me. He might not have been as crazy about the idea though. haha.

I really didn’t have much of an idea, but my goal was to clean up my parent’s house and lay mulch like crazy. I love the way the red mulch looks. (more…)

Mother’s Day – Coronavirus Style

If there is one thing this Coronavirus season has brought… it has brought a lot of people staying in and staying away. But… it has brought a lot of people wanting to get out into the great outdoors. Us included. Even though I’ve spent a lot of time outside.

And for some reason, we thought it would be fun to take up hiking. Yup, you read that correctly. Why not? I have been working my butt off here lately outdoors (which when hubby isn’t working his real job, it’s made him work outside too, plus our little. She’s great). So we thought it would be fun to take a break. And you know, go hiking. Something we’ve never really done… but my little has been wanting to do things like that so now is the perfect time.

Happy Mother’s Day to me :). (more…)

What Started Out As (Part 1)

What started out as mowing the lawn… quickly ended into a project that wound up looking like this…

Let’s start at the beginning.

So, last summer my I went to mow our lawn. I had been borrowing my parent’s lawnmower… My lawnmower sucked. Dad’s lawnmower had a flat tire, so I started ours up. I got pelted by rocks. I cried. It was a bad ordeal.

Hubby had been wanting to buy a zero turn mower since we bought our original mower (back in May 2011, just before the Joplin Tornado hit). (more…)

The Day I Drove My Husband Nuts… Coronavirus Day 34

Honestly, why am I recording all of this? Because someday I’m going to look back and see this and remember. Truthfully, maybe I don’t want to remember some of this. This Pandemic is nuts. It sucks too. But I’m trying to make the most of it. Plus, I can’t seem to sit still. It’s not like I went a lot of places before all of this, but the thought that I can’t has me stir crazy. Stir crazy enough to go all over our place looking for scrap to haul off. Not because I want the money, but because I want the crap gone.

Once I was done with our house, I went off to my parents. In fact, the more I think about it, I might be driving my dad nuts too. (more…)

Bottle Calves – Coronavirus Day 28 & 29

 We now have bottle calves. How on earth this happened I’m still scratching my head to figure out… but… Let me paint you a picture…

Last night just after normal chore time, I got a text message from both my parents saying my dad needed help and how fast could I get there. Real fast. Abug and I threw our shoes on and out the door we went. Good thing we just live down the road. She was in play clothes so she went into my parent’s house with my mom (too cold for how she was dressed) and I went out to see what was going on. I had been there about an hour before and a cow was laying funny on the hillside. Turns out, momma was pregnant and trying to calve. 

She got the calf out all right, especially for a first-time momma, but then she ran off. The baby needed a little assistance. So dad and I grabbed some towels and off to the field we went to try and dry the baby off. It wasn’t cold out, but it was cool and just coming out of mommy, the calf was cold. Momma cow wouldn’t come near. I think part of it was because we were there but she was a first-time momma and sometimes they don’t have those instincts they’re supposed to. (more…)

She’s Saddled – Coronavirus Day 18 (also)

This is Granny. Everyone, meet Granny, Granny, this is everyone.

She is a 2-year-old mare that we have. The youngest horse we have on our place. And it is time that we start doing something with her. She needs to earn her keep. haha. A few years ago I broke Bucky to ride. He was such an awesome horse. We sold him last year and to say I’m a little bitter about this… I am. I hear he’s an awesome horse though and the people who bought him are in love with him. That’s good.

A few years before that I broke Barbie to ride. Now… Once I got her broke, then I got pregnant and was “grounded” from riding horses for 9+ months… so my dad finished her for me. Because of potential complications, the doctors wouldn’t allow me to ride.

But now… we have Granny. That’s her barn name. A barn name is what you call them in the barn, etc… but they also have a registered name. Anyway… (more…)