Alaska !

We spent nine days in Alaska in August for our big summer vacation. We flew into Anchorage and then drove south to spend a day in Whitter and then four nights at a house we rented in Cooper Landing, which is on the Kenai Peninsula, a very scenic area with a lot of fishing (we didn't do any, but ate some great salmon and halibut). We did a lot of hiking and really enjoyed the house. From there we spent a day in Anchorage and then two days up in Denali National Park.

You can see our top 35 pictures at this link.

Here were the top 5 highlights of the trip:

1. The highlight of our first hike was taking a 'hand tram' across a river gorge.

2. Our most strenuous hike was to the Harding Ice Field. You climb up a mountain and then get an amazing view of a sea of ice with mountaintops peaking above.

3. We biked in Anchorage and passed by a huge moose with her calf by the side of the trail.

4. Dad and the boys took a 'flight-seeing' trip in a 10-seat airplane to see the tallest mountain in North America up-close

5. Amazing scenery and hiking in Denali National Park. We saw moose, elk, ptarmigan (Alaska's state bird), and some grizzly bear.

Sunset

A mid-summer sunset from our deck..

.

Joseph Turns Sweet 16

For Joseph's sixteenth birthday we rented an electric boat and went out on Lake Union.

(Mom and Dad thought this was fitting since we went for a pontoon boat ride for his first birthday. Joseph said he didn't remember that).

The boat was fairly hard to steer. Everyone (except Mom) took a turn at the wheel.

Afterwards we went for dinner at Olive Garden and opened presents.