Our First Summer Visitor

So, I had to throw summer into the title because both my mom and Brig's mom came up for a bit back in December. Since I was with child at the time and expected to pop at any moment, we didn't go out much. Plus it was winter...

Besides the moms though, Shannon was our first real visitor up here in AK and it was SO great to have her come. She says she enjoyed it, and hopefully she tells everyone she knows so we can get some more visitors next summer! (Or even in the winter! There is always dog sledding!)

Shan came up the very end of July and stayed until we went back to Utah for my brother's wedding. We tried to make sure we got in some fun activities during the day while Brig was at work.

Shan, Andy and I had big plans to visit a lot of museums, but some of the ones we wanted to go to were pretty pricey... We did, however, make it to the Anchorage Museum of Natural History.

It was a very interesting museum. Not at all like we expected, but still pretty fun. It was in a tin warehouse with some fake walls put up for room divisions. There were several sweet photo ops that we took advantage of while we were there and we learned a lot about birds and other Alaskan animals.

One of the last days she was here we tie dyed some shirts and a onesie for Andy's friend Oliver.

We didn't get out as much during the day as we would have liked, but that might have been partially due to the fact that all three of us (Andy, Shan and I) usually slept in until like 10ish. It was great. The rainy weather didn't help us get out much either.

Hopefully we made up for that lack during the evenings and the weekend while she was here.

We went on a bunch of hikes, watched a boar tide come while bundled up in ponchos, went to the Saturday Market, visited the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC), and played some games as well.

At the AWCC we learned that porcupines are really stinky because they roll around in their urine and try to get as smelly as possible. They do this because it attracts the females. Brig asked if that was what had attracted me, and I told him that if he rolled around in his urine we would have some serious problems... but I digress. (<---I've wanted to use that word for some time.)

This is Snickers. The super attractive porcupine... If you get my drift.

And some other favorites from the AWCC.

We tried to pack as much as we could into the one Saturday with Shan we had. We went to the Saturday market in the morning, and then up to Eklutna lake for a hike.

I was a little excited that we had sun and it was Saturday.

Since I missed Shan in the previous picture, I tried again.

I'll keep practicing...although I do like the slight artistic feel to this picture. :)

Brig and I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

And here are pictures of Eklutna lake. We had Nora-dog with us this day. It was fun having both her and Jed with us.

One of the other hikes we went on was the Winner Creek Trail. This was the same night we watched the Boar Tide in the rain. We were planning on hiking Flattop, but we opted for a tree sheltered hike instead of one exposed to the elements.

Another hike we went on was the Powerline Pass.

We were planning on Flattop, again, but once again, it was raining. We didn't have the shelter of the trees this time we to keep Andy dry, so we got a little creative.

You can tell how excited we were in this picture to be hiking in the cold and wetness.

But Shan made the best of it...

Andy wasn't actually a fan of being under the poncho. He would whine until we would lift up the poncho to check on him. He'd stop whining and give us a huge smile... then we'd put it back down and he'd start whining again.

It was a short hike.

We have since remedied the problem and got a little rain cover attachment for our backpack carrier. Bring on the rain!