AK RR & Denali

Branden entered a drawing on base and won us two round trip tickets to ride the Alaska railroad to Denali national park and back! We had been wanting to ride the train before we moved, so this was the perfect chance!

Here are some pics of the train ride...

After an 8 hour train ride we made it!

We stayed the night in a hotel, and the next morning took a 7 hours bus tour through the park. We saw lots of animals- caribou, moose, grizzly bear, wolf, fox, ptarmigan, and dall sheep! I got pictures, but they were so far away, they were too small.

We had fun on the bus tour, but were sad we didn't get to see Mt. McKinley, it was too cloudy and overcast. They said only about 25% of the people that go there actually get to see it. Bummer.

We stayed another night in the hotel and then rode the train back the next day.

Riding the train was so fun! And the views were amazing!

Jaxen was pretty tuckered out by the end of our trip, and so was I, but it was fun to get away for a bit!

4th of July & such

Jaxen's First 4th of July!

He is starting to sit up on his own and loves it, but he still falls over sometimes :)

We went to the parade in Achorage on the 4th

which Jaxen enjoyed very much!

The fire works were actually the night before...this was at midnight!

NOT MY IDEA OF A GOOD FIREWORKS SHOW!

It wasn't even dark!

Jaxen had his first little camping experience, we stayed the night at Otter lake on base.

He LOVES being outside!

I just had to add this picture in....

we were unloading the car from 4 wheeling and set Jaxen upsatirs while we went down to get another load from the car and when we came back up we found him like this!

I still can't stop laughing about it! We have definitely got a mischevious little trouble maker on our hands!

We spent a night in Seward at the military resort just for fun because Branden iws on leave. We stopped and fished on the Kenai River, but had no luck.

This Saturday we went to the Bear Paw parade here in Eagle River

We are having so much fun this summer sharing our adventures with Jaxen! It is so much fun having a kid!

Especially one as cute as this!

June

This month we celebrated Branden's first Father's Day!

The shirt says it all! Jaxen loves his daddy! He was so glad to see him when he came home from training, and has been laughing and smiling at him since!

Branden and his 'mini me'

Love those eyes!

I turned the big 25!

Wow. A quarter of a century. I feel old.

 And we also had our 5 year Anniversary!

Time sure does fly by!

We have also been enjoying the outdoors quite a bit. It has been a BEAUTIFUL summer!

 I seriously LOVE Alaska in the summer!

4 wheelin at Peter's creek

We go on a walk every night with Jaxen and Kenai on this beautiful bike trail to a lake right by our house and let Kenai play in the water.

And we have a lot more fun stuff coming up! Including moving to Colorado in August! I will miss Alaska SOOOOOO MUCH, but it will be nice to live so close to family!

Jaxen is 5 months!

Our baby is growing up so fast, he just changes SO MUCH week to week!!

Just last week he started rolling over a lot, he used to every now and then, but now I put him on his back and 2 seconds later he is on his tummy and is stuck because he hasn't quite figured out how to get back onto his back. He is now talking a ton! Mostly "gooooooo" and sounds that sound like he is saying "dada" and screaming, not sad screams, just screams.

I also just started last night giving him rice cereal. I was going to wait til he was 6 months but he just seemed so ready to eat! He kept staring at me while I was eating and I felt so bad!

But, he seems to like eating food!

Hopefully this will help him sleep longer at night...it didn't work last night though. He is sleeping in his crib most of the night now...sometimes I do get too tired to put him back, but he actually sleeps a lot better when he is in his crib. It makes me so sad because sometimes I just want to hold him while he is sleeping, but that doesn't happen very often anymore : (

Loves the jumeroo, but doesn't really jump yet

Another studly church outfit!

He's pretty funny too, I found him sucking on the fin of this fish like his binki!

and somehow he managed to get his arm through this toy and was stuck!

Daddy has been gone for almost a month now and comes home today,

he won't believe how much Jaxen has changed!

We sure missed him!

My projects Blog

So, I started a blog that I can put all of my projects and such on. I wanted to keep this one centered around us and our family. So click here to see what projects I have been up to lately!

Jaxen's 4 month checkup

Jaxen had his 4 month checkup this week, and he weighed 15 pounds 9 ounces and 25.5 inches tall! Big boy! I can't for the life of me find the paper that has his other measurements and percentages, so I guess I will update that when I find it. But he is a healthy happy boy other than his sticky eyes and minor eczema.

His new thing lately is this...

which was then followed by this...

Gosh I love him : )

Niece #5

We got another niece last week! She is Branden's sister Shay and her husband Kimball's second baby. I was lucky enough to meet her right before I left to come back to Alaska and I also got to take some new born pics of her! She is adorable and has TONS of hair! I love it! Congatulations guys!

Here she is!

Samantha

May 11th, 2011

8 pounds 2 ounces
21 inches