Goodbye AK...Hello UT (for now)!

Okay- This post has a TON of pictures, but most of my posts do because i am not much of a writer, but anyways I just thought I would give you a heads up :)

I also just wanted to say thankyou to all of my friends and ward members in Alaska for taking us in for the 3 years we were up there. It really felt like home, and I am going to miss Alaska and all of the friends I met while we were there. Someday I assure you at least Jaxen and I will come back to visit...you all know how much Branden loved Alaska! :)

And on to the pics...This is Jaxen a couple of days before we left Alaska...the beginning of August, he was just getting into the crawling position on his own at the time.

He also cut two teeth sometime from the end of July to mid August, so at about 6 1/2 months.

So CUTE!

Here is Jaxen and his cousin Carter with their matching onesies! Jaxen thought everything Carter did was Hilarious!

While learning to crawl Jaxen did lots of push-ups...

and head stands...

We had a barbeque with the Jones family

Jaxen loved uncle Jeremy!

The gang

Grandpa Jones and Jaxen

Some pretty black-eyed susans

The friends and I went to dinner

Jaxen sure enjoyed himself...no he really did this just isn't a happy pic

Jaxen and cousin Boston, they're going to be best buds!

Kenai also made it to Utah...unfortunately, J/K! (kinda) On the plus side, Jaxen loves him!

Cousin Branden and Jaxen playing, they will also be best buds!

And as most of you know, we thought branden was lost in Canada for a couple of days, we're glad he's not and that he is okay. He has been helping his brother Blake build his house the whole time we are here.

Jaxen got to go swimming for his first time ever! He absolutely loved it!

Jaxen at the picnic we had with some of my friends

We also had a picnic/hike of our own!

Jaxen putting his feet in the river...

Daddy and Jaxen

Some pretty flowers on our hike

Mommy and Jaxen in front of the waterfall we hiked to

and here is Mr. Jaxen in all his glory! He is crawling everywhere now!

We celebrated Branden's 30th Birthday! I know...I can't believe he is 30 either!

Jaxen loves being outside so much! It doesn't matter what he is doing, but he does love to swing! And check out that stick in his hand, I tried to take it away and he flipped out, so I let him keep it!

We are having lots of fun being in Utah around family, but we are excited to get to our next duty station in Colorado springs at Fort Carson. We leave Utah September 12th. Hopefully we can find a place to live once we get there quick!

Anyways, that's about it for now!

Last Jump

This was from a while ago, but I am just getting around to posting it. Branden jumped his last jump as airborn infantry. It was cool because they got to jump into Big Lake. I wasn't going to go because it was about an hour drive and it was pretty early in the morning, but I have never been to one of Branden's jumps and it was his last one so I decided to go and I am SO glad I did! It was awesome! I seriously wanted to do it myself!

 Here is Jaxen waiting on the grass for daddy!

They jumped out of black hawks

Six people jumped out of each helicopter at a time

boats picked them and their parachutes up

Jaxen with his daddy

They did this video coverage of the jump which kinda gives you their perspective, pretty cool!

Alaskan Airborne Water Jump Operations from USARAK on Vimeo.

New Family Pictures

I had my good friend Dawn take some family pictures for us. I just wanted an updated family pic since the last one Jaxen was a newborn.  Jaxen wasn't in the best mood, but I still think they turned out really cute!

Jaxen is 6 months old!

I can't believe our baby is half a year old!

 He is just the best baby, and is getting such a cute personality!

His 6 months stats are:

Height 27", 50%

Weight 18 pounds 5 ounces, 75%

Head size 42.3 cm, 25%

He talks SO MUCH all the time! And smiles at EVERYONE! He loves attention from ANYONE who is willing to give it to him, and he eats it right up. He sits up really good on his own now, and gets into the push-up position with only his hands and toes touching the ground. I think he will be crawling really soon. He is such a busy body and reaches for everything, and grabs whatever is near him or in our hands. His favorite is paper or anything that crinkles loudly, or anythything that is NOT one of his toys, haha!

You can just see it in his eyes that he wants to be able to explore everywhere and everything!

Happy healthy boy!

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!