Shakin' and a Hikin'

After being awoken by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake (largest and longest shaking I have felt!) this morning, Joey and I joined our mom hiking group for an amazing hike along the Rabbit Creek Trail in South Anchorage.  This was a new trail for us, so I was pretty excited about checking this out.  The weather was pretty sweet, 67 degrees F and sunny!  Per-fect!

We're not exactly sure how far we hiked...maybe 4-5 miles roundtrip.  This was the view on the way back to the vehicles. 

Joey was on the lookout for bears!  There was lots of fresh bear scat, but we weren't worried since there were 27 parents and lots and lots of kids in our group!

Towards the end of our hike, I let Joey walk a little bit on his own.  Of course, he found all of the puddles!  Since we were so close to the car, aka. a change of clothes, I let him splash away!  He loved it!  It really was an amazing day for this hike!  I hope we have many more days like today before we leave. 

Sunshine and Rain

Our weather has been amazing!  The temps are in the 50's and 60's which is actually super comfortable (we don't have humidity here).  We have a lot of sunny days, and some rainy days.  No matter what the weather, Joey and I are getting outside everyday for at least 60 minutes.  Green Hour Power!

Joey loves sticks, rocks, and dirt.  He's still in the "put everything in my mouth" stage, so you really have to watch him...especially around rocks.  I must tell you, it is so freaking nice to be able to go outside without bundling us both up in 20 something layers.  It feels so odd to only have to put socks and shoes on the kid.  Nice, but odd.   

One of our friends had given Joey a talking puppy dog for his birthday, but Joey already had this dog.  So, we returned the gift and let Joey pick something out.  He picked out this popping lawnmower.  He LOVES it.  He has already cut all of our grass and inside carpet!  This lawnmower is pretty sweet.  It comes with a little red gas can, makes lots of noise, and can be pushed all around.  What more could a Joey ask for?!?!  

I'm really glad Joey learned to walk during this season.  I think it would have really been hard to deal with a "just learning to walk" child and the snow and ice.  Joey likes to go outside so much.  We let him walk himself out the door, with our supervision, of course.  When he gets close to the step, he reaches up for my hand and holds it as he tries to step down.  It is the cutest thing ever! 

We are still going on our weekly hikes, which have actually become bi-weekly!  Gotta step up mama's training!  Sorry, I don't have any photos from these past few week's hikes.  My hiking camera is dead and I have lost the charger.  We are going to get a new charger TODAY!  We did go on a hike down in Girdwood (a little ski town 45 minutes south of Anchorage) yesterday.  Unfortunately, the weather was super gloomy and wet!  But we didn't let that stop us!  I bundled Joey up in his fleece bunting suit and then his rain suit!  How freaking cute is he!!?!?

Then, he went into the framed backpack carrier which has a rain canopy.  These kids have it made!  I just wore a rain jacket.  We were hiking through a rain forest so the rain made our adventure that much more authentic!  All of us that made the hike made a joke about how we are some serious hardcore Alaskan hiking mamas!  Hear us roar!!! 

Weeeeeeeee!!

Yesterday, Joey and I went sledding for the first time!  We went with our friends, Shannon and Tyler.  There is actually a pretty nice sledding hill right by our house!  The hill was somewhat scary, but Shannon assured me that we were just going to go half way up the hill with the babes.  The photo above is Joey and I starting out on our sledding adventure!

 After we came down the hill!  Joey didn't seem to like the sledding too much.  Unfortunately, since we had just received fresh powder and we were the first people to use the hill, the snow came flying up as we went down the hill!  This means that Joey was covered in snow!  After that ride, we didn't sled anymore because I didn't want to scare Joey. 

Joey and his buddy, Tyler!  We set them on the sled together once we were on the flat part of the area. 

Luckily, Tyler was able to sit up in his snow suit.  Joey is too much like Ralphie's brother and couldn't move!  Ha ha! 

It's Only September...

One of the last things to add to our Sunday Funday was SNOW!! Yes, it snowed up here and it's only September! The snow only stuck on the mountain tops, but it was pretty crazy to see.

I know you can't even see the snow falling in these photos, but Joey and Michael don't get too hang out that much, so we took a lot of photos of them together and what better place to share these photos than on this blog! :)