Alaska Adventures with the Saylors!

So we've had a super fun time with Aunt Jennie, Uncle Jake and Baby Hugh over the last week or so... the weather has been FABULOUS and we took full advantage of the sunshine and warmer temperatures.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed having Hugh around and they played long and hard with their Aunt and Uncle.  We are so thankful for their visit...  Here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of the photo highlights...  This is but a sampling of our many Alaska Adventures with the Saylors :)

A hike at Eagle River Nature Center.. it was SUPER muddy, mosquito ridden and laden with fresh bear tracks (seriously....either that or it was a dog from hell.. no, a bear for sure).  

Kara loved sitting by Hugh in the mornings on the couch.  He was entertained by her most of the time, I think.  We got to babysit him one night while Jenn and Jake went to dinner with some friends.  I got to give him his medicine and take him out of the tub while Clayton got to do the rocking and giving of the bottle... So fun!

Clayton and Jake (missing from the shot was Jake's friend Jake) on top of Mount Baldy in Eagle River.  Clayton tried to sever his right hand by slicing at the wrist of his right hand while falling on the blade of his snow shoe.. a few phone calls and a visit to the flight doc a few doors down yielded no stitches but an ugly gash and much pain.  

We drove to Talkeetna for a view of Denali (it's in this picture, you just can't see it).  Jenn and I got a wild hair at lunch and, surprisingly, with the encouragement of our dear husbands....

Ooops.. story above to be continued after a picture of Clay-Clay and Hugh in the car.  These boys logged many miles in the car together and were pretty cute. It would be a toss-up who was happier to get out of the car at the end of each day :)

Now, back to our adventure...  Jake and Clayton sent us on a flight-seeing tour of Mt McKinley.  Jenn and I, our pilot Ed, and some random FAA guy did a 90 minute tour around Denali and surrounding mountains.  TRULY AMAZING!  Obviously, the big mountain is Denali.. the tallest mountain in N. America (20,300ish feet).

One super cool thing was that the plane landed on skis on a glacier.  Here is said glacier.

The girls on a glacier!!!!  It wasn't that cold, surprisingly.  Behind us and the clouds is Denali (or so we were told).  The small plane is not my favorite thing but I did OK until the return flight from the glacier back to Talkeetna.. I had the barf bag within reach and both Jenn and I thought we would have been putting the barf bags to use given another 10 minutes in the air.. So much fun.

My uber-cool cousin Monty is the AF air field manager at Elmendorf.. he gave Jake, Jenn and I the red carpet tour of the airfield and we were able to see Clayton take off up close and personal.  Thanks, Cuz!  (Clay and Hugh were at Miss Kamdon's house)

Lastly, I'll leave you with Hugh's interpretation of his trip to Alaska.. you can insert your own thought bubble to this picture.  Heaven knows the rest of us already have :) 

We were so thankful that Jake and Jenn came to AK with baby Hugh.  We had a blast and are sorry to see them go (though I'm thinking they are probably ready to be rid of us for now).