The Richards Family Goes Alaskan

From the far east and after a slight detor in Detroit, the Richards family arrived in Anchorage for some baby type fun. The shortly learned the schedule of a baby is not that of their normal early bird routine, but they adapted and were rewarded with a happy alert little man who was very willing to go on trips galore with the fam! The family traveled far in wide... in the Anchorage vicinity. We all visited Alyeska and took a ride on the tramway for a (surprisingly) good lunch and an incredible view! We took the popular Portage Glacier walk and were shocked to see how much the glacier receided in two months since Grandma Curtis visited. The rest of the week was filled with visits to Kinkaid Park where we saw a bull moose with a huge rack, shopping on 4th Ave for gifts to bring back east, many great eats (Pho, City Diner, Orso, Glacier Brewhouse) and many fun days at our house playing with the baby, many games of mexican train dominoes, apples to apples and good conversation. We were sad to see them go, it was a great visit and we really appreciated that they used their vacation to visit us and the baby!

Bryce's first taste of the woods

For Brandy's birthday Matt managed to outdo himself and get the new fam a weekend in the woods... newborn style. We wanted to ease Bryce into camping, especially in the land of the midnight sun, especially with all the bears that live in our area, especially during salmon season. So the compromise was a yurt on Eagle River. We hiked a few miles out to it, BOB stroller in tow, no ordinary stroller would have made it, but the BOB is not an ordinary stroller :) We spent two nights, three day exploring the area. Bryce was awesome, he didnt mind sleeping on the ground near the woodstove, or the mosquitoes, all day hikes or the rain that came in bucket fulls. He might just enjoy the outdoors... or he should start faking it, because he will be spending the majority of his time in it! We ate some freezedried fare and stored our smelly products in a bear cannister outside the yurt. We carried bear spray and bell just in case (bears are seen daily in Eagle River Nature Center) but we didnt see a single one!