So there we were wondering what to do on a Saturday night and then it hit us "Let's dress up as an ethnicity that is completely different than our own and drink beer." We wound up in Girdwood, AK in leiderhosen. It was awesome. Imported Spaten beer from Munich and polka dancing. Bryce loved the Brats.Brandy says she looks like an american gladiator in this picture. "ICE!!!"Brandy and Pip having a drink.

And then we went hiking. We are trying to cram a few last minuet hikes is before it snows. It should be any day now.

Bryce had to rough it a bit. And by rough it i mean we had to put the changing mat down on damp grass. He was a trooper.
I (Matt) could not help but buy this bib. It says "My mom is hotter than your mom" on the front. I did get a lot of questions about his gender so i don't know how much use he'll be getting out of that one.
This is the hand tram. We pulled ourself across this 500 foot gorge in this metal box.

"I can't put my arms down Ralphie!!!!"

Zombie Walk 2009

So Brandy and I participated in the 2nd annual ZOMBIE WALK in Anchorage. For those of you who don't know what a zombie walk is i'll explain. A bunch of people get together and dress up like zombies and walk around. Usually in support of some movie event. In this case they were showing the Norwegian Nazi zombie movie Dead Snow. We didn't actually go to the movie but we walked around with about 300 other Alaskan's as well as 10 people from work to walk around the park strip as the walking dead. It was a ton of fun!!! Brandy was Zombie Palin and i was Zombie Joe the Plumber. If you google the Anchorage Zombie walk Brandy was actually blogged about. She was written as the best zombie there. This was the moment that made us famous. Brandy (Zombie Sarah Palin) encountered the health care zombie (we support health care it was just a funny joke). There was a fight and she won. If you search for it in youtube.com you will see somebody taped it and put it on the internet. It was awesome. Mommy made Bryce an awesome shirt for the occasion because we weren't going to put any makup on the little guy. That would be too wierd for the both of us.This is the family photo that we framed for above the mantle.Here is the whole gang. Yes we brought the stroller.
We went out for drinks afterwards and then called it a night. It was a great time and something we will do next year (maybe)!!!!

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!

Bryce+Books=Happy Baby

There is no denying it... Bryce loves books :) We had to make a video of how excited he gets when someone is reading to him and how frustrated he is when the story is over. A side note, this is one of three books sent to him by his namesakes Art and Moira... two very incredible people.

I'm lookin' at the baby in the mirror

Bryce discovered himself in the mirror the other day... this is too cute

We went to HOMER

So the gang packed up the Subaru and took the 4 and 1/2 hour drive to Homer, AK. This trip was made even longer because we kept having to pull over for Bryce's little "bathroom breaks". Seriously though Homer was absolutley awesome. The B+B seconded as a winery. To all the wine geeks that are makeing that funny face and thinking "wine grapes in Alaska??" The answer is no. They imported the grapes but also used a lot of fruit grown locally. Gooseberries, blueberries, strawberries, and rhubarb. Not too bad!Hot tub pop a bubbly. Caution pasty white Alaskans ahead.Bryce preferred the dry whites buy couldn't pass up a good Merlot.Brandy works the kite. Diva kite ninja.Our room in the B+B.Matt had some issues trying to get the kite airborn.To make matters worse the kid beside us was able to fly his McGyver kite pretty well. There was a farmers market with some good old fashioned bluegrass music. That guy in the middle sure does look Alaskan.

Brandy calls this photo "Mini Matt" I call it "Awesome".

Bryce is a very serious young man.

Happy!