June's Visitors

So. As I've been saying the past few days, we had our first set of summer visitors this month. My father, my stepmom, and my brother all flew out from New Jersey for a little over a week. We had such a great time with them. Here's a brief overview of how our time went.

They got in Friday the 11th, right around dinner time. So Josh and I made up a big spaghetti dinner, which we all enjoyed. The we just hung out thre rest of the evening. Nothing real exciting, except that Grandpa Bob, Grandma Karen, and Uncle Bobby were here!

On Saturday, we took the drive down to Portage Valley. On the way we stopped at Potter's Marsh, and Beluga Point (a wee bit of info on both those places can be seen on the Portage Valley link as well). It was a chilly day, but it was beautiful, and we saw all sorts of beautiful sceneries along the way.

After having lunch at Portage Valley, Josh and I left to take the boys home for some of their (and my) naptime, while my family went on to Whittier and took a boat ride out to the glacier there.

Sunday morning we went to church. After lunch, the boys and I took naps while Josh took Finn, and our guests to see the base here. He followed that up by cooking a delicious dinner of "Alaskan cuisines" - salmon that he caught last summer, and some caribou burgers. (Karen and I did not partake in the burgers, hence the need for salmon as well.)

Monday morning, my dad, Karen and Bobby left for a little excursion up to Denali. They stayed there until Wednesday afternoon. While they were up there they did all sorts of things - went ATV-ing, shopping, my dad and bobby went on a helicoptor ride to another glacier - along with the 4 hour drive. Wednesday evening, after they got back and we put the boys in bed, my dad, Bobby and Josh went out to dinner while Karen and I had a nice time at home chatting, getting caught up on what others in my family were up to.

Thursday morning we went on a big family trip to the zoo. Zeke made sure we kept a steady pace by constantly announcing, "Next animal." After seeing all the animals, and eating some popcorn, we made our way back home for lunch and naps. After naptime I walked the older boys down to my friend's house and left them there so the adults (and Finn) could go out to dinner at a restaurant called Humpy's. My brother had seen it on an episode of "Man vs. Food" awhile back and was excited to go there himself. We had a really fun night out.

Friday, their last day here, was a calmer day. My dad and Karen took the boys to McDonald's for lunch as a special treat. Obviously the boys hated that (lol). That night we had a huge fish fry dinner. Josh invited a friend of his from work and his wife, and I invited my friend who watched the boys for us the night before, along with her husband and 5 kids. It was a lot of people, but Josh made a lot of tasty fish.

After everyone left, we enjoyed the rest of our evening before Grandpa Bob, Grandma Karen, and Uncle Bobby got in their rental car and drove off for the airport. All in all, it was a great visit and we are so happy they came. We love you guys!

PS: all of our pictures from this visit are on flickr and you can see them here.

PPS: all of our pictures from the month of may are up as well, here.