Alaskian Summer

Saturday's adventures with black bears, botanical gardens and new jobs must have worn us all out because come Sunday morning my alarm (aka My Husband) didn't go off, then my back up alarm (aka My Children) failed to go off as well! 

What are the chances that both my alarms malfunctioned the same morning, weird.

After running around like crazy people (even more so than on a regular Sunday morning) and realizing that there was no way we were going to make the early service we decided to calm down because we could always go to the second service. 

We all finished our coffee and toast, found socks and shoes, packed a picnic lunch for after church. The plan was to hike Flattop Mountain. That had been Saturday's plan but got pushed to Sunday. Oh and don't forget the water bottles and sweaters for the top of the mountain! My dear husband thinking we were going to be late for the second service after all rushes us out the door and to church only to find the parking lot full but strangely silent... come to find out were were not late, we were just incredibly early. ugh! 

Like I said in yesterday's post, 

"This weekend was a study in going with the flow and adapting to change of plans."

Exactly.

Church (once it finally started) was wonderful and refreshing and so worth the effort.

Since we ended up at the later service it got out later than we were used to so the boys were starving. We drove up to the mountain and it seemed many other folks had the same idea on this beautiful warm (70 degree) summer day. The parking lot was packed full and we couldn't find a space. Just as we were thinking that we might need to, you guessed it, change our plans again! and find something else to do instead we got a parking space! yay! We didn't want to lug our food to the top of the mountain so we wandered down a path looking for a spot to eat. The path kept going and opened up over the valley in the video below.

The boys found a bench off the path and up a little hill with this gorgeous view.

Now let me tell you that what you don't see is the bazillion and one mosquitoes dive bombing into our ears and flying up our noses! As long as you kept moving it wasn't so bad but if you dared to stand, or sit, still for any amount of time the mosquitoes took that for an open invitation. 

So there we are pacing back and forth trying to stay ahead of the evil insects and eat our food... me thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea... after all the black bear we saw yesterday came to one of the the vendors booth and stole her peanuts even with all the people around... so here i am standing pacing with a ham and cheese sandwich... how far away can bears smell?... does a bear smell my sandwich right now?... if one comes I'll just toss my sandwich and run in the opposite direction... my boys are running around in the bushes... they might look like the perfect snack to a hungry beast... I'm hoping that is in fact my kids shaking the bushes and not a hungry... oops, i just swallowed a bug... nature is so overrated...

But yes, the view was gorgeous!

A creek ran along the bottom of the valley and we could hear it's rushing waters and it was so pretty we decided not to go back and climb Flattop but to continue along this way and see what we could see.

Thankfully the mosquitoes didn't bother us after that. 

There was a nice breeze blowing and no body got eaten by the wildlife... 

as long as we don't count the mosquitoes!

We even found some truffula trees growing beside the path.

See? Just like. 

Mission Accomplished... 

We wore him out!

The view from our living room window at the end of the day.

Everyone else was in bed already as it was almost midnight so I enjoyed this sunset on my own, just soaking up the glow.