July 7, 2025 Freezer Dinners

 July 7, 2025

Freezer Dinners

Found a couple recipes for some crockpot freezer dinners I thought I would try out.

July 4, 2025 4th of July Celebrations

 July 4, 2025

4th of July Celebrations

Went over to my parents for a 4th of July breakfast.  We had Kneaders breakfast, breakfast casserole, bacon, fruit, OJ.  Pretty yummy!! Darren and Jenny's family live out of state so they couldn't come, Heather had to work, Kent was sick, Sawyer and Kamber on a mission, Brooklin and Josh were on a trip with his family.  We missed those that couldn't come.

Brittany's Totem Pole she got from Alaska.  Lego set.

After the breakfast we visited for a while, then headed over to Riverton Park for fireworks.  We set up by Chase's.  Sean and Taleia Chase helped us set up our canopy and then it dumped rain.  That was perfect timing.

June 22, 2025 Home

 June 22, 2025

Home

The plane right went smoothly, we arrived a little later than expected but only because the plane left a little late.  I love going on trips, but when its time to be home, I'm ready. 

We got our luggage and headed to the shuttle to get back to our truck.  Pretty uneventful. We ended up not stopping for breakfast.  The other passengers wanted to just head home and take naps. 

We got home about 9:30 am. Kylee and Porter headed home. Jon and Brittany took a nap.  I showered and started laundry, then dozed a little bit.  Feels nice to be home.

June 21, 2025 Site Seeing then Airport

 June 21, 2025

Site Seeing then Airport

Today we start our trek towards home.  Jon and I needed to head to he airport so we could get our rental car.  Brittany got up early as well so she could come get breakfast with us.  Kylee and Porter were still sleeping in the room when we left.

There were only 4 passengers that needed a ride to the airport this morning.  Along with the drivers boss and 2 other workers.  Our driver was very friendly.  He kept talking almost the whole time.  Our ride was pretty uneventful, other than I saw a momma moose and her baby in a field...yay!

As we were walking downstairs in a hallway, there were flickering lights that were meant to represent the Northern Lights.  Now I can say I saw those to ha ha.

We got back to our hotel a little after 10:00 am. So we finished packing and went down to the car.  Porter and Kylee hadn't had breakfast yet so they went and and ate while we loaded the car.  Then we were off.

It was recommended to us to go see the AWCC (Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center). Where we could view Alaskan animals.  We wandered around for quite a while.  Unfortunately some of the animals were sleeping or hiding.  But we were able to see moose, wood bison, porcupine, bear, elk, caribou, owl.  So we saw some animals.  I was a little disappointed, but it was kind of fun too. 

 Unfortunately it took so long there that we were unable to go to the museum we wanted to go to.  So we had to just drive around and waste time.  Got out a few times to look at views and stretch our legs.  One of our stops was so short because we got attacked by mosquitoes so we quickly got back in the car.

Stopped for dinner at Raising Cains, pretty good.  Then we decided just to get gas and head back over to the airport.

We got checked in pretty early.  The only couple hick ups we had was Kylee and Porter forgot to put their ULU Knife in their checked luggage so they had to abandon it.  Brittany had 2 bottles of water in her backpack so she got stopped.

Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave till Sunday morning at 12:30 am.  So we had quite the wait. We wandered around and shopped and just looked around to help the time go. Our plane was actually delayed and didn't leave until 1:00 am, they said there was lots of luggage that needed to be loaded.

Apparently our plane had one to many passengers.  So they made an announcement for a volunteer to take the next flight out at 6:00 am and get paid $500.  No one took it until the offer went up to $800.  Cash would have been nice, but I wasn't willing to yet.  Crazy thing was it was still light outside.  It actually never got dark outside during our whole flight home.

June 20, 2025 McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge Day 2

 June 20, 2025

McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge Day 2

We went to eat breakfast at 20320 restaurant.  It was pretty good.  We had scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes and buttermilk biscuits.  

Cute butter balls

Kylee and Porter were still in their room so they will get breakfast or lunch later.

Before we went and got breakfast we went and took more pictures of the mountain.  It was very clear and visible this morning.

Basically we had to wander around for a few hours before our shuttle would pick us up to take us to Anchorage at 2:15pm.

Porter and Kylee went and got lunch (because the breakfast they chose didn't fill them, Porter didn't like what he was given for breakfast). Jon, Brittany and I went on a little nature walk to see if we could see the mama moose and its babies.  Nope we didn't. 

Found an airplane on display

Got a picture of Brittany in front of the sign

 About 1:00 Jon, Brittany and I went and got a little snack.  Then we sat in the lobby until time to leave.

Got on our bus for a 3 hours drive.  Pretty quiet drive, took naps and watched out the window.  Our drive had told us that her microphone wasn't working well so she wouldn't be talking much.  Even when she did try, her microphone wasn't working.

We were taken to the Captain Hook hotel. 7th floor.  Jon, Brittany and I were in room #739.  Kylee and Porter were in room #736. 

Jon and I went and bought a carry-on for us and some cold medicine for Porter.  Ate at the Whales Tail.

Starter: Shared - Alaskan Snow Crab (half pound of Alaskan snow crab, drawn butter, fresh lemon) and Raw Oysters on the Half Shell (trio of oysters, classic horseradish cocktail sauce, fresh lemon)

Dinner: Kylee and Jon - Steak and Fries (10 oz grilled New York Strip Steak, smoked paprika dusted fries, roasted shallot bourbon butter) . Porter - Thai Soup (soup of the day). Brittany - Battered Halibut and Chips (Alaskan Amber beer-battered halibut, Jicama slaw, tarter sauce, smoked paprika fries) .  Shanna - Alaskan Smoked Seafood Chowder (halibut, smoked salmon, clams, potatoes, bacon)

Dessert - Porter - None. The rest of us got Creme Brulee

Drinks - Kylee and I got mocktails.  Kylee - Black Shirley Temple Lemon juice, Lime juice, simple syrup, luxardo cherry syrup, luxardo cherry soda water.  Shanna - Rendezvous Refresher Elderflower simple syrup, lemon juice, blueberries, mint, lemon, soda water.

Brittany, Kylee and I each tried the oysters. I didn't enjoy them.  I don't think they did either.  Very slimy, kind of gross.  But hey we can say that we tried them.

Left:  Shanna Right:  Kylee

Checked out the gift shop again, then went to our rooms for the night.