My parents vacation part 2...Fairbanks

On Thursday, July 5 we embarked on our first of 2 road trips with my parents.  We started out trip travelling north about 8 hours (it doesn't really take that long but it took us that long) to Fairbanks.  This is the first time most of us Musil's have made it to Fairbanks.

We made a few pit stops along the way.  The first was at this place.  It doesn't really look like much but it is the restaurant we stopped in for lunch.  We were there for almost 2 hours.  The food was no where good enough for it taking so blasted long.

We also stopped so that we could get a picture of these two guys that were just hanging out on the side of the highway.  We saw many other moose along the way too.

We also stopped at a rest stop outside Denali.  The kids went looking for a geocache that was placed there for people to find.  Natalie and Nichole showed the kids where it was and they wrote their names down in a notebook inside the geocache box.  My mom got her picture taken by a road sign that showed how far we are from different cities in Alaska.

After many long hours in the car we finally made it to the hotel.  We settled in there for a bit.  Then my mom, dad, and I went to North Pole, Alaska to pick up our running packets for the Jingle Bell Run that we signed up for.  After we got our packets (which of course came equipped with our very own jingle bells) we headed to dinner at the Cookie Jar.  Tyler and Ella couldn't wait to get back to the hotel so that they could go swimming.  Nichole was nice enough to accompany them to the pool. After 30 minutes or so my mom and I went down to the pool to sit with the kids.

Nichole thought that maybe she could make this look like Ella was floating. Almost.

This was a cute little bear outside of our hotel.  We had to get up bright and early to get ready for the jingle bell run.  The hardest part about the run was the air quality.  There were fires all around North Pole and Fairbanks.  You could see it in the air and breath it in every time you took a breath.

 

My mom, Ella, and I did the 1 mile walk while everyone else did the 5k. Ella did really well and didn't even stop to walk once.

After a fun racing day we headed back to the hotel to have a quick shower.  We followed that by a delicious trip to Big Daddy's BBQ and then off to explore Fairbanks.

 

  

We went to Pioneer Park in Fairbanks.  It was kind of like a little frontier village with the history of Fairbanks and some artifacts from years and years ago.  There was also a train ride that we went on around the park.

 

It was a very warm day outside.  We walked around the park for several hours but we needed to head out to go to our next stop, Denali.  We stopped at this really pretty scenic lookout.  You will not believe the very large number of moths and bees that were there.  We all got out to take a picture and Nate had to drive away so that the moths and bees wouldn't get in the car while we tried to get in.  There were a few less where he drove to but we had to all hurry into the car as to not let too many of them in.

 

                                                                                   Our next stop 4 hours south Denali National park

to be continued.....

My parents vacation part 1

What a very busy summer The Musil family had.  It started with my friend and former missionary Jessica coming to stay with us and ended with me vacationing in Utah.  It was go, go, go the majority of the summer.  The second set of visitors we had up here were my parents.  The arrived Tuesday, July 2.  The whole family (minus Nate who had to work) went to the airport to pick up my parents.  I am so over joyed with having them come that I couldn't sleep very well the night before.  After I picked up my parents we went downtown to get my parents something to eat because they were starving.  We got them a reindeer sausage.  It happened to be my first time trying them as well.  They taste an awful lot like brats just in case you were wondering.  Later on that night we went to one of my favorite places to eat Bear's Tooth.  Which is just like Moose's Tooth only it isn't as busy and a lot easier to get into.

 Because my parents traveled the day before and because we were going to be staying up so late tonight I decided that the best way to approach the next day would have it be a more relaxing day where we would worry more about getting things done during the day then actually going out.  Well that kind of failed.  First we hiked out to the mud flats.  Which is a very easy stroll out to the ocean.  Along the way we saw fresh bear scat but that didn't deter us from getting to our destination.  We walked around the flats for about 40 minutes or so before we headed back.  It was like a huge mosquito colony there and wasn't much fun to be in except we did get to see the beautiful ocean and all of the nature that surrounds it.

 

Later that afternoon we went to see World War Z in the theater which is such a good movie but also not one for kids so luckily I was able to leave Ella with a friend and go with the 3 older kids.  It may of been a little to intense for Tyler.  I know this because every time it would get a little more intense I would look over and he would be plugging his ears.  I have known for years that Tyler doesn't like the intensity of music that goes along with movies.  He liked the movie but looking back on it I don't think that I would of let him convince me that he should go.

After the movie we headed over to the church lawn to meet up with Ella and about 200 other folks (that is how many were on the church lawn there were well over 1,000 people there) for The Eagle River City fireworks show.  Eagle River hold their firework show at 12:05 am on the 4th.  So you actually get to enjoy the festivities of the 4th on the 3rd and the 4th of July.  Nichole opted to stay home that night while the 3 other kids came with me.  Nate met up with me after his school class.    Ella helped sell lemonade.  While Natalie and Tyler hung out with their various church friends.

My parents not being used to the cold had to get all bundled up for the 50 degree weather.  While I looked around to see people playing outside without shoes or coats.  I got to see a whole bunch of people that I know as well.  One of my friends Erin came up to me and my parents to talk with us for a little bit.  My mom just happened to be so bundled up in her jacket, coat, and a blanket that she fell asleep (plus you should take into account that Utah is 2 hours a head of Alaska so the fireworks that started at 12:05 to us really started at 2:05 am to them).  Erin thought that my mom was playing on her phone.  She talked to her for a minute and then said "Oh she's asleep. Oh no she is just playing on her phone."  When I assured her that she was in fact asleep and not rudely ignoring her it made us all chuckle just for a bit.  With all of this excitement going on who would of thought that someone could fall asleep.

 The following morning we were disappointed to wake up to  heavy rainfall. It did screw up our plans for the day.  I had planned on us going out to Otter Lake and having a BBQ and then going paddle boating but the rain did not let up all day long.  We did end up having a BBQ it was just inside of the house.  We made all of the BBQ fixings and had a great time indoors.  We played a Skipbo marathon which my dad agreed to play.  This was the first time that he has actually agreed to play skipbo so that in and of itself is a small miracle.

The day didn't start how we had hoped but we did end up having a great time.  It also gave us the opportunity to get ready for our first of many summer road trips.

                                                                                                              To Be Continued....

Beginning of June

At the beginning of June Natalie and Nichole went away for a week to girls camp and then spent another week in Healy, AK with their friend.  The second week that they were gone Tyler went to scout camp.  During those two weeks we had a little bit of fun.  We went to Gooselake, Ella gave me a pedicure, and Nate and I took Ella to see Monters U and then out to lunch.  Having heard all of that who do you think had more fun.  I know the answer is the other kids. I'm okay with that.  I hope that they did.

Family Pictures 2012

 This year for family pictures I hired a family friend to do our pictures.  This is the first time that I can remeber hiring someone ever to do our pictures.  It was a fun experience to not have to worry about anything but showing up and what we were going to wear.  It was also nice not to have to worry about making someone cry.  This time if someone cried it wouldn't be on me.  The above pictures was taken out on a lake at the very end of May.  To say we had a LONG winter here is an understatement.  We are actually standing on the frozen water about 10 feet from the shore. 

 These pictures were taken in town so there is no evidence of snow at all.  It was a very nice day and super warm outside.  It was a little windy and Ella complained about being cold out by the lake but that is what happens when you are all skin and bones.

Everyone participated nicely and there wasn't a single tear.  Mission accomplished!