For a second weekend in row we headed down to the Kenai Peninsula for a much needed life break, from work and the busy, everyday life we lead in Anchorage. It’s been a solid year since I took a week off from my day job; unsuspecting the tough events at work last year were right around the corner of that trip.

With no gil net fishing allowed this year by Fish and Game, we decided getting out of town remained worth it for some much needed family fun. I still revel at the ease of traveling now compared to last year, and with Grandma Sue in tow, it’s about as close to a vacation as you can get (with kids!). The first two nights spent at the same place as last week meant the girls were already comfortable and familiar and very excited to show Craig around. Everyone slept both nights in their temporary bedroom, which is a feat in itself, and did a great job staying at our other house.

With no daily plan or planned places to be, we adventured and explored as we felt like it. We dilly dallied in the mornings and the kids played, much less structured mornings than when we are at home and getting things done. We popped into the Kenai jump park to burn some energy and strolled the farmers market in Soldotna, playing at the playground behind it and trying out a couple tasty treats. The girls fearlessly slid down the extremely old, metal slide- probably installed when Craig and I were kids and now seen as more dangerous- and checked out the old-school monkey bars. At the market one vendor displayed a beautiful wooden bench with a fishing pole sealed into it; the girls all checked that out with interest at how it would come out for use. So funny!

We walked along the boardwalk of the Kenai River, the opposite direction we explored last year after the car broke down. The chanting of kids don’t float! followed our brigade, since life jackets weren’t on and the adults were carefully paying attention. Dandelions, well really any type of flower, were collected into kid bouquets and carried in hands and pockets for the entire excursion. Little did we know this direction took us right to an warm, open (Alaskan standards) beach area with lots of climbing rocks along the riverbank. The girls tossed rocks and sticks into the water with enthusiasm and explored. With the sun finally showing its face, it became surprisingly warm out and almost like summer was upon us! The girls asked to climb out to the farthest rock and in true grandma style, Sue removed her socks and shoes and walked out barefoot to assist them to it.

At one point a random lady and her toddler approached us, asking if we had seen misplaced keys. Craig and I helped her look around and eventually I luckily saw their reflection underwater, just enough to notice them. So random and glad we could help out a fellow mom that wasn’t having as good of a day as us!

At this point the girls’ “pollen coughs,” as I now call them, were in full swing from the warmer temperatures and our time outside, so after an amazing Thai noodle lunch and a lot of ice water to cool down, we drove around a bit so everyone could settle. This followed our plan to be unplanned, and we drove in a few circles trying to find a random flower shop that potentially sold poppies for Sue.

The one planned event toward the beginning of the trip was to barbecue at cousin Jamie’s house and hangout with almost all the cousins on that side of the family. Even with the mosquito club meeting that swarmed around the yard, the evening was wonderful. Savaya, Jaren and Chatum stopped in for a while and it was nice to see everyone. The girls were all on decent behavior, especially after a busy day of adventuring around a new place, at least until Hayden came home from work. Then like they do with Uncle Will…let the torturous games begin! Maddie shared a stuffed animal from her collection with each kiddo, Harper selecting a pink bunny, Emerie a Stitch, and Reagan a cheetah (or tiger?). Since returning home, all three get snuggles each night at bedtime. The pony coloring books from cousins were also a hit and colored while at the barbecue and for the rest of our trip.

After some delicious grilling by Steve, out came the marshmallows. The girls have tried this activity only a couple of times, so it was interesting to see their response to it for the first time this summer. In the past we just made a point to avoid fire situations, since three tiny running toddlers are hard to keep track of to avoid injury! Ultimately they all just wanted to eat the chocolate bars, which they did, and Emerie gave us a hilarious display of slow cooking hers, flipping it over and rubbing it into the fire pit grossness, and making everybody laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Jaren tried to show her a better method and she was not about to listen. By the end of the day they were all exhausted and immediately crashed after we made it home for the night.

The second half of the trip was spent in one of our favorite spots, Homer. We only spent about six hours in the town last year and I have been looking forward to a longer visit to spend more time exploring and hanging out at the beach. The weather took a turn toward beautiful for two of the three days, so even with the blustering wind, the beach adventures each day were fun. After the drive down that morning we headed straight to Bishop’s Beach. The wind made the girls instantly cold in their light sundresses, coats and shorts, asking right away to go back to the car. But by the time we walked to the water’s edge and looked for shells, they were more excited to find things than complain about the temperature. Well, I should say Harper and Reagan; it took Emerie a bit more convincing but she got there! By the end of that first afternoon, Harper and Reagan were down to bare feet and no coats and creating forts and “kitchens” out of the driftwood; Emerie kept hilariously laying on the ground underneath her coat, trying to take a nap, and wouldn’t take her socks off but abandoned her boots.

The second day the beach was just as gorgeous but the wind was blowing harder. The tide was pretty far out and we were able to walk a good distance and see some larger shells that weren’t visible the first day. Grandma Sue explained other small sea creatures and goodies as she found them, even finding two (dead) crabs at one point, that the girls glanced at and then refused to carry around with them. Buckets filled up pretty quickly with treasures and we rinsed them off in a shallow pool closer to the shoreline, that Harper ended up falling backwards into. This was after her walloping trek across the water a few moments earlier, which filled her boots with water and soaked her lower half, not that it bothered her (that time!)! While I wish we could have spent more time out there, the wind was so strong it was making my ears ache, and eventually we headed off to explore other spots in town.

This rental was a beautiful three bedroom house, so the girls took turns sharing beds. The first night Emerie won the lottery to sleep next to Grandma Sue and the second night it was Harper’s turn. I may have snapped a couple of nighttime photos of them unknowingly snuggling with one another as they lightly snored. When asleep and wearing the same pajamas, they look SO alike! All three did quite well entertaining themselves while we briefly got to relax, or cook, or enjoy the beautiful view of the water and the spit. Everyone spent a good amount of time playing on the front porch and creating forts with the furniture cover and, you know, fighting over it.

While of course we visited some of the touristy spots, which are boring to elaborate on here, one cute adventure was spent out on the Homer Spit, walking around the pier and looking at the boats. Personally I enjoy reading all the creative boat names, but since the girls can’t read yet, they enjoyed looking at the colors, fish in the water, and activity happening before them. When asked one thing they remember from the trip, it is pretty likely to be seeing the rainbow boat out in the water. It caused quite the stir of excitement and we HAD to walk over and see it up close and personal. Grandma convinced them the “dock police” would come and haul them away if they weren’t on good behavior, which included no running and goofing off because kids don’t float! A few passerby’s joined in on that humor and acted like they might be those enforcers. It was great. We also witnessed a random boat tour loading up and asked Captain Bob twenty questions about his boat. Bob was good sport and joined in on the fun.

As we rounded the turn back to the car we spotted several fishermen filleting catches from the day, one a good sized halibut and the other was cleaning salmon heads for a restaurant here in Anchorage that makes soup. The intrigue intensified and all three asked a lot of questions, wanting to get back in there and check it all out. The salmon fisherman was also a good sport, in general everyone we spoke to was so friendly, and brought one head around to show the girls. All three touched the eyeballs, because why not, and Reagan might have licked her fingers after and then wiped them on her dress. Gross! This picture accurately depicts the reactions; I trend toward the same feeling as Reagan when it comes to fish eyeballs. You could definitely tell they were bummed we didn’t get to do gil netting and we received a few questions why we didn’t go.

I am sure I’m forgetting some other cute and memorable things, but I didn’t write them down in the moment and don’t remember now. It was a nice trip, with tired kids each night, lots of treats and candy from different stores and restaurants, lots of coloring and driving and cute kiddo moments. The coveted candy rings from Grandma inspired Reagan to explain to her all knowingly, well you said we could have the candy rings tomorrow and today is tomorrow so we can have them! Such wisdom for first thing in the morning. The drive home was solid fog for the first hour and everyone snuggled in their blankets, ate their full lunches and snacks and finally watched a movie until we made it home.

❤