Kiel’s Vacation/Father’s Day

Kiel had a vacation scheduled for last week but with his normal work rotation he was able to have 13 nights off in a row. Pretty sweet deal for us! So after I put in some time at work we were ready to play a little. We celebrated Fathers Day just us with a couple of gifts nothing major, just having Kiel at home not stressed out about work is a gift all in its own is a gift and a blessing. I’m still getting used to the idea of a “vacation”.

 

Kiel is an amazing father and he loves this kids more than anything. We are all so lucky to have him in our lives. We love you superman, Beard and all!!

I believe it was Tuesday morning we got up and decided to go out and with a solid plan go for a drive. Our first idea was go to Girdwood (half way from our house to Anchorage) where there is a wildlife refuge that Connor went to on a field trip. As we got closer the weather wasn’t looking to pleasant, So we made a right turn headed toward Whittier. We’d never been out that way so.. .Why not. We Saw Portage Glacier in the rain

 

and decided this was for sure a place to show my parents and Erin when they come out! The mountains were just covered in these ever flowing waterfalls. So cool.

So what to do next we asked each other. I don’t think we’ve ever (I mean ME!) gotten into the car without a thought out plan with stops, destinations, goals, expectations… etc.. but this day was different. For some reason I was as easy going as could be. So we headed to Anchorage in search of some fun for the kids. As we went around the bend into Anchorage the sun was shining and the birds were chirping! Some one in the salon once said, “If you don’t like the Weather in Alaska wait a half hour!” So true… the weather here is unpredictable. which can be annoying and then again fun at the same time. I feel like I might be getting more relaxed with age…. not so controlling… I’m SURE that Kiel would disagree with that but hey I’m working on it!

So we didn’t tell the kids until we drove into the parking lot but we settled at the Zoo! It was the perfect day for it! Warm enough, dry enough and all the animals were out and about.

It was a great experience and the kids loved it… well as you can see in the picture below.. at this particular moment Connor wasn’t…. but what’s new… Can’t please them All, All at the same time… right?

We thought about tossing him over the fence to feed this guy….

but we decided not to be the breaking news report that night on TV.

The next two days I needed to go into the salon to get some work done… but I took off Thursday-Saturday to play. So Wednesday at work Kiel and I were texting back and forth about what day would be best to go back down to Homer for the 2nd time. We wanted to fish together. Then the idea of going camping down there was vocalized and I was excited about that (I’m sure Kiel was shocked) but within a half hour we had a spot reserved on the beach and Kiel said he would pack up the car and be ready when I got home from work. And he was. I got home around 5pm and we were off pretty quickly after that. We felt pretty spontaneous yet again…We arrived in Homer in about 1.5 hours. We set up our tent,

 

got some yummy Pizza from a famous spot, Starvin Marvins. Kiel and the kids gobbled it up! We took the kids on a fun walk around the very tip of the spit. The kids found tons of shells and crab shells. The kids were excited about camping.

 

The hardest part of that Entire trip was putting the kids to bed at 11pm while it was Completely light out…

 

this was at 11pm!!!!Crazy right? #welcometoAlaska

and No Curtis isn’t asleep in this picture… sneaky boy.

Once we put the kids down and they were out for the count Kiel and snuck off and went fishing. You have to fish when it’s low tide.. and that night low tide was around 1am. So out we went.. Not far from our tent… Kiel didn’t have a ton of luck but we kept one flounder but it was fun jut being us and having some alone time doing something he loves.

 

That night I was FREEZING all night… Poor Kiel got shocked every time I touched him with my cold feet.. So I worried about the following day. But it was Gorgeous! Every time we’ve gone to Homer its been amazing! The sun was out and warm!! (“Arizona’s winter” warm) The kids made friends with a little boy that was next to us on the beach and they all played most of the morning. We made friends with them and helped them as they needed to move their campsite a couple yards down… It was nice to serve random strangers and make our kids be involved in that service. We walked around on the beach and watched the GAzillion boats race across the water. We watched Sea Lions bob their heads up and down watching the kids playing on the beach.

 

Around lunch time we cleaned up our campsite and took off. We wanted to do more fishing but we had to wait until 3pm when there was another low tide. So we went off to find this Amazing park we heard from people back at home. We picked up Subway and headed to the park.

 

I think the kids could’ve spent all day there!! It was a great spot up on the hill. You could look down at the beautiful water, the spit and then the mountain range.

We had a great time but when it was time to go they skipped to the car knowing we were off to fish with daddy!

 

Back on the tip of the Spit we watched Daddy fish… it doesn’t take long to catch something… two minutes in the water Kiel had something. The problem usually was that they weren’t keepers. When we left we had 2 good sized flounders and 1 Pollock. 

We found a filleting station on the spit and Kiel fillet our fish… compared to the others at the stations we had baby fish… but come’on if we had a boat we would catch bigger fish but for off the shore I thought we did pretty good. It fed us the next night for dinner!

Can’t wait to go Halibut fishing when my family comes!! Then we can get some bigger suckers!!! YUM!

There is something majestic about Homer and we have loved going there. It’s a great escape. We had a great trip. The kids were exhausted and slept the Entire way home yeah! Kiel and I talked about my lesson I was planning for Relief Society for the next Sunday the whole way home. I am so grateful I am married to my best friend and I can talk to him about everything and Anything and he actually listens to me and cares about my opinion.

The next couple of days we just hung around Kenai and spent time with each other. I was spoiled having Kiel all to myself for that long. He keeps me calm and gives me that peaceful feeling I only feel in certain places. He’s home to me and I have really started to love it here in Alaska.

Its anything but boring : )