Trip to Anchorage

This past weekend we made a trip to Anchorage to run some errands. Go shopping for clothes and other items we cant get here, take Peyton for a dentist checkup, and get our car looked at. We were also invited up to someones cabin for the weekend also but we needed to head to Anchorage on Sunday so we decided to go up for Saturday and spend the night then leave Sunday since it was on the way to Anchorage anyways. This is the first time we have taken the kids to spend a night anywhere other than home, someones house, or a hotel. Yes, it was a cabin, but it felt like we were camping. Had to burn wood for heat, use an outhouse, sleep in sleeping bags...etc. They had a snowmachine (they call them snowmachines here instead of snowmobiles) and Peyton just couldnt get enough of riding it. She had to keep going on it, over and over even though it was freezing outside. She is a tough kid. Seth and I mostly stayed inside where it was warm and he could play around on the floor. Night time was hard, -35 degrees outside. Everyone had to sleep in the same room and the kids are not used to that so it took a while for them to go to sleep and then they woke everyone up early. I felt bad. Then after 1 more ride on the snowmachine, we headed to Anchorage.

Here are pictures of our day at the cabin.

Anchorage is 300 miles away from Valdez driving distance. It takes about 5 hours. But since we were already 80 miles away from Valdez, it only took about 3 hours to get to Anchorage on Sunday. The kids were good for that drive. They just slept most of it.

A really big glacier.

Then the next couple of days we did all of our errands. We learned really quickly that being in a bigger city just sucks. Getting in and out of the car to go here or there, traffic, traffic lights, seemed like it took forever to get anywhere. Anchorage is nothing compared to SLC/Provo but its still a lot bigger than here. We were anxious to get home. It didnt feel much like a vacation since we were just so busy and stressed out trying to do all of our errands.

Once we were done, we decided to go out to the ocean and see what it was like. It was all frozen. It looked really cool. The ocean doesnt freeze where we live.

Then Tuesday, after Peytons dentist appointment, we headed back home. The kids did not like the drive back home much. They were exhausted from all of the shopping and late nights and did not want to just sit in the car for 5 hours. They were very happy when we made it back home. :) It was nice to go do something different for a change though.