Portage Glacier Valley

On Tuesday of our vacation we drove out to the Portage Valley to see Portage glacier and then we decided to take a little 3/4 mile trail up to the Byron glacier. On the drive there we could see this range of snow covered mountains that were just beautiful. Michael and Megan said that you couldn't always see them, so it was exciting to be able to get such great pictures. The second one is my favorite picture from our whole vacation.

I am not sure if this is the Portage glacier or not. It seems to me that glaciers come in groups. Whenever there was one there was at least 2 or 3 more. If you look at the glacier it looks blue and that is because the glacier really is blue. We learned from a Forrest Ranger that glaciers look blue because the ice crystals are so small that they absorb all colors of light except the blue rays which they reflect so that the ice appears blue. Also we learned that for a glacier to be in fact a glacier it must cover 25 acres.

Here we are in front of Portage lake and the glacier is back behind us. This lake was carved out by the Portage glacier and the glacier in the 1800s was actually were we were standing.

Here is a zoomed in shot of the Portage glacier across the lake.

A stream ran along side the trail up to the Byron glacier. I assume that the water is from the glacier. It was very cold. Here Chris is letting Hannah feel the icy water.

When we got up to the glacier we were surprised to find that we could actually walk right up and touch it which was so exciting. Or so we thought. Later when talking to the Forrest Ranger we found out that this is actually a snow field from an avalanche off of the glacier. Since it came off of the glacier I will continue to say that I walked up to a glacier and was able to touch it. He didn't say how long ago the avalanche occurred, but it has been many many years. There was a cave carved out of the ice by the stream that was tall enough to walk back into, if you are the adventurous type. It was really awesome to be able to see it so up-close.

Here is picture of Michael and Amelia standing next to the "glacier".

Hannah reaching out to touch the ice.

And then to taste it!!!! When do children out grow the need to explore and experience everything by taste?

Family picture! If you look at this picture the ice has a blue hue confirming to me that it is okay to say that it is still glacier :)

Here you can see the blue of the ice a little closer and Hannah's cute little finger. Who knew that a finger could look so cute pressed up against ice! (Sorry my Mommy-ness is coming out)

Looking up the side of the glacier it was really beautiful!

Hannah had the most fun just playing with rocks along the stream. And yes there was even tasting of the rocks.

The Alaska Zoo!

Here are our pictures of our visit to the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage. We had a great time seeing animals that we would not usually see here at our zoos. This was Hannahs first trip to the zoo. I think she had a great time; she started pointing out the animals before we could point them out to her. Chris did a great job of showing her everything while I took pictures which would explain that there are not many pictures of me.

Meet the Halbrooks!

As I said in the previous post we went to Alaska to visit my brother, Michael, sis-in-law Megan, and their two kids Amelia and Ben. They live in Anchorage at the Elmendorf Air Force Base were Michael is stationed. This was the first time for us to meet Ben who turned 6mo. while we were there. So without further ado in no particular order. . . .

Sis-in-law Megan and nephew Ben. Isn't that just the sweetest smile! Pretty much all you needed to do was look at Ben and he would break-out into a big smile; it was great. Sorry Megan I didn't get any forward facing pics of you.


Our niece, Amelia. She was lots of fun. How many of you know a 2yr old who can sing you the whole national anthem? She can!

Here is my brother, Michael. This is a picture from one of our site seeing adventures. Thanks Michael for driving us around.

Here are a couple of pictures of Hannah playing with her cousins. Whenever Ben was in his exersaucer Hannah couldn't resist going over and giving him hugs and of course showing him how to play with the toys on the exersaucer.

Cousin Amelia showing Hannah how to push the baby doll stroller which was Hannah's favorite of all of Amelia's toys.

Alaskan Vacation

Well I managed to go a whole month again without blogging. But I did warn that it was a busy month. We went on our first family vacation since before Hannah was born. And I have to say it is much different going on a vacation with a child than when it was just the two of us. We went to Anchorage, Alaska to visit my brother Michael and his family; I will have pics of them in a later post. Here are some pictures that I took while we were on our way there. We had to get up at 4am to get to the airport for our early morning flight. By the time we got on the plane Hannah was really tired so unfortunately all the pictures I took of her on the plane she looked dazed and out of it.

Here we are waiting at the terminal to be one of the last ones on the plane. We figured that the least amount of time on the plane would be best for Hannah and I believe it was. She was a great flier, there was the occasional fussy moment but on 3hr+ flights even I feel like being fussy.


"Hannah smile at the camera! No, you're too tired?"

Waiting to take off. We had planned to take one of Hannah's car seats on the plane, because we were blessed with mileage points and a companion ticket, so the 3 of us were able to fly for pretty much the price of one person. But back to the car seat . . . . it got left in the car in remote parking and was not remembered until we were on the bus almost to the airport. I actually think that it worked out better without it because it gave her more room to play and she was able to stretch out to sleep.

Eating lunch in the Seattle Airport at Chili's Too! Hannah is a people watcher so she had a great time in the airport.


Catching a little sleep on the plane. Hannah was able to sleep for an hour each flight, which worked pretty well by breaking up the time on the plane.

July??

Were did the month of July go? It went by fast and not too much happened, so I am guessing that the month of August will go in warp speed. August will be a busy month, so hopefully I will actually have more to post about and the time to do it. Next weekend my sister, Stacie, and her family will be visiting, the next weekend on Saturday we will go up to OK to celebrate my Papa's 80th birthday, and then we will visit my brother, Michael, and his family in Alaska for a week at the end of the month. It will be very busy, but very fun. We will probably have lots of pictures from our trip to Alaska.

So what did we do in July?!

The weekend of July 4th we went to Arkansas to visit Hannah's Nana and Poppy and the rest of the Curry gang. We had a great time and got to meet Hannah's new little cousin, Addyson (Addy) Grace Roller. She is adorable and was just 3wks old, so lots of sleeping going on.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Me and Daddy on the front porch rocking.

Nana found one of Aunt Susie's baby dolls from when she was a little girl. Hannah enjoyed carrying her around all weekend.

Here Hannah is with Aunt Susie!

Swinging with Poppy!

Cousin Addy finally got here to play! She brought Aunt Amy and Uncle Chris, too!

Traveling can really wear you out!

Getting a picture with Aunt Susie and Uncle Kyle. Hannah and Uncle Kyle even matched!

Going home!

We have also made a couple of trips to the pool, but unfortunately the camera hasn't made it. There is a city pool in the Canyon Creek Residential addition in Richardson and both times it hasn't been very busy which is great. They have a good baby pool with two depths and even the big pool only gets to 4ft so it is really easy to be in the water while holding a baby. Hannah really likes it. The first trip it took her a bit to get used to the water, but then she had a great time. This second time we bought her a turtle floaty that she could sit in. She liked it for awhile, but then decided that she wanted out and that she didn't need to be held either. She is fearless!

Until next time, hopefully not a month and a half later!

Hannah's New Favorite Toy

Hannah has found her new favorite past-time and that is the love of luggage. Luggage? Yes, Hannah just can't get enough of playing in one of our bags of luggage. What could be so exciting about a piece of luggage that you could play all day in it? The straps that you can secure your clothes with that is what is so exciting, doesn't everyone know that! Here are some pictures and a video of the fun (please excuse the fact that Chris and I announced that she burped, which you can't even hear in the video)

4th Anniversary

We celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 18th. I have the best husband who cooks dinner way more than I ever do. I am truly blessed. He got roses for me (and arranged them by himself) and made this pretty center peice for dinner. We had chicken cordon blue on rice and ceasear salad and my favorite dessert blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It was all very good! Thanks for a yummy and beautiful dinner, Honey!

Pretty center piece:


Slaving away over a hot stove:




The finished result:

Funny Video

Hannah's, Got A Brand New Bag!

Well they may not be new . . . . . . Hannah found some of my purses in my closet and has had fun carrying them all around.

Swimming, Well Maybe Not

I got Hannah a small swimming pool for the back yard and we tried it out for the first time today. It went pretty well for the first time. She liked it at first but then wanted to sit in our laps in the pool and yes all three of us got in.

She couldn't wait to get out were Daddy was filling up the pool.


The pool has daisy's that spray water which was pretty cool.

Drying off in the sun!