Abel tries cereal

After Abel's last doctor visit she gave the go for trying food. So I had to go out and get some baby rice cereal right away. Here is Abel trying his first bite. He wasn't to sure about it at first but he ended up maybe eating one or two spoons full. (after scooping and re-scooping them into his mouth many times) :)
Oh..I forget how fun but messy it is to feed little ones!
I'm excited to kept trying new foods with him. I think we will stick with the cereal for a few weeks and then slowly introduce more food.

4 months

Axel reading to his brother
Abel had his 4 month doctor appointment this Thursday. He weighed in at 15 pounds 4 ounces (50th %) . He was 26 inches long (95th %). So he's long I guess. He had to get 3 shots :( He handled the first one ok but once the nurse came at him with the second one he cried out and cried all the way to the waiting room. He calmed down for a little bit but then he saw the nurse again and starting crying until we left. Sorry buddy. Mom hates shots too.

First field trip

Today we went on our first field trip with Axel's preschool. We went to Pryah's farm in Palmer AK. The kids got a story about were veggie's come from and all the things you can cook with them.
Getting ready to board the hay ride. Axel was super excited to ride on the blue one.

These are the first fields we've seen since we moved here. I think there is one dairy farmer in the state. You never see a corn field when you drive-only forest's and mountains. It's weird for a MN girl!
Picking potatoes right from the ground!
Very different from MN fields and farms
Axel was super happy to see a tracker

Fresh carrots. Yummy
Of course Abel's always along for the ride! He did really well on the hayride but got scared and cried when every one yelled "Yeea-Ha"! Soon buddy you'll get to eat veggie's too!

Trick or Treat in the Heat

Today we went to a benefit for a boy that endured childhood cancer. The story is that a little boy, Ian, wasn't going to make it to his next Halloween so his neighborhood put on it's own Halloween earlier. It has been going on now for 6 years. It started for a sad reason but the kids love being able to treat or trick and not have any snow on the ground. September is childhood cancer awareness month.


There's music and dancing in the streets!

Playing in the bounce house



I was worried about how the baby would do? We were so luckily to have a beautiful sunny day.
Abel was really in to the trick or treating
Here is Axel after a candy rush! I wanted a picture of his chocolate face and this is what he gave me.

Denali National Park

On the way to Denali. It was about a 5 hour drive from Eagle River AK. (counting the 3 stops we made) The boys did very well in the car that long. Abel ate each time we stopped and was ready to get back in the car. Once we made it to our hotel every one was ready to be done with driving!
Axel taking a break in front of our hotel. Road trips are so much fun.
This is our hotel-on the edge of a cliff-right outside of Denali Park. The hotel was call Grande Denali Lodge. It had an amazing view.

Driving through the park. Fall colors were out in full bloom. It reminded me of northern MN-besides the crazy mountains every where. Down south AK where we live the only fall colors we see are yellow and green. Up north the is the reds and oranges that I love in MN. Um..yes we are talking fall already here! Yikes...the summer goes way to fast and it's even shorter in Alaska. In Alaska every one watches the mountains for the weather predictions. This time of year you start talking about termination dust. Meaning watching the tips of the mountains for snow fall. Once you notice it on the top on the mountain you can watch it slowly-or not-make it way down the mountain until it's all over the ground. :( The weather has been starting to get cooler. It's been around 50-60's and rainy with lot's of fog.
The sunset over the mountain. A view from our hotel.
Mt McKinley-or Denali is another name for it. It's the highest point in north America at 20,320 feet. This one always has snow on it! You can only drive 12 miles into the park in your own car. If you take one of the tours you can go further in the park-all the way to wonder lake. We didn't do any of the tours-the shortest one was 8 hours on a bus. I didn't want to push that with the baby. It was still a really cool drive.
Some of the wild life we saw. Brian was super bummed that we didn't see any bears but we saw probably 8 moose and we saw one fox. I have seen 3 bears now in Eagle River driving to work. I even got to see a momma with two cubs (black bears). Kinda crazy because it was only about 2 miles from our house!
Me and my boys on a hike in Denali. The weekend turned out great. No rain and the weather was a balmy 60 degrees!
Axel and Brian at Savage River.
Savage River-the end of the 12 miles that regular cars can drive to. You can see the buses driving past the mark and making their way further into the park. Next year I'd like to try one of the bus tours. I heard they are really amazing and you get to see a ton of wildlife.
Abel and dad snuggling on a trail. Abel loves sucking on his hands. He won't take a Nuk at all but he loves his fingers.
Axel hiking at Mt Vista trail head. He loves being the leader. Brian was looking for bears and Axel was looking for dino's. Luckily we didn't find either while we were hiking.
Me and my boys at the south view stop area. (view of McKinley)
It was a great weekend. A little tricky with a baby in the hotel room, but he did great and so did Axel. Axel is having a great time with pre-school. He loves to be social and to learn new things. Abel is growing so much and even giggled this week! Brian got to hear the first one on Monday and finally today I got to hear one!! It was so cute.