Alaska Zoo

So, as I said in my last post, we've been here a year and celebrated by making a family trip to the Alaska Zoo. It was very awesome to see the wildlife that is native to Alaska, such as a Polar Bear, Wolves, Grizzly & Black Bears, a Lynx, and the Moose and Caribou. It was also interesting seeing and learning about other animals that can survive cold winters such as a Camel and Snow Leopard. I did miss seeing the variety that the Seattle Zoo has - such as all the African animals, but we still got to see a Siberian Tiger.... and seeing a Polar Bear up close was just as cool or cooler than seeing a Lion.

Here are pics from our zoo adventure:

 Watching the seals swim - I didn't get any good pictures of them because of the glass window

 Sea Otter

 The massive female polar bear - her feet are so HUGE!

 The Moose

 Watching the Grizzly Bears - they were a Big Hit

 The Lynx

 Umm... I think this owl is named Hedwig - it looks just like her to me!

 Such a pretty girl!

 Something interesting we read about camels is that they do not store water in the humps on their back, that acutally they store fat to burn for energy in their humps, and that double hump camels like this one are native to cold climates - such as Mongolia, as opposed to single hump desert camels.

 Trying on brother's sunglasses - but he won't wear them!

 Checking out the Reindeer - which means domesticated Carribou

 Happy camper in the stroller!

 The Snow Leopard - not the best pics due to where he was lying and the angles I could get through the fence since the glare from the sun was so bad off the glass.

 This is the very WILD but ever popular 6 Year Old, this particular speciman we keep at home

 The massive male Grizzly - check out the claws on this guy!

 The Black Bear

This is where Bubba decided to throw his sippy cup off the wooden bridge we happened to be walking on, where of course, the cup rolled off the edge into such deep brush that we had no idea where it landed.

 Disclaimer: The Alaska Zoo does NOT allow you this close to the animals to take pictures! All my pictures were taken with my telephoto lens - I love my 300 mm lens!

 The sleeping Siberian Tiger

 The Bald Eagles were singing...

 ... and Missy & Buddy were singing back :)

 The Alaskan Wolf

Which, truth be told, were a bit of a disappointment since I was expecting "Twilight" size wolves with how people talk about how big they get here... :)
edit: Hubby read this and informed me that they do get quite large, and these are pups

 The kids packed around the little camera and took a bunch of pictures at the zoo too - maybe that will be another post - all of their pictures from the zoo.

And last, and maybe least due to size, is the Artic Fox

This little guy is very tiny.

We did see a few animals at the zoo that I laughed about - like the squirrel and the crows they had caged up. The interesting thing is that while WA got me very used to seeing crows all over the place, AK doesn't have crows, they have ravens, which pretty much looks like a crow that have taken steroids and are huge! They can be a little scary sometimes.

Anyway, it was a great, fun trip to the zoo and we all had fun. And while I did miss the African animals that the Seattle Zoo has, I did not miss the Bug House, and thankfully Alaska doesn't have one of those- if they did it'd probably be full of mosquitos :)

Bubba's 1st Birthday!

At the beginning of July we celebrated Bubba's FIRST birthday! Which was quickly followed by celebrating that we'd survived our FIRST year in Alaska, quickly followed by Buddy's 6th Birthday.

Bubba's birthday was very low key, and as you'll see in the pictures, he was tired and didn't want to open presents, he just wanted my camera. He was barely walking at his birthday and is now cruising all over the place and even crawling up the stairs if we leave the door open. He hasn't figured out getting back down the stairs - that is without hurting himself - but it very good and fast at getting up them. He's also managed to master crawling up on the kids beds and the couch, and then crying because he is stuck and can't get back down. He is also, what I'd like to call, a Master Walker in bare feet or socks, you put shoes on him and its a totally different story. The kids must be part Indian because he will remove both sock AND shoes as soon as he can. He always goes out the door with shoes and socks on but by the time we return home, hopefully at least has his socks on with his shoes securely put away in the diaper bag.

He is funny because he's so independent - which is really why he doesn't like wearing his shoes because with his shoes on he isn't able to walk, climb, or whatever as easily as he knows he can without them on. And he gets so MAD at his older brother and sister when they try to "help" him and typically knock him down or do pick him up so he can't go up the stairs.

Anyway, he is strong and healthy with beautiful blue eyes and I'm grateful for every moment I have with him, except maybe when he's crying "momma" in the middle of the night just after I've gone to bed. No, I'm kidding. I love this little man, he has my heart...

 His favorite present was the balloon he got for his birthday! That thing floated for almost the whole month - I think I popped it and threw it away to clean up for Buddy's birthday party

 Gotta love Neon Food Coloring!

Well, we sold the truck...

So, after much thought, consideration, and prayer we decided to sell the truck and listed it at the beginning of the summer and after much prayer and fasting, thankfully sold it yesterday.

Of course the kids are sad about selling the truck - they talk about it as if we are selling their very favorite toy or pet, so before my DH took the truck to the new owner we went out to take pictures of the kids in the truck and for them to say "good-bye" to a great truck that we all will miss... especially Grandpa Day.

 Look at that face! What is it that hubby always says to me?... "Femal drivers, no survivors" I might believe it with the look she has in her eyes...

 I guess he was RIGHT!

 If you can't tell.... they all had so much FUN taking these pictures! I love that they all instinctively screamed and kicked their legs while I was taking the pictures, as if they were ACTUALLY riding on the hood of the truck.

 This is the BEST because Bubba is waving good-bye to his beloved brother and sister.

 Look at my little man - growing too fast

What a crew! The ironic thing is that Buddy was Bubba's age when we bought the truck!

So, we'll see how long the kids keep asking about when the truck is coming back, they don't seem to understand the concept of "selling". Even though Buddy said he wants us to get another black truck and Missy said she wants a white one, I'm surprised she didn't say pink with sparkles - which is the color she usually picks!

Good Morning Moose!

This morning I was headed upstairs to make Missy breakfast when I saw we had a young moose bedded down in the front yard! So, I turned right around and went downstairs and told hubby and the kids about it and grabbed my camera! I was hoping to get a chance to stretch the legs of my new lens today, but had no idea that I was going to get such a perfect opportunity! Taken with my new 55-300 mm lens with a UV filter.

Buddy, was funny when he saw it - he said, "Let's shoot it and put it up on the wall!" and was really excited about this idea, and Missy's response from the top of the stairs was, "Oh, that's so sweet".
Needless to say, they were pretty excited about it.

Don't worry... I didn't forget about Missy, she got her breakfast AFTER I took the pictures of the moose laying down and BEFORE he stood up and started munching :)

I've been seeing the moose tracks through the snow for awhile and we've all seen a moose or two around the neighborhood, but this was the first time that it actually was close enough (which my new lens helped with) and still enough to capture in a picture.