Trip to Colorado - Part 1

Over Memorial Day weekend and the following week, Max, Jes, and myself made the trip down to Colorado. It's was the first time we traveled with our little dude so we weren't sure what to expect. It turns out that Max for the most part sees to really enjoy travel, see below for evidence...

... Max doesn't seem to mind the hustle and bustle of airplane seating. 

Pretty much anywhere is comfortable.

Yep, pretty much anywhere. 

Upon arrival to Denver, our first stop was my sister's. Her whole family (Aiden, Jack, and Seamus) was excited to see little dude.

The theme of the week is emerging even at this early stage and that theme is 'staring at baby-dude.' To be fair, it's a very enjoyable pastime. 

We then made the short drive to Colorado Springs to visit with the Popiel's. Again, the theme reasserts itself. 

First time meeting Grandma Popiel, or Gammers as little Max likes to call her. 

And here Grandpa Popiel, or Gaffer as little Max like to call him, gets some quality time with Max. 

Max, never one to slack off on physical fitness, took a trip to a family friend's house to practice exercising. His arm continues to foil his attempts at rolling over. 

Before we knew it, 2 days had passed and we were on to the next stop, the Spuhlers!

The road was our home now... more to come!

Cheers, 

2 months and out on the trail

Max is 2-month's old!

Yea, he's the best. 

He's even better up close!

The Rockies and specifically Tulo are having themselves a solid start to the year and Max isn't pleased with them, tough crowd eh? 

Jes has been getting out and about with Max. Here she is with Alissa... and her two kids... and a dog, they are troopers. 

We all got out to Artic Valley, it was tip-top. 

Quite a nice valley...

Here's a bit of sunshine...

Almost to the top...

Kevin, Elsa, and his dog Waylon came along, taking pictures and being in pictures. Thanks you all. 

We made it to the top.

Here we are, contemplating something off to the left. 

Cheers, 

Mom's Day

Mother's day arrived and we celebrated with Max. First, we got him a sunhat because we live in Alaska and it's sunny all the time. Seriously, it's been sunny enough to buy a sunhat, weird. 

Then we drove to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. It's like a zoo except there are only animals that already live up here and the cages are a couple acres. Sometimes this means that no animals are seen but today we were lucky. Also, you can drive through the whole thing but most people, us included, just walk on the road. It's pretty great.  

A caribou was hanging out by the road.

So was a whole mess of wood bison which incidentally are going to be reintroduced into the wild up here. I can't wait to see more mega-fauna on our hikes/runs/in town!

The big draw is the brown bears. The ones at the AWCC are rescued bears, typically cubs that were abandoned by their moms or had some other ill befall them like a porcupine attack for example. Either way, they get a new lease on life in the park and get fed the rotting food from the local grocery stores. I'm not kidding. Costco and AWCC have a deal where they truck out all the old blueberries (and other fruits) and just dump them in a pile at the appointed feeding time. It's like crack for bears. This particular bear seemed to like people, we liked him.

A reward for walking through the park is a fantastic boardwalk at the end that cars can't get on, ha! Max is wearing his sunhat and we are squinting because sun.

Looking back up the Arm towards Girdwood.

After our walk, we drove up to Girdwood and stopped at a friend's place to take a breather and feed the little dude. Here he is post feed. 

Looking good buddy. 

Jes took the moment to relax a bit, fun.

After that, we took in an evening about town in Girdwood, a walk, some food, a couple drinks with friends, and then the drive back to Anchorage. It was a great first Mother's Day. 

Cheers!

Spring in Alaska

We've been having some great weather for the last month or so, allowing us to get out with our little guy quite a bit. Last weekend we checked out Campbell Creek Estuary, which is a fairly new addition to Anchorage, and lucky for us only a few minutes from our house.

The estuary is a great place to see Sandhill Cranes during their migration, we're going to try to remember to come back and get some pictures this year.

Max keeps growing, his feet keep finding their way out of his swings and baby chairs! 

One Month!

Max turned one month old today, a major milestone for no reason other than we all survived and he's growing and healthy. Good stuff. I tried to take some pictures of him to commemorate the day, but as you will see, he hasn't quite perfected his modeling on command. Still pretty darn cute (says his mom).

He wasn't ready.

Sitting up is hard. 

About done with this game.

Yep, done. 

Max's First Adventure

We've been taking daily walks about the neighborhood with Max to get out of the house, but today we ventured a little farther from home so Max could see some Alaska scenery. Really, he just saw the inside of Dave's coat, but we think he enjoyed the experience nonetheless.

 Dave keeping Max warm. More accurately, Max keeping Dave really hot. The little guy is a furnace.

 Taking in the views with Dad from the Turnagain Arm Trail.

He's in there, really.

Grandma Jaci

My mom came to town about a week before Max arrived, and helped us out for the first three weeks of parenthood. By helped us out, I mean she made all our meals, did all our laundry, and let us stare at our baby all day. It made the transition as easy as possible, and now, 48 hours after her departure, we are realizing that having three square meals a day and an extra set of arms for baby holding really is quite the treat.

The first morning she was in town, we went up to Glen Alps and walked around a bit to get out of the house, the weather was great for her entire visit.

She got some shots of Max's first bath at home...and several other firsts that we can safely assume only parents and grandparents are interested in capturing.

Grandpa Bob also made the trip north to meet Max last week. Another Max fan is born.

In return for taking care of Dave and I so well, Grandma Jaci got a lot of baby time.  Max thinks she's pretty cool,  he gave her lots of baby smiles before she headed home to Colorado.