sheep mountain

we've been trying to plan this road trip for way too long.  there seems to be a pattern, however, that when i try to plan things, something ALWAYS comes up!  i had been promising my gf, sam, that as soon as there was a clear day, we would jump in the truck and head north.  finally, this mini-vaca came to fruition ten days ago.  it would have been easy to stick to the house and play in the water, but we needed to see our friendly friends.  perfect day for a 90-mile drive.  

chugach mountains

matanuska river

 we only had one of these stops...

 standing on top of the guardrail proved tricky.

 but oh - look to jackie's left!

see the power poles on the left?  my super-fab husband built this line before they blew through this mountain.  this is a fairly new section of highway, and he was fortunate enough to build the line while there was still mountain beneath him.  the wire is unnoticeable, but the two aeriel marker balls are just barely visible...

 first view of matanuska glacier

see the fun names written in rock?  i couldn't brave that feat with the kiddos, but just this weekend, ben and i wrote our own little something when we were up that way, but that's for another blog...

  

 mat glacier

at sam's cabin, ali's dada constructed what he refers to as

the white trash playground

 the girls have so much fun together.

and boy, aren't they cute?!

jack likes ali, too.

just a tad.

we made our way over to the lodge for cold drinks and ice cream.  although, dylan's the only one wearing her ice cream.  mmm, chocolate.  the lodge had a sandbox and a wagon for the kiddos (and two lawn chairs for the mamas!)  perfect chance for us to relax, talk it up and laugh at our wee ones.

we stayed long enough to tire the kids out as we weren't 5 minutes down the road when i noticed 4 shut eyelids.  it was then, when i turned on my driving music mix (consisting of fleetwood mac, jim croce, jason mraz and tom petty) that it finally felt like a true road trip.  perfect end to a super-fun afternoon.