Monkey Time!!!

My mom sent this monkey costume up for Owen to play with a couple of weeks ago.  Owen really likes it, but, I'm not sure it's going to trump the "dinosaur" costume he picked for Halloween.  I wanted to do a photo shoot with it anyway though and managed to talk Owen into it on Saturday afternoon.  Isn't this too funny.  It looks like Curious George to me!

 This was one of the first shots of our "shoot" and he wasn't real thrilled with me at the time.  But, it's still one of my favorites.  You have no idea how often I see this look! Haha!

 Owen's favorite part is the big belly...doesn't it crack you up!

Alright, I need to go through the pictures on my other camera now...wish me luck...Owen took close dozens of photos at the Wildlife Park!!!

It's Starting to Feel A Lot Like Christmas....

Guess what it did here today....

It's been snowing off and on all day...

Problem being, I have been trying to help Owen put his birthday in perspective by saying it isn't until "there's snow"....guess what.....

He's super hyper and I'm having trouble bringing him down from his "birthday high"!!  Oops...who knew!!  It hasn't snowed in September in years!  Owen passed some time today being artsy, he takes everything so seriously and has a purpose for everything he does.  I still wonder where he came from considering his two engineer parents!!  Hope you are all having a warmer day than we are (it's above freezing, but feels cold with the snow falling!!!)!

AK Wildlife Conservation Center...

On Saturday we all loaded up in the truck and took a trip down to Girdwood.  The goal was to hit the Wildlife Center in Portage and the Double Musky for dinner.   I'd never been to either one and was pretty excited to check them out.  The restaurant was less than spectacular in my opinion, but, I did enjoy the Wildlife Center.  You definitely get much closer to the animals here than the ones at the zoo!

Owen's eyes are really squinty here, but, I loved this picture of the bear watching him.  This bear was a cutie and made you want to reach in and hug her....until, you looked at the size of her paws and the claws on the end of them!!!  She was a talker though, one of the employees happened to be standing there throwing some treats to her.  This one waited for the food to come right to her instead of getting up for what she missed and would groan every now and then for more.

 These are mostly pictures of the views, it seemed like the backdrop for this property was amazing regardless of which direction you were looking.  We'd had several days of heavy low hanging fog and this day was no exception.  But, we were lucky, Girdwood and Portage seemed to be the only sunny spot in the state...it was nice to see some blue sky even if the drive there and back was dark and dreary!

 Owen had a blast with my camera, I haven't downloaded those yet, but, I'm interested to see what he saw from his perspective.  So....I took two cameras....and yet, I still didn't end up with one...figure that out!  Like father, like son, I suppose!

 The elk and the caribou were in rut and pretty feisty!  They were hollering at us the whole time we were there and kept a very close watch of their perimeters.  I'd never heard either one talk before, so, I thought it was pretty cool...I think Owen was impressed too!

More Visitors...

We had a good time while Dave's parents were here last week and got to enjoy some of the beautiful fall weather we were having...which of course means, tons of pictures!!

Owen and I took them to the Eagle River Nature Center the first Friday they were here.  The weather couldn't have been better!  I don't think any of these need explanation, I just liked them!

Hatcher Pass...2010

We just got back from our annual drive up to Hatcher Pass followed by lunch at DQ!  It was an amazing day and we had a good time.  Owen's been a bit of a pill since our visitors left and still isn't entirely back to himself.  So, we didn't hike around as much as I had anticipated.  But, we still had fun.  It was almost too beautiful though.  All of our pictures turned out kind of bright and we are squinting so bad, we all look like we have our eyes closed in the pics without sunglasses!!!

This looks like Owen is posing as a little teapot, but, he was actually pointing to the little marmot at the end of the bridge.  We must have seen a half dozen of the little guys today.  It was awesome, I don't know that I've ever seen one up there, let alone as close as we got to them today!

We used the timer to get a few family shots...if it hadn't been so bright out, these would have turned out really cute!  Oh well, nice to have us all in the same photo regardless!

Hope you all have a great week!!!  It's going to be a long one for me...I have a training on Thursday that's going to add an extra day to the week!  Yuck, another short weekend!

Sneak Peek...

O.k., I just couldn't resist sharing one picture of Owen in this year's costume.  Today has been absolutely amazing and our fall colors kind of come and went already, at least, in our yard.  All this rain has really put a damper on all the plants and trees.  It seems like they are all ready to give up for this year already.  I noticed the cranberries out back are this icky brown/red color instead of bright red and most of the leaves are gone.  Things just barely started changing color last week, but, to look at them, you'd think it had been below freezing for weeks...and yet, we haven't even dipped to 40 yet as far as I know!  Anyway, point being, I like to get Owen's Halloween costume pictures while there are still some fall colors around.  So, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and did a photo shoot and then went for a bike ride.  Owen's doing awesome on his bike, we're working on the brakes now...he reminds me of my sister, he tends to leap off if it gets going too fast!!

Alright, enough talk, here's the sneak peek.  I'll mail out my favorite pictures to everyone when it gets closer to Halloween....

I realize this is a dragon costume, but, Owen was convinced it was a dinosaur.  So, we're just going with that....hey, it saved us a ton of money in shipping to buy it local and I had it in time to get the pictures I wanted! ;O)

Visitors from Utah...

Amanda and Curtis came up with their two kiddos, Alex and Natalie, to visit this past week.  We took tons of pics of the kids together, but, I don't like to post other kid's photos on here.  So, I'll just share the ones of our kiddo!  

We hauled them all out of the house bright and early on Sunday, despite their long day of flying and late night, and ran down to Seward.  We stopped at Exit Glacier first.  I can't believe how far the glacier has receded since I was here last!!!!  I think it's been since right before Dave and I got married that I've stopped here...over 7 years ago.  Anyway, it's still beautiful and fun to hike to.  Owen was excited to get close to the "snow".  Such a goof ball!

Curtis was in charge of taking the photo of all of us together, but, I don't think he pushed the button hard enough...so, this is the closest shot we got.

After stopping for a lunch break at Ray's, we headed over to the Sea Life Center.  It was a lot of fun.  Although, I was looking forward to the Sea Otters and surprised to see they didn't have any.  I hope that means they've all been released.  I think this was Owen's first trip down there and he really enjoyed it.  Although, his favorite part was the fake boat at the front of the center... He wouldn't let me take a decent pic, but, he would have been just as happy if we looked around and he got to stay and play in it the whole time.

I'm not exactly looking spectacular here, but, I thought it was a funny picture of this goofy kid!

The belugas were in on our way back through, so, we stopped at Bird Point and watched them for a bit.  I had never seen these little whales before, Dave says they've been there forever.  Regardless, Owen thought it was fun to pose with them.  They are too cute.

We headed over to the park one night to wear the kids out some...some of the bigger kids took over the playground equipment...

Dave and Owen took advantage of the amazing weather this morning to spend some time together fishing.  When Owen was getting dressed, he decided Dave needed to wear his Bass Pro-Shop t-shirt and OU hat to match Owen.  It's a bit nippy here today despite some sunshine, so, Dave compromised with a sweatshirt that was the same color.  Owen was thrilled they matched so closely regardless.  It was really cute!!

I think I have a few more pictures to share on the other camera.  I'll probably wait until tomorrow to post those.  Hope you all have a great weekend!