Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!

Well, not the lions but there were tigers and bears at the Alaska Zoo.

We met up with Allison, Ethan, Logan, Keith, Lincoln and Grandma for a nice sunny day at the Alaska Zoo. Our first stop was to see the seals and otters. Most of the animals were out.  The Alaska wolves impressed us the most because of their size.

Audrey and her cousin, Ethan, that is two days older than her riding in the stroller.
Anna's impression of a squirel

Jared and a Musk Ox

Jared, Lincoln, Anna, Audrey, and Ethan.

The weather has been so nice over the past week. We are loving being outside and soaking up the sun.

OBX

Our Dental School graduation present to ourselves was a week long vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It is one of our favorite places. This time we brought along Grandma and Grandpa California. We stayed at a friends beach house in Kill Devil Hills.
 
We spent everyday at the beach. The kids enjoyed learning to boogie board and digging for little crabs. Even Grandma and Grandpa got in on the action.

Audrey was afraid of the water, but dragged her boogie board around anyway.
 
Grandma and Grandpa
 
Kevin helping Audrey get over her fear.
 
Grandma and the kids braving the current and waves
 
Finding crabs.



Beach Dudes

Beach Babes

Grandpa in the ocean!? What!?
When we weren't at the beach we were exploring the island.




Walking the boardwalk in Duck
 
Eating Duck Doughnuts
 
Umm..not really sure
We also went to the Wright Brother's Monument.  Where the first flight took place.
 

One of our favorite places to go is Jockey Ridge Parks where there are enormous sand dunes. 
flying kites:
 
 
 
 
 
Wither you are flying kites or jumping off sand dunes Jockey Ridge Parks is tons of fun.


We are so grateful we got to share one of our favorite spots on the East Coast with Grandma and Grandpa California.  We had so much fun swimming, sunbathing, kite flying, exploring, and playing together.  All good things must come to an end so after a week of playing we said goodbye and headed back to Maryland to prepare for our next big adventure.  Moving to Alaska!
 

Move to Alaska

Packing: We decided to use ABF moving company for our move to Alaska.  This is a "you pack we drive" system.  Kevin was amazing fitting everything we were taking in an 8/9/5ft space.

The next evening as we were saying goodbye to some friends we made the last minute decision to leave that night so within an hour we were on the road. This would be the first of three nights we would drive through the night. The kids were amazing! They kept busy playing games, watching movies, and listening to books on the ipods/pads/phones. Our first major stop was at Mount Rushmore. It was great to get out and stretch our legs for a few hours and learn about some important presidents in our nations history. There is a trail that walks up close to the monument with informational stops along the way. After Mount Rushmore we drove through the night again till we reached Edmonton Alberta where we stopped for a day to relax and enjoy sleep! Audrey ended up getting some stomach bug so we stayed close to our hotel which was great because it had a pool with a slide. The next day we woke up refreshed and ready to get on the road, however one of our tires had picked up a bolt and was flat. Thankfully a tire shop was just around the corner from our hotel and we were able to get it fixed. The next day we drove all the way to Fort Nelson British Columbia. The scenery was beautiful. The next day we decided to drive all through the day and night and try to get into Anchorage the following morning. Along the way we saw 6 buffalo, 4 moose, 8 black bear, 1 fox, 1 porcupine, 1 grizzly bear, and 2 caribou. We made sure to stop at Watson Lake to walk around the sign post forest. Where people over the last 70 years leave signs of all kinds. At this point in the journey the kids were still doing well, however they were anxious to get to Anchorage and out of the car. 11:00 am we rolled into Anchorage and are excited as we start this new chapter of our lives.