Shelby's 12th Birthday

Shelby's 12th birthday fell on a Saturday, and it was a day filled with things that make her happy--chocolate chip pancakes, college football, bowling, ice cream cake from Cold Stone, and dinner at Olive Garden! It was a such a fun day celebrating her. Hard to believe we'll have a teenager in our house next year!

Labor Day Weekend 2022

On Saturday morning, we did a short hike around Reflection Lake before spending the rest of the day enjoying college football. It was beautiful at Reflection Lake, and the fall colors were popping!

We also set up Brady's new twin bed that evening. We hadn't necessarily planned to upgrade his bed quite yet {Brady still fit & slept beautifully in his toddler bed}, but we had too many beds and needed to downsize due to the space in this house. So now was the time! 

I had no idea when I took this picture of a sleeping Brady on August 31st, it would be the last picture ever of our beloved crib that served our family so well through three babies.

Okay, now I have wasted far too much time going down a rabbit hole of crib photos through the years. It's important to note that when we actually sold the crib on Facebook Marketplace & when the family came to pick it up, I felt not an ounce of nostalgia..probably because I didn't have the time to process it at the time. I was honestly so relieved to have it out of the house. We just needed to do what needed to get done in order to feel settled here. But now that I'm blogging and reflecting, the feelings are creeping up a bit. ;) Below is the first picture ever taken of Baby Shelby sleeping in the crib.

Whew, all the feelings. Moving on now, ha! On Sunday, we ventured to the Alaska State Fair. It was a fun day, but I'm not sure I'm a fair kind of a person. ;)  The best part of the fair was that over the summer we had read the book Sweet Home Alaska, which is set in Palmer (home of the Alaska State Fair!) and the characters in the book attended the fair. So it was fun to get to see it in person after reading about it.

And on Monday, we went on a glacier tour! It was an amazing experience from start to finish. And after a month of near constant drizzling, the sun was shining & we had the most spectacular views! It was picture perfect Alaska weather. We had to drive about 90 minutes to the small town of Whittier, Alaska to board our cruise ship. The entire population of Whittier is less than 300 people, and every single one of those people live in one building. In order to get to the town, you have to travel through the Whittier Tunnel, which is the longest combined rail & highway tunnel in North America. The tunnel is only open one way at a time. So you have to plan ahead for your arrival to know when the tunnel is open for cars vs. trains and going in the direction you want to go in; otherwise, you could be waiting for a while. ;)  The cruise was about 5 hours long and brought us up close to glaciers, and we even got to see a bear playing on the beach!

These first three pictures were taken at a little pull-off viewing area right before the Whittier Tunnel..see what I mean by picture-perfect?! It was a gorgeous day.

Since the cruise was about 5 hours long, we were served lunch on board. We had low expectations for the food service, but it was surprisingly tasty!

{Brady found this little window where he could watch the captain of the ship}

Aside from the breath-taking scenery, the second best part was when Derek, Shelby, and I were standing on the deck of the boat and we heard someone say "Derek, is that you?" Keep in mind--we were all bundled up at this point with jackets, hats, and sunglasses. It turns out it was someone that went to medical school with Derek in Maryland. As we were talking & catching up {Derek hadn't seen this person since graduating in 2010}, we discovered that they were still in the Air Force as well and had just PCSed to Alaska at the same time as us. And as it turns out, they live diagonally ACROSS THE STREET from us! What a small world!!! They have three daughters--two in high school & one that is in 5th grade at the girls' school. This family has been such a sweet blessing to us. Their youngest daughter has been the best playmate for our crew, and Brady and I have enjoyed several {chilly!} walks with the mom while the girls are at school. 

On our way home, we spotted a rainbow in our neighborhood. It was such a sweet way to end our long weekend!