Day 5 (Seattle)

Today we drove from Bellingham, WA to Seattle, WA which was only a couple hours away. We decided to spend the day with my mother in law, Gail, stay at her place and take off in the morning for Boise, ID. It was a lot of fun to spend some more time with Taylee's "GG"! We haven't seen her since Derrick left for Afghanistan which was about 6 months ago.


Mom, Taylee and I made sure to stop by and see my Grandpa Jack. It was Taylee's first time meeting her Great Grandpa. :(

Spent some time with the whole family at Olive Garden, Taylee was lovin' on her Grandpa Liko.

Leilani and her adorable babies, Ailey & Andrew.

Taylee wasn't in the mood for pictures but GG looks cute :)

We were just about to head out of town and we saw this little pony ride outside of Safeway and just had to put Taylee on it, she absolutely LOVED it! She was so cute.

Day 4 (Prince George - Bellingham, WA)

Today we drove from Prince George, Canada to Bellingham, Washington, which was a total of 473 miles. It was so nice to finally be back on our home turf :) Our goal originally was to make it to Seattle but the hour wait at the border changed our plans. We figured we would just wake up and drive about 4 more hours and then we could spend the whole day with my mother in law in Seattle, WA.

We had a good laugh this morning. Woke up, got ready and as we're trying to gather our things to check out of the hotel we realized we couldn't find the key. Then I remembered opening the door last night and I left the key in it!! How safe is that!? Good thing we had the top locked too!
After we left the hotel we headed back to Denny's to get a good breakfast in and then we were headed to the border!

And we made it! Glad they let us back through :) I can't believe how long the wait was though..... We were the only car going through the border to Canada, but going back into the US there were about 50 ahead of us!

I rarely get to see pinks and reds in the sky, it was gorgeous!

I'd have to say my favorite thing about Canada was their Ketchup potato chips! Mom and I ate 2 bags during our 3 days there! I wish they sold them in the United States.

I started slacking a lot with my picture taking towards the end of our road trip. We were in such a hurry to get to Utah that we barely stopped and saw anything really exciting. So this is all I have for day 3.

Day 3 (Toad Lake - Prince George)

Today we drove a total of 580 miles, another beautiful drive. We were so lucky to have great weather the entire trip. We woke up, got our coffee and some muffins and then we were off, mom driving and me sleeping :) Taylee did wonderful again, just watched her Sesame Street and slept. My sweet little girl. The only time she fussed was at night (of course when we're exhausted), but for some reason she had a fit every night. Not sure what was going on.

We started off with a beautiful drive in the mountains where we saw this little goat roaming around.


If you ever go through Canada, make sure you stop at Mr. Mikes. The food was amazing! One of the guys at the gas stationed we filled up at recommended that we eat lunch here. He said they had "wicked" burgers.


So mom and I split one of their salads, it was one of the best salads I've ever had, I'm sure the rest of their food was delicious :)

Yes, it's another scenery picture. You can't tell me that's not pretty.

We arrived in Prince George pretty late but luckily we found a hotel right next to a Dennys. So we grabbed a quick dinner, and headed back to the hotel. Mom and Taylee were snuggling in the bed for a little. Hopefully today is our last day in Canada. Goodnight.

Day 2 (Whitehorse - Toad Lake)

Today we had a late start getting out of Whitehorse. We ended up having to grab some groceries at one of the stores, which was much more difficult than we expected. Eventually we made our way out of the grocery store and headed on the road for Fort Nelson, Canada. We ended up finishing our day 2 at Toad Lake, which was only about an hour from Fort Nelson, so we were close.

Map of day 2.

The Watson Lake Signpost Forest began with a single sign placed by Carl K. Lindley, an Illinois soldier, during construction of the Alaska Hwy. By 1978, the addition of signs through the years had expanded to cover a row of tall poles at a gravel pullout along the gravel road. Each pole was studded with signs from all corners of the world. By June, 2010, there were more than 67,983 signs.

Taylee Belle and I at Watson Lake checking out all the signs!

At Watson Lake the lady had told us to beware of the herd of buffalo for the next 30 miles. We came across this little guy and laughed thinking that was the only buffalo until we drove a few more miles and saw this....

There's a herd of buffalo for ya :)


Finally I got to see my bear. He didn't stick around very long to let me take a good picture. So much for bears being all big and scary :)

I know scenery pictures aren't the most fun to look at, but it was such a beautiful drive I couldn't resist.

We made it to Toad Lake and had a quick dinner in this little diner. Taylee was so happy to be out of her car seat and to be eating, this girl loves her food!

The entire ceiling was covered in hats! It was actually pretty cool.

This was the little cabin we stayed in at Toad Lake, it was a good size room with 3 beds, but mom, Taylee & I decided to sleep in the same bed so Taylee couldn't roll off :) It was actually really cute and clean, the only thing that bothered me was the hard boiled egg smelling water.

Day 1 (Fairbanks-Whitehorse)

Our first day of driving we went from Fairbanks, AK to Whitehorse, CAN, a total of 589 miles which took us about 12 hours with a few stops. This part of our trip was probably the most boring. I remember telling my mom how badly I wanted to see a bear and then she didn't wake me up when she drove past one. How sweet of her. Luckily we ended up seeing a couple more before the end of our trip. :)

Map of our adventure.

We finally made it to the border!

Our first stop was at this little restaurant/motel/gas station in Canada where we grabbed some lunch, nothing too exciting.

The one and only cop car in Canada, lol. It got is to slow down though, pretty funny & clever idea. Their way of patrol is through aircraft, which neither mom or I saw any aircrafts either. Not too sure if they really care about the safety of their roads. O'well.

Here's some of the scenery in Canada. It was pretty strange to see all the beautiful lakes with no one on them, not a single cabin, boat or ski-doo anywhere.

We stopped for the night at Canada's Best Value Inn, it was kind of ghetto but it was the only place left in town that had a room available. Someone had suggested if we stay there to use their underground garage (seen above), it fit about 5 cars, and no one else used it, it kind of creeped me out actually.

The end of day 1. Next stop, Toad Lake.

All Packed Up & Ready To Go

Taylee and I were getting ready for out looooong road trip to Utah. We thought it would be a great idea to take some time while Derrick is deployed to visit with my family in the states. First we are going to stay in Utah where my brother Paul lives, then head over to Nevada where my sister Nicole lives. I decided to buy a new vehicle in Fairbanks so my best option was to drive rather than shipping it to Hawaii since I won't be there for another 5 months. We tried finding a friend to ride along with us but no luck, so mom decided to come along. THANKS MOM!!! :)

Taylee thought playing in the boxes was more fun than packing, I agree.

They took one last bath together and I tried getting a cute picture of them in their jammies. For once Calvin was smiling for the camera and Taylee was just too tired to smile. Bummer.

Taylee hanging out with her cousin and uncle one last time....

I'm so glad we bought a bigger vehicle for all of my junk to fit in!! Here we are all packed up and ready to go!

We found this awesome DVD player for Taylee so she didn't get bored in the back seat all by herself. She's all stocked up on her Sesame Street and Barney shows. Now that we're all packed and ready and said our goodbyes, we're off to Utah!

Alaskaland

This summer has been a little on the smokey and wet side, but we're taking it all in. This might be Taylee and I's last summer here for a while so we have to enjoy all of it that we can. Here's a picture of what some of this summer sky has looked like.

So while the sun was out for a couple hours Terra and I decided to meet up at Alaskaland to let the kiddos play.

Taylee first time on this bouncy/rocking toy and she loved it!! I love how independent she's becoming!

Spent some time playing in the rocks (and trying to eat them)

I loved the bright colors of the flowers in the background so I was hoping to get a picture of the kids smiling but instead they were too busy being twins and trying to pick the flowers. How funny that they were doing the exact same thing at the same time!


I can never get both of them to smile at the same time, but they still look so stinking cute!