A Dose of Durbin: Alaska day 3!

So I was hoping for a more adventurous day, but the morning started out slow. We were trying to get going for a while, but Chicago wasn't feeling so good and the boys eventually both ended up napping for a while. Before the nap Penn was going stir crazy! There was a lot he couldn't play with and I had to keep telling him no, so he was about to explode. Chicago needed some one on one mommy time and he needed to eat so I took Penner outside for a little bit, despite my fear of getting malled by a bear. We had gotten a little more used to the area so I was getting more bold. It was chilly that day, I thought it was crazy to be all bundled up in August. However, I was happy that Penner got to wear some of his cute winter clothes again before he grew out of them.

Walking around outside.

Both Penn and Chicago napped at the same time. It was so nice. Brittany and I had some free time to check our emails and just chat without patrolling our boys! Nap time is always a nice break, but I always miss spending time with Penner when he is sleeping and I am up, even if it is just for two hours. When they woke up we were starving and we didn't feel like cooking so we went to a mall in downtown Anchorage and ate at Subway. In Alaska they have a $6 foot long, not the $5 foot long. I wonder if they still got those annoying $5 foot long song Subway commercials. Penn and I shared a sandwich, he is a very good eater, he always eats fruits and veggies, but when it comes to his sandwich if there is anything other then meat and bread he will spit it out, even if it is just the tiniest piece of lettuce.

Then we walked around downtown Anchorage. It was nice to be a tourist for a little bit. We went into a few stores, but they all had glass, breakable things and very narrow walkways, so I had to position Penner's stroller exactly in the middle so he could not reach and break anything. He likes to pick things up and throw them on the ground, not good when we are in a store full of breakable things. I didn't know what type of souvenir to get, I wanted to get something that proved I had been to Alaska, but I also wanted something that we would actually use. I finally decided on getting an ornament and a mug. Now I just have to decide which one. There are so many choices.

After walking through some stores and me not finding anything that I really liked, we decided to walk to the coastal trail. We took some pictures, but it is hard to capture the beauty we saw in person in these pics.

Then we went to Starbucks, which I was very happy about. They always have nice mugs so I decided on getting my Alaska mug there. Only one problem, every Starbucks in Anchorage was sold out! They don't get more in until Tuesday and we leave Tuesday night, so I will have to make sure to get there Tuesday morning.

It was so nice to sit in the warmth and just relax with a soy latte. I usually just get coffee, but we are on vacation so I went for the latte. Penner was happy too, I got some cold water to share with him. And Starbucks has wifi, so I could finally play him Elmo on my ipod! He kept putting his hood over his face and saying "hat."

We were ready to head back to the car and start dinner for the guys. On our walk back to the car we went threw this flower garden and took some pictures. It was so nice to hang out with another mom and baby. Not very many of my friends in Chicago have kids. It was nice walking around with both of us and our strollers, not just me and a stroller.

Brittany and Chicago.

We put them in their car seats, packed up the strollers and we were ready to head back home. They were so cute in the back seat. Penner kept looking at Chicago and Chicago would just stare at Penn and smile and laugh.

There were mountains everywhere. Literally everywhere we went we saw mountains. It was beautiful. This was the view from the malls parking lot.

So after we went to the mall, we came home and made dinner for our men who had been out all night and day fishing. I decided to make soup since they had been outside in the cold. I thought some delicious lentil soup would warm everyone up quite nicely. Sean was very grateful for the soup. He was cold and very tired when they got back.

So the guys went fishing, and they had to leave at 1:30 AM. We all went to bed at around 11pm so they had a good 2 hours of sleep that night. Then they had a 3 hr drive to the first fishing spot. They didn't catch anything there so they drove another 2 hrs away to Homer. They both caught a silver salmon there. Here are some pictures of their trip. It looks beautiful. Sean said he was very cold, and he was the only one who needed gloves. But we had just come form very warm weather into 40 degree weather on that day.