Nana & Poppy Visit, Week Two

The second week of Nana and Poppy's visit was just as much fun as the first - we hiked, fished and went to a fall festival.

September is a great month to be in Alaska, especially if you can string together several sunny days in a row (which can be hard because our falls tend to be wet!).  There were a lot of cloudy days while my parents were here, but we still got out and enjoyed ourselves.  

We spent a cloudy afternoon playing, fishing and hiking around Beach Lake.  

Ethan did more playing than fishing, but hiked most of the way around the lake.

But...then he got tired and caught a ride with Poppy on the walk back.

A local farm had a fall festival one day, so we spent a sunny afternoon playing in the leaves,

listening to music,

riding tractors,

and playing games.  

Ethan also got to take a wagon train ride pulled by a big tractor...which you can see he did not love.  (Just a tip - don't put the kiddo nervous about riding the train directly behind the loud, roaring engine...it tends to be a little scary...)

The most fun part of the day was getting to run up and down the vegetable rows and play in the field.  

The best part of Nana and Poppy's trip (except all the play time with E, of course) was the day we spent floating down the Kenai river fishing.  

We lucked out and got a perfectly gorgeous fall day on the water.  

The Kenai River is a great fishing river, filled with so many kinds of fish at different times of year - king, red, and silver salmon, rainbow trout, dolly varden, and even white fish (which we didn't know lived in the river until Aaron caught one!).  

It is fun fishing the Kenai - each of us were catching all day long!  

 We were fishing for trout and dolly vardens and trying hard to avoid all the dying red salmon.  Aaron caught the fall Kenai trifecta by adding a white fish to his catches.  

My mom had the best day of everyone and caught the most fish and the biggest fish of the day.  

She also provided the rest of us with great entertainment as she was reeling in the fish.  She caught so many big guys that she was exhausted a few hours before we were done.  As she struggled to bring in her biggest fish she kept asking for help and saying some of the funniest things.  The rest of us were laughing too hard at her to help...which she did not appreciate! 

But look at the size of that fatty - he was worth a sore arm...and all our laughs!

Catching the biggest fish was not the highlight of my mom's day because we got to float by two brown bears, a mama and a baby, walking along the river!  It was great that my mom got to see the bear she had been hoping for, for two weeks.   They are such gorgeous animals.

The Kenai River is one of the best places in Alaska and we had such a fun day floating down it! 

Before we knew it, two weeks had flown by and Nana and Poppy had to go home.  We had so much fun with the time we got to spend with them.  Ethan got completely spoiled by having two constant playmates around, giving him all the attention and fun he wanted.

After Nana and Poppy left, Ethan continued to play all the games they taught him - especially wildlife watching out the windows.  Nana had showed him how to pull a stool up to the window and look out.  He now spends a little bit of every day viewing the yard...just like Nana does at home in Colorado!

More pics from the week: