In June, we had the opportunity to take a much-needed family vacation. We find it hard to leave Alaska in the summer because the warm weather time frame is so short, and I think that thought process gave us the 10 days of 90-110 degree weather while we were gone!!
We had such a blast doing SO many things together that none of us had experienced before. We flew to Salt Lake City, UT, and road-tripped to Las Cruces, NM stopping along the way to enjoy the sights and time together.
In 10 days, we managed to have ALL the fun:
- The New Top Gun on the way to the Airport
- Splash Summit Water Park
- Zion National Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Horseshoe Bend, Grand Canyon
- Sledding in White Sands National Park
- Air B n B Hopping (4 to be exact)
- Family Time in the POOL
- Painting Lessons with Grandpa Ralph
- Swimming in Lake Powell @ 108 degrees
- Ice Cream Bars for breakfast
- World’s Largest Pistachio
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park
My favorite part of the trip was the ELECTRONICS FREE time spent as a family. There were NO iPads, no kid phones (I had my phone, I mean, you know – work and stuff LOL), no play stations, nothing. Nope, not even on the plane. I did buy them some crossword puzzles and Mad Libs!
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t ALL rosy; there were times I wished I could hand them a screen so they could STOP all the talking. What I wanted and had been craving was an on-purpose vacation where we got to connect and spend time doing new things together as a family.
I don’t know about you, but I get so flustered by the way all they WANT to do is something on an electronics. I want them to enjoy the sights and hear the sounds and be present with each other. Call me old-fashioned but we kids that grew up in the 80s and 90s were had to work a lot harder on entertaining ourselves than these kids do!!
As summer is going so quickly, our goal for the rest of the time we are able is to enjoy what we can here in ALASKA! As someone who has lived here for over 30 years, there are still MANY things I have NOT done yet!
The Mortgage Momma’s Alaska Bucket List:
- See Valdez
- A Kenai Fjords Tour in Seward
- Knik Glacier
- Matanuska Glacier
- Zip Lining
- Catch a Salmon (to send to my BFF Amber because I don’t like to eat it)
- Catch a Halibut
What are you enjoying this summer? What vacations are you taking? Are you doing things locally that you have never done before? I would LOVE to hear all about it!!
Leave a Reply