FALL FESTIVAL this time of year is my absolute FAVORITE, I just love the smell of fall, the chill of fall, the colors of fall and the feeling of fall is amazing to me.
We drove to the town of Palmer for a Fall Festival, the kids had a blast! Hay rides (I forgot to get a picture of that) games, face painting, and a lot more...
Petting the goats!
Wagon ride fun
Hockey pro's
When this was all over we headed back to the house to pack and get ready for out flight home! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So we thought... We headed out for the airport at about 11:00 pm to get there in time for the 1:10 am flight. (The only flight from Delta out of Anchorage each day/night) because we are flying for free we have to fly standby. And that is no guarantee that you will get on the flight... Being the only direct flight out of Anchorage to SLC we pretty much figured that it was a FAT chance to get on the flight. So after a couple of hours of waiting we found out that the flight was actually WAY over booked and they were offering people all kinds of incentives to give up their seats. Great well were not getting home tonight! Or are we??? Brandon decided that we would try to get on the next flight to Seattle which left at 2:30 am and from Seattle we could fly to SLC... Well the same story is to be told for that flight as well. Oh man, it's late or early however you want to put it and we are ALL so exhausted! We just want to go home, this is not my idea of traveling! So after hours spent in the Anchorage Alaska airport we finally made it on a flight to Seattle. It left Sunday evening and arrived in Seattle at about Midnight! We made it, we're FINALLY out of Alaska, I honestly felt so trapped there, because there honestly are no options(especially in our situation) , not very many flights to choose from. Brandon was due back to Fresno by now and we are having the darnedest time getting home. We hung out in the Seattle airport ALL night long so that we could try for the first flight to SLC at 5:30 am. Thankfully the girls were amazing and slept the whole time, we are forever grateful for that and feel very blessed that they did so well through all of this. Well just as we thought that flight filled up just as fast as the rest of them did and Brandon had to take the jumpseat. (seat in the cockpit for pilot commuters) so that he could get back to Fresno for work. GREAT! I'M STUCK IN SEATTLE ALL BY MYSELF WITH THE GIRLS AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!!! Ok, so we tried 2 more times to get on flights and the same old story over and over. By this time I am so exhausted and in dire need of sleep and food... I can hardly function. After talking to the ticket agent and finding out the flight looked like this for the whole day I was devastated... what was I going to do? I really wanted so badly to talk to Brandon, he was still in the air... my dear sweet loving, caring dad called me and came to my rescue! At this point we were all willing to do what ever it took to just get our family home... My dad ended up purchasing tickets from SouthWest and we took the 8:45 flight home Monday morning! I am forever in debt to my dad, at that point I felt like he saved my life! To my surprise Brandon was there to greet us as we deboarded the airplane. I cannot even begin to explain the feelings I had as I walked down that ramp and saw him. I am saved, I'm back in SLC and my hubby is here to help me. Come to find out... I had the car keys, and his flight bag was in the car... he has to have it to FLY. So he helped me back to the car and I drove him back to the terminals and sent him on his way to Fresno. I have to add in that Brandon felt extremely bad leaving us in Seattle but at this point we really had no choice, he had to get to work and there was no telling when we would all get on the same flight. I completely understood his need to leave. But was extremely grateful to see him when we arrived in SLC. The girls were great for me on the flight... they slept the whole way and actually Averie did not see any part of our stay in Seattle. She was asleep when we got there and asleep when we left. But we are home and I'm so glad... I'm exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep in my own lovely bed.Mr. Nixon will be home Thursday! HOORAY!!!!!!
We were fortunate to see a whole herd 50+ of Beluga Whales. They were fascinating and beautiful! Our friends said that they have never seen the Beluga Whales until this time, we feel very lucky to have seen them.
I can't even begin to explain how beautiful the mountains and water are in Alaska, it's nothing like I've ever seen before. The pictures do no justice.
We saw the Portage Glacier, amazing!
We walked up a BEAUTIFUL trail
We also visited the Conservation Center for rescued Alaskan animals
Brandon actually touched a grizzly bear on the butt!!!
We have a gazillian pictures of all the animals, I just picked a few...
Sadly the day came to an end but we had a fabulous day. The men offered to give the girls baths and put them to bed... we women were not going to argue with that!
