Our Double Portion!: July 2009

Jer and I took the twins to Alaska from July 11th - 20th for a McMahan Family Reunion - WHAT A TRIP! On our way to AK we had two flights to catch, the last one was 5.5 hours long. Joshua was sick with a bad cold while we were flying so all he really wanted to do was snuggle and sleep; I snuggled him in the sling majority of the trip that day. Saray on the other hand was a bit wild. She likes to explore and move, so you can just imagine how nuts flying with her really was. She literally was up, down and turning around for 4.0 hours of our 5.5 flight. And when we did encourage her to sleep she would scream and make quite the scene. She did manage to sleep for a hour or so on that long flight - thank goodness! Jer and I were able to lose our minds! After arriving into Anchorage (and stopping to sleep at a motel) we had to drive 200 miles to Gakona (Where Jer's Mom and Step dad live). On our way back home we had 3 flights. Saray was just as hyper and only slept an 1.5 (broken up) the WHOLE ENTIRE DAY (from 4am to 10:30pm). Joshua was a bit more himself on the flights home so we had our hands really full. I think next time we fly with the kids they will be much older; this baby stage is challenging enough without adding flying to the picture.

To be honest, most of the trip was challenging and emotionally trying. The hardest part of the trip was I miscarried a few days into the trip, had signs of it the night we arrived in to Anchorage. I was 8 weeks along. Miscarriages are hard enough when you are at home, but traveling seems to make it just so much harder. Maybe it's cause you're on the go when you want to be laying low, or the fact that you're in an unfamiliar place when you would rather be home in your own bed, and so on. We did see this little one (just like our other little ones); it's one amazing thing to see someone so very tiny. This little one had perfect hands, teeny tiny feet buds, spine, heart, head, etc. Everything looked normal to the naked eye (besides the fact that its little heart was no longer beating and it was in our hands and not my womb.) We have learned from our past 2 miscarriages that life is to be honored no matter how long it is with us. We named this little one Jael.
The kiddos did quite well, they even adjusted to the time zone (two hours behind our normal zone). Life went on for them even while we were away from home; Saray got her 5th tooth, Joshua FINALLY started crawling, and he also got his 7th tooth the day we arrived home. They even did a good job of staying on a decent schedule.

My highlights were meeting all my neices and nephews, seeing all the fam together, and also getting to hang out with my cousin-in-law Johana. Also, we got to see a fish wheel in action and a few mountains one morning.

Alaska is beautiful country. The hours of sunlight was a bit nuts, the mountains were breath-taking and the Glacier fed rivers were amazing to see. But after all that, HOME is a very beautiful sight, especially after being away. There truly is no place like Home.

You can view many more pictures from our Alaska trip at www.flickr.com/photos/chapeaufour