ALCAN to Montana July Adventure

July 8, 2014 - August 3, 2014

Are we ready?

Well, fellow blog readers, it feels great to be back. It's taking me all week to go through all the photos but so much fun to relive the memories.  I would end up posting 30 some posts to share all the details of our adventure - so I'm going to do my best to summarize the past month here.  If you want more details - you'll just have to come visit us in Eagle River!

The picture above is the morning of the start to the adventure and shows our home for the past month.  Leif's parents and the four of us traveled in one vehicle (Explorer) and then had the pop-up camper as lodging.  One would think we were crazy, but actually we all had plenty of space.  

We saw all kinds of wildlife...

Grizzly

Elk at our campsite

Stone Sheep 

Brown Bear - we saw 16 in one day!!

 

and wild wood bison herd.

We were also blessed with some amazing sunsets

Dutton, MT

 Ft. Smith/Big Horn River - MT

Alberta, Canada

However, the focus of our trip was to be a part of the Jacobsen family reunion.  We made the trip down in 7 days- really taking our time and enjoying the trip. 

The kids were absolutely content if they could find a puddle and rocks - no matter where we stopped.

They were also pretty excited to go over all the bridges - this was going over the famous Tesslin Bridge in Yukon Territory which is the longest suspension bridge on the Alaskan Highway.

Let's not forget the fun things that pop up at the gas stations

and at the playgrounds

Of course we had our silly moments in the car too!

We even found creative ways to get our "quiet time" in!

The family reunion was a wonderful time!  Here's our Pope with his siblings.

Only one sister was unable to make it due to her husband falling ill. We were happy to hear he was doing better, but they thought it best not to travel.  Out of Papa's cousins, only 3 of the cousins were unable to attend.  So, we had about 60 people attend the reunion.

It was great to be able to spend the week prior to the reunion camping along side Papa's brother and his family.  Here the Jacobsen cousins enjoyed a 'chilly' swim!

Before we knew it - it was time to head back north. 

We left Montana on a Monday and arrived back in Fairbanks on Friday and then home to Eagle River on Saturday!  We put roughly 2,900 miles in 6 days!!! We were all ready to be home, have some space and use a really bathroom! Ha, ha...  In all sincerity, this was a wonderful trip.  So many memories were made and it was wonderful to spend quality time with family.  We were even fortunate enough to have my mom and dad come over for a visit from Wisconsin.  

(Psst...mom, send me some pictures you took!) 

 Our last camp site at Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory

As we've been home for a week now, we've shifted gears getting ready to go back to school. Can it be that time already?  I know as the craziness of school starting up, I'm going to remember how relaxing this trip was (yes, it was truly relaxing) and keep my focus on what's important in life.

Thank you friends and family that have kept us in your prayers this past month. Truly - your prayers were answered as we had zero car troubles, and 95% positive attitudes by all (okay- we all had a cranky moment or two) but honestly - what could have been stressful and irritating trip, was one of positive and quality time together as a family.   

So, we thank you for praying and keeping us in your thoughts!