Chena Lakes

Since we've returned from Alaska, I've joked that we had to go to Alaska to find the sun.  Yep, in North Pole we not only found a beautiful, warm, sunny day, but a beautiful lake with sandy beaches too. 

Sarah and I started off the day with a 10-mile bike ride around North Pole.  I had forgotten how fun bike riding is!  After we got back and everyone ate breakfast, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to Chena Lakes. 

We also borrowed a canoe that belongs to a friend of Sarah and Kurt's.  Since there is no boat launch area near the "kiddie beach" where we spent our day, it was either drop the canoe and row it around to the beach, or carry the heavy canoe quite a distance from the parking lot to the kiddie beach.  We took the first option.  Ed, Emma and I climbed into the canoe and rowed a short distance around to the kiddie beach.  It was only about 15 minutes but boy, what a workout!

Sarah, Kurt, Elana and Dieter out on the lake

In the meantime, Sarah, Kurt and the rest drove over to the kiddie beach and got us all set up for the day.  This was Samantha's first time actually in water, other than a bath/shower.  She loved it!  Yes, she kept trying to eat the sand and pebbles, Sarah even tried to convince me that a little sand never hurt her kids and though that's true, I still tried to dissuade Samantha from eating it.  She sat in the sand in the water, walked--with help--in the water a bit and played in the sand!!  Samantha had a blast--grinning ear-to-ear the entire time!


Beach time!

 

Samantha loved playing in the water!



Big smiles!

After about an hour and a half of playing and her first PB & J, minus the PB, Samantha was all tuckerd out - she fell asleep in Daddy's arms on the beach in a camp chair.  When it came time for us to leave, Ed and I again rowed the canoe around to the launch while Sarah, Kurt and all the kids played in the park for a few minutes, packed up the car and then came to pick us up at the boat launch.



Getting out of the sun for a little nap

We went home, had dinner and then I made a birthday cake because...

7/11 IS SARAH'S BIRTHDAY! 

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

We ate some yummy chocolate cake, if I do say so myself, got the kids to bed and then the four of us stayed up playing board games! 

What a wonderful, fun, sunny, exhausting, yummy, happy day!