Leaving Alaska...

It was sooooo incredibly hard to leave TJ/Daddy in Alaska. He begged for us to stay with him until August and I felt absolutely terrible for not planning to. I just felt like there was so much to do and take care of at home, I felt unsettled. But then, I felt like I was ripping our family apart and all TJ kept telling me, was that as long as we were all together who cares about anything else. Well yes, true, however, we all know what a stress case I can be and I just couldn't do that. I knew I'd be lonely when he was at the field and Grandma could only stay for so long to do things with us and venture out with us while Daddy was at baseball. We pretty much cried in the airport before going through security and then I cried all the way through security. I am sure people were staring at me like what is this woman's problem, but I didn't care! Thank goodness for Grandma being there because she pretty much put all our stuff in bins, 9 to be exact, that is how much crap we had, while I stood there crying and doing nothing to help her! :(

I just felt awful, torn, sad, and already missing TJ like crazy.

However, looking back at all our pics now, the ones I posted are seriously just a few glimpses, I am so happy that we were able to go, make a vacation out of part of it and see and do so much. We really did do a lot and I grew to love Alaska. It is a beautiful state, with so much nature, friendly people, no sales tax :), and just an awesome place. It reminded me of our childhood camping days, traveling the states with my parents, it reminded me of being in Europe with the weather and all the green around you. It was just a great trip. I wish the sun came out more that last week and a half we were there, but we made the best of the weather and didn't let it stop us!

We can't wait for daddy to get home, but we are so proud of him and what he is doing. Everyone loves him out there and the locals of the team were all begging us to move there! :)

Keep following your heart babe, you are an amazing dad, husband and coach and have truly learned how to balance it all. I was so proud sitting at the games each day watching you coach.

We have been home almost a week, and lil miss Rhowan's sleeping schedule is still all out of whack. You'd be surprised how much daylight 24 hours of the day really throws you off. Even though its only an hour behind our time here at home, we all got totally messed up. Rhowan some nights goes down by 9 now that we are home and does pretty well, but sleeping in til like 11 am, yes, 11 am, can you believe that. However, other nights she is wide awake past midnight, ready to play, take baths, etc. Not to mention she is teething and I think ready to cut her top two teeth, so that hasn't helped the sleeping cause much, but we are dealing. I am for now, letting her just get as much sleep as she needs and will worry about a bed time later, she is still good with her routine, its just the times that are way off, but I figure as long as she is getting her ten plus hours a night, which she is doing about 10-14 hours, then all is good! I am not working this summer, so we will adjust slowly back into it and let her get back on track on her time for awhile.

Well now that we are home, we are getting ready for a weekend Vegas trip for Auntie Kate's 21st! Then its time for park days, beach days, and some fun in the sun at home for the rest of the summer. Oh and the 101 things to do on my never ending list that I'd like to accomplish this summer, but hey, enjoy each moment I have at home with Rhowan is number 1 on that priority list!

Keep the prayers coming for TJ to get a coaching job when he gets home and a job for me would be great too! We love and miss you all and hope you've enjoyed our Alaska pictures and updates.

Love,

The Bruce's

And our final day in Alaska...

We found a favorite restraunt while being there, Humpy's. They had the best Halibut fish and chips and bloody mary's. We had our last lunch there after our flight tour.

Rhowan was only awake for the take off and landing, she knocked out during the entire flight tour!

Our take off...

TJ as co pilot...and a nervous wreck, but lookin good as always babe!

Mommy, Grandma and Rhowan in the back, ready for our take off! We got to experience such beautiful views, more glaciers, we saw moose roaming, no bears, but that's ok. They even did a landing right next to a glacier, so we could take some pictures. This was a fun experience, also on the top things we did while there.

More pics...

Our last day in Alaska we wanted to do the ultimate tour to see Alaska, a flight tour on the little plane you see below. TJ was a nervous wreck, he is scared of heights, but he was such a trooper! He didn't talk much throughout the tour, we all had our own headset and mic, it was pretty cool. It was an incredible way to see all the mother nature that makes up Alaska!

Our plane has arrived for our flight tour! It was just us in the plane with our own pilot/tour guide!

4th of July after Daddy's game. They had a double header and then a firework show, which was pretty good. The fireworks didn't begin til midnight, but they weren't bad for not being completely dark in Alaska, it was a pretty good show! After the game, TJ came up to sit with us and watch the show as Rhowan was passed out sleeping, the booming didn't even phase her! However, she was wide awake after we got into the car, hence her sleeping is all out of whack right now! Oh well, for a good cause! :)

At one of daddy's games...she is just teething on this, she never actually got a bite of it, stop judging me! LOL!

Daddy coaching 3rd base. It was so awesome watching him be in charge. His confidence, his passion and just seeing in him action up close and personal was priceless. It makes all the ups and downs of being a coach's wife well worth it! :) I am so proud of him!

More Alaska Pics...

First train ride...on our way to Whittier...there was such beautiful scenery on the way, this totally reminded me of Europe and how much I want to go back. I wish TJ was able to join us on this day, but he had a game that evening and wasn't too interested in the Glaciers at the time! :)

This was on our glacier boat tour, probably one of the highlights of this trip...amazing to see in person, never really understood all the hype of a glacier or what it actually was...it is just a ton of compacted, frozen, ice...pretty amazing to see. We even got to see pieces of it falling off, I forget the technical term for that, but it was really neat. This was a long day, with the train ride to Whittier, but it was amazing. We even saw whales on this cruise, pretty awesome!

Grandma, Rhowan and mommy

She was such a good girl on the boat cruise.

Rhowan and Grandma (look at all the brochures grandma is holding...we went to the visitor center to plan out our trip and all that we wanted to do!)

More Adventures...

The petting zoo with Grandma...Rhowan wasn't too into touching the animals!

The gift shop at the Acquarium in Seward...

At the animal conservation center...yes, that is a live, brown bear walking toward Rhowan, behind the fence!

Alaska Adventures

We stopped at the visitor center on our drive to Seward...this was our day long trip when we went to the animal conservation center, stopped at Portage where there is a glacier and did some sight seeing.
What a good lil traveler she is...

Trying to get the pluggy out of her mouth, but hey, you can't always ask for perfect family pics with lil ones, right?! This was the first glacier we saw while in Alaska, behind us, between the two mountains. Yes, white snow on the mountains still, in June!

A stop along the highway on our day long drive...

A day in downtown Anchorage

A few more pics...

Rhowan and Ivy today before going to daddy's baseball game

Moose at the Conservation Center

Seward Highway, driving along the scenic route...