Hi there~I am a born and raised Alaskan, but we lived in a different part of Alaska until about a year and a half ago, now we live in the Mat Su (Matanuska Susitna) valley area near Palmer. Here's a website from the Chamber of Commerce in our area:
http://www.palmerchamber.org/
It's very beautiful and picturesque here, we are surrounded by mountains and glaciers. I live about 45 minutes from Anchorage, which is where you will be flying into. It's a very quaint and cute little town! Things to do: You can visit our musk ox farm, drive to Hatcher's Pass/Independence Mine, check out our local "Friday Flings" market, stop by the visitor's center in downtown Palmer! If you were coming in August, I'd definately recommend our State Fair, which is a really fun annual event!! Also in June is the Colony Days celebration and parade!
It's a nice drive, and if you would like, we also lived in North Pole/Fairbanks in the mid 90's, it's a really neat place with a lot of history, with lots of things to do, it has a great museum at the University of AK, very tourist friendly place with nice accommodations, great places to eat and friendly people! It's another 7-8 hour drive from here. North Pole has the Santa Claus house, we used to live 5 minutes from it!
http://www.explorefairbanks.com/
Just as Jill mentioned, the Kenai Peninsula is another wonderful place to visit, it's close to Anchorage, and you can visit Seward, Homer, Kenai, Soldotna! There is a lot of tourist oriented things to do there, the Kenai Fjords tour with a trip to fox island might be good, I work at a
travel agency, and I just booked a guy on a 8.5 cruise, but they have shorter ones such as 3-4 hours. You get to see all kinds of animals on the tour. There is a really cool aquarium in Seward that your girls would probably really enjoy too. Here's the link:
http://www.alaskasealife.org/
If you do decide to drive to the Peninsula, stop at this bakery! It's very yummy!!
http://www.thebakeshop.com/
Have a great trip! Our state is so large, you will have to make another trip next year! Kelly