Alaska

Everyone that knows me has had to listen to me talk about the cruise we were going on to Alaska for over a year. I have been so excited to go on the vacation, and it did not disappoint. The first of August we set off for a fun filled week aboard the Golden Princess to Alaska. Practically everyone I know went with us. It was a little overwhelming at first, with the kids. After getting through my first night of nightmares, picturing Ethan, jumping out of his crib, on locking the sliding glass door, going out the the balcony, climbing the table and jumping out over the balcony into the ocean, I was OK.
We left from Seattle and I was able to take this amazing picture, from our balcony! How cool is that!

JUNO : Our first port was Juno, Alaska. This was a very interesting port for us. We had a few bumps along the way but had a pretty good attitude the whole time. We first had some trouble getting off the ship, once that was done we were ready for an adventure. the rest of my family went kayaking, but since we had the kids we were on our own for the day. We started out riding a supper high gondola up into the forest. It was really cool to see thing from that high. This is where our first slip up began. Looking over one of the look outs, Ethan managed to loose a shoe over the side of the mountain. Hmm. What now, that was his only pair of shoes we brought. So we went down into the town in search of shoes. Juno is the capital, but well there is not much there. We were pointed in the direction of the new Walmart 15 miles away. sigh. Since we did not bring car seats we could not take a cab and had to take the city bus to Walmart. It took forever! We did however get to see all of Juno that none of the tourists get to see, and visit with some of the locals. We got some new shoes and were ready to go. We decide to continue on the bus and head out to the Mendenhal Glacier further away. We were told we could take the bus mostly there but had to walk maybe a mile or so to get there. Well a mile or so turned into about two and a half. We were very happy to arrive at there finally, but were supper tired. We walk around for a bit and caught a tourist bus directly back to port. We dis get a few pics at the glacier after all our travels:

This picture can only be had by those who walk the path so I am sure we are one of the few: :)

SKAGWAY: The next stop on our trip was Skagway. I new this would be a better day since we had it planned before hand. A big group of us rented a van tor and headed out to the white pass/Yukon area, and into Canada. It was wonderful to see all the beautiful scenery. It was so green lush. We made several stops and saw the sights. We even got to see some mountain goats! After the tour we went into the town and walked around. It had a very old west feel to it. Such a cute place. In the streams the Salmon were everywhere swimming upstream.

Tracy Arm Fjord: the next destination was not a port, it was a day on the ship. Early in the morning we sailed into Tracy Arm Fjord and tried to get as close as we could to the glacier. It was so beautiful. It was great to be able to get up and go right out onto the balcony, eat breakfast and see everything.

Ketchikan: Ketchican was a fun, short day. We were only in port until noon, so by the time we got out we had a few hours to roam around and see the sites. We went to creek street, that was I think my favorite part. It was a old part of town built on stilts on the creek. Ketchkan to me looked just like I pictured an Alaska town being. We even saw a bald eagle get a fish right out of the creek and fly away with it. Amazing! Joseph had a different day, he got up early and went fishing with a few other guys from our group. They caught tons of Salmon. We got some shipped back to parents house and have been eating it right up, so good.

Victoria, Canada: Victoria was our last day. We were sad to see it coming to an end. Most of the day was spent on the ship hanging out. We didn't get into port till after dinner at 7pm. While getting off the ship I was watching Ethan who was a being held by my dad, he was being so cute and waving to me. I got excited and waved back and must have lost my balance because I came a tumbling down and twisted my ankle really bad. I thought it would be OK, so I continued on. We decided to go see the Butchart Gardens. While we were on our way there my ankle swelled up pretty big. When we got there I could barely walk. So we rented a wheelchair. By that time we only had about a hour to see everything, so we all ran (well I rolled) around as fast as we could to see as much as we could. Kimi and Wes, took Bridget, my mom took Ethan and Joseph pushed me. the garden were beautiful and I was so happy I was able to see them. They are defiantly somewhere I would like to go back to.

It was a really fun trip and we were sad to go.

Scooters Jungle

A few years ago I went to Scooters Jungle for a friends 18th birthday party and was really impressed with what a fun place it was. I was pregnant at the time so I was not allowed to really do anything fun, like go down the slide and bounce around so I was a little bummed and always wanted to come back. A few weeks ago I went with the twins and my mother-in-law Margaret and my nephew Brett. We were in the toddler are for ages 1-5 and it was so much fun! I got very tired going on the slide over and over again, but the kids had a blast. Who knew they were such dare devils. I sure didn't. I guess it was a wake up call that they are not babies anymore. Where did this big kids come from? A few of the pictures are really out of focus cause they were super fact action shots but I love them anyway.

Whatever!

Not even two and she is already giving me the "Whatever Mom, you are so lame" look. I guess I should get used to it.

Next UFC fighter

We are grooming Ethan to be the next UFC fighter. You have to start young right? Sparring already :)

Josephs Birthday/Visitors

On July 15th we had the pleasure of having two visitors from South Carolina come. My mother-in-law Margaret and my oldest nephew Brett. They came out and visited for five days. During that time we went to Disneyland, went swimming, celebrated Josephs birthday, went to church, Scooters Jungle, and Racers Edge. It was busy few days.

For Josephs birthday we went to Disneyland, but on Sundays my family always does birthdays. So Sunday we went to my parents for dinner and had a little party. He got lots of fun gifts from everyone and a cake withs lots of candles :)



From me: a fishing puzzle to represent fishing in Alaska

And a charger for the Xbox controllers

From Kimi and Wes: the movie "Taken"

From Brian: I Tunes gift card. (I might have to steal that)

Big one from my parents: A new suit! It fits great:)

Ethan got very excited with all the present opening that he decided to roll around in the dogs beds

Hope you had a great Brithday!

Disneyland

On July 16Th Joseph turned 38! And how did we celebrate? We went to Disneyland! Josephs mother and nephew came to visit us for a few days and there first day here was Josephs birthday. We previously had two tickets someone had given us as a gift and Joseph got to go for free and the kids were free so all six of us got to go for the price of one ticket. I think a pretty good deal for sure. We had a great day. Joseph really wanted to see the fireworks and night and I was worried that the kids wouldn't make it that long so we compromised and left home later. WE didn't get into the parks until about 1:30 so we had to move fast to see all that we wanted. It was a special trip because it was my nephew Brett's first time to Disneyland. So the goal was to see as much as we could.
Overall it was a fun time. Bridget and Ethan did really well. We did not get to do much kids things unfortunately but they still had a good time. The liked Buzz light year, and Pirates of the Caribbean a lot. Ethan did not like the Jungle book ride at all, he wanted to be all done from the very beginning. The favorite was the parade, the danced and clapped, and had so much fun. It was a long day. I think it was almost 11pm by the time we made it to Its a Small World. Ethan fell asleep, but Bridget loves all the "babies" that were singing and dancing. She danced the whole ride with a huge smile on her face. That made the whole day for me.

The 4th

We had a fun 4th of July. The morning was relaxing and the afternoon was filled with fun. We went to the Beckstroms for a barbecue and swimming. There was so much eating and swimming the everyone was exhausted. The only bummer about this year was the the fireworks were not being held at the park near my parents house. Joseph really wanted to see fireworks do we decided to go down to the mall and watch them there. We parked a few blocks away at my sisters house and planed to walk down. As we were walking we saw people with chair on the bridge above the street right by my sisters house. We went over there and decided it was a lot easier and faster to watch them from there. It was a little farther away but was nice because it wasn't so loud fort he kids. Bridget and Ethan said a lot of wows, which was good enough for me. We got home so late and boy were they tired.


Waiting for fireworks

This was the only pic I could get of thier fourth of July outfits. You get the picture right?