Spend the night !

Well we just had a fun 24 hours, our little guys came over for a "spend the night ! I'm posting a bunch of pictures of our fun cuz that has to be my little boy"fix" for the next month as they leave on vacation ! I thought besides getting some fun time in with the boys that Mommy might love some time to think while she packs !!!!

We got to try out the new squirt guns and go swimming ! First thing they did was all run to the pool to draw water up into the new squirt guns !
What fun, they had a great time swimming and then we went off to Chick fil A for dinner. What fun there playing on the toys and inhaling food....A - 1 1/4 sandwiches, G- 1 sandwich, E - 1/2 sandwich ! french fries and lemonade ! The "cow" was out waving to everyone and he came in and gave everyone a high five, Ethan was quite wide eyed and as we sat there kept saying MOO ! The cow thankfully went into the kitchen so we could play some more and have ice cream!
We got home and there was a bit of time for some Wii cow jumping...
Garrett is showing me how big he is now for his little bed !
And Ethan is out for the count !
Ethan only climbed out of the crib 2 times so I guess we too will be taking the sides off and getting it down to his size to get out safely !

This morning there was a bit of this....
Chocolate chip pancakes...
It was so nice out we let everything sit and went to the park for some swingin...1...2...3..
Lots of slidin...
And climbin..... OHHHH Ethan do you have to do that....
He made it....
What a pretty day in the sunshine, a big tease with the heat gone !
Ethan tries to sing teeter totter bread and water.....
So we came home and road bikes around....

Then Papa started to blow up the pool toys altho it was to cool out to swim today. But we took the turtle out for squirt gun filling and wading in.
But the peaches on the tree are getting ready to pick, so we picked a bowl full and washed them off with the hose.....
ahhhhh warm peaches right off the tree.
Helping Papa test the pool....
Time to make lunch so there was some serious building going on with tinker toys and lincoln logs...
Garrrett went and "tooled up"
So they've gone home, the house is quiet and it'll be a long month until they get to come back and play again ! They sure are excited for their coming adventure with the promises of bringing me a rock !

Cruising on a ship !

Life on a cruise ship can be so fun ! It can be slow and relaxing or busy but food was always available to find ! Wonderful people clean your room 2 times a day, leaving you little cute towel animals on your bed with the next days ship news paper. Room service whenever you like, when was the last time someone brought you coffee in bed with a fresh croissant ! ( pre-breakfast !)

It's fun to get dressed up...

Or order two entrees ! I had fish every day, sea bass, lobster, tilapia, shrimp, mahi mahi, it was so fun trying them all !
Jamie and I would scope out the menu for the night sometime during the day to see what was in store ! Most of the time we ate at tables with other people and had fun visiting with them, visiting about what they'd experienced that day. Sometimes a table for 4. We had 2 ladies that after eating with them 2 times asked the next day what time we were eating, I guess they enjoyed our chit chat !

Desserts were wonderful !

Here is a random shot of the inner passage you hear about, I had no idea what it really would be, it's wider than the fiord's we traversed but you see land on both sides most the way.
The central area of most ships have many elevators and almost always had live music to listen to.
We played games, did alot of whale watching, great places for sitting inside or out, comfortable chairs with great viewing out the windows. The dolphins loved the wake of the boat out the back, in fact the excercise room was out the back of the boat so how fun to be on the bikes or treadmills watching the dolphins playing behind! We saw alot of whales, someone would notice a spout, then pretty soon a flipper or tail would come out of the water. Jeremy saw one jump, it was fun to have that in common with everyone, someone would point and everyone would be at the windows watching !
Everything was served in small portions so sometimes you just ordered 2 to try them !
There was a soft serve ice cream machine that seemed to magically appear every day !

Rock climbing for those that dared !

Always something to do to get ready to eat more FOOD !

The Olympics

We spent our final 1/2 of the day driving over to the Olympics. Thank goodness for alot of daylight, we were to late tho to get any stamps at the visitors centers. We stopped for a walk at the largest spruce tree in the world. Amazing isn't it.

Lots of friendly elk...

And decided before turning around we needed to see the Pacific ocean.

Brrr it was cold and windy and wet but wonderful to see.

We headed back to Tacoma and stopped at a little beach town to have pizza at Sasquatch pizza, don't you love out of the way little local places !
I surely didn't see enough of Mt Rainier or the Olympics, after seeing the snow capped peaks of the Olympics from out in the ocean I definitely have that on the most go back and see list !

Juneau Alaska

We made it to Alaska !!!!! Our first stop was in Juneau, their state Capitol ! What a quaint little town !

We took a bus out to see the Mendenhall lake and Glacier

A huge waterfall nearby, you could feel the mist in the air, amazing how much water rushes down from those snowy peaks all around.
These ice bergs all were in the mendenhall lake in front of the glacier, the little kayak shows how big some were.

We took the walk back to get as close as you could to the glacier.

After spending the morning doing that we decided the best way to see the town was to do a bit of geo caching. What fun out of the way places you find. Local people have hidden these treasure hunts in some fantastic spots you'd never find. We walked and walked thru the streets of Juneau, up to the hills behind the town.

Waterfalls and a wonderful flume trail.

Coming back thru town we saw some neat totem poles, it was great to get into the neighborhoods and see what it'd be like living in Juneau Alaska !
Of course the touristy stuff is there but how fun to see life in Juneau on the "other side" !

Back to the ship of course in search of FOOD !!!!

Leaving Seattle and boarding the ship !

We left Tacoma and headed to down town Seattle, stopping first at another National Park in the old Downtown area, Klondike Gold Rush National Park. A very neat place to visit giving us a bit of why the places in Alaska we were about to see were developed for the gold rush. The park rangers posed for a picture with us !And we were off to the ship ! Such ease they move people around with, leaving our suitcases which magically turned up in your staterooms.
We of course found FOOD for lunch first thing ! It was cold and rainy, but we searched out a few fun things on deck, played some shuffleboard and looked around at our new home for the week.
and before we knew it we set sail for Alaska ! An adventure everyone should experience !

How fun to watch a big ship leave port !