Alaska

Hawaii and Alaska in the same year?!  SURE.  For Benj's parents 50th wedding anniversary, Benj's sister, Debbie and her husband paid for all the kids and their spouses to go on a cruise to Alaska together.  It was so much fun!  I never would have thought of Alaska as a place to go vacation.  But it is so beautiful there and of course being on the cruise ship was so awesome.  We drove up to my parents house in Montana, all. through. the. night.  The girls got to stay with Grandpa and Grandma for a week and they hardly missed us.  :)  Benj and I headed to Seattle, where we boarded the Rhapsody of the Seas.  There were 3 stops total: Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, British Columbia. 

                                                                                                Leaving Seattle
                                                  
                                                                                                
                                                                                                  Formal night
                                                   
                                                                                              Benj's Parents

                                                                                  Waiting for the show to start

                                                                                         Pulling into Juneau

                                                                                          Mendenhall Glacier

 Benj and I went on an excursion to go see the Mendenhall Glacier and then go to the Salmon Bake for dinner.  The glacier is quite impressive and I wish we would have had more time there.  The food at the Salmon Bake was incredible... such good salmon! 

                                                 

In Skagway, we all went on the train ride up to the Canadian border.  It was so pretty and we learned about all the mining, etc that went on there.  We even saw a bear.

                                                 

 Tracy Arm Fjord:  This is supposedly the closest the captain has ever gotten to this glacier with the ship.  We got here early in the morning and it was cold!  But another awesome glacier and with binoculars, you could see the sea lions sleeping near the bottom.

                                                             My man, climbing the rock wall on the ship.  :)

 Victoria, B.C.  Such a pretty town!  We rode a bus and just hopped off and hopped back on wherever we wanted.  This is Fisherman's Wharf where I fed a sea lion.

 This is Craigdarroch Castle.  The rich business man who built this never got to live in it... he died before it was completed.

 The Empress Hotel.  Very cool and English... I wanted to have high tea here, but Benj wouldn't go for that, ha.  ;)  We did some shopping around town and we ate at a  fish & chips pub for lunch too.  Loved this city!

This vacation was such a blast.  Thank you Debbie and Andy!  And thank you to all of Benj's family for the great memories, we had so much fun being together!  Thank you mom and dad for watching the kids.  The girls got to go horseback riding, got haircuts, park days, went on a wild animal safari (ya know, deer, cows, horses, wild turkeys ;)) , and loved helping Grandpa mow the lawn.  :)  They are still talking about it!



Birthday Girls

                                                  



My poor bloggity blog... I haven't forgotten you.  You are just a lot of work keeping up with! 
Everyone in our family has turned a year older since I last posted. 

                                                                                                          Reese
Reese turned 2 in May!  She loves Minnie Mouse, so I knew her bday had to be Minnie themed.  My mom was in town and we had a big family party.  We bbq hotdogs, which are one of Reesey's favs.  Along with Minnie and hotdogs, Reese loves mac 'n cheese, singing, nursery, her blankie monkey, Hot Wheels cars, and trains.  She has been asking to go pee pee on the potty, sooooooo I'm trying to prepare myself mentally to get started with potty training. 
                                                  

Ava

Ava turned 6 in April.  Her most favorite fruit is strawberries, so she wanted a strawberry picnic.  She had a few of her friends over to play games and have an indoor picnic.  The kids ate strawberry/cream cheese sandwiches, pb&j's, strawberry lemonade, some of Ava's fav snacks and of course, strawberries.  At age 6 Ava loves dance, reading and writing, computer games, and jumping on the trampoline.

Lexi

Our oldest is 9 now... next year is double digits and I want to freeze time!!  In my opinion, party planning gets easier the older they get.  Lex just wanted to "hang out" with her friends.  So we came up with a spa party.  The girls started off making flip flops and getting their nails/toes painted.  Of course we had to do a face mask and cucumbers on the eyes.  They just chilled and then ate a lunch of finger sandwiches, fresh fruit and mini cupcakes.  Lexi loves ballet, horses (she is obessed and is saving her money for a horse... keep saving girl), ancient Egypt, clothes, piano, and playing on my ipod, kindle, our phones, or any other piece of technology she can get her hands on. 

                                              Ok!  So I have a lot of catching up to do... But here ya are for now (Mom).  :)