Breaking news!

We interrupt the Alaska blogs to bring you: Jenna can tie her shoes!! (See "Tying shoes age 4" video.)

After about six weeks of practice, she's got it! Her first success was Monday, August 29th and she's getting better everyday. We are all so excited and proud of her diligence!

Alaska Day 10

Day 10, July 11th - Ketchikan. Katie, Leslie, and I started the day with a 7:30 am abs blaster class. Then we got ready to hit the town.

At each port, the ship had some kind of theme characters to get your picture taken with before you disembarked the ship. We usually passed on these photo ops, but Jenna was really interested in this one. She will still occasionally talk about holding the salmon and posing with the eagle.

This was a really neat port with lots of interesting buildings. It turned out to be one of the favorite days of the trip.

Matt, Leslie, and our group of four started walking around the town and came across Creek Street.

Salmon statue headed up stream.

This picture was taken in the same spot as the one above (we're just blocking the salmon statue).

All the buildings were built on stilts along this creek and there was a boardwalk to walk around.

At the end of Creek Street, we looked up and saw this eagle way up high in this tree. So cool!

After Creek Street, we started off on a walk to try to find the salmon hatchery. We passed some neat totem poles along the way. This one was in someone's front yard.

We all met up at Annabelle's for one of my favorite meals of the trip. I had salmon tacos - so yummy!

The sherbet vs sherbert debate continued . . .

After we got the kids down for a nap, I found Matt and Leslie in town. Then we found Mom and we shopped 'til we dropped (poor Matt)!

That night at dinner, we celebrated Mom's retirement.

Alaska Day 9

Day 9, July 10th - Juneau and our 12th Anniversary. Katie, Matt, Leslie, and our gang of four got some bus tickets to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier.

Jenna's expression in this picture cracks me up! She was eating a granola bar.

Yet another mermaid sighting!

The ice formations floating in the water were so cool!

Matt took a turn with the Baby Bjorn

We hiked around to this waterfall that was right up next to the glacier. Jenna had to throw some rocks in, of course!

Second formal night that night. Fun to be formal for our 12th anniversary!

Happy Anniversary written in chocolate - how very fancy!

 We were glad to have Mom back with us for dinner.

More cookies! Waiting in our room for us when we returned from dinner.

Alaska Day 8

Day 8, July 9th - Skagway. Our first port. Leslie and I started the day by doing an abs blaster class. Then we got ready to hit the town. Mom and Katie spent the day quarantined on the ship - bummer!

Another mermaid sighting on the way into town.

Giant rhubarb was growing everywhere.

Had to stop in here to get Jenna an ice cream. We started a sherbet vs sherbert debate . . .

Our ship

The Maitre 'D continued to gain popularity with Jenna (and us, too - she couldn't possibly eat all those cookies by herself)! Another plate of cookies waiting for us in our room when we returned from dinner!

Alaska Day 7

Day 7, July 8th - Glacier Bay Cruising. Today, the cruise ship sailed around some inlets so we could see glaciers. Mom came down with the norovirus that was going around the ship, so she was quarantined to her room. But, she was able to see some of these things from her balcony.

We were also in a great location to see whales! Jenna is still talking about it as her favorite day. It really was so, so cool! As it turns out, whales are hard to photograph, but you can see a little blip in this photo:

Whale!

It was cold out on deck, so we made sure to bundle Kellen up. He got so cozy, he just fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn!

Once we to the kids down for nap, I started a load of laundry, then went to the viewing deck to see more glaciers. Luckily, I ran into Matt and Leslie.

This is Margerie Glacier. We got to see calve - pieces broke off and crashed into the sea. Really amazing visual and sound, but too unpredictable to get a video.

At 3:30, Katie, Leslie, Jenna and I went to tea. It was so much fun! Jenna had a little tea and actually liked it (cream and sugar of course). She and I had fun saying, "Would you like a spot of tea?" using our best British accents.

After dinner, we bundled up and went out for more whale watching. This time, we spotted a cute little mermaid lounging on a deck chair!

Alaska Day 6

Day 6, July 7th. We slept in a little. Glad to have a dark room after a few bright nights (the sun would set around 3 am, for an hour maybe? we never actually saw the sunset). And, glad to not be traveling everyday. After breakfast, we went back to our room and Kellen had a nap. Then we just piddled around until lunch. Went back to our room for naps after lunch.

After nap, Kevin and Jenna went swimming. Most of the time, it was far too cold for me to even think about going swimming. They only went once, Kellen and I never went.

While they were swimming, Kellen and I strolled the decks and took this picture of Hubbard Glacier:

I think everyone used this day to recover. No one had made plans to meet up and it was a pretty large ship. So, we didn't really see anyone all day. Somehow, we managed to coordinate a time before dinner to get this family picture.

First formal night and the first of six, 4 course dinners that took at least 2 hours. We. Have. Great. Kids.

Kellen's head is covered by the flower centerpiece. But look, how cute is he in his formal wear?!

 So handsome!

My parents celebrated their 40th anniversary that night.

This is the dessert I had - so pretty! I definitely miss the food. After dinner, we went to get the kids in bed. We typically got them in bed around 9 pm.

Alaska Day 5

Day 5, July 6th. Our luggage had to be outside our room at 6:30 am and our bus to the rail depot left at 7:45 am.

The train left at 8:15 am for a 9.5 hour train ride. This was the itinerary I was dreading most. But, it turned out to be one of my favorite days of the trip.

This was our table for the day, but we could also go downstairs to the dining car or the open area. We were the caboose. We could also order food and drinks from our table. The food was delicious.

Jenna "conducting" the train.

It turned out to be a perfect clear day and we got to see Mt. McKinley. We also got to see a moose, a bald eagle, and some salmon - all from the train.

Sharing some rhubarb pie and ice cream after the nap that I thought might not happen (love the post nap hair). The train car was all windows - great for sight-seeing, not so great for naps. Jenna was having a hard time getting settled and wouldn't stop singing. I told her, "One more song and then you have to go to sleep." She said, "Okay!" Then she started singing, "This is the song that never ends . . ." So clever, that girl! We had a good laugh and then she went to sleep.

 Fun to be the caboose

The whole day we were seeing things like this:

 and this:

 and this:

 At the end of the ride, we were glad to see this:

We boarded the ship around 6pm and had a little time to get settled before the muster (safety) drill.

Our room. I slept on the top bunk, Kellen was in the pack-n-play between Kevin and Jenna. You can see a little of the pretty flowers that greeted us for our anniversary, thanks to Dad and Mom.

7:45 pm - Muster! Katie's room was next door to ours so our meeting spot was the same.

I was hoping to get a picture of Kellen in his little life jacket, too. But he would not have it!

After the muster, we had dinner. The ship set sail while we were eating, 8:30 ish. Then our group of four went straight to bed. Have I mentioned that we have great kids? They were troopers on this day!