Eight wonderful years!

Today I celebrate eight years of marriage to my wonderful husband who I thank God for every single day.

We actually got to celebrate our anniversary on the cruise...on the last day of our cruise our room steward hung up balloons for us outside our room, and Marzena presented us with a cake after dinner. That cake was phenomenal!! But not as phenomenal as the blessing of eight years with Ryan!Who are these young kids??I don't know if I recognize those kids, but I don't think even they were as happy, blessed, and in love as this old married couple! :)

I love you, Ryan! Thank you for being a wonderful husband and an amazing daddy to our sweet kids!

Glacier Bay and Ketchikan

The fifth and sixth days of our cruise took us through Glacier Bay and into the town of Ketchikan. I'm sad to say I didn't get many good photos from Glacier Bay, especially since this was what I was most looking forward to seeing. I spent the early part of the morning enjoying an incredible spa treatment thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, and then Abby required some extra attention. I did, however, get to witness some of the incredible beauty of the glaciers. They are truly indescribable!Probably our favorite port of call on this cruise was Ketchikan. This was the place where we most felt that we were able to escape the port side tourist trap and see some "real Alaska." As with each of our other port days, we were blessed with beautiful weather. In fact, we heard from several people throughout our cruise that we had unseasonably warm and sunny weather. We thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine! Ketchikan is famous for its collection of historic totems.We enjoyed some lovely walking trails that got us out of the hubub of the town.And were completely amazed as we watched the salmon swimming upstream to spawn. I have never witnessed this before, and it is truly an amazing sight! Needless to say, it is extremely difficult (impossible) to get a photograph of salmon jumping up a rocky, racing creekbed with an ultracompact point-and-shoot! So all I have to share is a photo of the salmon resting in a calm pocket, and a shot of the bottom of the creek that we hiked up to watch them. You can see the beginnings of the rapid water in the top of the above photo. I didn't get a good shot of the area where you watch the salmon literally jumping up the rocks at a rapid waterfall area. It was nothing short of amazing to watch, and impossible to describe adequately.

Our cruise along Alaska's inside passage was amazing, and included memories that our family will treasure! Thank you, Grandma!

Skagway

Our second port of call in Alaska was the town of Skagway, where we immediately boarded the historic White Pass & Yukon Route Railway. We were excited about this scenic tour on a classic narrow-guage engine (you have no idea what a treat this was for our little Thomas the Tank Engine afficianado!). We boarded the train for a three-hour tour (can you hear the Gilligan's Island theme song in the background? Well, you should!).We got to some amazing scenery as we headed up through the Alaskan mountains! We were in the sixth car, so I was able to get a few photos of our train as we went around the bends. Notice that our long, heavy train required three engines to get it up the mountain? More on that later!The back of our train, as seen from our car.The kids had a great time...Especially Eli!Not that Abby was by any means bored.So, this next shot is definitely not our train...It is, instead, the helicopter carrying the mechanic sent to help us when the middle of our three engines broke down...for the third time. Our three hour tour (queue Gilligan theme song) became a four and a half hour tour! Apparently we had barely enough power to get us up the mountain. Fortunately going down is easier and our brakes were working fine! Eli wasn't phased, of course; the extra time on the train was an added bonus in his book. Abby, on the hand, was cranky about being stuck in an enclosed space without toys or a nap. Fortunately the combination of my bouncing and the train lulled her to sleep without a total meltdown.

After our railway adventure we headed into town to explore Skagway. Here's the view of the mountains behind the docked cruise ships (ours was one of three in town that day).Skagway's main street.And we found a nice little railway-themed park for the kids.And the day ended with another gorgeous Alaskan sunset.

Juneau

Our first port of call in Alaska was the capital, Juneau. We headed straight to the visitor's center to ask for a local park where the kids could play. We stopped along the way to watch a tram head up the mountain. Eli was amazed!

We then boarded a city bus that took us out of the tourist area and into what we termed "real Alaska" - which is what we really wanted to see. The playground was amazing, and included beautiful views of the mountains. The kids had a fantastic time playing there! After lunch Ryan's mom babysat so that Ryan and I could enjoy the tour at Alaskan Brewing Co. It was really entertaining and some good "grown-up" time. Our taxi driver was a third generation Juneau resident who gave us a great tour of the area on our way to the brewery, including the governor's mansion and other local landmarks.That evening before leaving port we witnessed a beautiful Juneau sunset, framed by the continuous landing of sea planes. I learned while we were there that you cannot drive to Juneau; it can only be reached by air or sea. Pretty cool!

Formal nights

One thing I definitely enjoyed was the two formal nights on the cruise. I rarely (okay, never) get the opportunity to really dress up, so I was looking forward to this! Not to mention the fact that the food on formal nights was taken up a notch, too (as if it weren't good enough to begin with!)...think lobster tail with jumbo prawns or pheasant as an entree! Here were are heading to dinner on the first formal night:The girls all gussied up!We enjoyed some game time with Andrew and Jill in one of the lounges after dinner.And we made a new friend...Garrett was part of the entertainment staff onboard (he emceed several different games/game shows during the evenings). Garrett was another example of how you really do start to build relationships with the crew. Garrett sat down and played Taboo with us for about an hour, and we got to learn a lot about the life of a cruise ship employee. Formal night number two.Happy couple.And happy kids!

Eli and Abby are opposites of Ryan and me when it comes to dressing up; Eli, like me, loves it and looks forward to any excuse to wear his "fancy clothes." Abby, on the hand, is like her daddy; as soon as I put on her party dress she began to pull on it and say "off!" We all still had a great time!