Alaska

Over Memorial Day week, Aaron and I left our kids and went on a week long cruise to Alaska...it was fabulous!  Although, there were a few bumps in the road...

 This was what things looked like the day before we left.  Caleb and Adalyn were throwing up so much that I was considering the fact that they may be getting too dehydrated.  Talk about feeling bad leaving your kids...we left them with Aaron's parents and Adalyn was having diapers every 10 minutes or so, Caleb was sitting on the couch with a puke bucket looking pitiful and both of them threw up within a half hour before we left.  Yikes!

So...we went anyways, of course and just hoped for the best. We went with our friends Birch and Camille, who were celebrating graduating from medical school.  We went to celebrate our 10 year anniversary a little early.  It was all we had hoped for. Very fun...very relaxing.  Although I have to say, the fishing was terrible, the salmon were not running yet...Still, Aaron proved that he can catch a fish in any conditions and he caught just about the weirdest looking fish ever...but he did catch something! 

 

 We spent a morning Kayaking in Juneau below Mendenhall Glacier.  There was a whale very close to us that we kept trying to catch...he was a lot faster than us...but it was pretty cool!

 We took a train through white pass in Skagaway.  It was really long so we all ended up taking a nap, but the view was amazing!

 

Also in Skagaway, we went ziplining through the forest.  It was way fun!  The weather was great the whole time we were there!  Seriously, it was sunny and 79...unheard of!  And great for me!

 We cruised through Glacier Bay National Park.  It was pretty incredible.

 We hiked up the back of a mountain in Ketchikan.  It was a beautiful rainforest, which we're really not used to coming from our desert!

 And of course, there was the on board life.  This was the part that was wonderful for a mom of 4 little kids.  Everyone was there to serve ME.  I didn't have to get anyone drinks, make dinner, even make my bed!  Dinner was phenomenal every meal.  We got to dress up a couple of times.  There were different shows to go to every night.  I was in heaven!

 We got off in Victoria, B.C. and walked around a little.  This was just before we got back on our ship (in the background).

 We did a little sightseeing while in Seattle after we disembarked.  This was in front of the Fisherman's Market.  We also went on a tour of Seattle's underground, which was pretty fascinating.

 And guess what!?  This is what we came home to!  Kenzie and Jenna stayed with some friends of ours the latter part of the week at our house so they could still go to school, but Jenna threw up 2 days while we were gone and again 2 times after we got back.  Caleb threw up pretty much the whole week and a few times after we got back.  And Adalyn threw up the day we left and the day after we got back too!  Wow!

 All in all, we had a wonderful time!   It was a perfect vacation. And, we are so glad to have people who still love us after having our kids throwing up all over for a week!