Alaska: Scenery

I've been thinking all afternoon about words to describe the scenery in Alaska.

I'm still thinking.

Alaska: Wildlife

So many hours spent doing this:




The thing Chad, my vet student husband, was most excited for was seeing the wildlife. We were not disappointed. By the last day, we'd barely look twice at the bald eagles. Can you believe that??!!

For our excursion in Juneau, we went whale watching.





We saw an amazing sight called "Bubblenet Feeding" where the whales work together to feed. Whoever had the camera at the time only got shots of blurry, grey water (oops!) But you can learn about it from this video from YouTube:



The whales were beautiful. We didn't see whales just on this tour, we saw them almost every day from our ship, but this was the only time we saw bubble netting.

This is a video Chad took from my parent's deck. Watch the end when the whale jumps out of the water.






It's true the animals were amazing, but they weren't the most beautiful thing I saw. Next up...the scenery that took up 3 of my memory cards.

Alaska: Food

This picture was taken within 20 minutes of us getting on the ship. That's right...the first thing we did was find the food.

Let's talk cruise! My parents took Chad and I on the Inside Passage Alaskan cruise. I'm going to do a series of posts about the trip.
It seems like whenever anyone talks about their cruise, food always comes up. Let's go ahead and get this out of the way so we can discuss the more important aspects of our trip.

To sum up the food I'd use two words: weight gain. And plenty of it. I would show before/after pictures, but my pride will not allow it.

Our server would bring us two entree's each, and was always showing up with multiple desserts to try.

My mom was NOT so sure about the escargot:

I don't think the two thumbs up were sincere. She was humoring the waiter.



My favorite was the night they served crab. After eating two servings for a main course, I went ahead and ordered it again for dessert as well.


Looking snazzy for formal night:



My other favorite was the dessert extravaganza. Can you blame me?







Next up...the entire reason we bought a new camera for the trip!

In the trenches

Last night when we were laying in bed, Chad and I had the following conversation:

M: What was the best part of your day?

C: When Caden went pooh poohs in the potty....you?

M: Same.

This tells you two things. 1, We are potty training, and it is actually going quite well. And 2, we need to get out more! The problem is I don't know how! How do I teach Caden to go to the bathroom in a toilet (as opposed to his little plastic frog potty) so he can use a public restroom and we can stay away from home for longer than 20 minutes at a time?

Potty trainers...any ideas??

Happy Hatch Day

While we were in Utah, my baby boy turned 2. We celebrated by having a party with both families. We had to move it to an elementary school gym at the last minute because of weather, which turned out to be perfect because there's no way we could have played "Kick Basket Ball" anywhere else.

Caden loved his fish cake ("Happy Hatch Day, Dear Dude..." ala Caden's favorite Crush) He'd had plenty of practice blowing out candles. Just that morning, my mom, Chad and I tried to give him a haircut. We took turns holding the clippers, scissors, and sitting in front to entertain. The thing I finally pulled out to get him to sit still was candles and matches, letting him blow them out over and over for almost 20 minutes. He was all ready for his big moment.


Caden is always watched out and taken care of by his girl cousins. They were all too happy to help him unwrap the gifts








Caden,
You are the best little boy! Your dad and I are grateful every day for the joy you bring to our lives. You make me smile and laugh with all of your quirks, sound effects, and funny sayings. I couldn't ask for a better son. Love you!