Alaska 2019 Part 1: San Francisco and Cruise Shenanigans

Saturday June 15. After some emotional good-byes, Justin and I left the kids and headed to the airport with my parents and sister to meet up with more family for a 10-day cruise to Alaska. My parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year and they took all their kids and some grandkids to Alaska. We've been planning this for 18 months and it was hard to believe the day was finally here.

 I hadn't flown anywhere since 2010 so this was all sorts of exciting for me.

 And except for girls camp last summer, we hadn't left the kids more than 1 night in a row so we were a little giddy (and worried) about it all.

I was so sad to leave the kids but looking forward to lots of good times with this guy.

 And these people.

 The kids wanted to know what it looked like to fly through a cloud so there you have it.

In the Oakland airport we met up with Matt and his family so our group grew to 17. We rented some cars to drive to the port. After a memorable visit to a sketchy Oakland shopping center, we headed to San Francisco.

I got crammed in the back of a small SUV with a bunch of luggage so this is my view of the Bay Bridge.

 I went to SF when I was 18 but I don't remember much besides Alcatraz and weird street performers. They have some cool buildings and crazy steep streets.

 There's our first look at the ship!

 After boarding and exploring the ship we headed outside to watch us sail out of the bay.

We sailed right past Alcatraz.

 It was windy.

 This is a coast guard vessel escorting us out of the bay. Check out the machine guns on the bow.

 And we sailed right under the Golden Gate Bridge.

 A few people standing on the bridge waved at the hundreds of us cheering and yelling as we sailed under.

 Aaaand the other side.

The 22 of us split among 3 tables ate dinner together most nights. Here we are our first night of fancy food.

Poor Jaana was seasick. She felt better after this night but it seemed that someone was always feeling it. We had some very rough water the first couple of days.

 Sunday morning we met in a bar so my dad could say hi to us all and share a little why Alaska is such a special place for my parents. He served his mission in Alaska and British Columbia in the mid 1960s and he and my mom lived in Homer for a couple of years when Justin and I were dating and newly married.

Get a good look at Bella's cute beanie.

 Afterwards we went outside and freaked out about how scary and windy it was out there.

The wind took of Bella's hat and it landed in the wake. Bye bye hat. It was a sacrifice to the cruise gods.

Tiny black dot in the center.

The wiser folk not in the wind.

Then we went to one of the restaurants for their English pub lunch. I tried beef and kidney pie. I liked it.

That afternoon we played games up high where the view was nice and the buffet was close.

After 3 hands Justin finally got to play his foot so I took a picture to commemorate the occasion.

I wasn't there but my sisters won the Name that Tune 80s Music. They won a bottle of champagne.

Monday was more games and being lazy and lounging around. It was also one of two formal nights.

Justin is a big fan of Swarovski binoculars.

It wasn't foggy so we got some awesome pictures of the sunset at 10:23 pm.

My sister Christena. She loved Alaska before any of us had ever been there. I'm glad I got to be there with her to see it.

That's my pretty niece Talia in NC on the phone.

Who likes late night sunsets? This guy.

 Then I'm pretty sure we hit up the ice cream cone bar and went to bed.

Up next: Ketchikan, and Juneau

Brothers and Summer So Far

Henry and James are all about dressing alike lately. It's super funny to see how proud they are when they come downstairs together. And as a bonus, Henry is happy to tackle the task of getting James out of his Spiderman pajamas. Striped shirts and blue shorts, sneakers for shopping day.

I found this photo lying around of Henry so I recreated the moment with James. James does not like the fireman hat as much as Henry did.

James is only here for the promised sucker.

James is nearly a year younger than Henry in these photos but he's wearing these clothes now! Today he's wearing a shirt Henry wore to preschool. Yikes!

Our lesson on Sunday was about things the Holy Ghost does for us. I asked the kids to draw pictures for teaches us, testifies of truth and Christ, and warns us.

I love Henry's picture for "teaches us." This is a student saying "you should follow God."

The kids are in full swing of their summer break. I had them each make their own chore chart. They decided what they would work towards (Culver's shakes, Chick-fil-a kids meals, ice cream cones, etc) and I tell them how many stickers it will take. They can earn up to 2 stickers a day by doing their morning and evening jobs. We've gone to get their rewards once already so I think it's working great so far. They seem to be motivated and I like that they get to decide what to work for and make the charts.

Another thing saving my sanity are these colored bands I bought from Amazon. Now my kids can keep track of their cup all day long and my dishwasher isn't full of cups used once.

Sarah spent an alarming amount of time watching a music video to memorize pie (3.14) to like the 30th decimal place. 

Meanwhile, Erica surprised me by learning to ride a two-wheeler without anyone's help. She practiced on her friends bike. Now we need to get her a bike of her own.

Erica made this design at Nana and Papa's house and wanted her picture taken with it before we left.

Justin's Visine eye drops from his vision correction surgery turn out to be like $1,000 ounce. I thought it was the most expensive thing at Walmart until I found this eyeliner. The challenge is on to beat $2500 per ounce.

I've spent the past week thinning our peaches. There are so many this year!  I swear I kept 1/6 and they grow in bunches like grapes.That's what we get for not pruning. Can you see Sarah? She climbed in the tree to reach what I couldn't.

We need to eat up the ones in the freezer from last year.

Wednesday night Justin and I attended the Best of State awards dinner. His company received the best in Civil Engineering award. Here's Justin trying on the medal.

This is the owner and a couple of other employees. It was a fun night. I appreciated the efficiency in passing out dozens of awards. Dinner was good, the entertainment was good, I got to dress up and hang out with Justin so that's always a win for me.

Fake Father's Day

We needed to celebrate Father's Day a week early this year so we got to surprise Justin! The kids came in Sunday morning with their cards and piled on the bed to wake Justin up.

Sarah made a menu for breakfast. Since it said choose as many as you'd like, we had biscuits and gravy and waffles with whipped cream, berries, and jam.

Then the kids surprised him with a bag full of treats. I took them to the store a few days before and they each picked out what they thought Justin would like. Then when he pulled them out of the giftbag, he had to guess who picked out what. It was super funny to see the kids try not give it away.

Check out the new tie the kids picked.

Fun fact: Sarah is wearing a dress my mom made for me 25 years ago. My mom stayed up all night to finish it so I could wear it for picture day. I'm not that nice of a mom. Nor that good of a seamstress.

After church we had our Come Follow Me lesson ("Family Home Sunday" we call it) and while Justin rested on the couch, I baked him some lemon sugar cookies with lemon frosting. Then for dinner we went to his parents' house to celebrate Corey's birthday. It really felt like Father's Day.

Justin deserved both naps he took on Sunday because all day Saturday he and Corey were building new back steps to go with the new concrete patio. 

 "Measure twice, cut once, screw it together once, measure again, cut again, guaranteed!" they joked about their slogan if they went into business as carpenters.

Sarah was out there most of the day as well and even used the saw. James gave up on his toolbelt so she was a good sport and put it on.

Ta-da! They turned out so great! And they are super sturdy. I had to go to the hardware store twice for more lumber so you know there's a lot of support there.

After a week of jumping out the back door and James unable to get in and out by himself, all the kids are super excited about the step.

But carpentry skills aside, Justin deserves a great father's day because when Erica had to draw a picture of one of her dad's talents, she drew him playing princesses with her.

Henry's Baptism

Henry was baptized on June 1. It was such a great day. He thought he wanted a new suit like his friend Myer wore at his baptism but since I knew we were coming up on summer and that it's a fight some Sundays just to get him to wear pants, he got a new white shirt instead. I had to bribe him with Chick-fil-a for dinner if he wore his clothes just how I wanted him to (shirt tucked in with a belt) so I'm glad I didn't add to my stress a suit that would have hung in his closet until James's baptism (although it would probably fit James long before that).

The night before Justin asked him if he had any questions. "How many people have you baptized?" Henry wanted to know. I'm not sure if he doubted his ability or what. "Hundreds. Maybe a thousand." (Justin worked in the temple baptistry for 2 years.) He seemed satisfied by that answer.

I can't get over how cute they are.

Can you just feel the love Erica has for James?

This is us.

Henry's friends Tristan and Mai were also baptized that day. I loved seeing all the families come support them. And it was so cool to see all the men in Henry's life assist in the confirmation. I love families and this church.

Sarah said the opening prayer and when she sat back down, Erica asked me if she was saying the closing prayer. No, I reassured her. "But I want to do something." I thought she was afraid she had to!

And I'm so proud of this kid. He has such a good heart and a determined spirit. We got him his own set of scriptures and a tote and he was so happy about it and wanted to start reading the Book of Mormon right then. We're in Alma 34 as a family but he wanted to start over on his own.

"Dad, whatever the number of people you baptized is, add one," he said right after.

Afterwards we had a bbq at Justin's parents' house and he had fun eating his favorite foods: hamburgers, fruit, chips, Sarah salad, and hotdogs.

And plenty of cousin time.

We were all dying from the direct sunlight and heat. It was 66 degrees. It's been a cloudy, wet spring.

For dessert, all he wanted were cupcakes so we made 4 dozen! 24 of them were vanilla with sweetened condensed milk frosting and sprinkles and 24 were chocolate with caramel cream cheese frosting and sports rings. He liked walking around the party and passing them out to the guests. 

Matt and his family couldn't make it but they sent Henry this cute card. Getting his own package was almost as great as seeing them in person.

M&M = Marvelous Member. I stole that for my talk.

By that afternoon his allergies were bothering him something terrible, poor kid. He got Chick-fil-a for dinner and went to bed after playing Monopoly with Sarah.