Skagway

It was smooth sailing yesterday! Much, much better. I went to bed at 10:00 pm, that's early for me! I was up at 5:30 and pissed that there was no hot water. I waited until we were all the way docked, and then, ta da! Hot water. We had an early excursion today, at 7:30 am. We rode the White Pass Railroad to Fraser, in British Columbia. We then boarded a bus, which drove us the rest of the way , into the Yukon. We had BBQ lunch, wandered around this crazy place, called Caribou Crossing, and we played with puppies of sled dogs. We then boarded the bus and came back to Skagway.

-- Post From My iPhone



Just one of the many beautiful sights we saw on our trip today. When I get home, I'll post some better pictures. These were all taken with my iPhone.



This building is made of drift wood. It's one of Skagway's claims to fame.



White Pass train car. The one we rode was brown.

Word of the Day: Long. Our excursion had us out all day. We didn't get back to Skagway until almost 4:00 pm.

Hello Again, Hello!

Ok, so we were out to sea all day yesterday, thus no Internet or cell phone coverage either. Yesterday sucked. It started sucking Saturday night. The seas were really rough. I woke up at 3:00 am to lots of swaying, and creaking of the ship. You could feel the ship hit the waves. It made a horrible sound. I had a hard time going back to sleep. The morning wasn't any better. The captain made an announcement that there was bad weather where we were headed, but it would get better by mid day. It didn't. It lasted all day, and most of the night. It really really sucked.




Quinn, not feeling so great. I would say most of the passengers were sick yesterday. None if US ever threw up, but we definitely were not feeling well. At breakfast, we no sooner found a table inside, where it was warm, and some kid at the next table, tossed his cookies. People were throwing up all over the place. The crew was busy cleaning and disinfecting, and putting caution tape around the "areas." Really gross. The kids zone was closed because too many kids were barfing. Riley came back early after 4 kids had hurled in front of him. No, not a good day.



I did feel well enough to have a berry drink, last night. Thought it might help me sleep. Nope.



We docked in Juneau today. We wandered around the little city. It was nice to get off of the ship.



All of the boys, feeling much better. Juneau is a cool little town. Oh, and one of the highlights, a sticker in a window that read, "Alaska for Obama." awesome. We saw nothing at all related to Sarah Palin.

Word of the Day: Food. There's lots to eat, not that Quinn is enjoying any of it. He's not eating much.

I should be able to blog tomorrow. We will be in Skagway.

Bon Voyage!

We set sail at 4:00 this afternoon. The boys are very excited, well actually, we ALL are very excited.




Here's our ride, the Golden Princess.



Another view of the ship.



There's a putting green on board. Too fun.


Quinn, trying to enjoy his iPod on the balcony. Apparently, the birds were "ruining his day."

Word of the Day. Ship. This is a really huge ship, and it is not even their biggest ship. I may be unavailable tomorrow. We have a sea day. It costs jillions to use their Internet.

Adventure to Alaska, Day 4, Adventures in Seattle

Attention folks, this is a "double wide" post! If you want to have a lot of fun, you should go to Seattle. It is really a great city. We got up earlyish today, so we could beat the crowds to the Space Needle, which opened at 9 am. We beat most of them, but still had to wait in line. It was not a big deal though. We went up to the top, and the view was spectacular.

Here's the downtown view from atop the Space Needle. I have lots of pictures like this, from all sides-and remember, the Space Needle is a circle! I'll post the best ones on Flickr, eventually.

Here's a view of the Space Needle, from down below.

There's this place at the Seattle Center that has a sort of food court, and some other assorted stores, all in one building. Upstairs was a giant chess set and a giant checkers set. I want one of these giant chess sets for my backyard.

The boys loved this fountain. They ran all around. There were news reporters present, looking for people to talk to about Michael Jackson. The music of Michael Jackson was playing loudly around the fountain. Oh, can you see those two women, sitting on a bench, through the water of the fountain? They are sitting on a bench which contained a geo cache. Riley and Kevin found it when they got up.

For the Word of the Day, see the bonus post under this one.

Adventure to Alaska, Day 4, Seattle

Part two of my big giant post for the evening:

Here are the boys, outside Pike Place Fish. They were mesmerized by the throwing of the fish, and by the fish themselves.

Octopus anyone? Mmmmm, nice and fresh too!

How about monk fish? Hungry? This guy was hanging off the edge, and when enough kids were gathered around, looking at him, one of the "fish" guys would pull on him, and he would move. Lots of shrieks and screams could be heard.

We got to spend some time with some good friends, who now live in Washington. We have boys just about the same age. Our older boys are 11 (Cole, born in Nov. and Riley, the following March). Our younger boys are 5 days apart (Quinn, Feb. 4 and Carter, Feb. 9). They boys had a great time, jumping on the trampoline.

Here's all 4 boys, hamming it up, before we headed back to our hotel.

Word of the Day: Internet. We leave tomorrow, for our cruise. We are all super excited. Someone from the cruise line called tonight. We have been upgraded to a room with a balcony! Saaaaweeeeeet! Anyway, my goal is to try to post every day, at least something, but it costs like a bajillion dollars to use the internet on the cruise ship, so I am not sure it will be possible. Don't you worry though, cuz you know I will have some jumbo posts to make up for any missed days. I also have lots more pictures from today, and at some point, I will post them to Flickr, but not tonight. It's late, and we have had a busy day. Hope to write to you all soon!

Adventure to Alaska, Day 3

Ok, so we totally overslept this morning. We had asked the lady at the hotel's front desk, about the traffic toward Portland. She suggested we leave around 9 am, when the traffic was clear. Done! We didn't wake up until then! Nobody can figure out what happened. Kevin set his alarm, but none of us heard it. Oh well, the traffic was nice and clear when we were finally Seattle bound at 10:30 am! It took us about 3 hours to get into Seattle. Our exit was closed from the freeway, so we had to go the round-a-bout way to our hotel. Good thing we have GPS!

The Space Needle! We didn't go up today, that's on deck for tomorrow's visit.

We did go into the Science Fiction Museum and the Music Experience Project-one fee gets you into both attractions! Isn't this cool? It actually plays music.

A longer view. I really like the looks of this. These two museums were pretty cool. The boys (all three of them) really liked the Science Fiction Museum. Lots of Star Wars and Star Trek. Boy heaven.

Word of the Day: Sad. Kevin told me this morning that Farrah Fawcett had received her last rites, and was probably going to die today. Later in the day, he confirmed that she had died. So sad. She fought her battle with cancer, really hard. I loved Charlie's Angels when I was a kid, and my brother had that famous poster. When we made it to Seattle, I texted my mom, while we were at the Music Experience, and she texted back that Michael Jackson had died. It seems really unreal. I can't say I was a fan of his. There was a time that I liked him. I can remember when Thriller came out, and my friend and I tried to learn the Thriller dance (from the video). Then, he got really creepy and weird, and did some really strange things. I don't believe he was innocent when it came to his dealings with little boys. I stopped listening to him on those grounds. Still, it's sad to think of such a pop icon, being dead, at such a young age. It's a lot like Elvis. Poor Michael. He never really had a childhood, he suffered abuse, and I don't think he ever found true happiness. He led a tragic life, he experienced a tragic death. It's really, really sad. I feel for his family and especially his kids. I hope both he and Farrah have finally found their peace.

Adventure to Alaska, Day 2

We headed to Portland, Oregon this morning. We couldn't think of anything we wanted to do in Medford, or Eugene (where we had planned to spend tonight), so we opted to head to Portland. We stopped in Winston, and visited the "Wildlife Safari." It was very cool. You drive your car through, and there are all kinds of animals, free roaming. The don't let the bears roam free though, like last summer, but that was ok.

I love this picture! Kevin took it. "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." See that big buffalo back there? Cool huh?

Look how cute this giraffe is! I just love these animals. They are my favorite.

Let me in, let me in!

Camels. Look at that hair! It's in the process of falling out, for summer. It was all over the place.

Two gangsters riding the train-or do they plan to hold it up? Hmmm. By the way, if you want to see more pictures from our adventure today, GO HERE.

Word of the Day: Shopping! After the safari, and once we made it to Portland (or rather, a suburb of Portland), we did some shopping at Bridgeport Village. You have got to love the fact that Oregon does not have any sales tax-or at least I love that! I did a little shopping at Anthropologie. Oh, and we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. I love their "two in a bowl." It's a choice of two soups in one bowl. I had asparagus soup and a chicken tortilla. Yum.

Adventure to Alaska, Day 1

Well, we headed for Alaska this morning! Currently, we are at a Quality Inn in Oregon. We were on the road by 9:30 this morning, after a quick stop at Stanford, for a follow up appointment for Quinn. Nothing to worry about. He's really very small for his age, so the doctors are concerned. We have had two sets of tests completed on him, when he was 2, and then last December. Everything is normal. He's just small. The doctor at Stanford is thinking he may be a good candidate for growth hormone therapy, down the road. I'm not sure how I feel about that right now. For now, he's good. He's holding tight at his less than 3% mark on his growth chart. He's 37 lbs. and 42 inches tall, and he's 7. Anyway, we made this appointment in December, and it would have been impossible to reschedule, without waiting another 6 months, so we built the appointment into our vacation plans. We were on the road right after, with a very happy boy-no blood tests this time!

Look who was trying to go on vacation with us last night! Matilda. She's so cute. The hair she left behind, is a memoir from home for us.

This is Mt. Shasta. Isn't it pretty? It's almost to the very end of California. Look at the snow!

These two gangsters insisted in being in my shot!

Word of the Day: Oregon. We pulled into Medford around 4:30 pm. There's a restaurant right outside of the hotel, Elmer's. It sucked. Who knew someone could wreck salad? That's OK. Keep the bad food coming, it will just make the food on the ship even more lovely and delicious. There's also all kinds of cotton blowing around, and there are a lot of bugs. The boys were terrified of the GIANT (it was pretty big) mosquito eater in the restaurant. Kevin hit it with the dessert ad, and it fell between the seats. Great atmosphere. I knew when we sat in the corner booth, near the bugzapper (mounted on the wall, like a picture), we were in for a real treat. I bet Elmer's is a better breakfast place. I should have had french toast. Oh well, now I know to avoid any places called "Elmer's."

Oh, ooops! I forgot I put this picture on! It's the boys at the Rogue Valley Mall, in Medford, OR. They are driving. Yeah, we are pretty flexible parents. If they want to drive, we let them drive.

Monday of the First Week of Summer

Ran all around today, getting last minute stuff for our trip tomorrow. Got Quinn a haircut, then got him a hat at Target. The haircut is OK. Just kind of short. If they had cut it correctly two weeks ago when he got it cut the first time, we wouldn't have had to go back today. Oh well, it will grow. Riley got one of these hats too. You would have thought they had won the lottery! They love them. I have to admit, they are pretty cute on them.

Quinn the Gangsta'. His traditional pose too.

Do you see what I see? I found this scene at Target. YES, they have their school supplies out already! Why? Why? Why?

Word of the Day: Divorce. NOT ME! Jon and Kate are officially getting a divorce. It's sad.

Father's Day and a Test

We went to my parents' house for Father's Day dinner. We had pizza. It was yummy. I am updating my blog from my phone, to see how this Blogpress App works. If it works, then I can update daily, while in Alaska.


Looking good!


The triple swing, compliments of Uncle Bryan. That's my niece, Emily, pictured with Quinn and Riley.

Word of the Day: Packing. It sucks.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas!

What a lazy Saturday! It was nice. We all hung around the house this morning. I did not pack a thing for our trip. It is a mystery to me. I'm stumped. I'll think about it tomorrow. We dropped the boys off with my parents for the evening, while we attended a retirement party. After the party, Kevin and I went to see "Land of the Lost." It was ok. It had its moments. The movie stopped halfway through, and we thought it would have been great if they had to refund our money, but alas, they got it going again. Darn. Oh well, it didn't entirely suck, but we could have waited for the DVD.

Can you see all of the little post-its stuck in my sewing books? These are all of the projects I want to try. I suppose I should get busy.

Word of the Day: Canada. Is anyone else sick of the Canada commercials on TV? I especially hate the one with the guy making weird noises about the seal on the boat. You know me and noises. I am not a noise person. His carrying on "OH OH OH's" drive me nuts. Just saying. I like Canada. We were in Niagara Falls last summer. We are heading to Victoria BC this summer. I just hate the commercials.

It's Finally Summer Vacation!

The boys and I stayed in the house all day, on this, my first, day of summer! Well, Riley cheated, and went to see a movie with Kevin this evening, so he did leave the house. Quinn and I are here, hanging out, and the two of us have been inside all day. It was a pleasant day. I just love days where we just hang around, with no plans, and no need to even get dressed! PJ day!

My Amazon order came. I got the new Black Eyed Peas CD and a really cute embroidery book. The projects inside are so cute!

Riley got his big, fat, Pokemon book. I am not sure exactly what is inside this book, but it is just like another one he has, and I swear I am always putting that thing back into his room. Every time I turn around, it's back out again! I think it may contain information about the Pokemon video games and maybe the cards???

I started packing for our trip next week. It's like a puzzle. We'll need shorts/short sleeves when we are in Oregon and Seattle (well maybe), and then warmer clothing for the cruise and Alaska sights. It's a packing mystery.

I also sewed some. This is top secret right now, but I will post pictures of it.

I have to sew all of my strips together, into sets of six, for the Quilt Along. I got this one done, so far. I mostly concentrated on the top secret project today. I really really need to get these strips sewn though. I think I am two weeks behind.

Word of the Day: Summer! Enough said.

First Day of Summer!

Yay! It is finally officially official! I am on Summer vacation, and I LOVE it! I left school before 10 am, got the oil changed in my car, then went to have my toes done. My feet feel so so good! After that, I drove to Stoneridge Mall and did some shopping. The boys are with my mom today, and Kevin will pick them up later this afternoon. I am going to see Wicked again tonight!

Speaking of my mom, she got me this book! Isn't it cute? It's a cute story about a little duck who basically thinks she's all that, a star! What is the significance you ask? Well, Celestine is my middle name! Oh, and I guess I CAN be quite the diva.

My mom signed it for me. She's so sweet! It's such a cute story.

I got my toes painted! I went for pink. I believe it is officially called "Sass in a glass," or something like that.

I am headed off in a little while with my BFF, to see Wicked. Yes again. I love it! We are going to have indian food for dinner, at Amber India in Mountain View, and then we'll head up to the city.

Word for the Day: Finished. Another year down! Looking forward to the lazy days of summer.

Last Day of School!

Well, we made it! Last day of school! I am just soooo soooo excited! My summer officially starts tomorrow, after I check out at 9 am. What to do, what to do? I know I have to get an oil change, and I plan on getting my toes done, but hey, that's a post for tomorrow!

I wore my "Glow Stick" flip flops today. They were a big hit with the kids, but not real comfortable. See how shallow the toe part is? They were hard to walk in, and I kept getting them hung up under my toes as I walked. They would fold up and I would almost fall over. I was glad I took my back up shoes. I don't think you can tell from the picture, but they really glowed-pink even!

Here's a picture of my classroom packed up for summer. See all of the desks pushed together? The kids helped me do that. They were so very excited that it made a "giant table." One even said it looked like a stage. I quickly made it clear that we would not be dancing on the "stage."

Another view of my room. There's my newly defrosted fridge. The floor is still a little wet. Look at how clean my desk is! The iPod radio will come home with me, and the stuff behind it will be checked in tomorrow.

Last of all, two happy boys, oh and my third child, Kirby. They are very glad it's summer too! Have you ever noticed how much orange my boys wear? I like orange.

Word for the Day: Published! I have a picture published on Shmap. It's an app for the iPhone. They found it on my Flickr page, asked my permission to use it, and now it's published. Go HERE to check it out! Top left picture on the iPhone.