Ketchikan

In Ketchikan we decided to go on a flightseeing tour, which means they fly you up in a very small plane over beautiful scenery and the whole time you are amazed and in awe that you haven't puked. Honestly it was wonderful, but I realized that I get motion sick much more easily than I had known before. It also helped me realize that if we do decide to expand our family it wont be for awhile because I hate feelingly like I need to throw up.

And on that lovely note, the flightseeing. It was honestly very beautiful (redundent word, but I am tired and running out of time. ) We flew in Tongrass National Forest, also only accessable by plane or boat. Rather than the tree covered mountains we had seen everywhere else were tree covered mountains accented by shear basalt cliffs that we are banking between. After about a 45 minute flight we landed in a small freshwater lake for "pondering" time. I spent my time ensuring that my breakfast sayed where it belonged.

Thankfully for the flight back to the boat I got to sit in the front and have fresh air blow on me.

I will be taking a short intermisson before my last post on Victoria. Please enjoy the refreshments while you wait.

Sitka

In Sitka we decided to exert ourselves in some way in a weak attempt to burn off the many hundreds of extra calories we were eating each night in our four course meals on the boat. While I don't think we burned enough calories we did did have an amazing time.

Sitka is a town with a large group of small islands on its coast. We spent most of the time paddling in and out of the islands looking at small cabins, bald eagles, and star fish. It was as idyllic as it sounds. Unless that doesn't sound idyllic to you, in which case trust me it was nice.

Near the end of the kayaking adventure we went to a stream where salomon were spawning. We could look down in the water and see hundreds of fish below us, and so could the bald eagles aparently, because we saw eight from where we sat and many more throughout the day.

This in itself would have been impressive enough, but on our hike near the same spot later we saw this guy.


Right in the tree above us.

Glacier Bay Cruising

As if seeing the wonders of nature with the whales wasn't enough we went on to one of the most beautiful places on earth. Now for the record I am quite partial to tropical climates. I love palm trees, jungles, beaches etc. But even with that bias, I can definitely say that God spent extra time on Alaska.
Glacier Bay National Park is only accessible by boat or plane so it is one of the few places left on earth untouched by humans. Two-hundred and fifty years ago the entire bay was a glacier but it has receded into finger glaciers along all sides of the bay. Behind the glaciers are hundreds of miles of ice-fields. While it was quite cloudy and cool on the boat, it felt like we were standing on the edge of the world surrounded by the glaciers and mountains.

Yes, the glaciers really were blue ice.


No, the pictures don't do it any sort of justice.


Yes, I do want to go back. But first, on to Sitka

Juneau

Our first port was Juneau, where we went on a whale watching expedition. To be honest, I was not terribly interested. This fell into the "old-people" activities of concern to some about Alaskan cruises. Oh, my small sad little mind.

Shortly after beginning we ran into (figuratively not literally) a mother humpback whale and her baby. They would rise and fall for every few seconds before diving down in, flipping their tails and disappearing for ten seconds. It was beautiful to see this mammoth-sized creatures moving so gracefully in the water.

But the best was yet to come.

We ran into not one, not two, but three large groups of humpback whales engaged in bubble net feeding. According to The Internet bubble net feeding is when "A group of whales working together will dive under schools of herring, one whale will swim in a circle while blowing bubbles under the herring. When the bubbles rise they form a net and scare the herring into a tight ball in the center. The whales then come up through the middle with their mouths open, capturing large amounts food."


We saw this over and over again. It was like watching underwater ballet with two ton ballerinas. More graceful than you might expect. This was by far the highlight of the trip. But we still had more to see....

Alaskan Cruising

I have decided that when we retire we will live on a cruise ship. They are a little slice of heaven on earth. We just returned from a fantastic cruise to Alaska and had an absolutely wonderful time. I have heard several people mention that they never thought about Alaska when they thought about cruising and I am here to tell you my friends, Alaska is the only place to go. First let me assuage your concerns.

Concern - Alaska is cold. Yes my friends Alaska is cold. The coats, hats and gloves you see us wearing are not meant to be fashion statements. At least on the boat we were quite chilly when outside. However at home in Utah right now it is 93 degrees, and it has been in the mid to upper 90s for the last few weeks. Let me tell you, seven days in the 50s and 60s feels as good in the middle of July as swinging down south to the 70s and 80s does in January. Heaven my friends.

Concern - Alaska is for old people. Also true. There were very few people our age on this cruise ship. Maybe 20. Most people were older than us. Most people were older than my parents. And there was a good handful older than my grandparents. However unless you are going on a cruise to meet your love connection older people provide the perfect traveling companions. They generally do not parade around in unsightly swimming suits (at least not in Alaska). They are quite. They are for the most part gracious and pleasant. So as long as you bring a spouse or friends with you for socializing -- (which you nearly always do) the older people provide good companionship and great friends.

Now, on with the pictures.....

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Happy Birthday little Savannah Bean!




Savannah is our little adventurer. She loves to climb just about anything, her latest successes include the stairs, the back of the stroller, the rocking chair, and the desk. She explores everywhere but she seems to have a penchant for Tupperware. She has an extensive vocabulary consisting of Hi, Bye, Mom, Dad, and Dog. (No guessing on what she learned first.) She loves to leaf through board books, play with her sister, and make the rest of us laugh. She tends to be pretty easy going, except when she is sick (like today). We love you Savannah Banana!

In the Interest of Full Discloser

After my brother took our family pictures last week he made some snarky comment about having recorded an idealized vision of family. So in the interest of full discloser I am including some pictures that didn't make the cut to be printed and placed on our wall but definitely show a less idealized -- but more fun -- vision of our family.

Not at all surprisingly, minus the make-up and jewelery we often look about like this, eyes half closed, handing off fussy children to each other, just trying to make it to bed time.


Abbie often pulls this little number.



This was near the end of our photo session. Picture us in church clothes and you have an accurate representation of us during Sacrament meeting. Yes my ticked off look is usually accurate after three hours of Sabath child-rangling.
We posed for this picture on what ended up being an ant hill. When I realized that a large black ant was sticking its two front pincers in my arm, I quickly brushed it off. Abbie, in her usual roll with the punches form, expressed mild displeasure.

Family Picture Vote

In addition to all of the fun activities listed below, we had my brother, Blaine take some family pictures for us. Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to vote on which one should be the official Gray Family picture, the 8 x 10 in our entry way, and which are relegated to a 4 x 6 grouping above said official picture. Sadly your vote is not binding in any way, but I really am interested in your thoughts.

The thing I love about this first one is the grouping. I like how close we are. The positioning looks more like a traditional professional photo grouping to me, and I like that.



While this picture is more a non-traditional pose I really liked the way the colors turned out in this one.


This one never really was a contender for the 8 x 10 so unless you make a compelling argument it will be in the grouping.


Our butts will never be in the 8 x 10 picture, despite the quality of your argument.
* For extra credit, which one did Russ Photoshop a new face on?

Hiking, Sitting, Climbing, Swimming, and Biking

We had a glorious vision. But as any parent knows, the best laid plains of moms and mice are lost on children. Russ and I had planned a grand adventure to kick off our Fourth of July weekend. We were going to hike to Cecret Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon. We were going to expose our offspring to the glories of nature. Unfortunately, nature had other plans. Because of our Oregonian weather the road leading to the Cecret Lake trail head was closed about three miles from the lake. Russ and I both have college degrees and so we know that it is insanity to expect a barely three-year-old to hike six miles round trip, so we decided to hike a little ways and then just go "sploring."

While on the trail Abbie talked nearly constantly. "I'm tired. I'm hungry. Where are the waterfalls? I'm hungry. Can you hold me? I'm tired."

Savannah sat contentedly in the kid pack.

Once we reached an area for "sploring" Abbie miraculously got a great boost of energy. Hunger panges dissapeared.

Savannah played contentedly on the rocks.

Abbie played hide and go seek, climbed rocks, examined pot guts, and looked for bugs, and ate a bite or two of the food.

Amazingly, as soon as it was time to return to hiking Abbie's exhaustion and starvation returned en force. Thankfully they left when a rousing version of The Three Little Pigs kept them distracted.

Savannah slept contentedly in the kid pack.

The rest of our Fourth of July weekend was filled with equally grandious plans. We went swimming at Russ's sister Lisa's neighborhood pool (No problems here except convincing my kids that they had to go home to sleep). We went on a family bike ride (Russ's seat broke half way through the ride. Ask him how fun it is to pull two kids in a trailor when you can't sit in a seat. Really, ask.) Finally we went to a BBQ at my parents. (No problems here either.)

Clearly as parents there is a lot we don't control. Thankfully, we can have a lot of fun despite the changes in plans.

Girls Pictures

Father's Day and the girls birthdays fall in the same season of the year so it worked out well to get their annual pictures from the photographer and give them as Father's Day/Grandparent gifts.(Don't worry Laura yours will be here when you come down.) I decided to get dressed up as well and head on down to the Target $3.99/page photography studio so we could do some all-girl pictures for Russ for Father's Day. We don't do photography studio pictures often as we like the more candid shots ourselves, but they seem to be a necessity -- at least on my parent's wall. Hopefully if we can find a weekend somewhere in here we are going to do new family pictures as well, but we will see.


Now because I am cheap I wouldn't pay for the digital copies so these are pictures of the pictures that were taken. The main difference is some cropping and the lighting which look better in the actual pictures.

Random Thoughts Wednesday

Well it has been awhile since I have done random thoughts but I guess they just come randomly...

Today Abbie asked, "Mom why is my dress yellow and not blue or red?" It took quite a detailed explination as to why people made a yellow dress as opposed to any other color. I love that my child is inquisitive but I just don't have all the answers.


I hate dealing with health insurance companies. We are on an individual plan and pay for our insurance all out of pocket. If we have the gaul to actually use the insurance --like taking our asthmatic daughter to the emergency room because she can't breathe -- they raise our rates $120 a month on top of what we already are paying....not that I've been dealing with that this week or anything. Okay, need to stop talking about it so I don't burst a blood vessal and cost myself more money in the future.

Last night I went on a bike ride out by the Great Salt Lake at sunset. It was absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately, while taking those breaths I swallowed about a million nats.

Savannah has decided a few days ago that she can climb the stairs. She went from doing one stair to the entire staircase in two days. Now she just wants to climb, even if no one is upstairs to party with. I do not like it Sam I am.

Yes, I still waste way too much time on http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ .

I am going on a cruise (WITHOUT MY CHILDREN!!) in 23 days, but who is counting?

Monday, Abbie started swimming lessons. Thankfully she is loving it and realizing that getting water on your head is not the Chinese Water Torture. She blows bubbles, will lie on her back with her teacher holding her and practice all her different strokes. Yesterday I told her we got to go back to swimming lessons she got a big smile on her face and said, "Again?"

Amazing

Yesterday I had to take our car into the shop, and because I knew the shop was right next to a TRAX line I told Abbie we could ride the train while we waited. (Mistake #1 never tell a child something good is going to happen until 30 seconds before it happens, in case it doesn't.) It turned out that I didn't need to leave the car in the shop but I decided to take the train anyway.

We walked strollerless to the train stop ( I didn't want to deal with taking a stroller on and off a train.) only to find out --- TRAX does not take credit cards! I will not get on my newly built soap box on this subject.

Then we walked a block and a half to the 7-11. I bought a yogurt and asked the man for five dollars cash back. He told me after the purchase that he can only do cash back with debit cards. (Maybe I should have known this, but I don't use cash. Ever.) I then bought something else only to be told that my debit card did not have a cash back option. I knew this wasn't true but was beyond arguing. I went to the ATM at the back of the store withdrew $20, returned the block and a half carrying Savannah and trying to get Abbie to walk quickly past the transients to the TRAX stop. There I bought my $2.00 ticket -- received $18 back in Sacajawea dollars.

I can thankfully say, from here on out the trip went fine.

Today Abbie said to me, "Mom, you are amazing......why are you amazing?"

Now you know.