sitka

so the day after juneau we were scheduled to stop in Hubbard glacier bay, but thanks (well really no thanks) to high winds and large chunks of ice in the water, we weren't able to go in the bay!! we were soo bummed! this was as close as we got (outside of the bay obviously) to the giant wall of ice 6 miles wide. bummer.

as close as we could get:

to make up for the disappointment the captains got us into our remaining ports early, which was a kind gesture- can you tell i'm still bummed? so the next day we arrived early to Sitka, which was my favorite destination of the trip, it was the epitome of alaskan beauty!! green rainy, fresh and dewey, it was perfection! here's a pic of humpback bay, which sadly i saw no humpbacks, but it was still beautiful!

we decided to tag along with grandma lil, clarke, diane, shauna and alyssa and go to the Fortress of the Bear. it was awesome!! there's a law in alaska that says they can euthanize bear cubs if the mother bear is already dead, but this group takes in the cubs, which are usually malnourished, and rehabilitates them. it was so cool to see these bears up close, they're huge!!

a 1000 pound bear standing tall

some video of the brown bears

a helpful sign for guests:

these three black bears are siblings and they reminded me so much of our boys and they way they "play" together.

After the bears we took a bus back to town and explored a bit, we learned that groceries are superbly overpriced so a box of frosted mini wheats costs $6.85, i kid you not! we also learned that sitka get 13 feet of rain a year and their local pub, victorias, has the BEST halibut fish and chips, seriously, it makes my mouth water to think of the lunch we savored there!! after lunch justin's family, all 21 of us, went on a kayaking excursion together, it was incredible! here's some of us getting ready to paddle away:

out at sea:

we kayaked out in the ocean past the cruise ships, around some little islands, caught up with a huge sea lion and went by this cute lighthouse.

i feel like our kayaking trip was this like unreal experience, everything seemed so perfect, it was so pretty and you're just out in the ocean looking around and feeling so amazed and grateful that you get to be somewhere so breathtaking. here's a little family pic after kayaking:

ketchikan and victoria

the morning after Sitka we arrived in Ketchikan, and when i say morning i mean off the boat by 7! thank goodness the cruise makes breakfast for you! room service anyone?

this was our shortest dock so we really wanted to plan something fun for the morning. we wanted to see a little of the town and go some where with great views, so we harnessed up:

and went zip lining! i want to tell you how amazingly fun it was, but i was super nervous in the beginning. we started several hundred feet up in the mountains and went through the 8 zipline and 3 suspension bridge course, by the second zipline i was super excited, it was so fun! the suspension bridges were a little nerve-wracking, but we made it through!

here's a little video, watch the the center of the screen for the appearance!

afterwards we got our medals of accomplishment and took a pic with our guides, they were really great and super funny!

ketchikan has lots of totem poles to see, so of course we took a picture. it's interesting that each pole tells a story and that there's history carved into these totem poles.

the next night, and last night of the cruise, we arrived in victoria in british colombia. this was our first visit to canada! eh!

we took a taxi to the parliament building, which was really cool!

we walked around the harbor, and around the empress hotel, which is really old and really intricate, it has some pretty gardens and even a spot inside for "tea time" which we didn't participate in, it still looked pretty though!

a funny canadian story: about an hour before we docked at victoria i started sneezing a lot, which is unusual. we got off the boat and i kept sneezing the entire night we walked around victoria and by the time we got back to the boat i was starting to feel pretty lousy. the sneezing continued until i went to bed, but i was completely fine the next morning. my conclusion in all this? i'm allergic to canada!

seattle part II

the last day of our trip was another early morning, we express checked our bags to the airport, but then had to exit the boat super early. all in all it was a great plan since we could hang around seattle without our baggage! we went back to downtown for breakfast and shopped around. i had to go back to this little place called chocolate box, it was pure heaven!! i was absolutely in love!! i only tried the cookies (a chocolate chunk the first time around and a chocolate truffle the second) and i seriously can't get them off my mind!!

we wanted to do something in the afternoon, so we hopped into the original, first ever starbucks

to see if the seahawks had a preseason game (they did... in denver) or if the mariners had a game (they did... during our flight home) and finally checked to see if the sounders had a game, they did and it was at home!! we went over to the field at game time only to find out only one ticket booth window (for the whole stadium) was selling tickets. the line was long and i swear we never moved! some guy walked up to us and asked if we were going to buy tickets, we said yes and he said "my friends didn't show so here's two free ones, i think they're pretty good, so today's your lucky day!" we were soo excited!! we walked in and here were our seats:

yup, that would be the second row from the field, corner flag! the same corner that the teams run in and out of for the beginning, halftime and end of game! we were soo completely blown away! the game, a complete blow out, was awesome!! this was totally the perfect afternoon!

after the game we left for the airport more that blown away at the awesome week and half we had just spent!! i LOVED seattle and LOVED alaska! i know i sound so repetitive when i say how beautiful washington, alaska and british columbia are, but i seriously felt in awe of the majestic beauty we got to see and experience! do i recommend this trip? i can't say yes fast enough!!

first day of school

brody started preschool this week!

he's now got a week of school under his belt and is asking for more, thank goodness the boy LOVES school!

finally four!

so brody has finally turned four!! i'm so excited! i feel like people are always doubting me when i'd say he's 3, but hello, obviously i know how old my own kid is. and now i can finally say 4, no one's asked his age in the past week, bummer. brody's an awesome kid, he's so full or energy and has been since day one! he's like this ball of energy and activity that's bouncing off anything and everyone. he loves hanging out with adults, jumping off things, swimming, his brothers and all things sweet. did i mention he likes letters, numbers and digital clocks? probably not, that kind of falls in to his "obsessed with" column. he's been so entertaining to watch grow, not to mention he's SO funny, what he says and the way he says it, just makes us laugh! plus he has a following, yup, crew is determined to be just like brody- it's almost a little scary. so cue the brody pics cause we love our biggest little guy!

3 months old

1 yr old, first day at the beach

2nd birthday

first kind-of big kid bike

3 yrs old

couple months ago

photos from the party:

planets cookies cake

yup, we love this guy!

um, there's a game going on

we were looking for a spot to start brody in for summer, and once we realized that soccer was held inside an air-conditioned building, we jumped to sign him up. i want to preface this post by saying i absolutely LOVE brody! he's hilarious, energetic and a little smarty pants to boot. however, he's one of the most easily distracted kids i know, and that's just brody being brody. well its no different on the soccer field, there's a lot of distractions: walls to run into, scoreboards that count down, a coach to chat it up with, not to mention all the grass to run around on. it's entertaining, and he's three so i'm not to concerned about it, but it does make for great video!

at least he's not one of the two girls that run around the field holding hands... that'd be awkward.

seven years

2004 doesn't really seem that long ago, but seven years have passed since justin and i tied the knot and sometimes i'm amazed how much has happened in 7 short years! open the time capsule, here we go:

we lived in provo for our first two years, finishing up at BYU. justin studied biology, worked at the mtc and translated for conference. i studied human development and worked as a ta.

finally graduation!

moved back to cali, and i started teaching preschool

justin's white coat ceremony at USC for the start of dental school

a year into dental school brody made his arrival!

and less than two years after that the twins debuted.

justin graduates from dental school!

we packed up and moved to texas!

we recently bought our first house and love it!

sometimes justin and i joke that school being over/kids/owning a house all seemed to happen in a blink of an eye, seriously, time can fly by! i'm so grateful i've got justin to share this ride with, he's the best dad for these boys and the best husband for me, i love him! happy 7th my sweet!