Family Pictures..

Have you ever tried to get pictures taken with a big family? It's kind of hard.. To get everyone actually looking at the camera at the same time is hard enough, never mind smiling!

Since Tyrel was here the beginning of this month we did some pictures at the beach.. Here's some pictures to get an idea of our crazy family!

:)

Littles

"It's too bright" whine whine whine

Ok then..

Chaos

More chaos

Now this is just darling.. have to admit that

Frazzled mother..

Let's just stand on our heads in the surf..

Pretty much our family.. Haha.. well one is missing!

And there you have it! A fun post of our 2017 family picture session...

P.S. I'm not putting the one on that will end up on our Christmas card... 

Cruise Alaska (Part 6 and Final) Marriage Retreat

So, how did we get on a marriage retreat cruise?? Well we had plans of going on an Alaskan cruise, but then hubby started getting cold feet after reading about the partying etc that goes on on cruises. (Which in all honesty, you can just stay away from those areas that that crowd hangs out in) Anyhoo, one Sunday morning my sister text me the link to the Robertson Marriage Retreat. They were going to Alaska from Seattle July 25th.. That was around the time we were looking as our anniversary is the 20th!! I forwarded the text to hubby and he checked it out, then was like, if we're going I'd rather go on something like this as it would draw a better crowd. (There ended up being about 250 total in our group) I was kind of surprised as he grew up hearing horror stories of "marriage retreats". After looking in to it we found out that you were not required to do anything with the retreat, Al and Lisa really just wanted to give you a chance to explore Alaska with your spouse. The sessions were just an added bonus!! So after discussing and much prayer we decided to jump in and DO it!! So we did!

With Al and Lisa

And John and Paula

The gifts we got..

The first day was just registering with the retreat and then meeting our dinner partners for the cruise that night at dinner.. Every day after that there were sessions about different things in marriage. We listened to many testimonies of different couples through some hard things. We actually only missed one session which was Friday as we were just getting back from our excursion in Skagway and it had already started. To me it was like church all week and I really felt the Holy Spirit there. We all came from different backgrounds and churches, but we all had that same bond of Jesus Christ. We were a family and I enjoyed it! We even had communion on the ship!!

Ahhh... coffee

I'm sure if you are fans of Duck Dynasty then you recognize these people. Sure, they are famous people, but that's just it. They are still people! After listening to them and watching them for a week you know this and it was great! Sure it's cool to meet them, but what was really cool was to see their love for their spouse (I have to say seeing Godwin's love for Paula was too cute!!) and to see and feel their love for God!! They are the real deal!!

With Miss Kay after one of the sessions

After our last dinner on the Carnival Legend

We also made some new friends at dinner! I'm still amazed at how well we hit it off and that we made such good friends. I pray we can stay that way!!

With our new friends: Keith and Annette ( 2 of the most godly people I've met, just love them!) next to Tim, Lynn and Angela next to me.. So glad for new friends!

Two of our 3 party waitstaff we had at dinner every night! Rogimel our headwaiter and Annie!! They were very friendly and remember your preferences. Tim ordered a coffee the first night, then every night after that they brought out his coffee!!

So if you ever thought about maybe doing a marriage retreat, but worried about what it required of you, I highly recommend going with these guys!! In fact they are doing another one next September to Cozumel! You can find more info about it HERE!!
I'm so thankful we took the plunge and joined this group!!

Now that I finally finished blogging about our cruise I'm not sure how often I'll be on! :p

Cruise Alaska (Part 5) Victoria BC

Our last day of the trip was an evening port in Victoria, British Columbia. We didn't have anything scheduled for there either so just strolled to Fisherman's Wharf and back to the ship..

Oh Canada!!

Fisherman's Wharf.. these are water taxis..

Houses that people actually live in..

Some people even had signs on there houses to go away!!

Sign at the fish and chip place..

Pretty sunset!

Walking back to the ship I noticed we left our light on. It's the middle room directly above the lifeboat. Our home for 7 nights!!

The next morning we docked bright and early in Seattle and then headed home. I wanted to be awake for when we came in to the harbor, but snoozed through that as it is so relaxing sleeping on a ship!! I so recommend a cruise to Alaska if that is something you've ever halfway thought about..

Stay tuned for some more about the marriage retreat on the ship..

Cruise Alaska (Part 4) Ketchikan

Ketchikan was our last port in Alaska and it was raining..  Which is no surprise as they get 153 inches of rain (or snow) a year... Coming from the desert where we get an average of 6 inches a year, that is a HUGE difference!.. We didn't have anything planned for there so just ate breakfast at a little hole in the wall and wandered around. We did get a few more souvenirs for the kids and then went back to the ship.. 

Salmon Capital of the World

Foggy and rainy

Other cruise ships

Raging river.. Taken from the window in a Tlingit museum where we were hiding from the rain

Ivory carvings

Wolf skin.. there was lots of wolf rugs and animal skins that you could buy..

Statue in the harbor with our ship in the back.

Did you know that Alaska was bought for 7.2 million dollars and was thought to be a foolish purchase?? Well it has since paid back that many times over as that estimated to be approximately 2 cents an acre. We always hear about how BIG and awesome Texas is, but did you know that Alaska is 2.3 times BIGGER?! If you cut Alaska in half each half would still be bigger than Texas making it the 3rd largest state.. I found that quite interesting, and in fact would have bought this t-
shirt if I would have found one!

Cruise Alaska (Part 3) Juneau

Day 5 found us in the capital of Alaska: Juneau. Did you know that you can only get there by boat or airplane?!! This is the only state capital that is like that. Do you know how it was named? Two miners were lost and one asked the other, "Where are we?" to which the reply was: "I don't know, "D'youknow?" HAHA J/K that's really not how it was named, but that's what the driver on the tour bus said and I thought it was funny.. Probably had something to do with being relaxed and on vacation!  

Not sure if you can read this or not, but it's the tale of a ship called the Juneau that was sunk..

When checking out things to do here I kept coming back to the Mendenhall Glacier. I thought it would be neat getting close to one so when we got off the ship and saw a tour stand advertising that, we wandered over to check it out. We bought tickets for a bus ride to the visitors center and then walked the trails on our own. It was so pretty there!! 

Mendenhall Glacier

Walking on the trail going to the glacier.. 

We were hoping to see a bear, but nope, only a porcupine. Although there were cameras everywhere from the BBC doing a documentary on bears we didn't see any.

Overlooking the glacier and waterfall

Us.. camera got misty from the waterfall..

and with the glacier in the background..

It was so neat, the beach and mountains combined!!

View from the visitors center..

After a 20 minute bus ride back to the city we found some lunch and let me tell you, that was sooo good!!

I am not a seafood person at all, but this was the best fish and chips I have ever had!!!!

If you ever go to Juneau I highly recommend eating here! 

And because I find Alaskan fishing interesting (Deadliest Catch is a favorite show to watch, except the sailor language..) I enjoyed checking out the fishing vessels in the harbors.. 

We wandered slowly back to the ship after checking out a few stores. After all, you can't go to Alaska without getting baby girl an Eskimo doll. It wouldn't be right!! :)

 Keep an eye out for more cruise adventures!!

Cruise Alaska (Part 2) Skagway

 Day 4 of our cruise was our first port day. We arrived in Skagway at 7 A.M. We had an excursion booked that day so had to be at the end of the dock by 10:30. This gave us time to get dressed and eat breakfast, plus avoid the first rush of cruisers getting off! Beings this was our longest port of call we thought it would be a good place to do a longer excursion. Neither of us had ever been ziplining and that sounded fun so off we went to zip through the trees over glacier fed waterfalls in ALASKA! We were put in to groups of 6 and had two guides to help us out: Scott and Remy. One would go ahead of us and stop us, hook us up to the tree so we wouldn't fall off! The other would stay behind to help us go. There was about 9 ziplines and 2 suspension bridges. The fastest one we went on I did let out a screech. For some reason I would spin so would kick my feet to try and keep myself facing forward. Remy said I looked like a puppy when you hold them over water and they start kicking like they are swimming. Ack, how awkward... :p After that they taught us how to stear and I had a blast! I didn't do any of the tricks besides the "look ma no hands" one, but Tim did them all. He flipped and went upside down. I just enjoyed flying through the wilderness! After we were done, we drank some water that they got from the glaciely fed waterfall. It was nice and cool.

Unimog that we rode up to the starting point

One of the platforms we zipped to.

Hubby and I!!

On the way back to town the bus stopped at a scenic lookout to take some

pictures. What a beautiful place! I have to say that Skagway is gorgeous!

This has to be one of my favorite pictures from our cruise. So pretty!!

I actually snapped this picture from the bus. See the blueish ice up high? That's one of many glaciers we glimpsed!

When we got back to town we ate lunch at the Skagway Brewing Company. I have to say this was delicious! I got a chicken sandwich that had bacon, a sun dried tomato cream cheese spread, and cilantro pesto. Man, I want another one!!

Seriously, look at this yumminess!!

After we ate, we strolled around town and bought some souvenirs for the kiddos, then we headed back to the ship.

Had to buy some fudge!

Our ship in Skagway

That day was the only day we skipped out on the session and dinner. We just stayed in our room and ordered room service for supper. All in all that was a great day, I think my favorite of the cruise! Hold on for more Alaskan adventures!