Alaska Cruise 2009-The Inside Passage

We had the best time on our cruise. Alaska is so beautiful. We explored and absolutely loved all of the ports of call and met a lot of friends. We did all of the usual things you would do on a cruise, ate a lot of good food, watched all of the awesome shows, participated in competitions, etc. etc. But one thing that really made this cruise fun was that we danced every night from about 11:30 (that's when it gets dark) until dawn (3:30) or whenever they kicked us out and then ate cereal at the 24-hour buffet.

Our Ship-THE GOLDEN PRINCESS

Traveling- SEATTLE

SKAGWAY

The guys with the saloon girl. Whi woo.

JUNEAU

Rarr! Bear Hugs?

Looking down at the starting point of our Juneau adventure. We finally reached the top! By the way, what you see in the picture is typical of what we could see from the ship all the time. Amazing, right?

Scenery from our hike in Juneau. Reminds me of Twilight :)

We saw a sign in town that said "Mt. Roberts trail" while exploring Juneau. We asked some locals if it was a good hike. They told us yes and that we were halfway there already.They also told us that once we reached the top we could ride the tram down. 2 hours later . . . we reached the top and saw this sign. Ha ha. It was a way fun hike and beautiful, but the sign was exactly right and the only thing we had was plenty of time.

The Red Dog Saloon. Cute.

Mt. Roberts tram. Boy were we glad we were able to ride the tram back down the mountain.

RANDOM CRUISE PIX!

Relaxing in our room. Staying up dancing all night and hiking 1800ft. straight up a mountain will make you tired.

Bailee's um. . . a little comfortable on the pole. ;0

We wore our robes all over the ship to keep us from turning into popcicles when we were finished swimming. Luke kind of looked like Hugh Heffner walking around with all of us girls in his robe.

Celebrating mine and Bailee's graduation. Our waitor brought us yummy dessert (like we hadn't already eaten enough).
Baked Alaska. Yum!

NIGHT (early morning :)) LIFE!

Luke's a nice uncle and gave Bailee a lift after a long night of dancing.
The Skywalkers Crew.

Top left: Keera, "Reno Boy 2" Nevan, Andy "Stanky", Luke, "Reno Boy 1" Andrew, Bailee, "Chops" Miguel and Me.

Everybody loved Luke as always. Reno boys especially.

Luke gettin' jiggy wid' it.

Getting our drink on ;)

(virgin strawberry margarita still takes the prize, pina colada is a close 2nd)

Our cruise buddies wanted us to play beer pong, but since we don't drink we put our creative juices together and somehow Keera came up with using "Chops" as the ball.

Keera, Bailee, Me, Luke, Mom and Dad. The best cruise buddies EVER! New Years Ever party in June . . . Why not?

VICTORIA B.C., CANADA
"Oh, Canada

Luke is frolicking in the grass with all of the bunnies at the University of Victoria. They are everywhere-you know how rabbits are.

This was our ride in Victoria B.C. We even had a driver. This car (if I were cool I would remember the name of it) use to be used by royalty (boy did we feel special). Fun fact: Our driver told us that if Barrack O'bama came to stay-the mansion in the background is where he would stay.

The Tallest Totem Pole in the world.

KETCHIKAN

I don't know if you can see the sign behind us? That might help you understand the picture. Although, most of our pictures don't have a point. We just have fun taking them.

There were bald eagles EVERYWHERE.

Shopping at the warf.

Bailee has a thing for lumberjacks. And lumberjacks for Bailee. Go figure.

We saw a whole pod (is that the correct term? IDK) of Orcas right off the shore in Ketchikan. We followed them along the shore for about 10 minutes. Consider ourselves lucky.

Right before we saw all of those whales we walked along this rocky beach and Luke found us all kinds of live starfish. Patrick!?

Me and my Dad. I'm so glad he had the great idea to cruise to Alaska. He got some great footage on his camcorder. If only I was good at using blogger I would post some of it.

The girls. Love em'! (Bai, Me, Mom and Keera)

FJORDS, ICE BERGS and GLACIERS . . . Oh My!

I know it looks warm, but it was early morning and freezing. We we're in ice (berg) water. We thought it would be a good night to pull an allnighter, so we haven't even went to bed yet.
Us pulling the allnighter. Last night at this time we were atleast in the warm pool.



If you look close there is a HUGE glacier in the background. It's the white thing between the two mountains. You had to be there.

Trying to stay warm and awake, so we don't miss the sights.

We saw like a million seals this day right next to the ship on their little ice bergs.

Needless to say, we want to go on another cruise in December or January to Mexico. Who's coming with?

Skyler and Elizabeth's Visit

Skyler and Liz (my older brother and his wife) came to visit for a week. Luke and I have been decorating our little apartment finally, so we made the spare room into a suitable guest room, so they would have some place to stay. We had a very good time while they were here as usual and miss them tons now that they are gone. We always try to fit in as much as possible while they are here, so we didn't get much sleep. The first night they were here the entire family got together and ate at Los 4 Amigos then hung out at Mom and Dad's house. The rest of the week we played night games, went to the swimming pool, hiked to the Grotto, went camping, had a G.N.I. (Girls Night In) and a G.D.O. (Girls Day Out), and went golfing at Gladstan. Elizabeth and I put our energy into hunting golf balls while the guys golfed and we gathered about 60 balls. Triston and Tayler.
Ashtyn and Logan. If you look closely you can even see Haydn.

Skyler, Me, Kennedy and Liz.

Luke.

Luke and Skyler. Payson Lake.

We did scalp treatments, nails and face masks and to top it all off we ate chocolate covered strawberries and watched Mean Girls.
Woo woo. . . girls night!

Birthday Fun at The Hogle Zoo

Haylee and the kids took me out on the town for my 22nd birthday. We had a full day at the Hogle Zoo. After checking out all of the animals, we watched the bird show, rode the train and we even rode the carousel. I rode on a . . . seal or is it an otter (ha ha-IDK)? Wierd. Haylee and I got a kick out of that.
I hadn't been to the zoo in quite sometime, but I think I'm going to have to go back soon because Luke wants us to plan another trip so he can come along.
We went out to eat at Chili's and shopping at the Gateway afterward. The weather was great! We all had a good time-even baby Quinnie. Thanks, love you guys.














You can imagine what some people were thinking.

Yes, that is drool on Quin's papoose.
Somehow babies are cute even when they are drooling (and chunky-love it).
No fair.

GRADUATION 2009

bAiLee and tIa graduate!!! CLASS OF 2009
Bailee (my niece) and I bothgraduated in May. Bailee graduated from Spanish Fork High School and I graduated with my Bachelor's of Science in Health Education from Utah Valley University just a few weeks apart. I taught for a year as intern, so I'm currently looking for a job while I continue my education to get an endorsement in Physical Education and I'm even considering Special Education. Who knows what else I will study. I guess I just can't get enough of school.
To celebrate we went to Macaroni Grill with the whole fam. Then to really celebrate we went on a cruise to ALASKA!

Spring Break in Fabulous Las Vegas

Luke and I took a trip to Vegas for Spring Break in April. We had a "slots" of fun-of course!
We hit the buffets(but walked plenty); shopped til' we dropped; watched the FREE shows; checked out the FREE exhibits; explored many casinos; spent an entire day at the Circus-Circus Adventure Dome; and we went to The Tournament of the Kings at Excalibur dinner show.




We spent most of our time at Circus-Circus Adventuredome playing laser tag. Needless to say we aquired many skills and an alliance with a couple of pre-teens.

Skyler and Elizabeth's Visit

Sky and Liz were here to visit from Iowa the first week of March. We had a lot of fun! while they were here. We went to a Utah Jazz game and had a lot of late nighters. Luke and Skyler missed each other so much that they decided to buy matching t-shirts. . . and wear them on the same day (sometimes I wonder about those two ;)).

Our niece Ellie turned 7 while Sky and Liz were here, so we all got her a PINK Carlos Boozer jersey which she wore throughout the Jazz game that night, to bed and then to school the next day :)
I had to photograph her next to the Karl Malone jersey. After all, he has been my all time favorite since I was her age (although Deron Williams is becoming my new fave.)

Keera, Liz and I at the mall just before Skyler and Elizabeth left to go home. We had to put on these sweet shades to hide our tears :(

Hawaii Dec 2008- Jan 2009

Luke and I went with his family to Hawaii for two weeks. We stayed on Ka'anapali Beach in Maui, but we adventured all around the island. Lets just say it was hard to leave.