The Alaskan Cruise...

On August 5, 2009 my parents celebrated their 50th Anniversary, pretty awesome. So, to celebrate, their children (minus one, sadly) and their spouses, my Dad's twin brother, my Mom's brother, and a couple of my cousins all went on a cruise to Alaska. What a party! When we got home, I was frequently asked the question, "What was your favorite part of the cruise?" So I give you (over the course of the next few posts), my Five Favorite Things about our cruise to Alaska. I will start with my very favorite thing...Family! In no particular order...

Me and my sisters...

Sherry and Larry on "Formal Night"...

RaeAnne and Dale all decked out...

Mom and Dad, still sweet on each other after 50 years...

Dad, being Dad (thanks for the picture Rae)...

The only picture I got of my cousin Carrie and her husband Curtis. Funny story about Carrie and Curtis (rather embarrassing for me)... See, I haven't seen Carrie since I was say, 8 maybe. So we go to dinner on our first night on the ship and our group has been assigned to about four tables. Well, I look over and see Mark and Lois (my uncle and aunt) sitting at a table with two strangers, and I think, "That's not right, those people aren't even part of our group, Mark and Lois should be sitting with our group." Well, I was getting pretty bothered by this and said so to RaeAnne, who looked at me like I was a little crazy, and said, "That is Carrie, your cousin." So, she marched me over and introduced me to my own cousin, who commented that I had grown up quite a bit since the last time she had seen me. It was lots of fun to get to know her and Curtis again...

My aunt Zelma and my cousin Davis (my cousin's son, does that make him my second cousin?)

This is on my parents balcony while we were looking at the glacier, notice Sherry all bundled up? I didn't really get to lay out on the deck of the boat on this cruise, but if you look at the next picture...

you will see that the cold didn't bother Jim...

In Juneau we hiked to the top of a HUGE mountain to see the beautiful vistas.
Here is Blake, trailblazing...

And Tonya...

Jim and Larry...

See the beautiful vistas? Yeah, we didn't either. Unfortunately there were some forest fires somewhere in Alaska that shared their smoke with Juneau, we had a hard time seeing anything, but it was fun anyway!

My kids were really upset when they looked at our pictures and saw that Alyssa and Kelsie got to come. "How come we didn't get to go?"
It was so much fun to have Alyssa and Kelsie there! It would not have been as much fun to have my kids there (not that I don't love them...)

Mark and Lois, relaxing on the deck, I am so glad they came!

And here is a shot of the whole group...

So, my favorite part of the cruise? Hanging out with my family for a whole week! That was awesome! Oh, how I love these people!