Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving again this year.

Jen's and Becky's families joined

Steve and I for fun and feasting.

Hadley, Coen, & Spencer.

Caught Jen with her mouth full - and Hadley.

Nate, Grace, & Becky

GG & caught Jen again while eating.

(Sorry about that Jenny)

Karl & Steve

It's always odd to me to be able to seat everyone

around the dining room table.

I can remember years when we had anywhere

between 25 - 45 people for Thanksgiving -

of course, I was much younger back then!

I remember one year we had 3 turkeys.

I've had a lot of great memories of Thanksgiving

from when I was a child at Mom's or Aunt Maude's.

Then Nancy use to do Thanksgiving and Christmas

until I had a house to take over Thanksgiving.

But as our families grow we have to alter our traditions.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend -

now I must get back to my Christmas decorating!

Birthday Girls Weekend

Last weekend was birthday time for Hadley and Gracie.

Hadley is 1 Year Old!

I know she doesn't look real excited but

poor baby had strep and just woke from her nap.

Just chilling at first with Daddy & GG

Now she's awake and loves her

new baby momma & daddy gave her.

The cousins had to miss since Hadley had strep

but brother Coen

and big brother Spencer were there.

She was tickled to be sung to.

but being her mother's young lady

this was about as messy as she was willing to get.

The next day we had Gracie's party-

who is 3 years old!

The party was at the Carousel House and here she

is having a very serious discussion with her

momma about the noise level of the Carousel music.

Waiting patiently as we sing her the birthday song.

Blowing out the candles.

Uncle Stevie sharing his wisdom with his nephews.

Ayden enjoying her cupcake.

Same for Jackson.

Spencer - he's looking so grown up lately.

Coen deep in thought.

What better way to end a party but

to share a cupcake with mommy!

Happy Birthday Hadley and Gracie

Nana loves you so much!

Jax is Two

Happy Birthday to Jackson

who is big boy 2 now.

We had fun at his

"All Aboard" Train party.

Candle blowing time.

Jackson enjoyed his presents but he wanted

everyone else to open them for him.

Big sister Ayden

Sweet cousin Gracie

Toothless Cousin Spencer :)

Constant Motion Cousin Coen

and Baby Cousin Hadley

Hope you have fun with all those trains & cars Jax -

Happy Birthday!

Victoria and Home

We spent most of Friday cruising towards home -

we just had one more stop

at Victoria, British Columbia.

This stop was to satisfy some law about docking

at a foreign port since we had been in foreign waters.

There were quite a few other ships headed our way -

it reminded me of a child's story about

boats or trains racing to the finish line.

Around 7PM we were docked.

Neither Steve nor I had ever been to Canada before.

This was our shortest stop yet since we only had

about 4 hours to tour the town.

Victoria is known for its Burchart Gardens,

touring its pubs and docks,

tea at the Empress

But we chose a tour of the Craigdarroch Castle.

It was completed in 1890 by coal baron Robert Dunmuir

who I don't think ever even got to actually live there.

His wife and children lived there until 1908.

Then it was used for a Military Hospital,

Victoria College, Victoria Conservatory of Music, and finally

Craigdarroch Castle Historic House Museum.

It is four floors of beautiful stained glass and intricate woodwork.

This was their view from the top tower of the house.

As you can see - our time was running out.

They only gave us an hour to tour the house but we

could have spent a great deal more time there.

The rest of our tour around town,

although interesting, was mostly in the dark.

Thus, pictures were not so great. (See Empress above)

This is one place Steve and I would both like to visit again

when we have more than a few hours.

We got back on board and cruised through the night.

I woke up around 6Am to this view of Seattle

Time to go home.

Ketchikan

I woke up Thursday morning and knew

by the noises that we were docking.

I slid open our glass door to see what

Ketchikan looked like and heard a loud splash.

My first thought was that someone had thrown

something overboard - a big NO-NO!

But when I stepped out on the deck

I heard more splashes.

It took me a few minutes to wake up and

realize that the salmon were jumping -

but it's hard to get a good picture of them.

When I saw this:

I thought that Ketchikan must be really small -

but the town was on the other side of the ship.

However, I enjoyed watching the fishing and tour

boats come and go.

And it was neat to watch the water planes

(or whatever they're called)

landing and taking off.

We wandered over to the town side of the boat

and Ketchikan is a small fishing/tourist town

but kinda quaint.

We were only going to be docked for the morning

so we headed out to see the town.

We took a tour on one of these horse drawn trolleys.

One of those 'quaint' things about the town were

these 'street' stairs. These are considered actual

streets and if you live on one you have

to park and walk the rest of the way -

just think about moving furniture or carting

toddlers and groceries - especially

in this town that has record rainfalls.

Ketchikan is also known for it's numerous

totem poles. I had always thought totem poles

were a religious symbol but they are really stories.

People also give totem poles as special birthday

or anniversary presents, for special honors, and

they even have some if you've been dishonorable.

This creek is one of the main salmon ladders.

They said that when they are at the top of the season

a small person can walk across this creek

without getting their feet wet.

Another totem pole.

Ready to get back on board.

Later in the day as we were headed towards Victoria.