This summer, The Maestro and I will be celebrating not one, but THREE momentous occasions. In June, we will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. That’s the most important. But we both have summer birthdays, too, and this year we are both turning “The Big 4-0.” (I don’t really know what’s up with that, by the…
We began our day bright and early by sailing into the Tracy Arm Fjord. The last time Joel and I took an Alaskan cruise, we did Glacier Bayinstead, so I was happy to see something different. There aren’t as many glaciers at Tracy Arm, but what we did see was gorgeous! (Forgive all the photos…
It feels sort of like I’ll never finish these Epic Vacation posts, but I am bound and determined to do it. Even if it kills me. Thanks for reading them even though I know they are probably excruciatingly boring to the people who read this blog. Except my mom. She likes them. So this is…
The morning of Day 9 dawned bright and early, and we were all excited to get to the cruise terminal and board the ship! Hooray for cruises! With the help of my Dad, my brother Dave, and both of Dave’s cars, we all made it to the cruise terminal and got ourselves checked in. If…
Oh, you betcha I am soooo using NaNoBloMo as a way to knock out some Epic Vacation posts. My ultimate goal is to get them into a book to give my family for Christmas this year. We awoke on Day 8 at Mimi and Papa’s (Joel’s parents) house in Sandy. We did a final pack-up…
Look at me, knocking out two days in one post. But only because Day 6 was pretty mellow. I mean, we needed some rest after the previous five days, dontcha think? We spent a leisurely morning on Day 6 at Joel’s parents’ house. We worked on laundry while the kids watched TV–they were quite enamored…
The end of Day 4 found us all a little bit (a lot) cranky, and crashing for the night in our tent at Yellowstone after going to bed without dinner. I thought I’d better take a picture of our palatial tent that was so good to us on this camping trip. It got us through…
The view from our cute little cabin At the close of Day 3, we found ourselves in a cute little cabin in Custer State Park, South Dakota. I certainly appreciated the sort-of mattress I got to sleep on. It was ever so much better than rocks and dirt, despite my air mattress. Plus, we didn’t…
Dear Mom and the seven other people who still read my blog, I realize that at the rate I am managing to get these vacation posts up, it will take me a year or so to do the whole thing. I also realize that I usually lose my steam with vacation posts because I think…
As a reminder, we spent the (very hot) morning touring the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, South Dakota, where Chloe and Sophia both got to try their hand at driving a covered wagon. And then, it was on the road again. I like to take pictures of my feet to prove that I am also on…
(Ahhh! How am I ever going to finish this? I’m overwhelmed already, and now I’ve gone and divided up Day 2 into 2 parts. But, seriously people, I had to. I took about 400 photos on Day 2! Maybe I can combine some days that were less exciting photographically. Crossing my fingers.) We spent the…
Day 1 started bright and early. We had packed the car the night before (and believe me, packing for 26 days that include camping, cruising, and staying with family is no easy task), dropped off Puccini at a friend’s house (you’ve never seen sadder girls), and were ready to head out by 7:00 in the…