first day of pre-K!

This little boy has started his last year of preschool! I can't believe that Benjamin will be going to Kindergarten next year!! I still remember him looking like this:

noah is two!

Wow, it seems like I've blinked and my sweet baby is now two years old! He's chatty (favorite words: no and fishie), loves (loves loves) to climb, do puzzles, and play with cars, and is super snuggly. He does not love sitting still to let his mama photograph him. I got a few the other day, though! Happy birthday, Noah! We love you!!



I love this face!

happy birthday party noah!

We had Noah's second birthday party today! He officially turns two on Tuesday...I can't believe how quickly the time is flying!

We had a party at a nearby park, which has lots of shady tables. I made some signs, got some balloons, and we had a tasty pizza lunch! Since it was at the park, I didn't plan any activities, but did buy some clearance beads at Michael's and had ribbon so the kids could make necklaces. It was a hit!Party favors: buckets & squirt toys from the target dollar aisle, fruit snacks and small bubbles.
Yum, cupcakes!
TWO!
My sweet little man!
Mmmmm, cake.
All the kids had a great time and so did we!

alaska trip, part two.

Once we disembarked the ship, we got on a train to Denali National Park. This beautiful rainbow appeared and I was so excited about it!
I liked this moose statue!
We hiked the Horseshoe Lake trail.


At the Denali visitors center - we liked these doors!
Then we took a bus to the Princess Mt McKinley Lodge. On one of the trails we saw these rock statues. Love them!
Fireplace.
Bald eagle!
The clouds were obscuring the mountain the first afternoon we spent at the lodge, but this is what we saw the next morning. Gorgeous.

Us, hiking.


WalMike's!
In Talkeetna, the tiniest town ever! The ice cream was so good!
Then we went to Anchorage. This is our hotel (Captain Cook) reflected in the building across the street.
We went to the Anchorage Zoo - it was so cute!

This little cub was orphaned, and he was so cute and playful!!



These were AWESOME! :)

alaska trip, part one.

Tim and I just returned from a great trip to Alaska! We spent 11 days on our trip (7 on a cruise, 4 in Denali/Mt. McKinley/Anchorage) and were very spoiled by the good food and beautiful sights. We were so lucky to have gorgeous weather the entire trip. It's been great being back home, though I do miss having other people prepare my meals... :)

Our trip started with a flight to Vancouver to board or ship. Terry O'Quinn (from LOST) was on our flight, and was nice to let Tim take a quick picture with him at the baggage claim.

Here we are, on board the Island Princess en route to Alaska!

It's an orca!

Our first port was Ketchikan. I loved the barnacles.

I tried to talk Tim into a totem pole for our front porch. He didn't go for it. :)

The salmon were swimming upstream, and often attempting to jump!

Bald eagle preserve. This girl has a broken wing.

A short hike in the woods in Ketchikan. It was beautiful.

Our second port was Juneau. We went to see Mendenhall Glacier. While we were there, we saw a black bear in the trees!

Then we ate lunch at the ship and walked around Juneau in the afternoon. I loved the signs and artwork on the sides of the buildings.

Our third port was Skagway. We walked around the town in the morning.

In the afternoon, we took a ferry to Haines where we saw a brown bear and her cub, went for a hike and saw mountain goats.

Our final two days of the cruise were spent in Glacier Bay National Park and College Fjord. We saw some amazing glaciers and such beautiful scenery.