Alaskan Cruise: The Hubbard Glacier

On Monday (the 10th of August) we arrived at the Hubbard Glacier. We stayed on the boat as we spent a few hours cruising along and taking a ton of pictures! We couldn't get enough and we started taking pictures almost at first glance of the glacier. We didn't know exactly how close we were going to get to the glacier, so we wanted to capture it all! The Hubbard Glacier is definitely one of the most spectacular parts of creation we have ever seen, it is beautiful with all the different shades of blues and whites. I don't think our pictures exactly captured the full beauty of it but here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took!

A big chunk of ice floating in the water-this is seriously how I pictured Alaska to look like! The water had a lot of silt in it from the ice "melting" off the glacier and falling in the water. You can kind of see the color here.

Approaching the Glacier, it doesn't look very big but it was enormous-we are still miles away from it at this point!
It was a bit cold out there so we had our matching coats on and sweatshirts underneath as well.
I love this picture!
Another shot of Matthew and I "by" the glacier . . . the front deck was super crowded, so this is the best we could get!
Part of the Hubbard Glacier . . . beautiful in my opinion!
Another shot
And another
We went down to our deck when the boat turned so we wouldn't be so crowded.
O.k. another shot . . . I couldn't only pick one!
I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture . . . I think I need a wider angle lens!
If you look closely, you can see a big chunk of the glacier falling off . . . it seriously sounded as loud as thunder when the ice cracked off and fell in . . . so amazing!
One last picture of the glacier!
Such a beautiful part of God's creation . . . we were so blessed to enjoy these great views!
At night as the sun was setting, the clouds looked so cool!
Night shot of the mountains from our deck!
This was one of our favorite parts of the cruise! It was so beautiful . . . who couldn't believe in God after seeing this!!! Still more to come!

Meanwhile While We Were Gone . . .

My parents were oh so willing to watch our dear child while we were gone.  Part of me thinks that they enjoyed it more than we did :)!   My sister, Natasha, was nice enough to take some pictures for us (as she knows I love my pictures!).  Here are some pictures from the week we were gone and I will just guess what Cayden is doing in them :)!

Cayden helping Grandma cook!

Cayden being naughty and playing with Aunt Natasha's I-Pod
Aunt Natasha taking a picture of Cayden and it looks like Cayden is saying "cheese"!
Cayden playing with some of "his" toys at Grandma's house, I think he has more toys there than he does at home!!  I love this picture though, he looks so innocent!
Cayden having the kitty drink some of his water . . . what an imagination, love it!
Cayden playing with Uncle Brett . . . looks fun!
Uncle Brett and Cayden (we can't wait to have Uncle Brett back next week!!)
This was on Grandma's birthday as well as the day Cayden turned 19 months (man the months go so quickly!) Cayden got Grandma the Willow Tree Angel: Grandmother.  It looks like he was really being patient!
Cayden reading the card to Grandma, in his own little language!
Grandma and Cayden on their birthdays!

Looks like Cayden was ready for the picture but Uncle Shaun . . . not so much!

This looks like they were teaching Cayden how to drive . . . hmmmm.
Aunt Natasha was a big help while we were gone as well!  She got to spend a lot of quality with Cayden too!!

Well, it looks like they had a lot of fun!  And to be honest it doesn't even look like Cayden missed us at all, how sad!  We were thankful that everything went smoothly! Thanks Mom and Dad and the rest of the family for keeping our little boy safe and happy while we were gone!  We greatly appreciate it!!

Alaskan Cruise: Ketchikan, Alaska

Matthew and I were very blessed to be able to go on a week long cruise to Alaska.  This was to celebrate our five year anniversary and enjoy the "last" summer Matthew has before he joins the working world.  We went on a seven day cruise through the Inside Passage and enjoyed every minute of it.  It was amazing to be able to relax (child free, although we love Cayden), do whatever we wanted on our own schedule, spend quality time together with no other distractions, and see part of God's beautiful creation and I mean beautiful!!  Here is some pictures of our first couple of days!

Here we are still in Seattle leaving the port (August 7) and on our way to the open waters!

Ready to go to Alaska . . . ALONE!!
The first full day we were at sea and were able to explore the ship and just relax!  The second night we went and played some penny slots (just for fun) and I won 350 pennies and was pretty excited about that!
On Sunday the 9th, we arrived at our first port: Kechikan, Alaska.  Unfortunately when we arrived it was raining pretty hard and it did not let up all day.  Apparently this is one of the rainiest parts of the United States and after a dry spell of about a month, we just happened to be there the first day it rained again!  But the rain did not stop us from seeing Ketchikan.  We got off the boat in the morning and did some shopping before heading off to the Tongass Rainforest (the second largest rainforest in the world) to do some zip lining!  Although it was raining, we still had a blast zip lining from tree to tree, we will definitely be doing that again!

Our tickets to the Bear Creek Zipline and Challenge Course.  
All ready to go!  And I was unable to bring my camera due to the rain (bummer!) so we couldn't get to many pictures.
After we survived the zip lines.  We even received medals for it :)!  Behind us is the Tongass National Rainforest (and the pouring rain).  Needless to say we were soaked from head to toe, literally.  Oh and here is a side note: since we weren't prepared fully for the rain we purchased new jackets that just happened to be matching, we did not approve that they matched but we both wanted Charcoal.  Oh well!
Us soaking wet in Ketchikan, Alaska.  Such a cute town though!
From our balcony (Veranda as they call it) we could see the salmon jumping like crazy in the water.  It was pretty cool!
Ketchikan, Alaska

Another Celebrity Cruise ship, this is exactly what our ship looked like, so I took a picture!
It was so raining and foggy there but it was still very beautiful!  We definitely got a break from the heat!  100 degrees to about 55 degrees!
After we showered we went to dinner and we were exhausted after a long day!
More to come . . . 

Seattle: Part 1!

On August 4, we left for Seattle to spend some time with my family.  Our main reason for heading up to Seattle this time was to "drop" Cayden off with Grandpa and Grandma De Yager so that Matthew and I could take a vacation alone!  We spent a few days there before taking off for Alaska . . . more to come on our trip!  The first few days were spent hanging out with lots of family and friends and just plain catching up!  We also wanted Cayden to get used to being there before we left for a week.  

We went over to Luke and Sabrina's house so our lovely children could play with each other and so that we could catch up with them as well :)! It is pretty difficult to get a picture of all three of them looking-this is as close as I got!

Evan often times gets "left out" because Cayden and Alyssa are too focused on chasing each other (I think that is the only game they know how to play!).  So here is a cute one of Evan!
Alyssa and Cayden always want to do the exact same thing as each other, this is so funny to watch!
Looking out the window, I think Alyssa is showing Cayden the neighborhood!
They kept hugging each other til they fell over, it was so cute!
Playing with cups, who knew this could be so fun!
Cayden loves "playing" ladder ball and he thinks he is pretty cool when he does this!
And funny apparently!
Aunt Natasha helping Cayden eat a muffin!
Awwww!
Matthew made one of his famous deep dish pizzas for my family . . . since my dad requested it!  We decided to surprise my dad with a deep dish pan for his birthday (in September) and have Matthew practice more of his skills!
Grandpa and Cayden reading a book . . . so cute!
Apparently something was funny :)!!
Uncle Shaun and Cayden goofing around!
Cayden really getting into the Wii, I love that he is so passionate about so many things!
We knew we were leaving Cayden in good hands and after seeing him having so much fun with everyone, we knew it wouldn't be a problem!  I think I had a tougher time than Cayden did but we definitely appreciated my parents being so willing to watch him while we went to Alaska!  More to come!