Slacker

I feel like such a slacker. Sorry for the hopes of new updates when I now realize a full month has passed by. We are so excited for Christmas. My favorite time of year. Most of all, I LOVE the feeling I have this time of year. More than ever before I feel grateful. I feel blessed. I feel humbled. I feel the angst of Mary giving birth to the son of God. Can you imagine? I cry through every Christmas service. I look at my healthy family, holding little Finn in my arms, and thank the Lord...for coming, for saving us, for forgiving us.

And not to rush past the best holiday ever, I'm slowly starting to think towards next year. What goals I have, what resolutions I will make? I love 'cleaning house'. Not so much literally, but organizing, tackling projects, thinking of new ways to make our weeks/days special and memorable. Is it too early to say I can't wait for Spring?

holidaze

My blogging goes in spurts. After my novel of AK I've been avoiding it. Burnt out. But it's time to start up again. The holidays are near and we have so much to be thankful for! We're approaching the time when I will be in a holi-daze. Before the craziness starts, I want to take a moment to catch up and reflect.

I have so many fun stories to share and once I get caught up on my photography work, I plan to spend some time with 'you'. :)

For now, I'll give you a brief update of what we've been up to. Shane turned 30-something on 11/1. We celebrated with a big Halloween party...fun times! He's been busy working, hanging Christmas lights, the last few weeks. So when he's home, we cherish the moments. Even with his busy schedule he managed to give me three night's out with the girls last week...he's the best. : )

Finn will turn 2 this Friday (sniff!). So very hard to believe. He is talking in full sentences, telling stories (some of which I understand), sings along to Diego, Little Einsteins and Handy Manny. He is 3' tall...which I know because Shane brought home a roll of paper tonight for an activity with the kids. It was very fun! We laid on it and traced ourselves and colored for a good hour....thus I know Finn's height! I imagine it's an average height for his age...but man, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we went from 21" to 36" in less than two years!

Hudson has been doing awesome in school this year! He & I are getting along super...and had a 'date' just last night. I love when we click. He's a lot of fun and most days I wish I could just adopt him. I know it's not right/fair to him or his mother...but the thought of him pulling away from me once we hit a good place like this scares me. I get protective of him and wish I had free reign to love and raise him solely as my own. Like millions of other step-parents out there, it is not that easy. So we take a day at a time and I praise God for our closeness. He's calling me mom again and that has not happened since I was prego w/ Finn. It's taken us that long to get back here. I remain firm in the Lord and trust that HE knows best and will give me peace, strength and wisdom to handle every situation we face.

I have been busy, too. Finn has become less of a physical fatigue and more mental. It is shifting...already! He's sleeping well for naps and at night, but he's testing me (he's almost 2...I knew it was coming). So I am finding myself challenged in new ways every day. I'm not one to be creative on the spot...so I have to prepare. Somehow, I think he already knows this...and gives me a run for my money!

Photography was slow this summer, but picking up this fall. S&I decided not to advertise or push for business until our family is done growing (we're still trying to expand : ) and a little older. I have been researching and learning new things, though. That is one of the reasons why photography is a passion of mine...there is always room to grow! : ) I also just wrapped up my first Beth Moore study. WOW. Talk about having a gift. She is amazing and stretched my faith in ways I didn't know possible. We'll start another one in late January. Till then I can dig into some of my other books. I was silly enough to take on a second study through our church this fall too...and keeping up with both of them was great (and extremely busy).

So our famiy will go into this Thanksgiving week with peace. : ) God has blessed us far beyond what I, personally, deserve. My heart is humbled when I look at his provisions and I am consumed by his grace. Here are my top 5 reasons I'm thankful:

1. My family is strong, safe and healthy. Thank you Lord!
2. My husband is the best man for me...and I love his hard work in supporting our family and to continually work with me to grow closer as we grow through life.
3. Our children. They make me laugh, cry and sometimes scream...usually all in a day's time. Life is full. Life is good!
4. Our home, comforts and nourishment...especially in this economy. We feel tremendously blessed.
5. My friends. I have the best girlfriends...here and in CO and in AK and in New England and in CA and in AZ. Some are family, some are acquired family. But all of them give me inspiration in their individual beauty, strength and charm.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Vancouver

Arriving

Home...for the next week. We thoroughly enjoyed having a balcony cabin. I believe its a must for an Alaskan cruise. You don't want to miss anything...what better way to see it all. And thanks to my genius brother, Tom, who made sure we were on the starboard side so we could see everything. Thank you!

Vancouver is such a cool city. We saw a blink of it. Definitely will go back and explore.

Gorgeous sunset. Relaxation...

Day at Sea

Day 1

Serendipity. That is what the naturalist said as she came over the intercom to annouce the siting of a family of killer whales. Apparently, they don't see them often. Thanks to my keen eyed husband, he spotted them long before the announcement and we were whale watching on our balcony, enjoying the view. They were beautiful.

Back up, this morning we started with a leisurely day. We had breakfast, had a couple's massage, relaxed in the sauna, steam room and whirlpool together. It was heavenly. Perfect way to kick off our week together and relax after the stress of handling everything to leave.

When we went up for lunch we couldn't find a table. So we asked a gentleman if we could join him. He said his wife was coming back, but we could join them. Before we knew it, we were fast friends. They're from Folsom, CA - near Sacramento. We had a blast visiting with them and spent the rest of the cruise together. Such a blessing...they were a blast! Dennis & Lyndi.

After lunch Shane, Dennis and I headed up to the front deck to do some site seeing. I took my camera w/ zoom lense. Shane & Dennis - binoculars. We sat up there for over 3 hours enjoying the views, freezing, getting rained on, sipping hot chocolate and loving life!

I had to take this photo because its the third cruise I've been on and never before has there ever been land ABOVE the pool. This ship is 9++ stories high. There were mountains rushing up on either side. Gorgeous!

And this is how we spent our first day...relaxation.
The pilot came when we left Canadian waters. They took pizza with them. ; ) Can't blame them...love the pizza! After they were gone, we were on our way!
Alaska...here we come!

Ketchikan

day 2

Ketchikan was our first stop. It was misty, rainy and fogging the whole stay. Apparently, there are gorgeous mountains surrounding the city. Considering they get over 14 FEET of rain a year...they don't see them often. I was shocked that it rained so much here. I figured AK would be snowy...but rain seems to be the most common weather. I was also surprised at how depressed and poor the city is and yet the people are super friendly. They joke that OVI's are more common than speeding tickets. With 14 feet of rain and lack of daylight through the winter, I can see why!

This is the steeple to the only church I could spot in town. There may be more (as I found out later we were dropped off in the touristy-trap area and there is a functioning town further down the coast).

Shane and I decided to do the zip-line tour. It was very fun! Since it was misty/rainy all day, our zips were faster. So we loaded up our rain gear and played outside for the day. Looking back, I think we got the best of Ketchikan. There wasn't much to do in town besides watch the salmon run, people fishing and shop for junky trinkets. It was very interesting to see those things and learn about their culture...it just isn't for me.
We started our adventure in this unimog (sp?). Shane was drooling over this vehicle. It was a bumpy ride!
Geared up and ready to go!One of the first zips.
Below is our 'test' zip to be sure we all knew what we were doing!

Here is the rope bridge we went over. I wish I would've stopped mid-way and taken a picture. There was the most AMAZING waterfall. Gorgeous. But my nerves got the best of me.
Our guides were awesome. Our whole group was standing on a tree stand while Cory went to the next stand (on the left) and the other guy (can't remember his name) was catching up to us. They high 5'd...I missed it.We had made our way down a few zips...this was looking up at a stand w/ the group behind us.
Here comes Shane!RepellingLast, but certainly not least, we went down this 250 foot slide. SO fast and SO fun!

Shane got going so fast he almost ran me over...I jumped out of the way, other people were in the way and his finger still hurts from stopping himself. I have to mention that I was going pretty good too and stopped 10-15 feet closer than I was standing. He was FLYING.
In case you chicken out, you could walk down these stairs.

There were yummy berries everywhere to eat. This is a salmon berry. Like a raspberry, but sweeter. yum! There were blueberries, red and black raspberries too.At the gift shop. They take everyone here to wait for your bus back to the ship.

After our adventure, we walked around town and around the fishing boats in the harbor. I was in awe...a completely different lifestyle. I am SO thankful for our warm summers, sunshine and that I don't have to worry about my husband going out on the water in fog, rain, darkness and freezing weather!

Most of the fishing boats have these little boats on them. The use this little boat to bring the nets in. We stopped and talked to a few fishermen. Very interesting.
As I mentioned earlier, the salmon were running. I somehow managed to get a photo of two of them leaping out of the water! There were CRAZY.
Check this out...taxidermy, apparel and post office all in one!Back on the ship, as we were leaving, we saw this crew of fisherman going out for an early evening excursion.

If Shane did one retaining wall job this big...we'd retire.

These photos are from the 'other' part of town I referred to earlier. We didn't see this part of Ketchikan till we set sail again.

I think there are as many float planes as their are cars.

Thought it was cool how the street goes up the mountainside.

One of the newest buildings we saw all week. Pretty!

It amazes me how many cargo crates there are. They told me everything (including cars) is shipped in, but it just doesn't hit home till you see these bins stacked up.Another harbor...newer boats.

Below is a boat being built. It was really cool, but I had the wrong settings on my camera, so its a terrible shot.
G'nite Ketchikan. Sleep tight.