SENIOR

SOPHOMORE

5th GRADER

3rd GRADER

Only two more years at the same school for these two! They ride the bus and enjoy making plans with all of their friends for after school play dates. Piano practicing is going to have to come first this year! ;)

The big girls have a few issues to work out this year in regards to transportation, but other than that should be in for a good year! Marlee is doing color guard again. Miranda is just going to be a senior (no extracurricular activities this year) but is also trying to find a job.

I must be a little overprotective because I am the only mom that comes to the bus stop with the kids in the morning. . . I just have this thing about making sure they are on the bus and off safely to school! These are all the crazy bus stop friends we have made! And yes the kid in the middle does have a mohawk! Remember when that was so extreme . . . now it is just the norm!!

The kids gave us a hard time after our last trip because the souvenirs we brought them were too cheap, so this time we worked extra hard trying to find souvenirs cool enough for this gang! The shirts were still quite lame, although Marlee's does say "Alaska, Home of the MIDNIGHT SUN" (for you Twilight fans). They got some collector coins, jewelry, candy and a fake bear claw!

A L A S K A

Our awesome trip to Alaska!

The Star Princess

Our cruise ship, the Star Princess, was awesome! There was non-stop FOOD all day and night, sorry didn't think to take pics (the kids were disappointed). John Bytheway went with us and gave some really good talks and even entertained us with his singing and guitar playing! We were with a pretty large (200+) LDS group and had reservations in the dining room each night with our group. That was nice! It was great! The ship had goofy golf, for which we won a tournament, dancing, shows, swimming, gym. They even had "movies under the stars," and guess what I watched? Yep, "Twilight!" LOL

I have a million scenery pictures . . . hard to stop taking pictures! It's the most beautiful place I have ever been! This is Tracey Arm, a fjord near Juneau. There is a glacier just above where the two big mountains meet. We couldn't get any closer because of all the ice bergs.

Alaska scenery! I took over 500 pictures but can't post them all.

Maybe I should do a scenery collage!!!

The ports we stopped at were in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria. Lots of touristy towns with gift shops galore!

This is for you Michael!

Skagway

Everyone wanted to hold Brad's fish! ;)

Grizzly Adams himself! (our fisherman guide)

I hate this picture, but it's proof that I caught a pretty big fish too! We had so much fun fishing!!! We had a guide who had a boat with the sonar thingy on it and he knew right where to go, what kind of lures to use, and was pretty funny too! The fish I'm holding is a Coho and the big one Brad is holding below is a King Salmon. Our guide had a down rigger on his boat so it would take the line way down to where the fish were. He had it all down to a science. He even had a cool hook thingy that would remove the hook from the fish after it'd been caught, and set it free. We released all of the ones that we don't have pictures of. It would have costed a fortune to ship them home, so we donated our fish to the next group. We probably caught a total of 18 of these huge fish!

That is how he set them free!

Here's Brad's first fish . . .

Here's the monster!!!

Alaskan Wildlife!

Buchart Gardens

It was absolutely gorgeous at Buchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada. We didn't have enough time and it was crowded, but it was the most amazing place ever!

What's a reunion without the kids? It was strange for those of us without the kids! We had a nice picnic, potluck style, talent show, a few little classes on CPR, finances, etc., and did some shooting, then had a party only for the cousins that evening. It was pretty fun!

We did a little shooting. It was pretty fun trying to hit the clay pigeons, well fun for those that did hit them. I was another story entirely!

Before our Alaska trip we stopped in Idaho for the Myers Family Reunion. We had a little talent show. This is Brad's cousin, Jill, and her family. The reason I post this picture is so you can look at the little girl third from the left. She looks a LOT like Erin! So much so that I wanted to pack her in my suitcase and bring her home!

Aside from the silly face. . . see the resemblance?