Alaska Cruise- Ketchikan

Ketchikan, Alaska was our first stop on our cruise and we had fun getting off the ship and walking around and exploring.  We walked outside of the main town a little and had a nice walk next to a river and through some really pretty areas.  After walking around for awhile we split up and Drew, Alden, my parents and I went to the lumberjack show while my siblings kept walking some.  The lumberjack show was a lot of fun to watch and I really enjoyed it because it was something new that I hadn't seen before.  Alden was also really entertained and had fun watching all the different events.  It ended up being a nice stop with lots to do without feeling rushed.

Setting off on our walk.

Stopping to take in the beautiful river.

Alden loved having lots of family to give him attention and he really enjoyed this walk and looking at everything

Drew having fun exploring and finding a fun sign to pose with.

It really was a beautiful walk and Erik found a piece of gold bigger than him to hug.

Alden was very excited about the lumberjack show before it even really started.  It was a show that really encouraged audience participation (in the forms of cheering and booing) and Alden loved joining in.  They also gave out postcards with the lumberjacks signatures on it to people who were showing lots of enthusiasm when your team won and Alden got one of the special postcards.

It was fun to watch the guys compete in all the events and see how quickly they could complete something that would probably take me hours or days.

I thought this was one of the most impressive events, throwing an ax and hitting a target.

The events with the chainsaw were definitely the quickest.

Man this must take a ton of core strength, and just strength in general.  To stand on a little board while chopping a tree...crazy,

I liked the water events just because they were entertaining and a little funny.

This was really entertaining having the guys balance on this spinning log but then they also would kick water at the other person or bend down to fill their hat with water and throw that at the other person while still balancing on the log.  It was really impressive.

Ketchikan is always a fun place to stop and this time was no exception.  It was fun to find new places to explore there and see a fun and entertaining show.  I am glad I got to share this experience with my family and it is fun to see Alden enjoying discovering lots of new things.

Alaska Cruise - The Start

At the end of July we got to go on an Alaska cruise with my family which was lots of fun.  We had to get up really early to catch our flight to San Francisco where our cruise left from but Alden was in good mood for most of traveling, especially considering how early we had to get him up.  Once we got to the ship Alden was exhausted so he was not very happy when we had to do muster drill and put on his life vest.  However, he was happy to go see my parent's balcony and look out at the water so that kept him distracted for quite awhile.

Alden was not very happy to have his life jacket on in these pictures but a couple minutes later he was having fun playing with Daddy in their life jackets.  Here is a video of them playing.

The second day on the ship Alden started off by looking out at the water again.  He was always happy when he was looking out at the water.  We also had a chance to visit with all of our family which was nice and relaxing.  It was nice having a sea day to start off the trip so that we could rest after traveling the day before and we could play games with family.  Drew and I also went and took a ballroom dance class on the ship which was interesting.  Drew made the class very entertaining even though it was super basic.  It was also a formal night for dinner so we had fun getting dressed up and my sister, Maren, even let me do her hair.  It was a fun day with family.

Our family visiting in the staterooms.

Alden loved having other family around to pay attention to him.

Drew and I dancing.  Can you see Drew's funny face in the second picture?  Here is a little video of us doing the cha-cha.  You can see it was fairly basic but we had fun.

It was fun getting to dress up with Drew and Alden so that we could all match.

Our formal family pictures.  It is nice to be able to get the majority of our family in one photo when we all get together.  This was a great start to our ten day cruise together.