Day 581

The kids are all dressed and ready for dinner, but could I get both of them to smile for the camera? Nope.

Day 580

Mixing up our standard Friday night pizza, we decided to make individual English muffin pizzas. Parker and Kaitlyn liked being able to make their own creations.

Day 579

Trees down, all that's left now is the cleanup.

Day 578

Now that all of our vacations are over, it's time to start home improvement season. The first thing on the list is getting 5 cottonwood trees taken out of our yard - including this one that has a broken top.

Day 577

After spending the previous day scrapbooking, we finally decided to get out of the house and see the sights in Long Beach. I made all the girls go to Marsh's Free Museum to see Jake the Alligator Man, because most of them had no idea what I was talking about. Then we went to the beach, got ice cream and I even managed to pick up a geocache too. Needless to say, not much scrapbooking done :)

Day 576

I got up early and drove to Long Beach to get some scrapbooking done with the girls. Since I was only able to get away for one night, I worked all day to get several mini-books finished.

Day 575

Getting ready for a scrapbooking retreat at the beach, I uploaded some recent digital layouts to Costco.com to get printed. (Gotta love next day printing!) This one is by far my favorite - because I love all of Kaitlyn's faces.

Day 574

To celebrate Uncle John's birthday, we took the family over for a pool party and barbecue. Parker was so excited to be hanging out with Sean & Tobey - you can see how his face just beamed.

Day 573

I recently changed the screen saver on the computer to show random pictures. I was pretty tickled when the kids decided that they wanted to eat their dinner while watching the slide show.

Day 572

With Les still away, I decided to pack up a picnic dinner and take the kids to Hammerle Park to eat in the grass and then play in the water. Both kids were on their best behavior and we had ended up having a great time.

Day 571

Les claims he was at Skamania Lodge for the yearly manager's retreat . . . but this picture would seem to prove otherwise.

Day 570

Parker really wanted to read in bed before going to sleep - and any reading is hard for me to discourage. Thankfully Kaitlyn was out cold, because he insisted on having the overhead light on.

Day 569

Kaitlyn decided to read her Cinderella storybook to me before bedtime.

Day 568

Parker spent about 20 minutes construsting this Lego airplane - all by himself. He decided he wanted to build an airplane and then worked out all the details on his own. It fell apart a couple times and he had one mini-meltdown, but he pulled himself together and finished it. Of course being a boy, he played with it for all of 8 minutes before he crash landed it on the kitchen floor.

Day 567

While Kaitlyn and I were in Alaska, the boys purchased a new inflatable pool for the back deck. Summer in Oregon arrived with July and the kids & I have been lounging on the back deck every evening after dinner.

Day 566

Les and Job chose to stay at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas this trip. Because even though it was off the main strip, the Rio's poker room was hosting the Main Event.

Day 565

Les and Job once again traveled to Las Vegas so they could watch the Main Event for the World Series of Poker. They split their time between watching the Main Event (and keeping their eyes open for celebrities) and playing in much smaller tournaments held at the different hotels nearby.

Day 564

With Les off to Vegas, it was just me and the kids joining Mike's birthday dinner. Mike, Andy and Mom met us at Mi Famiglia for pizza in Oregon City. After dinner we took the kids to the top of the Oregon City Municipal Elevator and looked out on the Willamette River. The kids were most excited that they could see our car from the top.

Day 563

Parker was very excited to have his sister home with him. The two of them cuddled and giggled in bed for nearly 40 minutes - Kaitlyn telling him all about "Laska" and the big boat. And although he was glad to see us, Parker did spend a lot of time telling me how much fun "boy time" was with Daddy.

Day 562

Our port call to Victoria, British Columbia was canceled because of strong cross winds. We weren't too disappointed because we hadn't made plans beyond seeing the city. So instead we participated in a digital photo scavenger hunt and a couple of the trivia competitions being held on board. We also got together with all of the geocachers on board one last time for a group photo (which I still haven't managed to get a copy of).

Day 561

Our stop in Ketchikan, Alaska was only a few hours long. Mindy did some high adventure ziplining while Carrie and I explored the city and visited Totem Bight state park to see some totem poles. After naps and showers, we dropped Kaitlyn off at daycare and attended the formal dinner in the dining room. We had tended to avoid the ship's photographers, but since we are all dressed up fancy we made nice for the camera - then forked over an arm and a leg for the photo. But it was worth it to have a nice one of the three of us together.

Day 560

Our second stop was in Juneau, Alaska, where Carrie, Mindy & I went on a Harv & Marv whale watching excursion. (Kaitlyn stayed on the boat in the excellent daycare facilities). In addition to all of the whales we saw . . . I met a man who had his face ripped off my a bear!!! And by met, I mean we rescued him from the ocean, he joined us for some whale watching, told us about the time he had his face torn off and then we dropped him off at his boat once the Coast Guard located it. I had rented a zoom lens for the occasion and Carrie was able to snap this great photo of a humpback whale breaching. Before heading back to the ship, we stopped at the Mendenhall Glacier and met up with Kay who had moved to Juneau a few weeks prior.

Day 559

Our first port was Skagway, Alaska. We took a historic train ride through Skagway, over the White Pass into Frasier, British Columbia. After stamping our passports, we took a bus into the Yukon Territory to Caribou Crossing where had lunch and took a dog cart ride. (The dogs had run in the most recent Iditarod and run several times in the Yukon Quest.) Our tour guide, James, was from Ireland and had the best accent - although it seemed a little out of place with all of his historical Alaska tales. After we returned to Skagway, Kaitlyn and I headed back to the boat for naps while Mindy and Carrie did some shopping.

Day 558

Mindy, Kaitlyn and I took a smaller excursion boat out to the Sawyer Glacier up the Tracy Arm Fjord. The ice bergs were spectacular and we even got an up close view of a humpback whale feeding near the shoreline of the fjord. The weather was amazing - sunny and clear. The videographer even commented on how, in two years of working the cruise, this was the best weather he'd ever seen in the fjord.

Day 557

Our first day on the cruise was a day at sea and we spent the day exploring the ship and eating too much. Since we were traveling so far north, the sun took hours to set and we got some gorgeous pictures. The weather was so mild that we spent much of the evening just sitting on the balcony watching the sun sink lower and lower. We even spotted a tiny whale fluke off in the distance. Kaitlyn was so excited to use the binoculars - although she preferred looking in them backwards.

Day 556

The Carnival Spirit sits in port in Seattle waiting to wisk me, Kaitlyn, Mindy and Carrie off to beautiful Alaska. We've been planning this trip for almost a year now and I can hardly believe that we are actually leaving.

Day 555

Uncle Mike came over for a 5th of July BBQ of steak and potatoes. Kaitlyn got to wave her first sparkler - which she was a little bit afraid of and only wanted to do one. And we got our family photo in our matching Old Navy shirts. (It was so hard not to choose the photo where we all were making our silly faces.)

Day 554

Here's the whole crew outside our Yurt at the Tolt-McDonald campground where we camped for GeoWoodstock. It was a really great trip - everyone got along well and it only rained at night. We even managed to stop and grab just a couple more caches on the way home too. Since Parker and I got home later than intended and were a bit exhausted, Les and Kaitlyn graciously postponed our 4th of July festivities until the 5th.

Day 553

There were so many good picture to choose from today - from Parker signing his name on the log book at GeoWoodstock to Parker running on the suspension bridge by our campsite. But I really had to go with this picture that Carrie snapped of the two of us at sunset Snoqualmie Falls.

Day 552

Time for a road trip. Parker traveled with Carrie, Mindy and me from Portland to Carnation, WA on the way to GeoWoodstock. On the drive north, we stopped and found 7 caches. This lovely field of daisies was near the cache "Smile Mother Teresa you're on Caching Camera" (which was just off I-5 overlooking a very unique collection of monuments).

Day 551

Parker was quite proud to show off the macaroni noodle necklace that he made at preschool - he was even the one to suggest I take a picture of him wearing it.