Alicia Had a Birthday

My birthday was in the middle of the cruise (which was great enough), but my boys were upset that they didn’t get to celebrate.  So about a week after we got home Dan took the boys to get presents, and they surprised me with cake and ice cream.  It was way cute.

My favorite gift was the new mp3 player Dan bought me before the cruise.  I had been in tears over my old one.  It was not very user friendly when it came to audiobooks and exercising.  I LOVE my new one.  I have already put a lot of usage on it (6 books). 

My biggest surprise was the food slicer that Dan got for my KitchenAid.  It has already been a life saver with my garden. 

Funniest gift was Connor finally giving me a watering can.  It has been a joke for a couple of years, when people ask me what to get someone in my family I tell them a bucket or a watering can.  Mine is a deluxe one that the boys fight over to use. 

Okay, second funniest gift was Haden giving me some new exercise bands.  The boys had ripped my old band, and tried to fix it themselves.  Their solution:  Scotch tape along the whole band.  It held it together, but didn’t feel very comfortable in my hands.  Now I have 3 bands (one for each of the boys to rip? Or maybe they won’t have to fight over them anymore)

Thanks to Dan and my boys for making me feel special.  It was great to have them pamper me a little.  They did a great job picking out gifts!

Finishing Alaska Part 3

Day 6: At Sea

It was time to start heading back to the lower 48.  We had almost 2 full days at sea.  Which meant filling them with random activities.  The boys participated in a bunch of basketball tournaments (3 on 3, shooting, etc…) Let’s just say that there really wasn’t much competition.(And maybe it wasn’t really fair for those competing against the Harward’s)  The medals were cool though.

We also spent a lot of time playing in Heart’s tournaments within the fam.  It is scary how competitive some of us get!  Those who were not playing the round spent the time reading.  Literally.  There were always 3-5 of us with a nose in a book.  I read 4.5 books in the week.  We had fun passing the books along to whoever wanted it next.

With a full day at sea they had another formal night.  I ended up putting sleeves underneath because I was actually cold.  Love being cold in July!

The group – sans Beez (Heather’s mission companion that came with us).  I can’t believe how grown we’ve gotten.  When did we get so old??

Day 7: Victoria, Canada

So most of the day was at sea.  We docked in Victoria at about 7 pm, and had to be back at 10:30pm.  Thankfully it is a little bit later of a sunset.  Dan and I only had one goal in mind:  Must find CoffeeCrisp candy bars.  So we wandered around trying to get away from the touristy area to find a grocery store.  Success!!  We found a 7 Eleven.  Then they told us there were 2 more stores right across and down the street from where our bus had let us off!  Doh!  Oh well, on the walk back we found both of them, and stopped in to buy even more CoffeeCrisp!! 

A few pics from our wandering through Victoria and back.  We stumbled on an old armory that was being converted to a Youth Center.  Oh, and the “Blueberry”.  We saw a quite a few of these (and even a “cranberry”) but couldn’t get our camera out fast enough.  It felt appropriate to pay homage since we were actually in Canada, and just across the water from Vancouver.  Oh, and then we also found the entrance to Chinatown.  We found it on our way out, but came back to take pictures later.  Unfortunately everything was closed by the time we made our way back.

Day 8: Seattle

We ended up with an entire day in Seattle at the end of the trip.  Our plane didn’t depart until about 6:30pm, so we dropped our luggage off in storage and took off on the light rail into downtown.  One day on the cruise, Dan and I ended up eating lunch with a couple from Seattle and they recommended a few places to visit.

Up first was Pike’s Market.  That was an experience.  The people and the smells!  It was invigorating, and enough to send Alicia over the edge.  Reaffirmed that I can’t stand the smell of fish.  However, it was a blast to see them tossing the fish.  We had been told about the “gum” wall, so we searched all over and finally found it on the lower side of the market.

Yep, just about as disgusting as you can imagine it, but fascinating at the same time.  Wow!!  After the gum wall, we took off down the stairs and wandered the pier for awhile.  Then it was pizza on the pier, and back up the gazillion steps to meet up with the family to go back to the airport.  I am thinking I want to go back to Seattle and spend a little more time looking around.

Wahoo!  Finished!  Amazing trip, and had a great time with the fam.  Glad that we still all get along!  We are already looking forward to the next trip…Oregon coast Dad??

In Alaska Part 2

Day 4: Tracy Arm Fjord & Juneau

Instead of Glacier Bay, our itinerary did Tracy Arm Fjord.  Bummer about it was that we were in and out from 6am-9am.  Did not bode well for Alicia’s sleeping pattern, but we did manage to roll out of bed in time to see as we were turning around and going back out of the fjord.

Inside joke of the cruise:  Spot the Mormon.

After lunch we docked in Juneau, and boarded our bus for an excursion.  Dan and I decided to do a float trip off of the Mendenhall Glacier.  We rowed around the lake at the bottom of the glacier, and then headed down the “whitewater” of Mendenhall River. 

We got to row up to a couple of the floating icebergs and touch them.  Amazing.  The downriver run was a ton of fun.  Very wet, and cold!!  We were not really prepared for it.  I felt like my feet were going to freeze off in my rubber boots!!  Next time I will be completely decked out in rain gear.  If only because of the downpour we ended up walking in later that evening!!

Yes we are Harwards, and yes we are too cheap to pay the $3 charge to ride the bus back to the ship.  It was only a 15 minute walk…in a rainstorm that probably equaled the ENTIRE amount of rain Utah gets in a year!  Needless to say Dan and I scrounged up some quarters to use the dryers in the Laundromat. 

Day 5: Skagway

Our last port in Alaska was on the 4th of July.  We got into the downtown in time to watch their Independence Day Parade.  We actually stopped and watched it…which shocked Dan.  Alicia doesn’t do summer parades (marching band scarred me for life).  This one was actually cute.  VERY small town…in fact I think the entire town was in the parade, and they were just putting it on for the cruise passengers.

After lunch the entire family went too the White Passage Railway tour up to the Canadian border.  Very old train, on a very old track.  Kind of freaky in some parts, although Alicia slept through most of it.

It was interesting seeing the trails that the miners used to get into the Yukon.  The narrator was very entertaining (oh, and definitely Mormon—spot the Mormon!)

Like I said, I was tired.  I slept a lot!!  It was a great vacation!!

Here Comes Alaska Part 1

Wow, I’m almost caught up!  Trying to get everything done before we leave to CA next week.  We’ll see how this goes! 

I finally got all the pictures from the fam, and had over 1000 to go through, so that took some time.  Here are the ones dealing mostly with me and Dan.  I joked with Dan leading up to the cruise that I was planning on sleeping for the first 2 days.  I pretty much did that.  Woke up briefly to go up and eat.  It was GLORIOUS!!  The best part of this cruise was that since Dan and I have been there before, there was no rush to go and see or do anything.  We took our time.  Also no rush to take pictures…so there are actually few that we took. (Thanks to Marcus, our official Family Photographer)

Day 1: Departing Seattle

Airports are always fun.  Going with the Harward’s tends to draw a few stares…okay, enough stares to be uncomfortable.

Our first cab ride.  I would definitely do it again, although we got completely ripped off on the way home from the cruise.  Our bad for being naïve. 

Waiting to get on the ship.  We sailed with Princess again, and loved it. 

Dan and I discovered the International Café, literally just outside the door of our cabin.  That was dangerous.  We lost count of the number of pieces of cheesecake we ate on the first day.  We didn’t need to wait for room service, it was awesome!

Day 2: At Sea

 
Not many pictures on this day:  See 2nd paragraph….Alicia slept.  Thanks Mark for the pictures of the whales.  We saw a ton of whales throughout the week.  I saw them when I was running the promenade, and Dan saw a lot sitting in the Skywalker Lounge at the top of the ship.  Never ceases to amaze me.

Formal night.  I hate packing church clothes!

Day 3: Ketchikan Alaska

We didn’t do any excursions in Ketchikan.  Just walked around the boardwalk, and checked out the totem pole park.  It was HOT.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was looking forward to wearing a sweatshirt. 

Dan loved playing with the panoramic picture setting on his phone, unfortunately it doesn’t print very well, so I had to chop them when I was editing.  Suffice it to say the totem pole was VERY tall.  Oh, and Alicia celebrated her 33rd birthday on the cruise.  What a way to celebrate!  Thanks Mom & Dad!

Tsunami Tri

Back in the saddle again.  Finally got my butt in gear and signed up with Amy for our first Tri since getting pregnant & having babies.  It has been really hard to get back into shape.  Even with all the working out, I’m still struggling with losing the last pounds, and it definitely affected my times.  Anyway, overall a great success.  I managed to beat my stretch goal by about 2 minutes.  Yippee!!!  Bad thing was that it put me at 8th in my division.  Sometimes it stinks being in the most competitive division.

Anyway here are the stats (for my reference in the future).

Tsunami Tri - Bountiful
350 Swim : 8:08 (50 yard run to transition)
T1: 1:48 (Best time yet, 2nd in division---Way to go Amy, you smoked everyone!)
11.5mi Bike: 38:03
T2: 0:31
3.4mi Run: 33:46 (Yeah, the running really stinks.  Definitely where I can make up the best time….if I can shave off those minute---and pounds)

Total Time: 1:22:17  Stretch Goal: 1:25:00

Okay, now I just looked over my last results for a Bountiful Tri and now I’m actually excited about my results.  My goal had been 1:22 in 2011(after 3 tris)…Boy, now I wish I was 17 seconds faster!!  That and I totally rocked the swim.  I almost took 1 minute off.  Can you guess what exercise I was most consistent in doing these past 2 years?

Overall, liked this race a lot, and would do it again and skip the Bountiful Reverse Tri in August.  The bike route was different and had a lot more hills and turns, but it helped keep me engaged.  Swim was MUCH better.  They did a lot better job with the lanes, and stretching the swimmers out.  Only complaint was that I wished it started at 7am to help beat the heat.  Granted that would have caused a 4 am wake-up, and I’m not sure I’m that crazy.  Hoping to get one more Tri in before end of summer!