Quick stop in Seattle

We finally got off the boat!  As one who gets sick on the water, I was sure happy to get off the boat!  We drove off the boat and were on our way.  We were headed to a park to meet some friends for a quick catch up.  Trey grew up near the Seattle Temple so we did lunch at a park near the temple.  One of my good friends Sarah drove North and it was SO good to see her.  It had been since my wedding night that I was able to see Sarah.  Her oldest, Dalton was just a baby then.  So much has happened.  We had a blast catching up and our boys sure hit it off!!  I was sad to go.  If Aaron wasn't there, we probably would have chatted all day! 

Our family in front of the Seattle Temple.

Sarah and I.

Sarah, Trey & My kids.

It sure was good to see her!!!

Alaska Marine Highway Boat Fun!

We packed games and activities to keep us busy while on the boat.  Here are just a few pictures of us killing our time on the boat.

Trey playing Go Fish with the kids.  We played lots of games with the kids.

The adults put together a couple of bigger puzzles.  We met a couple other really cool families on the ship.  This family was LDS and in the Coast Guard. 

Justin lost his very first tooth.  He was pretty excited that the Tooth Fairy was able to find him on the boat!

We did stop in Ketchican, but I must have left my camera on the boat.  I can't seem to find any pictures from there.  I will be moving off the boat and on to the rest of the trip so I can try and catch up to present day!  So much has happened!

Alaska Marine Highway Boat Shots

Here are a few shots I took from the boat.  I thought they were very pretty. 

Alaska Marine Highway Sidenotes

I've been trying to figure out where I left off so I can update and catch-up all my fans who are waiting on my every hanging word for an update, but the time just seems to fly by.  I did find a couple of things I wanted to write down but they don't need a whole post to themselves.

22 May 2012 {first day on the boat} 

"While at lunch today, Kennie said something that cracked us all up.  We were listening to all the kids talk about who they love & who their boy/girl friend is.  I asked Kennie if he loved someone or had a girlfriend and his response was classic!  'Nope!  I can't date yet so I don't want a girlfriend.  That will just tempt me.'  Haha!"

23 May 2012

"Funny side note about today - we were playing games with one of the other families when a page came overhead asking for a doctor or trained medical personnel to go to the Pursers Desk.  Some guy was having back spasms {not emergent} but it was pretty comical.  Aaron is never really off duty"

Sitka, Alaska

Sitka, Alaska was our first real stop {where everyone got off because it wasn't in the middle of the night} and it was fun.  Sitka is a VERY pretty place and I wish we could have stayed longer.  Here are a few pictures of our fun!

Can you tell we had some fun?  The totem pole was cool but the kids didn't think it was very interesting.  The view from the top of the stairs we climbed was beautiful!!

Let's start at the very beginning,

A very good place to start.  We are headed back to the beginning of our adventure from Anchorage, Alaska to San Diego, California.  31 days, 3,722 car miles, 1,047 boat miles and too many stops to count.  Here begins our trip.  I am going to try to blog at least every other day until I am caught up and our trip is documented.  Keep looking back!! 

**This post has been edited to include a few more pictures I was able to find.

We started our trip Sunday morning, May 20th.  We left

Anchorage and made it to Tok Alaska.  Here are a few pictures of the fun we had while driving.

Here is a picture of our boat.  It doesn't look big, but it was.

Here we are driving onto the boat:

Here is what the car deck looked like:

Our first stop was Juneau at 2 in the morning.  Trey and I got up and got off the boat for the hour we were there to visit with Cameron Blackhurst who served a mission in our ward in Alaska.  It was so fun to get to chat with him.  We had lots of fun when he was stationed in our ward and it was great to see him again!

We get the keys to our house on Thursday and need to paint and then the household goods will be delivered on Saturday so I don't know how much you will see me the next little while.  Sorry!

Traveling & Schwendiman Reunion

One day here in the not so distant future, I will need to sit down and do some serious blogging to document our trip from Anchorage to San Diego. This has been an amazing and once in a lifetime {hopefully} experience. But for now – I wanted to post a few pictures from the Schwendiman Reunion that we had this past weekend. We figured out that there was 68 of us that were there at some point during the reunion. We haven’t been able to attend this annual tradition since 2006. We sure had a good time seeing everyone. With exception to Mom & Dad Lewis, Robin and Dallin – we haven’t been able to spend time with any of this super fun family. Thanks to Facebook we have been able to keep up on everyone’s lives but it’s different to let your kids play and sit face to face and joke. Play a good old-fashion game of kickball, water games and some dutch oven cooking! Enjoy just a few pictures. I’ll probably do a few more posts later about the reunion but some of these pictures I just had to share.

This is a family picture on a rock during a small kid friendly hike at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Grandma Lewis, Maggie & Aaron

Grandma Schwendiman – a perfect example of an “elect lady"!”

Look at this adorable face. I LOVE this picture of Maggie!!!

Well, that’s it for now! Watch for more updates!

Under Construction!

Just a warning.  In the next few days I will be making some changes to the blog.  Hopefully I can update it so it is more current.

Where does the time go?

So, it seems like not so long ago we found out we were headed to San Diego.  Now, we are just over 2 months out and I can't believe our time is drawing near.  There is so much to do plus I am trying to finish school with the kids.  Ya right.  I keep finding things I want to do with them.

Anyway, we are all still alive.  I'll post some pictures of the Aurora Borealis here soon.  I got some good ones.