New roommates

Maggie has wanted to share a bedroom with Allie since before she was born. She tried so hard to convince me to let Allie sleep in her room as a baby even offering to change her diaper in the middle of the night when I explained babies wake up a lot. Such my sweet girl that Maggie. Fast forward 2.5 years and we're finally making it happen.

I needed to find the right bed because a traditional bunk bed wouldn't work. And I wanted Allie to be potty trained as well. I started searching for beds once we were on the right track in the potty department but both have proved more difficult than originally thought. BUT here we are, moving Allie into Maggie's room and they couldn't be more excited! Maggie is ready for a roommate and Allie is ready for a big girl bed!

UPDATE 7/29: Finished moving some decor and added some pics from Allie's old room. Also swapped out the fans (8/6).  Loving this little girl room!

Alaskan Cruise - Day 7

Saturday, June 3rd -- Victoria, B.C.

Even though we did visit a port, this was largely a sea day as we didn't actually arrive in Victoria until about 7pm. So we left Skagway Thursday evening around 5pm and were at sea for nearly 48 hours. We were really missing the kids at this point and we can't call them while at sea, so it was difficult having all that sea time stacked at the end of the cruise. Also, it seemed really random that we stopped in port from 7-11:30pm. We quickly figured out this is a necessary restocking/refueling stop for the ship so why not turn it into an excursion for those on board?

I wasn't really looking forward to this port very much, to be honest, but we did have a nice time. We didn't plan any excursions- we preferred to spend money on the exciting things like trains, planes and whales. ;) We walked out on the really long breakwater pier- it was pretty neat. Don't think I've ever been on one before.

Then we took a bus to the downtown area and walked around. We saw some neat buildings, including the parliament building, which they light up at night, pretty neat.

Then we ran into a street performer who put on a really good show. It was especially cool when he crawled head first down a wall - it reminded me of something Will would do (*gasp!)

When spotted a BeaverTails when we arrived and knew we would stop in before leaving. I learned of this place on my many trips to Toronto and was very pleased to see it on this side of Canada as well. I got a delicious pastry concoction that looks like, whaddayaknow a beaver tail. And Daniel happily grabbed his favorite Canadian food- poutine. It's fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. I don't get it, but he loves it. With this, we concluded our night in Victoria and headed back to the ship.

Going home tomorrow. Sad the cruise is over but very happy to get back to the kids! 

Alaskan Cruise - Day 6

Friday, June 2nd -- At Sea

Daniel doesn't like the days at sea that much mostly because there's not as much on board he wants to do as me. He's happy to lounge in the room and definitely on the balcony, reading, relaxing, watching tv. I can only sit in the cabin for so long before I get cabin fever. Ha!

I went to a fruit and vegetable carving and explored the ship some, but it's just not as much fun by yourself.

We watched La La Land that afternoon because they wised up and moved it inside then we had lunch and I was gonna do afternoon trivia, but it was weird by myself so I headed back to the room. The sun was out and we were headed south so it was warm enough to hang out on the balcony without bundling up and dry enough to sit on the chairs.

After relaxing for awhile, I started getting ready for our last formal night. I decided to curl my hair so starting early was the way to go. I'm upset we didn't get pictures of either formal nights. We took portraits both nights, but didn't end up buying them and since we didn't take any of ourselves, there's no formal pics for us. Sad. We went to a Sherlock Holmes Musical Murder Mystery starring the cruise director's staff which was weird but entertaining. I couldn't figure out if the script was odd or they were acting oddly.

We took a pic in front of the balloon drop but didn't actually stay for the farewell and balloon drop party. My hair was still curly, woohoo! But we had already dressed down.

Alaskan Cruise - Day 5

Thursday, June 1st -- Skagway, Alaska

I loved Skagway! We both did. I mentioned in my Ketchikan post that it was tied or very close runner-up as a favorite day/place-- I was referring to Skagway. We scheduled a train ride on the White Pass Scenic Railway and I was so excited about this!! There was another Alaskan itinerary with another cruise line that I really liked and could start out with a nice train ride but Daniel really wanted to leave from Seattle and these dates worked best for my Aunt Rose. When I found out a train ride was an excursion on this itinerary, I was sold! Don't ask me why, I just think taking a train up a mountain is the coolest thing.

This was the first thing we did upon arrival in Skagway. Our departure time was 8:10am and we actually woke up a little late (probably b/c I was up so early the morning before) so there was no time for breakfast even. I grabbed a couple muffins from the buffet and we headed for the train. We sat inside the cabin for awhile but once they gave the ok to head outside, we did and barely came back in the rest of the trip. The higher we climbed, the colder it got, of course and I had to add some layers but it was sooooo cool. I took a couple hundred pictures just on the train ride. Everywhere you turned was something just beautiful.

We had a great system going on the front of our car, we were all switching out, moving around, giving each other chances to take photos and see the view. There were some guys on the back of the train car that were hogging the rails and wouldn't let anyone else get in for photos. Then we also befriended some Aussies who were on the back of their train car. I, of course, loved their accents. This just made the ride even cooler. So much fun. The only downside to being outside the whole time, is we missed most of the narration but I'd say it was worth it. ;)

I could keep going on train pics, but there's more to see and I'm gonna do a photo book anyway. After the train ride, we grabbed an amazing lunch. I can still taste the flaky crust around the cod now. Yumm. Then we meandered around town a little and took a hike to get an amazing view of the town. We should've headed back down after that, but kept going for some reason. 

 Daniel got reception in this really remote part of the trail, it was weird and kinda funny so I had to snap a pic. 

After our hike, we headed back to town and got some souvenirs before heading back to the ship. What a great day! 

I think because I was so looking forward to that rail trip and I loved the cute, quaint town of Skagway with their boardwalks and we had a fantastic lunch AND got to take a hike, Skagway really probably was my favorite Alaskan port. Everything went well and was fun that day.

Goodbye Skagway, what a neat little town you were! We were back on board by 5pm, relaxed in the room before dinner then went to the production show that evening. "Blame it on the Boogie." I may have been the only one dancing in my seat, not sure, we were in the front row for that one. I really enjoyed all the production shows on this ship, very entertaining.