Smiles from Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska

Today I am going to share some of the beautiful sights of

Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska with you.

We cruised into the fjord for several hours before turning around

and cruising back out into the open sea.


We were smiling all the way.
This was a true high light of our trip to Alaska.

My pictures do not do it justice but maybe they will
give you an idea of the spectacular scenery.

We passed over a hundred frozen waterfalls...

Numerous ice bergs floated by..
(It made me think of Titanic and shiver.)

Our souls were filled with wonder and awe as we viewed
Gods creations in this remote area of the world.

We were so glad that we could share this experience with friends.
This is Martha and Joe, our neighbors.

John and I will never forget visiting Tracy Arm Fjord.

We spent much of the day out on the deck...

and so did our friends.

Here LouAnn ties Kris's shoe for her.
Is that a banana John is holding?
It was probably a frozen banana by the time he ate it.

...

We also spied a whale...

but he was on the deck...LOL
(Actually we did see several whales at different times on this trip

but I could never get a picture.)

The icebergs started getting bigger and bigger.

This does not look that big but the captain told us it was
enormous under water.
He took us into the Fjord over an hour further than did the

previous cruise ship that went through the Fjord,

but we had to turn around before we got to the end to the glacier.
We were disappointed we didn't get to see the glacier but since

we didn't want to hit an iceberg and sink, we didn't complain.

Do you notice that no one is in the pool?

That is because we were all bundled up in blankets sipping hot chocolate.

Goodbye Tracy Arm Fjord.
We were filled with smiles as we viewed this beautiful scenery.
...
It fills me with wonder to see the spectacular beauty God has

created in this remote area of the world.
We feel very blessed and thankful.
...
I hope that you have enjoyed sharing Tracy Arm Fjord with me.

I hope that you are doing well.

Have a great week.

Hugs, Lura

Happy Birthday John...UPPPS...Yuck!

Happy Birthday John

Yep, yesterday was my dear hubby's birthday...

I have always made nice birthday breakfasts for the

birthday kids in our family...
and yesterday was not an exception.

Austin and I got up early to decorate birthday plates.
Then, I got busy with the menu...
...
Fresh home made peach jam....done
Fresh strawberries from our garden cut up....done
Erin's special syrup made.... done
Potatoes grated and fried into hash browns..... done
Sausage fried.....done
Waffle's ready to cook..... done
Eggs ready to cook.... done
...
We are almost ready for our birthday breakfast feast.
Just a few more birthday breakfast touches to prepare.

(Do you like his new hat and suspenders? These were early gifts I had him get in Alaska.)

While Grampy gets calls from all of our kids wishing him well
I pick roses for the birthday table.

I ask Austin to take a picture of me with Grampy.
He said he was too tired and didn't feel like it.

I thought that was odd because he always likes to take pictures....

but, no bother... Grampy took this picture of the two of us.
(Notice that I dressed up nice and put on makeup for the occasion.)
(Of course this is how I always look for breakfast... lol)

All I had left to do was pick some oranges and
make us orange freezes to drink.

We are ready for Grampy's Birthday Breakfast.
Scoot over closer Austin so I can get a better picture....
... and you have a funny look on your face...
Get closer and give me a better smile....
...
Wait a minute..... what is happening????
...

*/#*!/#E A R P!! #*!/#!/*
...
Yuck!!!
..

Yes.... you guessed it...
Austin threw up all over the table...grampy....the plates...
well you get the picture...

I grabbed a bowl as fast as I could but it was too late....

poor Austin...

poor John...

poor Me... (I had to clean it all up.)

...
Well... birthday breakfast was over....

Yep.... would you like some cold cereal Grampy?
...
(Austin sets the record for untimely throw ups at my house.
When he was a baby he threw up all over my 2 hour old... just installed new carpet.)
...

Well.... back to John's birthday....
Clean up throw up mess...

Wash table linens including chair covers...
Clean up kitchen...
Sit with our sick boy...

Lunch out.... cancelled...

However I did manage to bake John his traditional rhubarb pie.
We had lovely rhubarb just waiting to be picked and made into a pie.

(I didn't notice that I was spilling out the pie juice until after the picture.)
...
Austin wasn't up to going to E.J.'s game or out to dinner
so I stayed home with him and John went alone.
(John ended up having a peanut butter sandwich for his dinner)

John enjoyed watching E.J.'s last game...

..and spending some time with Mindy and Ernie and the kids
before he came home...

Too have his birthday pie with me.
(We were suppose to have this with the whole family at Mindy's house.)
...
Oh well..... What can I say???

Happy 29th anniversary of your

39th birthday dear John.
This is surely a birthday we will not forget.
...
...but there is more....

Austin is feeling fine today... and even helped me cook the little sausage

I had left over from yesterday

So we had a birthday breakfast make over....

...without the fresh strawberries..
...without the home made hashbrowns...
...without the fresh peaches....(no more were ripe)...
...without the orange freezes...
but the waffles , eggs and small bite of sausage were good
...
Don't worry dear.... we will finish this celebration this weekend.
(Not that you care)

We all love you, Lura

Smiles and a glimps of Juneau, Alaska

Hello again dear blog friends.

Thanks to all of you who wished Tom and his family well on my last post.

June will be greatly missed.

I have been gone since May 5th.

I had a group of 25 I was taking on a cruise to Alaska.

I was sad that I had to be away from family at that time

but we ended up having a nice time cruising with clients and friends.
I also missed being able to get to my computer and visit you.

I look forward to catching up now that I am home again.

...

Before I share my Alaska smiles with you, I have wonderful news.

This is my biggest of all smiles.

My dear grandson, Justin, who just graduated from his army

special training to be a medic,

got his mission call while we were in Alaska.

We are thrilled that he got his call to serve his mission before he got deployed.
The army will grant him 2 years leave since he got his call before he was deployed.
He was called to serve in Guatemala in the same area that John served in
46 years ago when he was a young missionary.
How neat is that! It is really special to John to have his grandson
going to the same area he knows and loves.
We are thankful that Justin has been called to serve the Lord
and preach His gospel.
We are thankful that this dear boy is willing to work in this missionary service for 2 years.
We know that God will bless him and keep him safe.
...
Now... here are my Alaska smiles to share with you.
On May 5th we boarded The Celebrity Mercury

It is a midsized, older ship, but she has charm and was lovely.

It took us 3 days of cruising though beautiful areas to get to
our first port which was Juneau, Alaska.

Our first excursion was to the Mendenhall Glacier.

It is really breathtaking.

It is a huge river of ice.
It is hard to tell how really big it is from this picture I took...
but it is 1/2 mile across here from side to side and 150 feet deep.

We spent about an hour and a half at the glacier

and then we went

on to our...

...Next excursion which was a Salmon Bake.
We went with our friends, Craig, Kris and Meryse.

Meryse is our 85 year old neighbor.
She was amazing on this trip and kept right up with us.

We all enjoyed the beautiful Juneau scenery.
This waterfall is near town, just about a block off the main road .

The salmon bake was near the waterfall.

We had a lovely time...

...enjoying this delicious salmon dinner...
...being with our friends...
(Kris, Craig and Meryse are delightful.)

and enjoying the beautiful scenery God has created for us.

You can see that we have had much to smile about.
We feel truly blessed that we could make this trip.
As I mentioned, I booked 25 on this cruise.
A number of them were in their 70's, 80's and one couple was in their 90's.

I am thankful that we were all kept safe and healthy.
I am thankful that we had this wonderful experience.

I will be sharing it with you in my next few posts.

Now I must cook dinner. Mindy and family will be here soon.

Then I will get to visit your blogs and catch up on what you've been doing.

I hope you have had lots to smile about too.

Hugs, Lura