Alaska Part One

Finally!! I'm finally getting around to blogging about Alaska. I can't believe it's been almost two months since we left. We had the best time and even though I was going through a bit of a hard time while we were there, I have such good memories that I will always remember. I have so many pictures that I decided to break it down into a few posts.
First off, we got to go on this awesome cruise with Brad's family because of Bill and Carol, Brad's parents. This past July was their fiftieth wedding anniversary and to celebrate they took us all on an Alaskan cruise. I know...they're awesome!!

Day 1:
We left August 8th which was a Sunday morning. We had to leave about 4:30 in the morning because of our early flight. We were staying at the Richs and planned to get up at about 4:00. Bill decided that we were waiting too long and decided to wake us up at 3:45 by coming into our room, flipping the lights on and loudly declaring it was time to get up. I'm just glad I was covered. :)
We arrived in Seattle and it was freezing! It was raining and we grabbed a shuttle and headed to the cruise ship. We got there and were lucky they were letting us board the boat early. My sister-in-law Lori realized then that she had forgot the passports for herself and her husband. Luckily, they were still able to come on the cruise by answering some questions. :) We boarded the boat and of course headed straight to the buffet. The buffet was pretty good on this cruise but I'm just not a huge fan of buffets. I feel like there's quantity, just not a ton of quality...
We left port at 4:30 and had to hurry and get ready for sacrament meeting which they were going to have on the boat. Brad's parents booking their cruise through the Cruise Lady and they were able to arrange all this for us. They had asked me to play the piano for the meeting so I had to be there early. Michael Ballam was the headliner for our group and I walk in and he's playing all these beautiful arrangements by memory...I had to take over and there was no hymn book for the prelude. Great!! I am no Michael Ballam that's for sure. Luckily they were ready to begin. I found out right before we were to start that the man that was to lead the music was President Spencer Kimball's son. So neat! During the sacrament meeting they started passing the sacrament. I can't tell you how many times people forget me when I'm up by the piano. I had to get their attention.. Finally the water was coming around. These were different trays then they use at home and all the cups were there waiting for me to pick. I grabbed one, put it up to my mouth and tipped it in. It was empty!! What??! The man passing the sacrament looked down at me and said, "That one has already been used." Oh yummy!! So, that's how you do it. The next one I took I made sure was full..haha! Gross.
That night we went to the formal dining room and had dinner. So yummy! I love that you can choose anything you want and most of the time it tastes so good! We then headed to the welcome show they always have and played cards in the buffet room until we were too tired and had to go to bed. Brad's family is always into cards and it's so much fun.

The Sapphire Princess-our ship



Sailing Away from Seattle




Day 2:
Monday was a stressful day. It was the day I found out everything that was happening at home with my dad. Although I was so worried about my family back home, I did manage to have fun on the ship. We were at sea all day Monday. We filled the day with some intense ping pong games and that night was one of the formal nights.