4/63 We made it on board!!!!

The Day we've waiting for.....

Aunt Elaine, Kaitlin, Marisa and I all downloaded the Disney App that counted down til our vacation.  Through out the 16 month wait we would text each other with how many days til......   We were all excited to get this on our phones.

We were all up early and looking out the windows.  I knew that the cruise ships came in early.  We were up in Uncle John and Aunt Elaine's room because they had an amazing view and then we saw our ship!!!!!  UJ asked how we knew it was our ship?  Kaitlin said that Disney ships have two smoke stacks to harken back to olden times like like like when the Titanic was sailing.  WHAT says UJ??????   Why did you use the Titanic?????  We quickly mentioned other ships that had set sail and made their journey safely.  He calmed down then.

Gpapa was one of the best games/ toy/ entertainment in the motel that we had.  Miss Adorable loves to pretend to sleep and she even snores.  She has to be under the covers to do this.  G joined her and then Mr Wonderful would wake them up.  It provided us all with many laughs.

We had these handy dandy tags that we put on our luggage and they ended up in our room after a bit.

Our group plus some random man in the back as we boarded our ship.

This is looking out at the dock and all the suitcases and provisions being loaded on the ship.

Once on board the app became a way to text onboard and not use up your data.  It was great.  Plus the emojis were so fun!!!!!  We were very sad that we could not bring those back with us too!!!!!

Every night we had chocolates and a newsletter telling us what the activities were going to be for the next day.  We also got Happy Birthday buttons the first night for Carl and Kaitlin.  On this cruise we celebrated Carl and Charles being 60.  Kaitlin being 30.  John and Elaine plus Gary and Lisa being married for 30 years.  Lots to celebrate!!!!

3/63 More on the train. Mr Wonderful and a great view!

A few more from the train.....  Our group just before we board our train.

I gave Kaitlin my phone to grab a few shots as we made it to our car.

She cracks me up when I get my phone back and I've got pics like this!  So glad she does this!

We rode right beside Puget Sound

Mr Wonderful did very well on the train.  We all packed treats for him.  Here he is sitting next to Fairest.  She had stickers and a notebook for him to use.

Below is one of my favorite photos of Mr W ever.  He was singing and talking and I asked him what he was singing and I had my camera ready and caught his cute little personality when he looked around at me.  Look at that little hand and then his face and expression.  Forgive me, I am a shameless Bubbles.

When we got to Vancouver we passed lots of snow!!!!!  Our cab driver told us they were filming a Lexus commercial.  Later Carl saw a lady in a red Lexus driving in the snow with lots of cameras filming.  I'm thinking that maybe we will see it this Christmas.

Here was the view from our motel.  I am a lover of looking out the window wherever I am.  This is a beautiful place for my looking.  We ate supper in that building by the water with the grass on the roof.          We were all ready for bed because we were so excited.  Well, most of us were excited, some of us don't feel the magic....yet...but it is coming

Family Great Adventure! 2/63 Space Needle, Trains, and suitcases

On Saturday morning we walked to the Space Needle.  It was a little cloudy but the weather was nice a cool.  We didn't think much of the wind until...

we were on the top of the Space Needle.  The whole thing was swaying.  We learned later that they had high winds that day and lots of folks were without power.  UJ was outside for a few minutes and then enjoyed tolerated the view from the inside.

 Below Mr W is taking a picture with Fairest camera as we are getting a picture made.



 We ate lunch at the restaurant in the museum and someone really enjoyed the blueberries.


We rested a few hours and then we were off to Pike Place Market.  W and A love Peppa and her family and they brought hours of enjoyment.  Marisa brought out this hat for W but Miss A decided that she needed to wear it around the motel room.


Miss A will eat anything especially if it is not on her plate.  She calls Gpapa 'G'.  She loves eating whatever he eats.  At Lowell's in Pike Place Market she shared ate all his   Clam Chowder.  The girl has a hollow leg!!!!

 Sunday morning at 6AM we went to the beautiful train station in Seattle for our trip to Vancouver.  Penny ate her power breakfast of hot dogs and oatmeal!  She rode for many miles on my arm rest as we looked out the window.  I was in heaven.


John and Marisa have had a hard year- moving, children, new job, life, etc.  It was great to see them have so much fun.

Carl and Kaitlin went to Goodwill in Seattle and got John and Marisa some new suitcases.  The one we loaned them slowly fell apart as it made its way across country.  It lost a wheel at the airport in LR and by the time it made it to Seattle, it had no wheels!!!  It was also as big as a house so three smaller ones worked better.   Aunt Elaine let us have some ribbon to set our black suitcases apart form all the others. I'm on the hunt for colorful suitcases.


Next up, snow in Vancouver...

Family Great Adventure 2015 1 of 63

Just kidding about 1/63.  I am not sure how many installments but it won't be 63.

I'm not sure when the idea for this vacation was born. My sister in law, Elaine, pictured below with Kaitlin knows all things Disney. A few years ago she said that she wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. I never really thought more about it until last year.  Elaine and I were talking in April of 2014 and we decided to make it happen!  We decided on Alaska and started looking at our options.  Before the end of April we had a travel agent, had booked our rooms, had downloaded the Disney app with the countdown map, had changed our week for our vacation to the following week and the excitement was building!!

We met up in April to plan our excursions.

 Suitcases were bought, passports were received and  Disney clothes were packed.   And then.....

We three left from our house at 3 on August 28th!

We met up with these four at the airport.  We were headed to Seattle via Dallas.

Andrew and Taylor couldn't join is on our trip but Andrew snapped this picture of Uncle John and Aunt Elaine before they boarded their flight to Seattle.

Fairest told Miss Adorable to hold on and she was very serious about this ride on the tram in Dallas

I forgot to ask Uncle Charles/Aunt Frances and my cousin Gary and his wife Lisa to snap a shot of them as they flew but we would meet them all on the ship in Vancouver!  Our party of 3 went to 7 then 9 then 13.  But first we did Seattle!!!!