At long last.... Alaska

There are waaaay too many pictures to choose from, we took 887. Literally. I wish blogger would come up with an easier way to upload photos. How do I do those slideshow things with captions? Anyway, here is a visual summary of our lovely Alaskan Cruise. (thanks Susie, you rock!)When the trip starts out with Ryan letting Matt draw a pencil mustache on him ... with a Sharpie, you know it's gonna be good.
The group, minus Scott & Kim.
Raspberries at Pike's Place Market. Always unbelievable.
This guy's hair. Also unbelievable. What's funny is that Matt & I both took pictures of this guy for each other at separate times.
I love this picture. Stacey is cute as a button, Ryan is insane and Susie is trying not to laugh. Pretty typical.
Seriously, how hot is my husband? I love his hat, no idea where he got it, but it's soo cute!
Ryan doing candle shots. At. every. single. dinner.
This is my best picture of a whale. I really wanted to see one do a full breach, but it just wasn't happening.
It almost looks tropical doesn't it? Well, minus the huge amount of pine trees. We were really lucky and had awesome weather 90% of the time. I think the most impressive thing about Alaska was the sheer immensity of it. There we are, surrounded by huge mountains and just vast amounts of space, and then you look at a map of where we were going and it's like 2% of the land mass of Alaska. It was unbelievable.
We took a helicopter excursion out over Taku & Norris glaciers. I stupidly expected them to be all pristine & stuff, but they are very dirty on the surface. I guess that's what happens when you push your way slowly across miles & miles of forest. Standing on the glacier though, I totally felt like I was on Mars or something; it's just totally alien. Very cool.We were so lucky that our helicopter ride just happened to be later in the day & we were able to see the sunset as we cruised around. It feels like you are a hummingbird, I loved it!In Skagway we took a train ride up the Yukon Pass, it was really my favorite thing we did for a few reasons: 1) it was crazy pretty, 2) I was able to read & read & read Breaking Dawn (LOVED it!) and 3) Ryan was on an absolute tear! You would not believe how funny this guy is. There were people 3 rows in front & in back of us just wiping tears from their eyes laughing so hard. I can't even remember what he was talking about, but for like a half hour he had everyone in our car in stitches. For the first little bit, they were trying to pretend that they weren't eavesdropping, but it was just too good. Love him!
Just look at that face. He is hilarious.
Matt looks like a movie star. Yes, he's doing something funny with his mouth, but dang, he's hot!
I think this is Mendenhall glacier, not sure. But Glacier Bay was amazing. Just so still & quiet & ancient. Actually it isn't ancient at all, it's constantly changing. Crazy.It was cold but not so cold that you couldn't come up on the deck drenched in sweat and not die. I am proud to say that I did work out every single day. (well except the Sundays of course.) That doesn't mean that I didn't not gain weight. Just not as much as I would have if I hadn't exercised.
And this is our black bear. I guess they're kind of pests in Ketchikan, like raccoons or something. I wish we could have gotten closer, I'm totally abusing my zoom here, but it turned out okay.

And here we are. I had so much fun with Matt on this cruise. It was nice to just have a break from the real world. I love that we can take time away from each other and not have to entertain each other constantly. He let me read & work out & go to the spa & sleep and I let him play insane amounts of cribbage with Ryan & Becky. Then we have even more fun when we are together. I am such a lucky girl. Greatest husband who came with the greatest in-laws. I am still afraid that someone upstairs is going to realize that there was an error in my favor that must be rectified.