Welcome Baby Grace

Grace Ambrose Ginty, the daughter of my sister Becky and her husband Ryan, arrived on May 27th after two long days of Becky being in labor. We sent many texts during those two days anxiously awaiting the news and in the final hour went sent Becky a family video telling her to "push the baby out!" Lol! She is so beautiful and we are so excited to have another girl in the family! 

Brand new baby Grace!

Proud daddy!

Look at that sweet face!

Alaskan Cruise!

On June 26th Charles and I took the trip of a lifetime on a 7-day Alaskan cruise. The trip was offered by Charles' chiropractic college so he was able to get some continuing education hours during the cruise. Charles' sister, Linda and brother in law Jeff also went with us which was really nice to spend time with them. This was our first trip without the kids too. My mom watched the kids for 9 days (thank you mom!!) & they did great with her. We flew into Seattle, Washington late Thursday night and then the cruise started Friday afternoon. We spent the Friday and Saturday at sea cruising the Alaska Inside Passage with a lot of rough seas. I was ok as long as I was sitting down so I spent most of the day reading one of the 3 books I brought. On Sunday we arrived in Juneau. While in the city we took the tram to the top of Mount Roberts and browsed the gift shop, watched a film about the natives and walked around the trails to enjoy the views. We also walked around the town before heading back to the ship. Monday we were in Skagway and had signed up for the Klondike Summit excursion where we rode a bus around the city and up to the Summit and learned about the town during the gold rush era. I was hoping to do something a little more adventurous so after much persuasion with Charles I finally convinced him to let me do the Ocean Raft Wildlife adventure which was a high speed rafting trip down the fjord. Linda & I both did it & had a blast! We saw lots of seals, Eagles, waterfalls & a few other animals but no whales. It was definitely a highlight of the trip! Tuesday was spent cruising the Tracy Arm Fjord where we viewed the most magnificent glacier. We also saw some whales in the ocean that day which was really neat. Wednesday was another day at sea with lots of delicious food (of course!) and fun shows. Thursday we were in Victoria, British Columbia which was a beautiful city. We rode on the hop on/hop off bus throughout the city & spent the day exploring all the sites. We arrived back in Seattle early Friday morning & after disembarking we spent the day touring the city and visiting with Charles' niece Collette and her family who live in the area. We flew home Saturday & were excited to see the kids. Overall we really had such a wonderful time & were so thankful to be able to take the trip!

Getting ready to board the ship 

One of the formal dinner nights

Jeff & Linda

Such beautiful scenery

Entering into Juneau

Inside Mount Roberts gift shop, Charles getting his chance at wood carving

At the top of Mount Roberts

Looking down at the ship

Linda & I all suited up for our rafting adventure

Passing by the ship

Tons of seals!

On the bus tour in Skagway

Gold Rush cemetery 

Glacier at Tracy Arm Fjord. Absolutely beautiful!

Cute little seal posing for everyone taking pictures 

Whales :) Was hard to get a good picture of them

2nd formal night on the ship

Our sightseeing bus

First Starbucks, downtown Seattle

Seattle Great Wheel (I had to pass on this one since I am afraid of heights!)

Charles' niece Collette and her family

EMP Musuem

Summer Adventures (Part 1)

Here are some pictures of a few activities we did during the summer-

Visiting the petting zoo in Ocala. Kids had fun feeding all the animals and playing in the pen with the ponies, goats and cow. 

Pony rides :)

It started pouring rain while we were there and all Cameron wanted to do is stay in that pen with the animals. He sure had a good time!

We went to Silver Glen Springs one day with some friends and the kids spent about 4 hours in the water catching tadpoles and other things in their nets. It was a really fun day!

We bought bowling passes for the summer so the kids could play a couple games each as a fun activity 

Silly faces!

And of course we had a lot of play dates planned with friends!