A "Roomie" Weekend

Last week three of my former BYU roommates, Kristi, Marianne, and Karen came to visit. Kristi brought her five kids, Spencer, Katherine, Sarah, Curtis, and Sam. Marianne brought Clara. Including my four kids this made 10 kids and 5 adults staying in our house. It was a little bit crazy, but so much fun!

The kids hit it off really well. Here are Katherine, Sarah, Savannah, Spencer, Clara and Sarah getting ready to jump into the pool.

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This is Sarah, Savannah, and Clara floating around.Emily took her turn on the "bucking walrus" with a little help from her dad.

Andrew preferred to watch from the side.Karen, Kristi, and Marianne watched from the side, too.
And Chad showed off his typical "casual wear"!

We really had a great weekend. We played a lot of Rook, which is our activity of choice. We also reminisced about the old days, and got updates on current family events. We were all especially excited to hear about Karen's engagement and check out her new ring! We can't wait to meet Jared and see them start the next exciting phase of their lives. They will be getting married on September 9th of this year.

I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends who would travel such a long way to visit me and my family.

Cruise to Alaska--June 27th-July 4th

We had the fun opportunity to take a cruise to Alaska with the Mensel side of the family. The kids were counting the days, and when the big day finally came we got to take an airplane to Seattle. Emily and Andrew were so excited!

Sarah and Savannah were excited too.

We got on the ship in Seattle on Saturday, and the first thing we did was visit the restaurant on the Lido deck. The kids especially loved the ice cream!
On Sunday the sea was really rough, and most of us were really sick. Emily and Savannah especially had a hard time. Chad and Andrew were the only ones from our family who felt like going to dinner that night, and they dressed up. Don't they look handsome?!


On Monday we all felt better, and we visited Juneau and the Mendenhall glacier.

We walked through the woods and saw beautiful waterfalls and lots of clouds. It was a little bit rainy, but very beautiful.
This is the mouth of the glacier with large chunks of blue ice floating in front of it.

Chad took a float plane ride and got to see the glacier from above.

That night we all enjoyed dinner in the dining room. The food was wonderful, and the kids were very well behaved in that fancy place. Sarah decided that she loves Salmon, and she ordered it almost every night! Andrew and Emily usually stuck with chicken nuggets, and Savannah loved to sample everything that everyone else ordered!

The kids also had a great time in the pool and the hot tub on the ship.

On Tuesday the ship sailed up to the Hubbard glacier. We got to see this glacier up close from the deck of the ship.

We saw a mother seal with 2 babies floating on the glacier ice.

Andrew found a monkey hanging in his room that night!

On Wednesday we were in Sitka. We wandered through the cute little shops and saw totem poles in a beautiful park.

That night Emily and Andrew found a towel elephant on their bed!


On Thursday we visited Ketchikan. We walked to a fish hatchery and totem pole park.

That night we played on the ship. We visited the dance floor and showed everyone some moves!

Later we went to the chocolate extravaganza. Even Emily and Andrew stayed up late to see the beautiful ice sculptures and decadent desserts.

On Friday we made our final stop in Victoria, British Columbia. We saw many beautiful gardens outside of the Empress hotel.

There were also a lot of fun musical groups in the streets. We enjoyed walking along the harbor in this beautiful town and enjoying the local culture.Emily and Andrew finished up the trip with a ride on the truck in the airport.

We had such a wonderful time in Alaska! It was great to spend time with our family and to see so many beautiful places.