Some parting pictures for you…

Yes, we are very photogenic:

Tim and Andrew after some (lots of) Redbull

At our last cruise dinner.  We look happy, but we’re crying on the inside…

Dessert bar…yummmm

Frank liked it too.  Heaping plate of delicious.

Everything was so good, Tim couldn’t decide what to eat first.  Pizza?  Ice cream?  Coke?

The girls before our last formal dinner

Andrew and Tim read the same book

The same scary book

Crab legs

I can’t tell if this is a face or a boat.

Andrew and Sara (the boat had a channel that showed what was seen from the front.  That’s what is playing behind them.)

Getting our exercise

That’s all for now…Happy 4th of July!

From: Dwight Schrute [mailto:dwightschrute365@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 3:46 PM
To: Fulton, Erin
Subject: check or raise!!!!

Erin,

Well Mexico was 24 hours of pure fun.  But, I decided to cut my visit short and get back to the states (That swine flu thing really scares me!)  Anyways, I have found my way to Odessa, TX.   Funny little place, it is!  But, the people are really nice!  They do talk a little funny though. 

Just startin’ the early rounds of a good ol’ fashion Texas Hold ‘em poker tourneyment!   I can’t wait to walk out with the $10,000.00 prize.   When I do, I promise to buy you something real nice! 

I took a picture of the first hand that I played….check it out a full house!

 …Remember!  You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em!

Dwight!

We loved Ketchican.  It’s a tiny little fishing town similar in weather to Seattle.  Sara and Andrew went sea-planing over the town, Amy and Frank found an eagle rescue house, and Tim and I just wandered and enjoyed.

This morning I got this word from Dwight (vacation seems to be agreeing with him, he’s uncharacteristically nice)

From: Dwight Schrute [mailto:dwightschrute365@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 9:24 AM
To: Fulton, Erin
Subject:

Hola Chica!

Just checking in.    I’ve been south of the border since last night.   It has been nothing but a 12 hour Fiesta here in Tijuana!!!!!    Now it is time for a siesta.  

Adios!

 Dwight 

I’m glad to hear he’s taking a Siesta.  I can’t imagine the effort involved in travelling from Mt. Rainier to Mexico in one day when you’re just a head.

On the cruise we passed through a little narrow strip of water surrounded by cliffs.  This was called Tracy Arm.

We passed our sister ship as they were on their way out of the arm.

Just the tip of the iceberg

Next – Ketchican!

Long ago, I bought the head of Dwight Schrute.  He disappears from time to time, and generally ends up at the desk of one of my coworkers.  So, today when I noticed him gone, naturally I accused said coworker.  An exchange of increasingly hostile* e-mails ensued.  Then, I received an e-mail that has shown me the error of my ways. 

 

From: Dwight Schrute [mailto:dwightschrute365@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 1:40 PM
To: Fulton, Erin
Subject: Dwight’s on the loose.

My Dearest Erin,

I apologize that this is coming to you late…but by know, I assume you have realized that I left.  And, I wanted to offer some explanation.

You have inspired me!!!!   Inspired me to do more, to get out and to be free.     I will document my adventures, through pictures of all of my adventures…..both here and abroad.    I hope you don’t miss me too much.  

 Until next time! 

If you love something set it free!

If it doesn’t come back, hunt it down, and kill it!!!

Dwight

Attached was this picture:

He’s in a better place. 

*by increasingly hostile I mean increasingly hilarious.  But hostile sounded better for the purpose of storytelling.

Our second stop was Skagway.  The boys played some disc golf while we girls slept in and ate a big breakfast, and did a little shopping.  Then we piled into a rental car and headed to the Yukon!

This is where the disc golf course was.  This is also where the mosquitos lived.

This is actually not the proper disc golf technique. 

The “baskets” were actually beer kegs.  So, disc golf was easier, cause you only had to hit the keg rather than land in the basket, but it also had the added danger component of bear maulings.

So, once the boys finished that we headed off for:

Where we encountered

this guy.  About 20′ or 30′ from us.

We were so excited we decided to celebrate with some world famous icecream!  I got Rollo.  Yum.

Tim got pistachio. He seemed to enjoy it.

Then we headed off to a soup and sandwich restaurant that was recommended to us.

From there we headed off to Emerald Lake.

and brought a friend back with us.

Then we headed happily back to the US of A.  These mountains reminded me of zebras.

We had to make a few stops on the way

But eventually we made it back

Believe it or not, still more to come.

 

These are my toes.  Cute pedi right?

This was one of my favorite appitizers.  Grilled veggies.

This was one of Andrew’s favorite desserts: The Love Boat

Most dinners had a “cold soup”.  This one was a pina colada soup.

This looks staged, but it’s not, I promise.

At our safety drill.

At the comedy show with Carlos Oscar

Of course we played shuffle board.

I hear the Creme Brulle is to die for.  (It is, friends, it is.)

Our little room.  Multiple mirrors gave the illusion of windows.  And space.

The “Mini Golf” course.  I use that term loosely.

Swan cream puffs.  So cute!

Enjoying dinner with a view of dophins.

More to come!  Check back later!

I love Juneau.  Unfortunately I couldn’t remember my way around well enough to find the church I worked with in high school, but I think I was in the right general area…

This is not the bear we saw. That one was in the Yukon. And alive. We’ll get to that.

The glacier

Beautiful and cold

Amy and Frank

Proof of nearby bears

Climbing next to the waterfall

The neighborhoods had the most beautiful flower beds

More to come!

As promised:

Boarding the ship from Seattle.

If I look extraordinarily tan, it’s because I was.  (Spray tanned that is)

The Love Boat herself

Sitting down to our first meal…yum.

Dancing the night away (Frank, me, Tim, Andrew)

Dancing to Michael Jackson – Amy

Andrew had the best moves

Taking notice of warnings

Our first formal night – Sara and me

Tim,

Andrew,

Frank,

and Amy

Tim and me

Next…Juneau!

This morning I woke up earlier than usual.  Tim was leaving for a backpacking trip with Tim W., Wescott and David R., and Dan B.  Possibly others.  I’m not super sure.  So, I got up early to see him off.  I’m excited about the idea of a super productive weekend (I tend to not clean when he’s around, cause I’d rather be with him), but I’ll be missing him.  So, since I was so super early I left early too, landing me at work with 25 minutes to spare.  So, I went to (one of) our friendly neigborhood Starbucks to kill time.  I opted out of my normal white mocha with peppermint and got a chai tea latte.  Waited several minutes for it to be ready, then grabbed it and headed out to the car.  Wait – where are my keys?  Not in my purse, not in my pockets, not in my hand…I looked in the window of the car, not in the ignition, not on the seat…this has never happened to me before.  So, I retraced my steps.  No where in the store that I can see.  Not on the path leading to my car.  I crawled on the ground and looked under the car.  Nope.  Back into the store…nope.  Back out to the car.  Nothing.  On my third trip into the store, one of the employees produced my keys.  Phew!  All that and I was still at work with time to spare.   Then I came to work, which is full of dogs.  Yep, take your dog to work day is today!  Weird.

Changes.  Let’s start with this.  I’ve been wanting to have a baby since I was six.  I used to walk around the grocery store with a doll in my arms and hope that people would think it was my baby, even if it did make me the worlds youngest mom.  This desire for kids has only gotten  stronger with time.  Unfortunately, Tim and I have a lot of school debt, and have not been able to figure out how to live on one income and still pay our bills and eat.  Well, in recent months we’ve been convicted that we are trying to hard to be in control, trying to avoid the necessity to have faith in God’s provision.  We’ve also been convicted that Tim should get a second job.  That way, we can start putting my pay check toward debt and learn to live off of his.  All that to say, last Sunday he applied at Martin and Osa (our favorite store), and yesterday we learned he got the job!  In a world where a lot of people are having trouble getting one job, God had given us three.  We are very excited about this opportunity, and grateful for the provision to pay off debt and take steps closer to having kids. 

And, I’ve promised you pictures.  For various reasons, I have been unable to upload them here.  So, I promise, this weekend I will post with pictures.  Check back tomorrow afternoon.  I will post them in between the cleaning and laundry and crafting and cooking.  I promise.

Mitsuki’s birthday is coming up, and lately I’ve been seeing a lot of Crayon Rolls on Etsy.   I thought I’d try my hand at it.  They look something like this:

Veggie Tale Crayon roll by wgjones

 

Veggie Tale Crayon roll wgjones

So, the other night I pulled out my sewing box and some leftover fabric, lined it with fleece and made a pretty good crayon roll, considering I didn’t measure anything and did it all by hand.  Good enough, in fact, to make one for Mitsuki as a gift.  So, I found two fabrics today:

This one is not exact.  The one I actually got has desert islands with treasure chests on them, and a crab on the treasure chest.  The island is surrounded by shark fins and orange fish.  Anyway…

So, I’m not sure what will be the outside and what will be the lining yet, but I think it will be cute.  That’s all. 

This morning I planned my outfit very carefully.  I wore my white long sleeved button down Martin and Osa blouse with my gray Martin and Osa jeans and pale orange heels.  I then added my black beaded necklace, and pulled my hair into a half ponytail, with a reddish orange poppy clip.  I carefully trained the remaining hair to curl slightly under and headed out the door.  When I pulled up to my office, the parking lot was full.  I parked two parking lots over, and started the l-o-n-g walk to the office in my 4″ heels.  It was slow going.  Then, once I arrived I found that the wind had overruled my careful curling and flipped half of my hair out, and created a weird wave in the rest.  Sad from this,  I decided coffee would help.  So, I poured my coconut vanilla cream into my Starbucks mug, and went to play Russian Roulette coffee style.  See, we have one of those caraffe’s where you push the pump above the lid to release the coffee.  The danger is, if the coffee  is getting low, it will spit all over you.  Nice white shirt, splattered black coffee – do you know of a more terrifying combination?  So, I hold my breath, say a little prayer, and push.  A fresh stream of coffee pours into my cup.  Ah…my day is looking up.

We’re back from our cruise, sadly.  If you haven’t experienced cruising, you really really should.  If for no other reason, go for the food.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  I should have pictures for you tomorrow (I took over 500 – many of the food ) so here’s some of the highlights.

• Endless hours of playing RAGE with good friends
• Peaceful time to lay around and read My Sister’s Keeper and A Wrinkle in Time
• Wandering through adorable little gold rush town Ketchikan
• Finding a Black Bear – convincing Tim not to get closer (it was about 20 feet from us)
• Seeing whales puff water all around us
• Eating till we were sick
• Climbing around Mendenhall Glacier
• Spotting dolphins and otters
• Joking around with Roberto, the world’s most adorable waiter
• Discovering my new favorite treat – Cucumber martini
• Watching the Love Boat
• Driving through the Yukon
• Sleeping in a room that’s completely dark
• Discovering the best coffee ever (can only be found in the Princess Cruises dining room)
• Shopping for gifts
• Being away from it all
• Painting pottery with Amy
• Laughing hysterically
• “Dancing”
• Seeing the most breathtaking sights imaginable
• Being rocked to sleep

There will be much more info to share, and pictures.  I promise.

Glacier in Alaska - Photographic Print by cristinacristea

VINTAGE JANTZEN SWIMSUIT AD ID CIGARETTE CASE WALLET by tofunkytown

Cruising the Sea Pendant - Ornament by CoastallyCoolCreatio

Vintage 40s NAUTICAL Sailor Dress Peplum Suit 2 Pc SKIRT and JACKET SEWING PATTERN 16 S M by luxevintage

Cruise Ship Towel Monkey by dbayou18

Vintage Sewing Pattern - Girl's middy blouse / sailor suit, dress and shorts by C8H10N4O2

Whale of a Tail - Print by falldowntree

Meredith Sail Away Dainty Darling Charm Necklace by VintageMusings

Whale's Tail by zencar

On a Cruise by sockmonkeycards

Whales Tail by 1022SeaShellAve

Alaska Cruise Photomat by kmars

ACEO - Midnite Cruise by missyandme

Life's a Party Necklace - It's 5 O'clock Somewhere by kittyspurseshop

Blue and White Sailor Dress by Sassnclassvintage

See you in a week!