Family Pictures

One of my very best friends Brendi took some family pictures for us last weekend. She did an amazing job, we had a lot of fun and love the results. Here are some of our favorites.

Thanks Brendi!!

Lately

Not too much going on over here, but this is a little of what we have been up to lately.

Jason surprised me and took me to a San Jose Sharks game.  The Sharks are a BIG deal here.  It was so fun!  What a fun surprise.  Never mind the DISGUSTING picture of me.

Ollie modeling the outfit his Great-Grandma got him for his birthday.  He is always happy with a cell phone in his hands.

Playing the piano.  He takes his music very seriously.

Wearing basket lids for a hat at Grandmas.  Silly boy.

Halloween 2009

We had a really fun Halloween this year. The festivities started last weekend and just kept going all the way through Halloween. Ollie is still too young to care about/eat candy but he like dressing up and loved wearing his costume.

Ollie was playing on the porch and I found him in his stroller basket.

Jason and Ollie with the pyramid of pumpkins.

Family pic. Too bad Ollie doesn't like to look at the camera.

Here have some hay.

Love my husband.

He loves to push things.

Our little pumpkin.

Playing in the wheelbarrow.

Ollie and Jason rode the cow train together.

Ollie and his buddy Alexander had so much fun playing together. It is so adorable.

Ollie loved the hay.

He kept sliding down the haystacks. He would bounce down on his bum and slide down. A trick he learned on the trampoline.

At a Halloween party. Our friends Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, a little lobster and his chefs and the bee family.

Us in our costumes.

With Ben and Carlie, the hippies.

The EQP. Hosts of the party.

Monday night we (Jason and I) carved pumpkins for family night. Little Ollie was in bed, thank goodness, he would have made an even bigger mess than we did. Maybe next year.

Jason took his pumpkin carving very seriously and did not appreciate my distracting him for a picture.

Finished products.

I think our pumpkins each reflect our individual personalities. I am happy and fun, Jason, scary and creepy. Haha, obviously I'm joking.

Jason's sister Michelle flew in Tuesday from Utah to interview with a couple of big accounting firms here in San Jose. It was so fun to have her stay with us, and Ollie loved all the attention Aunt Michelle gave him. Michelle's husband Eric flew in Wednesday night. On Thursday Michelle, Eric, Ollie and I met up with our friends the Armstrongs and Jason for lunch at Caffe Macs at Apple. Ollie napped on the way there, with his mouth wide open.

On Friday Ollie and I met up with some friends to trick or treat at local businesses in Willow Glen. It was VERY crowded, so we got lunch and headed back to Amanda's house. Here are Ollie's cute girl friends.

"If you think this goofy costume is going to slow my playing down, you are sorely mistaken." -Ollie

It was SO fun having Michelle and Eric here, and we are so excited that they might move here someday. We forgot to take pictures so we took a couple on the way to the light rail station.

I know this one isn't very good but the picture where we actually used the flash cut off heads....soooo this is what you get.

After this Jason, Ollie and I headed to downtown Campbell and did some more trick or treating at businesses. On Saturday (the actual holiday) my parents came down to hang out with us. We took Ollie to the Pruneyard by our house and did more trick or treating at businesses. Even with all the "trick or treating" we did we came home with about 5 pieces of candy. Ollie doesn't eat candy and I don't want it, so we mainly just wanted to dress Ollie up and take him around. He actually liked wearing his costume. That afternoon my Mom and I went shopping, then we all went out to "Linner" as I call it, or "Lupper" as my Mom calls it. After that my Dad and Jason went and looked for a new car for my Dad. It was a fun day had by all. Sad news is we only got 2 trick or treaters, so we will be eating all the candy we bought :(

Utah

This past weekend we were able to go to Utah. Jason was recuiting for Apple at BYU. He flew out Thursday night (and missed his flight...long story), and since I worked on Thursday Ollie and I flew out Friday morning, REALLY early. Ollie did amazing on the flight (lets hope he can do that well next month on the way to NC). It was so fun to hang out with Jason's siblings, we have really missed not living close to them.

Friday Ollie and I met up with a couple of my dental hygiene friends. I miss them, I wish we lived closer.

I just can't stop taking pictures of this guy, he is too darn cute.

Aunt Jenny is really good at cutting Ollie hair so we tricked him by strapping him down and giving him food, he had no idea what was coming.

What is going on here?

Jen and Jeff have a trampoline and Ollie loved it!

We also went to Maggie Moo's one of my favorite ice cream places (their dark chocolate is to die for). Jason and Michelle.

Ollie and his favorite guy.

Ollie wearing Uncle Jeff's hat.

My lovely sister-in-laws. Love those girls.

Ollie really likes Jeff, they were little buddies.

Ollie loves playing with restaurant high chairs, he could entertain himself for hours.

Look at that little face!!! Seriously, how did we make such a cute baby?

Jeff got Ollie these polar bear jammies, so I had to get a picture of them together.

Ollie and the bear.

Brothers for life!

We played lots of games...it was so fun.

Ok get ready to die when you see Ollie in his little coat. Here he is with Jason after church.

What a stud.

Sunday afternoon we all went on a little walk/hike at Sterling Falls. It was so beautiful. We also got to see Jared, Shannon and Jamison. We miss them a lot too!

Shannon and I with a pretty tree.

Jason, Ollie, Jared and Jamison.

Michelle and Eric being silly. I thought she should get on his back, it would have been like a scene out of Twilight :)

Jen and Jeff being even sillier.

The token family pic.

Ollie and Jamison...too cute.

Pumpkin Patch and More!

This past weekend we went home to celebrate my Grandpa and Grandma's birthdays. My Grandpa is 80 and doesn't look a day over 70 :) While we were there my Mom and I took Ollie to the pumpkin patch. It is usually a tradition we do with all my siblings but everyone has moved away :( We also got to go to Jason's friend Lucy's wedding reception. It was a wonderful weekend. Here are some pictures.

Ollie is so serious sometimes, he cracks me up.

He loved the little barn they had for the animals.

Petting the goat.

Me and Ollie with more goats.

Me and Ollie in the pumpkin patch.

Ollie with a very large pumpkin.

Grandma and Ollie, it is obviously very hard to get him to look at the camera.

We went on a hayride, he LOVED playing with the hay.

There were lots of tractors for him to sit on and "drive".

Playing with Grandma on the train.

My little pumpkin.

My Grandparents getting ready to blow out their candles...aren't they cute!

We also got to visit my friend Megan who is on bed rest with her twinners. It was so fun to hang out with her.

Jason's Mom got Ollie the cutest little church outfit and I could not stop taking pictures of my handsome boy.

Ollie had an accident while I was at work yesterday so he got to wear a pair of his (girl) friends pants. I thought he looked so cute, even in pink pants.

This is what we do on a rainy day. Play in a box with our truck and spatula, what more could you ask for?

San Luis Obispo

This weekend Jason participated in the Scott Tinley Triathlon in San Luis Obispo. Jason's sister Jenny and her husband Jeff came out from Utah to hang out with us and support Jason. It was so fun having them here. Ollie loved all the attention he got from Aunt Jen and Uncle Jeff. We left Friday afternoon after having lunch at Apple. The drive down was long (with a 14 month old anything over an hour is long), and uneventful. We didn't do much that evening, just checked in and put Ollie to bed. Saturday Jason, Jeff, Ollie, and I left early for the triathlon. We dropped Jason off and hung around to watch him start the swim, and then transition to the bike. After that we left and came back for the finish...which we actually missed. It was a fast course and the distances (1.5mile swim, 50mile bike, 9 mile run) on this triathlon were a little different than the others so Jason finished quite a bit faster (4hr 55min) than he usually does. I felt really bad that he finished with no one there cheering him on, but he assured us he wasn't mad.

Isn't Ollie's hat cute!!  My friend Nicole makes them, check them out here.

After the triathlon we went back to our hotel, put Ollie down for a nap, and napped a little ourselves, then we met up with some friends from our Provo days at the Firestone Grill in downtown San Luis. It was pretty delicious food, and it was really fun catching up with the Smiths.

All of us at Firestone Grill.

Ollie discovered himself in this mirror and had tons of fun yelling and making faces.

He also liked sitting in the sink at our hotel, and trying to eat the faucet.

Sunday morning we watched the morning session of conference, then headed to Pismo Beach, where we walked around the beach and the pier. We stopped for lunch and then headed to Hearst Castle.

Ollie loves to swing and luckily for him there was a swing set on the beach.

Family pic.

Jen and Jeff being silly.

Family pic on the pier.

Jen and Jeff on the pier.

Ollie really likes Jeff, they were buddies.

A couple years ago we stayed on the coast and passed the Hearst Castle. We have wanted to tour it ever since. It is seriously the coolest place. You can read all about it here: Hearst Castle

An aerial view I found of the castle.

Jen and Jeff in front of one of the guest houses...it would have been fun to be a guest there.

Ollie got carried around in a backpack...no strollers.

This is a pic of the outdoor pool, it was amazing.

Jen and Jeff with the pool.

Us in front of the actual castle.

This is the indoor pool. All the gold you see is real 24 carat gold flakes.

After our tour we headed home, which took even longer this time because we had to take Highway 1 all the way. It is a beautiful drive but very windy, so between the slow speed and the frequent stops for those who get motion sickness (poor Jen) it takes a while. On Monday Jeff, Jen, Ollie and I visited the Winchester Mystery House here in San Jose. This place was also very interesting. Our friend use to be a tour guide and she believes it really is haunted. One thing is for sure, Sarah Winchester had issues. We walked around a did a little shopping, then headed home for dinner and games. We miss living close to Jason's siblings so it was fun to spend time with Jen and Jeff. Thanks for coming guys!

Big Sur Trail Run

This weekend Jason, his Dad and I participated in the Big Sur Trail Marathon, Half Marathon, and 5 mile run. We are lucky to have parents who all made an effort to come along with us and support us. We left Friday afternoon for the 2 hour drive south to Big Sur. Along the way we stopped in Monterey to enjoy some fresh produce, and some amazing scenery. Friday night we stayed in and made delicious spaghetti in our little cabin.

Race Day: Jason, John and I left a little early to get there and get ready. This is a REALLY small race (limited to only 300 participants) so it was pretty laid back compared to some of the races Jason has done. John and I ran the 5 mile distance, while Jason ran the half marathon. He was slated to run the marathon but opted against it since he is doing a Half Ironman Triathlon next weekend (I think he made the right decision). Jason started the half marathon around 9:25 and we started our race around 9:30am. We were told ahead of time that this is an extremely tough course...ummm understatement of the century. Jason had over 300o feet of climbing on his run and John and I gained about 1,000 feet of elevation on our 5 mile run. It was BRUTAL, for those who have lived in Provo imagine running up and back from the 'Y'. The first half of the run I was cursing Jason's name for not warning me appropriately (although I don't think he really understood either). I had to walk a little which I was disappointed about until I saw everyone around me walking too. The second half was AMAZING. I felt great, and I actually enjoyed the scenery and being outside. It was really nice to finish with my parents cheering me on. It was a great first race. My next goal is a 10k (or 7.3 miles).

I won't post our times here, because due to the difficulty of the course they don't sound very impressive and they are definitely longer than the goals we had set for ourselves. But I will still do a little bragging :) Remember this was a very small race. But Jason is so amazing and came in 7th out of the 170 people who ran the half marathon. He also came in 3rd for his age group, so he will be receiving a medal. John (Jason's dad) came in 7th out of the 50 people who ran the 5 mile race, and he was 1st in his age group. I came in 14th out of 50 and I was 1st in my age group so I get a medal too!! I was pretty excited considering it was my first race. Obviously we never thought we would actually win something so it was kind of fun to do well. I think I will only run small races in the future :)

The fog off the ocean was so thick here, it looked like we were above the clouds. Ollie was SO loved with both sets of Grandparents doting over him all weekend.

Family picture.

Ollie had a lot of fun playing in the cooler.

Jason and I before the race.

All the runners, Saturday morning before the race.

Ollie loves to sit on the couch like a big boy.

Walking up to start our races.

Jason starting.

Ollie sitting on Poppa Wursten's shoulders.

John finishing up.

Ollie napped with Grandma Miller. This is how he was when I finished....so excited to cheer me on :)

Right after I finished (hence the really red face, which I inherit from my Mom, thanks a lot).

All of us at the end, feeling good.

So I am sometimes a little slow and while packing I grabbed two different black flip flops, both for the right foot, I wore them anyway.

Hanging out at the little creek by our cabin.

Ollie loved it (although you can't tell by his face).

On a walk with Grandpa.

Saturday night we went to this cool restaurant with an AMAZING ocean view, it was beautiful and the restaurant had a really cool vibe. After dinner we came back and played Taboo, it was fun, the girls won!

My parents.

The whole group.

Ollie loved playing outside in the dirt and climbing up and down the cabin's front steps.

Leaving Sunday morning. It was a great weekend. A big triumph for me since I am not much of a runner, and so fun hanging out with our families.

Ollie asleep and worn out from a long weekend away. He is such a funny kid.

Phoenix

Over Labor Day weekend we headed to Phoenix to visit some of our favorite people, the Evers family. It was Jeff's birthday on Monday so we were lucky enough to be part of the birthday festivities. Luckily for us it wasn't TOO hot, in fact the first day we were there they had a huge thunderstorm, we loved it.

Ollie playing in the rain, it was still so warm in the rain.

Ollie and Laney

All the kids, it was impossible to get a pic of all of them looking at the camera.

We walked to the park and played on the swings.

Ollie and Laney taking a bath, Laney is so happy, Ollie is so serious.

Jeff and Kelly and the delicious candy bar.

Saturday we ate at this cool olive mill, it was delicious.

Kelly's delicious cheese ball and pasta salad.

Love my hubby.

Kelly's friend made the coolest cake, and delicious cupcakes.

Monday we spend some time at the pool, it was so nice.

Ollie loves swimming. His newest trick is jumping to us, he loves it.

We had a great time with the Evers, and we are never ready to go home. We love them!

Jason's Birthday Weekend

We had a relaxing and fun weekend as just our little family, celebrating Jason's birthday. On Friday Ollie and I picked Jason up a little early from work and we headed to the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. The Indy Grand Prix was being held there this weekend and Jason wanted to check it out. The main event was on Sunday, but we still got to see some fun stuff. We stayed in Santa Rosa and on Saturday we headed to Bodega Bay. We played on the beach for a little while, but it was COLD. Ollie isn't use to cold beaches and at first he wouldn't stand on the cold sand, it was really funny to watch him (he is use to our nice Santa Cruz beaches...spoiled kid). Eventually he toughened up and had a lot of fun running around. At this point our camera broke :(, BUT Jason fixed it :), BUT not until that night so we don't have anymore pics from the day :(. We spent most the rest of our day in Petaluma. We walked around the cute downtown, ate lunch, visited the farmers market, Jason dropped me off at the outlets for some baby free shopping (such a treat) etc. It was a fun day. Sunday we slept in (even Ollie a little) then headed home so we could make it to church. Here are some pics from the last couple weeks and our weekend.

Last weekend we went on a bike ride and Ollie fell asleep. He was so out and we didn't want to risk waking him up by transferring, so we kept him in his seat and set it in his room, helmet and all. He stayed asleep for about 30 mins.

This kid is entertained by the funniest things. He played with this box for a long time last week. Jason and I just sat and watched, it was hilarious. The funniest part is the last 10 seconds.

Here is another video of Ollie, here he is cooking one of his shoes for dinner.

Auntie Letty came to visit us since she is leaving for college soon, :) for her, :( for us. While she was here we went and saw my friend Carlie's dad's tortoises. This one is only a few weeks old, it was SOOO cute!

This is Al, he is almost my age, crazy huh. I guess they live to be well over 100.

Carlie watches Ollie when I work and she took this picture of him on Gus. These tortoises are seriously so cool.

Ollie at the raceway. It was REALLY hot that day (we have been spoiled in the bay area). His poor little face was so red and dirty from all the dust.

Jason and Ollie, check out the cars "drifting" in the background.

Jason and Ollie watching.

Ollie sitting in one of the cars.

We kind of wanted to get to the race ASAP on Friday so we didn't get gas along the way. So leaving the raceway, we had 8 miles until empty and the gas station was 7.2 miles away. We also hit a little traffic, plus we went up a hill, so when we filled up we put in 18.2 gallons and the flex has an 18.5 gallon tank! Needless to say I was a little stressed. Speaking of cars, Jason's main birthday present was an amp and subwoofer for the Flex. He is excited to do the wiring and install of everything, I am excited to get a little bump in my trunk. So those of you who live near us, if you hear someone "bumping" through the neighborhood, it is me. I have already compiled a playlist solely for this purpose :)

Ollie and Daddy at the beach.

Ollie and Mommy

Token family picture at the beach.

Such a cutie pie.

Running to dad.

Yoga at the beach. I swear he makes me want to actually start doing yoga.

Little footprints.

Our Alaskan Adventure

Well, what can I say, Alaska was AMAZING!  We had such a great time.  And we took a bazillion pictures (as your about to see).  The entirety of our pictures can be found on our website jasonandginny.com.  Also, Oliver did great, I don't even think he really missed us much.  And I did great too.  I cried for about 2 minutes after we dropped him off and then not again the rest of the trip.  I love the little guy and missed him like crazy, but it was SO nice to travel without him.  It also really helped that each time I called to check on him (every night) I could hear him laughing and squealing in the background.  He is a very loved little boy and we are very grateful for our awesome parents who took care of him for us, we really appreciate it.  Ok so here we go.

We got in late Friday night.  Marissa and I picked up our luggage and sent the guys to sweet talk the rental car people into upgrading us to a bigger car.  Luckily, we have some pretty awesome husbands who got the lady to give us a $1500 SUV for $500.  It was a good thing too because we used every inch of space. 

Saturday morning we went to the Anchorage Temple.  It was a small one, but still very beautiful.

We then stopped at Costco and loaded up on groceries for the trip.  Here is Marissa and I.  Look how full the car was...I'm sure that is some kind of safety hazard.

We drove to Healy, about 5 hours north of Anchorage, which is right outside of Denali National Park.  This is the adorable little cabin we stayed in while we were there.

This was a cute little area outside our cabin.

This is the view from our cabin.

You can't really drive a car very far in Denali, so on Sunday we took a bus ride to Wonder Lake.  It was a 12 hour bus ride, which sounds really long, but the scenery was beautiful and we stopped every time we saw wildlife, and at a few visitor centers along the way.

This is us with Mount McKinley in the background.  It is the highest mountain peak in North America, 20,320 feet.  It takes 3 weeks to hike to the summit.  A guy on our bus tour had done it 3 times, and he loved to talk about it.  It sounds like quite a feat.  Normally the peak is only visible 1 in every 10 days, but it was visible all 3 days we were there.  It was beautiful.

Here we are at Wonder Lake.

We picked and ate lots of wild blueberries.

Here are some bears we saw along the way.  There are three out there.  They are Grizzly bears.

This is a little wolf cub that got separated from his pack, he was crossing over the bridge as we were passing by.

Jason and I with the mountain.

Cool shot that Andy got.

Me and Marissa modeling Caribou antlers, they were so heavy, I don't know how they carry them around on their head.

This is a bull moose (male moose).

Me and Marissa hanging out on our little deck.  It was so nice in Alaska because it didn't get dark until around 11:30pm.  I didn't think I would like that too much, but I loved it.  You could do so much.

We made tuna melts on the grill, here is Jason showing his mad flipping skills.

The second day we hopped on the bus again, but got off after about an hour and a half and hiked around.

We saw more bears the second day, this is a mama bear and two cubs.

A bald eagle.

We saw this caribou up close and personal while we were hiking around.

Marissa loved picking berries.

On our hike.

Leaving the park.

After Denali we headed back south to a little town called Ninilchik.  Along the way Jason spotted this huge bull moose on the side of the road.  It was so cool to watch them in their natural habitat.  We weren't the only ones who stopped to see him, we caused quite a traffic jam.

Us with the Ninilchik sign.

We got to Ninilchik late Tuesday night.  On Wednesday morning at 4am we went fishing on Deep Creek, no luck :(  But later that morning we went halibut fishing, where we were a little more successful.

I caught a stingray, which we let go.  That thing was so hard to reel in because it was so flat, I had to call in reinforcement, luckily Andy used his big muscles and helped me. 

This is me with my big halibut.  They are seriously ugly fish, but taste SOOO good.

Jason with his fish.

We also caught a little shark.

Here we are with all our fish, we estimated it was about 300lbs.  We had a father and son on the boat with us, so when we divided the fillets it ended up being about 30lbs per couple.  I guess that isn't very good, but it seemed good to me, our freezer is full :)

Marissa and I with a couple of our fish, for a while every time we put our line in we were pulling up a fish, it was crazy.  Although I think the most amazing feat of the day was that Jason didn't get motion sick, it was a miracle (he did take lots of medicine and tried these SeaBands).  

Thursday morning we got up early again to fish on Deep Creek.  Marissa, being the amazing fisherwoman she is, was the only one to catch a fish.  Even when we didn't catch fish, it was so beautiful out there, we loved it.

After naps, we went clamming.  This was SO fun.  You go when the tide is low, and look for little dimples in the sand.  Then you stick a rod in the dimple down through the sand.  Then you start digging, once you reach the end of the rod you use your had to dig around for the clam.  This brought a lot more satisfaction that fishing because almost every time you would get a clam.  Clams are pretty much the nastiest looking thing, but once again, they taste soo good.

The only problem with clamming is that you have to cut all the meat out and clean it really good.  Luckily there were 4 of us so it wasn't too bad.  We made the most delicious clam chowder with our clams.  That same night we ate some of our freshly caught halibut.

Friday we decided to sleep in, which was probably a mistake since fish were caught on the creek that morning, but it felt so good.  Once we got up we headed to Homer which is about an hour south of Ninilchik.  It was a 'quaint little drinking town with a small fishing problem', haha, that is what it said everywhere.  There is a cool area in Homer called "The Spit".  It is right along the ocean and it has tons of restaurants, bakeries, shops etc.  That is where we spent most of our time.

I don't know if anyone has see the show "Deadliest Catch" well I guess the ship the "Time Bandit" is based out of Homer.  So we visited the store and got to meet Captain John.  He was cool.  

Us with Captain John and the card he signed for us.

Friday afternoon we fished some more with no luck, I guess this is very rare, I think Jason and I were bad luck!

After dinner we headed to the Ninilchik general store and got some ice cream.  As you can see, they are very generous with their 'single scoop' ice cream.

After that we went out to look for moose, and moose we found.  A mama moose and two babies.  It was so crazy to me that all these animals were just right off the road.

Me and Marissa modeling in the Fireweed.  There was tons of these flowers, they would cover whole hillsides, it was so pretty.

Saturday morning we were fishing again, although we got to sleep in a little, we didn't leave until 5am :)

Now we credit the great time we had in Alaska first to Andy and Marissa for inviting us, but second to this guy, Bob.  He lives in Ninilchik and rents out cabins on his property (where we stayed).  Bob is seriously so cool.  He took us fishing, told us all about Alaska, filleted our fish, taught us to clam, let us use his equipment and so much more.  He is totally Jason's kind of guy, he knows a lot about everything.  I'm pretty sure he was ready for us to leave by the end because he was sick of answering Jason's questions :)  But really he and his wife were so accommodating to us and made sure that we had a great time.  Thanks Bob and Carole!!

Here is Jason fishing.

Andy fishing.

Me fishing.

Marissa, the best fisher of us all!

So everyone caught a fish that day but me :(  Marissa even caught two!

Here is Bob filleting our fish for us.

Then we would package it and vacuum seal it so it could be frozen.

That evening Bob drove us around Ninilchik and showed us around.  They have the cutest library (I LOVE libraries).

This is the oldest cabin in Ninilchik, and I can't for the life of me remember when it was built...sorry.  Isn't it cute though.

Sunday we went to church in Homer and then went back down to the spit.

This is a cool saloon that is on the spit.

People put up dollar bills, so all the walls inside are covered, it was really interesting.

At the end of the spit there is an area where people fish for flounder and pollock.  There were seriously so many fish there.  Pretty much every time someone would cast their line out they would get something. Sometimes it was a starfish.  

We thought these were pretty.

On our way back from Homer we stopped at the Norman Lowell Gallery.  Norman Lowell is a famous artist in Alaska.  They also let you walk through their gardens and their old cabin.  This is the little cabin they lived in when they first moved to Alaska.  You still see little cabins like this that people live in.

We left Ninilchik early Monday morning and headed to Seward to get on a glacier day cruise.

Me and Jason in front of the cabin in Ninilchik.

Getting ready to board our boat.

We saw lots of wildlife on this cruise as well, although they were quite different from the wildlife we had seen before. Here is a little sea otter floating in the water.

This is a dall porpoise, they are part of the dolphin family.  They would just swim along our boat and jump out of the water.  They are the fastest sea mammal and can swim almost 50mph.

We saw lots of sea lions.

These little birds are called Puffins.  They are in the penguin family, but they can fly.  They can also dive to depths of over 200 feet.

This is the big glacier we went to.

The glacier caving off.

Glaciers are so cool.  This one move 6-10 feet everyday.  Crazy!

Jason and I with the glacier.

We saw a humpback whale.  It was so cool, we would see it blow air about 3-4 times then he would come out of the water and dive down.  Here is his tail.

Our cruise included all you can eat salmon, prime rib and crab dinner on Fox Island.  It was delicious!  After the cruise we headed back to Anchorage to catch our 1:45am flight...yuck!  

Here is all our baggage, for three people!!  

We had a great trip!  Seriously, we hope we can go back again sometime.  It was so nice to get away from our busy lives and just relax a little.  Thanks for inviting us Andy and Marissa!!

Happy Birthday Oliver!!

I can't believe our baby is one. It has been a really emotional week for me. I love this little guy SO much! We are leaving him with his grandparents for 11 days, for our trip to Alaska. I can't seem to get myself together. I am so excited for our trip but I just can't stop crying. I think the anticipation is worse than actually leaving him will be. He is just the sweetest boy.

I had wanted to put up the SWEET slideshow I made for Ollie's first year, unfortunately I'm having issues exporting my slideshow (it has pictures, video and music), soooo instead here are some pictures of our little guy doing what he does best, making messes. And here is a link to Ollie's debut onto the blog:

http://jasonandginny.blogspot.com/2008/08/introducing.html

We love you so much Oliver! You have made this the best year EVER!

This mess was particularly difficult to clean up because as I was picking them up I was trying to fish them out of his mouth at the same time...fun times.

I thought the Raisin Bran was gone, so I threw it away, Ollie knew there was a little more left.

Just helping me get ready to cook dinner. He wasn't sure what I needed so he got a little bit of everything.

I guess we didn't give him a chance to read the paper.

He loves steel cut oatmeal, just like his Dad.

How can you get mad at that little face??? I can't, so I laugh and take a picture.