Alaskan Cruise

We’ve been back almost two weeks, but I’m still excited about the Alaskan cruise we took.


Our immediate family hadn’t cruised before this trip, and it was an interesting experience with Holland America. I loved that everything we needed was right there on the boat, and just when you were ready to get off and explore we’d dock in some pretty amazing ports.

First stop… Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan was the first stop of three while cruising. What a cute little place! One section we walked seemed to be built up on stilts. I got this great shot of my loves, and kept thinking what a cute location for some fashion shoots! I, of course, didn’t take any because we were only in port for a day. In fact, I was lucky to get any shots (totally my fault; lazy I guess).

Second port, Juneau… ride over to the airport

We arrived in Juneau the following day. For the capitol, it was very rural. I guess I was expecting a bit more of a metropolitan. But it was gorgeous. The weather was beautiful and we even had a little bit of sunshine.


Here, we had an amazing opportunity to helicopter to several glaciers and a beautiful snowcapped mountain with 100 feet of snow on top of a mile long glacier. Talk about untouched powder and a snowboarder/skiers dream!

We didn’t have to be back on the boat until 10 p.m. so we headed up a sky tram to a cliff with a little hiking trail, had a bit of dinner, and ran into these friends…

Park in Skagway, Alaska

I think out of the three towns we visited, Skagway was my favorite. The weather was absolutely beautiful, the scenery gorgeous in a quant little town with wooden sidewalks, a railway,

 and the most amazing park! 

This park had ground up tires as it’s footing, y’all! 

This town, too, had so many great spots for photo shoots, and Amélia and I actually took advantage.

sneak peek of upcoming fashion post

sneak peek of upcoming Trendy Tot Tuesday

The days we spent at sea were filled with…

Trying on the life jacket for fun after our thrilling safety meeting where Amélia listened quietly; better than most adults in our group,

 delicious cocktails (mine was a raspberry flavored champagne dream), and excellent dining. I was told prior to going that the food can be overwhelming, but I stuck to my good choices and only indulged in desserts on two occasions (which I shared) and rather than gaining that cruise10, I lost a pound! But we spent downtime

 swimming in the awesome pool,

 and participating in a 5k for cancer. So I’m sure the exercise helped. Not to mention all the walking in ports.

 Every night, we were greeted by cute towel animals, and to keep track of the days we saw these in the elevator…

The time spent with our family was priceless and irreplaceable, and this was a great way to see Alaska. 

If you’re traveling with children, they did a great job to accommodate and offered activities for 3 to 17 (Amélia was too young, but the hubs younger brother and his friend took advantage and seemed to have a great time). Though it was lovely, service was great, and Alaska was spectacular, the boat seemed geared more for the older crowd (we did travel with the hubs grandparents, so it was appropriate), but I think for kids there are probably some better cruise line choices, and I think the hubs and I are going to try a fun getaway to Cabo or something like that next! 

Have you cruised? What cruise line? To where? I’d love to hear other cruising experiences!

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Alaskan Cruise

We’ve been back almost two weeks, but I’m still excited about the Alaskan cruise we took.


Our immediate family hadn’t cruised before this trip, and it was an interesting experience with Holland America. I loved that everything we needed was right there on the boat, and just when you were ready to get off and explore we’d dock in some pretty amazing ports.

First stop… Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan was the first stop of three while cruising. What a cute little place! One section we walked seemed to be built up on stilts. I got this great shot of my loves, and kept thinking what a cute location for some fashion shoots! I, of course, didn’t take any because we were only in port for a day. In fact, I was lucky to get any shots (totally my fault; lazy I guess).

Second port, Juneau… ride over to the airport

We arrived in Juneau the following day. For the capitol, it was very rural. I guess I was expecting a bit more of a metropolitan. But it was gorgeous. The weather was beautiful and we even had a little bit of sunshine.


Here, we had an amazing opportunity to helicopter to several glaciers and a beautiful snowcapped mountain with 100 feet of snow on top of a mile long glacier. Talk about untouched powder and a snowboarder/skiers dream!

We didn’t have to be back on the boat until 10 p.m. so we headed up a sky tram to a cliff with a little hiking trail, had a bit of dinner, and ran into these friends…

Park in Skagway, Alaska

I think out of the three towns we visited, Skagway was my favorite. The weather was absolutely beautiful, the scenery gorgeous in a quant little town with wooden sidewalks, a railway,

 and the most amazing park! 

This park had ground up tires as it’s footing, y’all! 

This town, too, had so many great spots for photo shoots, and Amélia and I actually took advantage.

sneak peek of upcoming fashion post

sneak peek of upcoming Trendy Tot Tuesday

The days we spent at sea were filled with…

Trying on the life jacket for fun after our thrilling safety meeting where Amélia listened quietly; better than most adults in our group,

 delicious cocktails (mine was a raspberry flavored champagne dream), and excellent dining. I was told prior to going that the food can be overwhelming, but I stuck to my good choices and only indulged in desserts on two occasions (which I shared) and rather than gaining that cruise10, I lost a pound! But we spent downtime

 swimming in the awesome pool,

 and participating in a 5k for cancer. So I’m sure the exercise helped. Not to mention all the walking in ports.

 Every night, we were greeted by cute towel animals, and to keep track of the days we saw these in the elevator…

The time spent with our family was priceless and irreplaceable, and this was a great way to see Alaska. 

If you’re traveling with children, they did a great job to accommodate and offered activities for 3 to 17 (Amélia was too young, but the hubs younger brother and his friend took advantage and seemed to have a great time). Though it was lovely, service was great, and Alaska was spectacular, the boat seemed geared more for the older crowd (we did travel with the hubs grandparents, so it was appropriate), but I think for kids there are probably some better cruise line choices, and I think the hubs and I are going to try a fun getaway to Cabo or something like that next! 

Have you cruised? What cruise line? To where? I’d love to hear other cruising experiences!

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Insta-Cruise

All last week our family was flying to and from, and cruising and training Alaska.


It was a pretty amazing trip that I’ll be posting about soon enough, but for now…


These were the few moments of non-roaming or major wifi charges in which I was able to Instagram.

A selfie in our car to the airport. We love being chauffeured!

Um, if you look closely, she’s posing, but not for me… there were other folks waiting to take pictures with this bear and she thought they were all waiting to take her pic! Silly girl. At least the bear is looking!

Readying for a ride to the glacier in Juneau.

At port in Skagway, AK… a warm sweater for a train ride up to Canada and back.

Dinner. You know if I’m on a boat, I’m gonna be rockin’ anchors!

Best friends by the end of the cruise.

Casual dinner our last night (in Anchorage) before it was back to reality.

Time to fly home. 

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Alaskan Cruise Here We Come

A year on the calendar, our Alaskan cruise trip has finally arrived. I’m really looking forward to getting some down as a family after all the hubbub of the 4th of July. 


Flying out tomorrow and setting sail on Sunday, the fun begins. There’ll be 11 of us Souza’s and for the hubs, Amélia and I, it’ll be our first time cruising. I’m so excited!


Because we have a two year old, we don’t have a lot of side excursions planned; which is actually OK with me. We aren’t much for doing the whole tourist-y thing with a ton of other people like cattle! I’ll be happy to see the local towns and try out food, and find an awesome park in the places we’re visiting so Amélia can run off some of her energy. For me, that’ll make for a perfect vacation. We do have a helicopter ride to a glacier planned for one day, that I think is going to be off the charts amazing. 


I won’t be dragging along my laptop, so I’ll try to post updates of our cruise on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook with the hashtag #souzascruisealaska, so be on the lookout! I’m sure I’ll have a post or two for you when we get back.


What summer trips does your family have on the books? 

New York: Amélia Takes on American Girl

Friday was A’s big day in the city. Every girl must experience 5th Avenue, and why not start now?! At two, she was about to experience the shopping mecca of New York, and the first stop was American Girl.


A little history: A is the second girl of a whole line of boys on my husbands father’s side of the family, and she’s the first great grand-daughter. Her nana (my husband’s grandmother) took the only grand-daughter to American Doll years ago, so you can imagine how excited she was to take her first great-grand daughter.


So, We taxied up to American Girl. This place!


Have you been? It was my first time there as well, and whoa! 

There are three levels of dolls. Yep, 3 levels. If a little girl can’t go crazy in there – and spend all your money! They have a photo studio – where your girl can appear on an American Girl magazine – a cafe (side note: make reservations before you go!), and a doll hairstyling counter – I’ve never seen anything like it.

I think they have something to represent whatever your girl’s in to: horses, basketball, ballet, skateboarding, biking, and the list goes on. 

They also have dolls to match your skin tone, hair color, even hazel eyes like mine. This is definitely going to be a tradition as my girl gets bigger. 

Her nana started her off today with Bitty Baby. OMG, the smile on my girl’s face when she got her doll! She’s such the little momma.

I’d say that’s one happy American Girl customer!

Do your daughters have an American Girl? Was this born out of a tradition? We’re currently in the market for baby names… got any good ones?

New York: Amélia Takes on American Girl

Friday was A’s big day in the city. Every girl must experience 5th Avenue, and why not start now?! At two, she was about to experience the shopping mecca of New York, and the first stop was American Girl.


A little history: A is the second girl of a whole line of boys on my husbands father’s side of the family, and she’s the first great grand-daughter. Her nana (my husband’s grandmother) took the only grand-daughter to American Doll years ago, so you can imagine how excited she was to take her first great-grand daughter.


So, We taxied up to American Girl. This place!


Have you been? It was my first time there as well, and whoa! 

There are three levels of dolls. Yep, 3 levels. If a little girl can’t go crazy in there – and spend all your money! They have a photo studio – where your girl can appear on an American Girl magazine – a cafe (side note: make reservations before you go!), and a doll hairstyling counter – I’ve never seen anything like it.

I think they have something to represent whatever your girl’s in to: horses, basketball, ballet, skateboarding, biking, and the list goes on. 

They also have dolls to match your skin tone, hair color, even hazel eyes like mine. This is definitely going to be a tradition as my girl gets bigger. 

Her nana started her off today with Bitty Baby. OMG, the smile on my girl’s face when she got her doll! She’s such the little momma.

I’d say that’s one happy American Girl customer!

Do your daughters have an American Girl? Was this born out of a tradition? We’re currently in the market for baby names… got any good ones?

Happy Father’s Day!

It’s safe to say the hubs had a great Father’s day.

You know, we’re in the midst of 4th of July season – the busiest of several big points in the year for a fireworks company – and getting time off is nearly non-existent. When it’s a family business, time off is even harder to come by. But we do what we can to be sure we take time for our family.

This Father’s day nearly came and went almost without a big celebration. We’ve both been busy and prepping for New York, that I almost forgot this past weekend was Father’s day, but we snuck in a little time at the beach house.

Saturday, after packing the car and loading my little family

we made it down to the house, settled in, and relaxed awhile before the hubs, his dad, and brother joined us after work.

Sunday, was filled with more lounging, some fun in the sun, 

and naps for everyone while I prepared the night’s dinner.

We ended the evening on the top deck with lights, fire, and a little libations.

Today, it’s back to the grind as I wash laundry, repack suitcases, tie up housework, and finish up fashion posts from birthday week to get on the blog that I’ve been promising! Then it’s off to the big apple for two weeks! 

All the hard work, and missing the hubs while he slaves away at designing fireworks shows for the country’s Independence celebrations is all worth it when we cap it off with a beautiful display over the Hudson on the 4th of July!

How was your Father’s day? Any big plans for the 4th?

Happy Father’s Day!

It’s safe to say the hubs had a great Father’s day.

You know, we’re in the midst of 4th of July season – the busiest of several big points in the year for a fireworks company – and getting time off is nearly non-existent. When it’s a family business, time off is even harder to come by. But we do what we can to be sure we take time for our family.

This Father’s day nearly came and went almost without a big celebration. We’ve both been busy and prepping for New York, that I almost forgot this past weekend was Father’s day, but we snuck in a little time at the beach house.

Saturday, after packing the car and loading my little family

we made it down to the house, settled in, and relaxed awhile before the hubs, his dad, and brother joined us after work.

Sunday, was filled with more lounging, some fun in the sun, 

and naps for everyone while I prepared the night’s dinner.

We ended the evening on the top deck with lights, fire, and a little libations.

Today, it’s back to the grind as I wash laundry, repack suitcases, tie up housework, and finish up fashion posts from birthday week to get on the blog that I’ve been promising! Then it’s off to the big apple for two weeks! 

All the hard work, and missing the hubs while he slaves away at designing fireworks shows for the country’s Independence celebrations is all worth it when we cap it off with a beautiful display over the Hudson on the 4th of July!

How was your Father’s day? Any big plans for the 4th?

Gift Guide: For Dad

Is it Father’s day already? I swear it just snuck up on me this year. That’s what happens when you’re busier than a bee. 

I don’t know about you, but up until recently, I was always on top of the crafting with A for every holiday, birthday, anniversary…

This year, it’s Friday and while shopping ALONE Thursday I’d just begun planning Father’s Day ideas to blow his socks off. 

So here’s my gift guide for great ideas that’ll show dad how loved and appreciated he is… and if you’re just starting TODAY, there are a few basic crafty one’s and some easy store finds too!

1. Vader’s Little Princess

Okay, this is awesomsauce! For all the Star Wars fans this ought to be good. I hear there’s also one for dad’s raising little boys. 

photo credit

Great news: Barnes and Noble carries it and you can go online and choose to reserve your copy and pick up right in the store. So if you’re last minute, there’s still time!

2. Wooden 6-Pack Beer Tote

Another one my hubs would love. He’s a Sierra Nevada drinker and tends to BYOB to everything. This one might not make it on time if you order today, but it’s pretty cool.

3. Playing Cards Booklet
I actually did this for Valentine’s day last year and it still sits on the hubs desk. And he thumbs through it often!

4. Made by Dad

If you’ve got a crafty handy dad, this book may be perfect.

5. Jambox wireless speaker

The hubs got the larger one for his birthday this year, and it’s been a big hit. This one’s mega awesomesauce. “Big sound in a small package,” it’s the modern day boombox. “It gets smarter every time you use it,” offers go anywhere wireless capability, and streams from your iPod, iPad, iPhone, or other bluetooth device.

photo credit

6. Cubicle Snacks
Mason jars filled with dad’s favorite salty, sweet, and sour candies? Yes! I found this one on good ‘ol Pinterest and made two jars for the hubs’ office. Can you guess which one A was? Of course her cute mug was placed on the sweet jar, and my cheeky grinned face graced the salty snack jar. 

7. Personalized Guitar Pick

Is dad your rockstar? This is a cute idea for the musically inclined dad.

photo credit

8. Custom View Master

Remember these? It may be a bit too last minute for this gift, but what a cool idea! I had to include this one.

9. Stanley Push Button Mug

Another practical gift. Speaking from experience, this mug is ideal for travel and work. ‘Nough said. He’ll get a lot of use out of this.

photo credit

10. Car Play Mat for Relaxing

This is da bomb. After a long day at work what does dad want? A back rub. But the kids want to play. Get the best of both worlds!

photo credit

All you creative mommas out there could surely find an iron-on or go old school with a sharpie.

Hope these ideas help you celebrate dad!

What’s been the biggest Father’s day gift hit in your house?

Gift Guide: For Dad

Is it Father’s day already? I swear it just snuck up on me this year. That’s what happens when you’re busier than a bee. 

I don’t know about you, but up until recently, I was always on top of the crafting with A for every holiday, birthday, anniversary…

This year, it’s Friday and while shopping ALONE Thursday I’d just begun planning Father’s Day ideas to blow his socks off. 

So here’s my gift guide for great ideas that’ll show dad how loved and appreciated he is… and if you’re just starting TODAY, there are a few basic crafty one’s and some easy store finds too!

1. Vader’s Little Princess

Okay, this is awesomsauce! For all the Star Wars fans this ought to be good. I hear there’s also one for dad’s raising little boys. 

photo credit

Great news: Barnes and Noble carries it and you can go online and choose to reserve your copy and pick up right in the store. So if you’re last minute, there’s still time!

2. Wooden 6-Pack Beer Tote

Another one my hubs would love. He’s a Sierra Nevada drinker and tends to BYOB to everything. This one might not make it on time if you order today, but it’s pretty cool.

3. Playing Cards Booklet
I actually did this for Valentine’s day last year and it still sits on the hubs desk. And he thumbs through it often!

4. Made by Dad

If you’ve got a crafty handy dad, this book may be perfect.

5. Jambox wireless speaker

The hubs got the larger one for his birthday this year, and it’s been a big hit. This one’s mega awesomesauce. “Big sound in a small package,” it’s the modern day boombox. “It gets smarter every time you use it,” offers go anywhere wireless capability, and streams from your iPod, iPad, iPhone, or other bluetooth device.

photo credit

6. Cubicle Snacks
Mason jars filled with dad’s favorite salty, sweet, and sour candies? Yes! I found this one on good ‘ol Pinterest and made two jars for the hubs’ office. Can you guess which one A was? Of course her cute mug was placed on the sweet jar, and my cheeky grinned face graced the salty snack jar. 

7. Personalized Guitar Pick

Is dad your rockstar? This is a cute idea for the musically inclined dad.

photo credit

8. Custom View Master

Remember these? It may be a bit too last minute for this gift, but what a cool idea! I had to include this one.

9. Stanley Push Button Mug

Another practical gift. Speaking from experience, this mug is ideal for travel and work. ‘Nough said. He’ll get a lot of use out of this.

photo credit

10. Car Play Mat for Relaxing

This is da bomb. After a long day at work what does dad want? A back rub. But the kids want to play. Get the best of both worlds!

photo credit

All you creative mommas out there could surely find an iron-on or go old school with a sharpie.

Hope these ideas help you celebrate dad!

What’s been the biggest Father’s day gift hit in your house?