The thought of gathering this many people with so many busy schedules was quite the feat – but we pulled it off with almost everyone to celebrate Steve’s parents’ 60th wedding anniversary and his mom’s 80th birthday. 60 and 80 years! That is a lot of experience and wisdom, especially as they’ve raised 9 children. So we booked an Alaskan cruise months ago and we’ve been looking forward to it ever since.
The fun thing about Steve’s parents is despite their age, they are active and we pushed them to their physical limits this trip as they wanted to experience all the things.
We got off the ship every chance we could and explored the ports and every evening we were back on the ship enjoying a formal dinner together.
We lucked out with the best weather the captain has seen all summer. (We prepared for the worst and were pleasantly surprised with our warm-ish days and mostly rain-free days.)
And we had fun. This is a fun group to hang with – they are adventurous, they’re witty, they’re playful. They know how to adventure. Both Steve and I thought we’d have more downtime than we actually did because even when we were on the ship, every one was looking to gather which was a good time.
There were really only two drawbacks to our amazing experience: First, it was hard to leave our kids for so long – probably harder on me then them! This was only the second time I’ve been away from home for that long and the last time was when Steve and I went to Peru when we had just two little kids. Hallie was with our kids while we were gone and I think we were both relieved when I made it home. The other drawback was I’m not a seafood fan…at all. You want to know what they serve in excess on an Alaskan cruise?! Seafood! Every formal dinner had a menu full of seafood and only a few alternate non-seafood options and I tried them all. Luckily, the ship was full of food in the buffet area and I would make sure to show up to dinner not very hungry. And there was always ice cream available and we took advantage of that tasty service.
We sat around one evening looking through old family pictures and it was entertaining to hear stories from Steve’s parents as well as his siblings. They have built a thriving posterity in the course of 60 years and I’m grateful to be counted in their flock.
