The Norwegian Pearl

We sailed from Seattle on the Norwegian Pearl. Since I have never been on a cruise before, I have nothing to compare it to, but we were very impressed with our ship. I think there were over 2000 passengers and over 1000 crew.

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Here's our first view of the ship from the pier in Seattle (we don't know who those people are):

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The first thing we did once on board was eat lunch! They had a nice buffet we seemed to frequent since it was easier to find something to please everyone there. Nice of them to have high chairs for Noelle; even nicer that they were on wheels. Cousins Brandon & Connor entertain Noelle.

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We had an awesome room on deck 11 (out of 14) with a balcony. Many beautiful pictures were taken from this balcony. If you ever go on an Alaskan cruise, I highly recommend getting a room with a balcony. This is Connor & Noelle playing on our balcony as we are sailing away from Seattle.

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Here's Aunt Lisa in our view looking forward out our balcony as we sail away.

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Goodbye, Seattle. You were a little rainy, but pretty cool.

We're home!

We are home from a fabulous vacation - a couple of days in Seattle, and then a 7 day cruise to Alaska! It was beautiful. We went with Lance's parents, his sister Lisa, and her 3 boys.

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As an aside, I must mention that last night Lance played softball with our church team, even though he felt tired from the traveling, and a little sluggish from all the yummy cruise food. But, something must have hit the spot, because he hit a home run!! An over-the-fence home run!! He doesn't think he's ever done that in an actual game (only at practice). Yea, Lance! I'm so proud of you!! Now, back to our vacation...

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I'll start with some pictures of our stay in Seattle. We had a great view of the Space Needle from our hotel room:

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Noelle loved looking at the Space Needle out the window of the hotel. Her excitement was so amusing we tried to capture it:

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Here are the cousins outside the Science Fiction Museum (what a great place to visit):

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Noelle napped during the first part of our outing, so on the way back she was full of energy while Connor was tired. Push, Noelle, push:

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A little bit about her

We had our family interview last night with the Chernobyl Children's Project, and we were given just a little bit of info about the girl who will be staying with us in July. We will get a photo and bio tomorrow night, but I wanted to share what we know so far.

Her name is Tanya, and she will turn 10 in a couple of weeks.
Her hobbies are reading, drawing, crafts, dancing, and bike-riding.
She cannot swim or roller skate, but wants to learn.
She is cheerful, sociable, mischievous, and likes to make people laugh.
She likes Barbies, trying on clothes, and fixing her hair.

Oh, doesn't she sound like a typical American 10-year-old girl?

Also, the Visas were obtained from the American Embassy in Moscow, so it looks like they are definitely going to come!

Trevor graduates high school

My how time has flown by, and now Trevor has graduated from high school. He's not sure what he's going to do this summer (I would like him to get a job), but he's counting down the days until starting college this fall at the University of Tennessee. I think he's going to start out as an undecided major, and right now he's considering becoming a doctor, psychologist, or something along those lines.

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Trevor's friend Hannah came all the way from Columbia, SC, to join him on this special day. I was happy to finally meet this young lady whom Trevor met at church camp.

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Connor & Noelle soon tired of the long ceremony, especially since they had to sit on our laps. Lance took them out to the lobby, which allowed them to play, and allowed one lucky person among the hundreds standing to sit (they really should have had more chairs available). So here are some pictures of Connor & Noelle entertaining themselves while Trevor was graduating:

Trevor goes to the prom

Head over to Lance's blog to see some pictures of Trevor going to the prom.

http://lancespot.blogspot.com/2008/05/senior-prom.html

Free Rice

Here's a neat little site where you get to pick the definition of a word and if you are correct, there will be grains of rice donated to the UN World Food Program. I'm having lots of fun.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Pretty Amazing Grace

I like Neil Diamond. I know many people don't, especially if they are under the age of 40 (which I still am). But I like him, and his music.

So, I enjoyed American Idol this week, with the contestants singing two Neil Diamond songs each. I thought Jason Castro's voice was well suited for the songs, while David Archuleta'a voice was a bit too young and smooth. David Cook was awesome, as usual. I had to fast-forward through Syesha's performance because even though she is beautiful and has a great voice, it's just not my cup of tea. (Funny, because other people loved her the best yet they can't stand Neil Diamond.) Then there's poor Brooke who got voted off this week. I really like her as a person (and would love to have her as my kids' nanny). Her voice is more suited to folksy ballads (which I love).

What drove me to blog about American Idol is the song Neil Diamond sang last night - Pretty Amazing Grace. Yes, it is what I hoped it would be - a testament to God's very amazing grace extended to him. Neil wrote this song for his new album about to be released, and he said the songs are very personal. I am proud that Neil wrote the song, and that American Idol had him sing it. I think I will be buying his album.

Check out the song, I think it is very good -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7RiNHCSpyI