Friday, July 01, 2011

May and June Travels - Alaska, Milwaukee, Lake Tahoe

May and June were very busy for us with lots of fun travel. In late May we took a week-long cruise up the inland passage to visit Juneau and Skagway, Alaska. On the way back to Seattle, we went on a whale-watching tour and followed a pod of orcas for about an hour. We enjoyed the cruise - the weather wasn't great so we don't have a lot of great pictures to share, unfortunately. Our cruise was with Royal Caribbean. The ship was Rhapsody of the Seas.





Our niece Catherine was married in Milwaukee on June 11th and it was a beautiful event. Again, the weather was cold and foggy, but could have been worse - that didn't stop anything, however. Following are pictures of Sharon's brother Richard & wife Ann with bride and groom and rest of their family and close friends at the reception (Milwaukee Country Club); Jonathan and Catherine; gorgeous flowers everywhere; Elizabeth (sister of the bride)and husband Chris; Sharon's sister Kathy and husband Tom; our nephew Tim and niece Elizabeth (cousins); beautiful strawberries "dressed" like bride and groom and served at a luncheon for the bride two days before the wedding; three more nephews and their wives (left to right: Heidi, Jaime, Nathan, Mike, Matt, Tracy); and finally a pretty nice picture of us at the reception!











Our nephew Justin was married on June 25th in California. Son Steve officiated the ceremony which was held at Murphy's Irish Pub in South Lake Tahoe. Thirteen of us spent the weekend together in a rented house and that was great fun: Dwight and Sharon, Steve, Beth, Grace, Ava, Dwight's sisters Marcia (and husband Calvin), Donna, Annie, Calvin's parents Jim and Dorothy, and Marcia/Calvin's granddaughter Jordan. Our ages range from 2-81 years old! Following are photos of Grace at Pope's Beach Lake Tahoe; Grace and Ava having a picnic lunch on the beach; Ava in her car seat; Grandpa Jim (the piper) with Ava, Grace and Jordan; Sharon and Steve; Grace, Annie, Donna, Ava, Jordan (Dwight in the background) finding their seats for the ceremony; bride and groom Jenny and Justin; the bridal party (our niece Dawn is the bridesmaid 2nd to the right of the bride - Dawn is mother of Jordan and sister of the groom); a cute picture of Grace, Beth and Steve, followed by another good one of the 3 girls (cousins) Grace, Jordan, Ava; the mothers of the bride and groom (Marcia is Justin's mom); Steve and Calvin (father of groom); and more beautiful flowers!