Done with the vacation photos

There are more great photos, of course, but I figured a couple of weeks of vacation posts is probably sufficient. We can get back to regular posts about my everyday life. I do, however, still talk about some memorable events from our vacation, like seeing a HUGE dog that was bigger than mommy!

Does YOUR airport have one of these?

It won't solve all of the world's problems, but it certainly made the 4-hour delay in Vancouver (due to equipment problems) more bearable.

Finally, it was time to go home

I helped daddy with the luggage.

Just in case you were wondering

And now you know.

Beep beep! Fire truck coming through!

I picked up some fellow firefighters along the way! They were friendly. One little girl touched me to make sure I was real!

Why they are woo-woos

For those of you who don't know, I call doggies "woo-woo." When I was learning my animals, I learned that dogs say "woof woof" - but I couldn't pronounce the letter "f" yet. So I said "woo-woo." And then, every time I would see a dog, I wanted to speak to it in its own language (you know, so he would understand me).

Well, it stuck.

I can say doggie now (and I do), and I can distinguish between an adult doggie and a puppy (and I point out puppies when I see them and refer to them as such), but I still ay "woo-woo" to doggies when I see them. So next time you see a woo-woo, be sure to speak to it in its own language and think of me.

Some things never change

I managed to find a woo-woo to pet. What a good woo-woo. He even sat when I told him to sit. Good woo-woo.

Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!

Daddy and I climbed up the stairs to the top of the slide. I wasn't sure how I felt about going down, though. I had to stand up there for a minute to survey the situation before I would commit. But mommy promised to catch me, so I decided to give it a shot.

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Daddy slid down, too! He must have seen how much fun I had with it. But mommy didn't catch him. Daddy, you're on your own!

We spent the last day of our vacation in Vancouver

The first (and only) item on our itinerary was to explore Stanley Park. I was excited to slide, swing, drive a fire truck, see ducks, chase pigeons and find doggies. And I did all of those things! I will post pictures of each of my exploits and adventures.

Honk honk!

Mommy and daddy wanted me to get a picture with an American Eagle. I thought it would be funnier to squeeze his beak to see if he'd honk! I'M SO FUNNY!!

Hey, that's mine!

How did these random people in Haines get access to my closet?!

Alaskan Rangers helped me pet local animals!

They had this nifty table set up talking about the different animals and setting aside pieces of fur for the kids to pet.

I pet the mountain goat first.

Then I pet a brown bear. Mine is a lot softer than this one.

My favorite, though, was the seal. His fur was so soft!

Mommy wants to write the trip off as an educational expense. But she said something about the IRS not being amused by that. I don't know who the IRS is, but I'll have them know that my mommy is *very* amusing!

Then I decided that I preferred mommy's sunglasses and we switched

After this photo op, we got back to some serious relaxing.

We discovered the "Oasis" area of the ship!

Relaxation achieved! Thank goodness for the very top floor of the cruise ship. This area had palm trees, bamboo, tables and chairs, loungers, a little pool and... you guessed it... hammocks. We all enjoyed some quality hammock time. Now *this* is vacation.

We made it to the jacuzzi, too

Can you tell from the expression on my face that I liked it?

Beach balls make pool time more fun!

So, so fun!

Pool time!!

Finally!

Look at my salmon immitation!

Spot-on, right?!

I made some new friends in Ketchikan

I petted them and played with them for a while before deciding that they needed to come home with me.

My favorite in-port activity: chasing pigeons

I left no pigeon unchased!

After breakfast every morning, we looked out the 11th floor windows to get a bird's eye view of the city

The breakfast dining area offered a wonderful vantage point.

Notice daddy is in shorts and a t-shirt, by the way. That guy never gets cold!

Ever wonder what a bundled up baby looks like?

Something like this. This is in Juneau, where it was chilly but not as cold as in Haines (our first stop, and where we spent very little time at port because of the temperature). Mommy is right behind us, taking a picture of me with her BlackBerry to post on Facebook.

Notice the way-too-big gloves. These are the ones I chose. They came in a two-pack with red and black gloves. Every day, I chose which ones I would wear and which ones mommy would wear. And every 10 minutes, we would switch gloves. Just for fun!

I think mommy likes Alaska because it looks like the scenery from the Twilight series

I think she secretly kept an eye out for Edward. But I didn't see any vampires running up trees!

Cruise ship breakfasts were fun

Since it wasn't our house and as an incentive to help get me to eat more, daddy let me feed myself Cheerios in the morning. Mommy is pretty sure more Cheerios ended up on the floor than in my belly. But I made up for the lost Cheerios with goldfish, eggs, yogurt and a little of each of apple juice, orange juice and cranberry juice. I enjoyed a sampling of breakfast items every morning.

Here's a picture of all of us

(including Miss Piggy, who was decidedly NOT bundled up.)

Happy anniversary, mommy and daddy!

They've been married ten years today. TEN YEARS. That's more than five times my age! They must be old. Anyway, happy anniversary, mommy and daddy!

Okay, grandma, it's time to go swimming!

As soon as I saw people in the pool, I decided it was time for me to join them! I quickly sat down and started taking off my shoes and socks. Grandma had to convince me that it wasn't time yet. I made her promise we could go later.

Of course, just because it's formal night doesn't mean you can't be silly

After dinner, I went to grandma and grandpa's room to jump around on their bed and throw their pillows around! Then I unplugged their phone and put it in the middle of the room. I rearranged some other things, too. And I had daddy turn up the heater in their room. They didn't even notice until their room was almost a normal temperature! Grandma and grandpa sure like the cold. Brrrrr!

The cruise ship had two formal nights

Here I am on the first formal night. I took my formal bunny with me to dinner.

I'm really good at ping pong

Just look at how natural I look!

Mommy helped a little.

Of course, I also helped -- I chased up the ping pong ball after we served.

Here is a sample of the view from the 11th deck

Gorgeous, right?

First things first: as soon as we boarded, we started exploring the ship

There was an enclosed pool area on the 11th deck. This was my favorite. It looked like an open air area, but without the COLD, courtesy of the glass enclosures! This way, I could look at the scenery outside without having to bundle up in all of the extra layers. All I needed was my jacket! There were toys on the 11th deck, too. There was a chess set (the pieces were as big as me!), ping pong tables, lounge chairs, tables and chairs for reading, a pool and three jacuzzis! I'll get to those. There was also a taco bar, which I really enjoyed later in the cruise.

Welcome to summer in Alaska!

It's THIS cold.

The high the entire week was 50. I don't even know what the low was. It was colder than winter in California. I wore several layers *and* was bundled up in a big jacket, but mommy also thought I needed gloves. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find the right sized kiddie gloves at our first stop, but I chose small adult gloves in two different colors to wear (and to share with mommy!). With the layers, the jacket and the gloves, I was nice and toasty despite the weather and I had plenty of time to enjoy Alaska!