2012 Christmas Letter

The fastest year of my life…..um…I feel like I started last years letter the same way.
We have had a crazy busy packed full year, bursting at the seams. It has taken me 37 years to realize that is just who I am, someone who packs more than is humanly possible into one day. Ya know what, I am ok with that. I think once you reach 37 years old, you stop making excuses for yourself and start embracing things.
I continue to stay at home with Audrey. I am so blessed to be able to do it.  It is true, they do grow up in a blink and I realize I have just 18 months until she heads off to Kindergarten.  I never in my whole fast paced career life thought I would even want to be a Stay at Home Mom. Turns out that the job fits me just right.
In addition to being a fulltime mom, I had a crazy busy wonderful business year as my photography business continued to grow at a very rapid pace. Sometimes I have to slow myself down, but I do love it!  I have met many wonderful customers that have turned into very dear friends. I have captured some incredible moments that I can look back over and say, wow, I am so glad I was a part of that. I have photographed a friend who lost all of her hair while fighting breast cancer, and re-photographed her after her battle was won. I have seen the sweet smiles of new babies, the first kisses as man and wife, the empty chair in front of a family that waits to fill it with an adopted child, a father with his grown daughters just months before he passed away. Life as a photographer is filled with lessons and blessings.
Jim continues to tackle two jobs. First he celebrated his 8th year at Equipment Depot. Work has kept him super busy this year, and busy is good.  He traveled to the Ryder cup with his coworkers this year as a treat,  and he loved it!  His work has been so flexible and good to him. Being the Fire Chief is still his other full time job and still his biggest passion. As always I have to remind myself on a daily basis that there is a good reason Audrey and I don’t see much of Jim when his regular work hours are over. Today, we travel via fire engine to take Christmas gifts, lots of them, that the UAFD collected , to a family of 9. And this evening we drive around our neighborhood , with Jim dressed as Santa , and hand out treats to our neighborhood kids. These two events make the rest of the year worth the craziness, seeing other people blessed. It does any heart good, mine doubly good!
Audrey isn’t a baby anymore. She is a big tall, silly, crazy kid. Too big now at 3 ½ for a FREE ice cream at Brusters…already! She started preschool in August. We have seen her take flight since she began going to preschool.  It started out rocky, whew, but oh my has she flourished.  We are so grateful for her amazing teachers and the staff at Country and Town.  Potty training was a big obstacle that we tackled and after months finally surmounted. Once that happened, our baby girl became little miss independent.  She loves dancing and twirling and horses, and coloring and playdough. And, after a trip to Disney on Ice and Mary Poppins and each subsequent obsession afterward with each, I can say she loves show tunes and we may see her on Broadway someday.
We enjoyed camping this year, trips to the Lake and the beach( Both OBX and Dewey) . In August, we added a new member to our family, our pontoon boat. Jims dream came true and even though I fussed and refused it at first, I ended up loving it as much as he did. We have it docked on the Susquehanna in Wormleysburg. I must admit we now have the best seat to Fireworks in Harrisburg. We look forward to enjoying lazy days on the river in 2013.
We enjoyed a lot of local places this year: Lake Tobias, Land of Little Horses, Hershey Park Christmas Candylane, The State Museum, and so many wonderful places. We bought a membership to Catoctin Zoo in Thurmont , MD. It is about 45 minutes from our home.  We have made this our second home and LOVE the animals that we visited often this summer and fall.
In September, we hopped aboard an Alaskan Cruise Ship along with my parents, our friend Mike and Lori and Paul and Bonnie.  WOW, the trip of a lifetime with wonderful friends. We started out saying we should make the most of a place we will only see once in our life, but we quickly changed our tune and know for certain we will go back.  We got to visit Seattle, WA during our trip and loved it as well.  We went for my mom and dads 40th anniversary and they renewed their wedding vows on board.
I am sure I have forgotten 3 dozen things we did and 3 dozen important things to share. In the end, that doesn’t matter so much I guess.
In the wake of the last few weeks tragedies, we have grasped on to the one true blessing that we always know for certain: that a baby born in a manger continues to hold us together and bless our family.
May HIS love be a blessing to your lives throughout the new year!

Stacy, Jimmy, Audrey, Molli, Jagger, the fish, the hermit crab Salter

Getting ready for FALL in a BIG WAY

I am ready to put up my Christmas tree and it is only November 8th,
My kiddo knows about Santa and she "gets it" this year, so I am ready to start holiday celebrations NOW!
Alas, I will restrain myself for 2 more weeks, or at least try to.
I have started a new blog for the holidays to focus on all that we do, so please check out www.noplacelikehappyfortheholidays.blogspot.com over the course of the next few weeks, as I blog about crafts, and activities, etc...

My kiddo is growing up.
We took her to Disney on Ice last week.
Second row seats right on the ice with nobody in front of us. She was mesmerized. It was so magical watching her clap and cheer.  Jim and I enjoyed the show as much as she did.

Although now she wants me to play Disney on Ice on my "puter"  LOL!
PReschool is going great for her.
What a big girl she is becoming.
Everyday she grows, <3 p="p">

2012 Alaska Cruise Vacation...Gday!

THe 3rd load of laundry is spinnning and I am drinking a cup of coffee, so I figured NOW was the best time to post about our INCREDIBLE, AMAZING, BEST EVER VACATION!!!

We started our vacation(after the flights from Harrisburg, Chicago and to Seattle) on Monday morning. Mom, dad, Mike, Lori, Jim, Audrey and I, made our way UPHILL to the Space Needle. We traveled on the elevator up to the top and walked around. Beautiful view.
From there we hitched the monorail, where the driver let Audrey blow the whistle, and headed downtown to Pikes Place Market.

WOW. The beautiful CHEAP flowers alone were worth walk. All of the artists are local.
This is the place of FISH training that I bought and did 12 years ago with my staff at Campus Door.

We had a ball just looking around and listening to the local musicians.

Jim and Audrey caught their eyes on a GIANT Ferris Wheel, so she cried until we made our way there. It overlooks Seattles main waterways. We had a great ride.

 

Then, we headed over to the Seattle Aquarium. What a beautiful place. we got a great intro by one of the divers, met some pretty cool seals and enjoyed the unusual fish!

After a long day, we headed back to our room at the Homewood Suites in Seattle.  This place is a 10 out of 10 when it comes to a hotel stay, wonderful breakfast and dinner included.  Was excellent!

We woke up bright an early and hopped on the shuttle to get to our Cruise Ship, Carnival Spirit.
The entry and embarkation process was a breeze. We were in our rooms and ready to set sail by 1:30 pm.
This was Carnival Spirit's last Alaskan Cruise. It will now be docked in Australia as the first cruise ship of Carnivals to set sail there.

We were ready to go. We got Audrey all registered at Camp carnival for the week to enjoy the various activities included for her on the trip. The weather was clear and we were all very excited! We met up with our friends Bonnie and Paul on the safety briefing deck and we set SAIL!!!

On our second day of sailing out at sea, my parents renewed their wedding vows to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Jim and I gave them the renewal package as a gift for their anniversary last year.  what a top notch running of the wedding department.  They met with Ekataryna and she set them all up.  we met at the Chapel at 4:30 pm and My mom made her way down the aisle as my dad waited at the end. Captain Volpi performed their wedding vow exchange.  He has sailed with Carnival for 38 years and will be retiring, so it was a little extra special.

A beautiful service, even despite my mom losing her words half way through, which was very sweet.  We celebrated with very yummy white cake with strawberry filling and champagne afterward and headed down to the lobby for dancing before dinner.

On Day 3, we arrived in Juneau Alaska, where it was cold and rainy and foggy. BUT, it DID NOT Deter us from making our way to The Dog Mushers Camp and riding a wheeled sled pulled by 16 professional sled dogs...who TRULY WANTED to pull our big behinds.

 WHAT A FEELING! They whisked us at speeds like a roller coaster through the tall cedar woods, enjoying the ride along with us! After the ride, we got to smooch the puppies! WHAT A TREAT for all of us, but especially the littlest of the travelers. Audrey was in HEAVEN! and so were we

 

 

 The excursion was amazing despite the weather. We did a wee bit of shopping and set sail for Glacier Bay.

 

 

 OMG!  This was totally indescribable! The glaciers that soared above and in front of us were massive and amazing. We saw Whale, Seals, mountain goat. Dad saw a bear. The pictures and words cannot do this majestic place justice! GO, save, RUN to see it! We watched glaciers calving ( breaking off). The water inside them was a crystal blue.  It wasnt too terribly cold, and the whole ship of people stood out on the decks to take in the view.

 

 

The next day, we made our way to Skagway Alaska. We enjoyed gold panning with Paul and Bonnie and my parents.  Audrey even got in on the action. They taught us how to sift through the "pay dirt" and look for gold flakes. We all found some.  Then we took it in and weighed it and we had ours added to a necklace charm to wear.  I got a petrified walrus tusk and gold bead for my charm bracelet.

 

 

 

 
AND, we added the TO the Summit excursion which can only be described as foggy...thats it...foggy...and perhaps a bit funny lil waste of 2 hours.....but we laughed it off....er, everyone laughed at me for choosing to spend the extra time on a small bus filled with some questionable other cruise goers and our small little group.  Lori and Mike can be sure that they didnt miss anything.  LOL!  The gold panning was super fun so it made up for our foggy bus ride...did I mentioned cramped!  LOL!

 
We did manage to make our way into Canada...although we couldnt see anything. And I did manage to get some pictures, foggy pictures.

From there it was off to Ketchikan..with a 95% chance of rain. we awoke to....not a cloud in the sky!
I LOVE this place! The port is beautiful. The city was filled with great shops and lots to do.
we walked around a bit and enjoyed the DUCK BOAT TOUR...always a good choice. They wheeled us around town looking at sights and then into the harbor to enjoy some more sights there.

 

We visited the fire house for Jim to say Hello! Nobody was there but we snapped a pic!

THEN, I alone, was off to a second excursion to the rainforest. Why was I by myself, you may ask???

Because my selection of the To the Summit Fog tour wasnt well received, so everybody decided to NOT follow my excursion additions.

AND that was OK!

My parents took Audrey shopping.

I loaded onto a bus and headed to the Ketchikan rainforest, where I was SURE I was going to see BEAR!!!

And everyone laughed at me.....but I was....RIGHT 9TIMES OVER, I WAS RIGHT!!!

We hiked our way through the rainforest, with our Guide John H, a very knowledgeable young man. I learned ALOT on this excursion, about plants and wildlife.

And he made sure to tell us what to do if we see a bear.

I SPOTTED ONE FIRST!

Up in a tree about 50 yards away.

In all, I saw 9 bear, lots of spawning salmon, an otter, an eagle, and goodness knows what else.

We fed reindeer and saw a rehabbed eagle and owl.

Then, they took us to see John Hexson a local Totaem Pole Artist . VERY Interesting!

This excursion was THE BEST! Very well planned, very educational, and great sights!!!  I was so happy I left the rest behind to shop and go with my gut! It made up for the fog tour.

The last day at sea, we enjoyed whale spotting and all the activities the ship had to offer.

In between, we enjoyed SOOOO Many great activities and entertainment.

Audrey thoroughly enjoyed Camp Carnival, the ships' kids club. We would take her there 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night to play with the other kiddos and just enjoy some time to ourselves. That is a wonderful feature to the cruise ships that is included. So we could go and see a comedian and she could enjoy playing penguins and getting her face painted, making puppets, tshirts, and getting her face painted some more.

We enjoyed sunsets and time on the deck looking for wildlife. Fun meals, and dancin with Saneen our waitress.  We met some incredible people along the way and made some great memories!

Cheers to Alaska, to family to friends, to adventure on the high seas!!! To the Carnival Spirit and its staff!

What a journey of a lifetime!