Haney Vacation Part 2: Juneau, Alaska

For part 1 of the trip, click here.

Juneau, Alaska

Juneau is the capital of Alaska and is only accessible by air or water. While we were there we explored downtown, visited Mendenhall Glacier, learned about salmon at the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery and went to a salmon bake. The Mendenhall Glacier is 12 miles long, a half-mile wide and from 300 to 1800 feet deep. It stretches from the Juneau Icefield to Mendenhall Lake.

Jake looking at the icebergs and glacier.

We hiked down to this beach area...

They say you can only see 10% of an iceberg because the rest of it is underwater. I can't imagine how huge this one is!

Thanks, Caleb...

At the salmon hatchery we learned all about salmon spawning and how they swim upstream.

Enjoying our salmon!

The boys checking out the remains of the Wagner Gold Mine...

Heading back to the ship!

Haney Vacation Part 1: Seattle, WA

The Haney crew - Mom, Dad, Seth, Emily, Caleb, and Jake and I - took an Alaskan cruise that left out of Seattle. We decided last year that we were going to do this vacation since none of us had ever been to Alaska. It was a GREAT trip with lots of great family time, relaxation and beautiful scenery. Throughout the trip we traveled through 5 different time zones and made a lot of memories!

We all met in Seattle a day before the cruise left the port. I was glad we got to spend some time there since I had never been there before! It's a fun city!

We explored the Pike Place Market - home of the world famous fish market. This is such a fun place!

These $5 bouquets blew my mind...I didn't get a good picture, but they were some of the most beautiful flower arrangements I've ever seen...and they were only $5!

And of course we went up to the top of the Space Needle.

If you look really closely in the picture below, you can see Mt. Rainier. It's about 60 miles away from Seattle and you usually can't see it because of the haze and cloudy weather. We were fortunate to visit on such a beautiful day!

Walton Wedding

I got to spend most of the week of July 4th in Ohio. I left work early on Tuesday to spend a few nights in Lucasville visiting my grandparents on my way to Columbus, OH for the Joel and Amy's wedding! Their wedding was absolutely beautiful! It was so perfect and I got to be with some of my favorite people of all time for like 3 days! I cherish, cherish, cherish the time I have with my Cedarville friends...it doesn't come often, and when it does....words can't express how good it makes me feel.

Bridesmaids and friends!

Amy getting a pedicure the day before the wedding!

Rehearsal dinner...

Love these girls!

Such a beautiful bride!!

Besties

Life in Tennessee...

...has been good! I feel out-of-the-loop because I don't have a good routine like I used to, but I'm kind of ok with that......for now. Our jobs are keeping us busy during the day, and if we don't have something planned in the evening, we are house hunting. House hunting gets old...but we are going strong searching for the perfect little place!

The month of June was kind of a blur...

Week 1: Jake and I had the week off and the time flew by. We got ourselves settled in, got new TN license plates (Jake even renewed his motorcycle license!) and drivers licences, spent quality time together, and started looking at houses.We didn't waste any time and got connected in a small group of young couples that meets on Monday nights.

Week 2: We both started our new jobs on Monday, June 11th. We enjoyed having dinner with the Hickman's one day that week and spending time with Zach and Catherine.

Week 3: Happy fathers day, Dad! We went to Gatlinburg to visit little brother Caleb (he's doing Summer Mountain Project with Campus Outreach) and then went to a baseball game! My niece, Mallory was so cute at her first baseball game! Jake and I drove out to Nashville for the weekend for a welcome home party for one of Jake's buddies who was a missionary in Hawaii for 3 years.

Caleb almost cut the top of his thumb off...he is showing off the 12 stitches in the picture above. I would also like to point out Caleb's transformation during freshman year. The picture below on the left was taken after his high school graduation (about a year ago) and the picture on the right is a month after completing his freshman year of college. Oh, the life of a college student!

Week 4: We enjoyed taking a trip to Cookeville with some friends for a wedding. The next day we all went hiking and swimming at Burgess Falls. I wish I would have had my camera...it was beautiful!

Kissel Vacation in Gatlinburg

I am so behind on the blog!

Jake and I vacationed in Gatlinburg two weeks ago with his side of the family. We drove to TN from PA on Friday, unloaded the truck on Saturday morning (Thanks for all the help Dad, John, Zach and Caleb!), and then drove to Gatlinburg for a week of fun. We had suitcases packed and set aside for vacation, so we didn't need to worry about unpacking boxes or settling in before vacation.

After we settled in at the resort and spent a day at the pool, the women took the kids into Gatlinburg while the men went golfing. Our resort had a trolly to take us in and out of town!

Our family vacation consisted of 9 adults and 7 kids! It was so good that we could all be together for a whole week.

While we were out, a random lady asked if we were on a day care field trip...I laughed and told her we are on a family vacation!

Savannah and Alma

I don't remember what they were looking at in this picture!

Guys playing cards in our condo

Lillian laying in our bath tub...it was huge!

All of the kids except for baby Mallory. They were hanging out on our bed before dinner when it was our night to cook!

Each family took a night to cook dinner for the entire crowd. I'm so glad we did this because I only had to cook one night and it was very relaxing. This picture is after dinner in our cabin...just hanging out and visiting!

We celebrated Savannah's 5th birthday with cake and ice cream



 Grandpa John and Mallory

Hiking in the smoky mountains

 

The kids did so well on the hike!

Savannah and Josiah holding hands...so cute!

Josiah pulling up his pants! Hehe...

Jake and I enjoyed the views from the sky lift in Gatlinburg

Andrea just happened to be vacationing with her family the same week, at the same place as us! We were SO excited to reconnect after not seeing each other for a little over a year! We had no idea we were both in Gatlinburg until we sent some text messages back and forth. So glad we didn't miss an opportunity to catch up!

Jacob and Jake

Jojo and Uncle Zach

Lillian wanted me to get some pictures of her face painting. She loves cats

Silly Lillian eating breakfast

Jake, Grant, John and Zach