.:Meet the Ritchies:.

HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!!

Today we went on a Whale Watching cruise courtesy of Grandma Trudie and it was more wonderful than we could have ever imagined!  Captain Pete and his crew were awesome and very knowledgeable.  They couldn’t guarantee that we would see Orca whales today because there was a group of them moving north up to Canada and another group coming south towards us, but still pretty far away.  So we took off on our 3 1/2 hour tour (cue music), hoping that we had enough “good will karma” to see some marine mammals.  And we certainly did!  It was amazing and something we’ll never forget!  What a wonderful birthday treat for Claire!  Here’s our day captured in pictures…

the girls making birthday cupcakes...

Her new shirt, shades and necklace...

and some new kicks...

Before the cruise...

Getting briefed by Captain Pete...

All aboard!

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Waiting for Ruffles & Granny, the Orcas, to make an appearance...

The birthday girl...

In the distance, one of the Orcas giving a little tail slap!

And this one is doing a "spy hop" where they actually look around to see what's going on, whales can see just as good out of the water as they can underneath!

And here's another tail slap, a little closer...

Happy Birthday Clairebear! xoxo