Jeeping and Diving and Bikes, Oh My!

This is Ryan.  During this school year, I have done quite a bit. I was on the dive team, I went offroading a bit and we got a motorcycle! During the dive season, I got a chance to go to many invitationals. Although I never placed, it was a fun time! The highlight of the season for me was learning a reverse 1 1/2. I was at one of the invitationals and they accidently signed me up for doing that dive but I never learned it. Instead of asking the judges to change it, I just learned the dive ten minutes before the meet started! It was kinda scary but I didn't even belly flop; that's always a plus!

On Black Friday, I got to go hang out with my dad and some guys from our church when we went offroading. We  only got stuck once, luckily our buddy had a winch to pull us out. We got some good mud thrown on the sides of the jeep as well as some inside... we forgot to roll up the windows! I drove the whole time, and had a great time! Cant wait to go out again.

A few months ago, my friend let me ride his motorcycle. It was a little Ninja 250 but it was tons of fun! I told my dad that we should get one and he was all for it. We took the Team Arizona riders course and learned all the basics of riding safety. My friend then sold his 250 so that he could upgrade to a Ninja 500 right before we took the course. Sadly for him (but not for me), soon after he bought it he found out that he had to move to Mexico and he couldn't take the bike with him! My dad and I went in together and took it off his hands and now we are the proud owners of a Ninja 500. It is tons of fun to ride! All those hours working as a bag boy at Sprouts are paying off.  :)

Advice From an 8th Grader

Since I am an 8th grader at a Public school, I learn a lot of wisdom from my peers. I want to share  some of this wisdom with you.

1. Don't do drugs. Especially in the school bathroom because you will be caught, and suspended, as I have witnessed.
2. Have a wide circle of friends. So when one group turns on you, you have lots of other people to go to.
3.Be confident. Everyone loves someone who is proud of who they are.
4. Be yourself. The grass isn't always green on the other side.
5. Smile. Everyone loves a happy camper.
6. If you're going to get in trouble, make it a big thing.
7. Flirt with boys.
8. A lot.
9. Singing and playing piano is actually cool, so do it!
10. Be creative because life is better with art.
11. Don't let anyone tell you how to live your life. besides your parents. ALWAYS LISTEN TO THEM!
12. Make memories, time flies and you'll never be in 8th grade again. Unless you get held back... but we'll hope for the best.
13. Always listen to your parents. They know everything!
14. Take Pictures because you will have many once in a life time experiences.
15. HAVE FUN!!

 

You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

Hello! As some of you may know I decided to jump on the band wagon and try musical theatre like my siblings. In the fall I auditioned for "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown". To my surprise I got the part of being Sally's understudy and a member of the Peanuts Gang. I had so much fun learning two different parts and learning Sally's song "My New Philosophy."  Although I didn't get to be Sally, I really enjoyed the parts I did have. This new experience was so much fun and I made lots of new friends and unforgettable memories. I am even thinking about doing another musical soon!

EAC Round 3

If you follow me on Facebook, you are probably sick of all my post's about what I have been doing at college. I like taking pictures of all our shenanigans so that I can go back and reminisce  when I want. The semester started off with a bang when I made the Acapella Choir at school. It was really fun, but really challenging semester being in that choir. On the first day of class, we grabbed our folders, and all they had inside were 13 pieces of sheet music, and a tuning fork. Dr. Bishop started class by saying we wouldn't be using the piano at all. He was telling the truth because we really didn't! We trained ourselves to find our notes from the tuning forks. At first it was really difficult. There were times where I thought, "What the heck am I doing here?". But now it is something that me and my friends will do for fun because we are a bunch of choir nerds. :)

Speaking of my friends... I don't know what I did this semester, but I got super lucky in the group of friends I made.  I started the semester being the only girl in a group of guys. Each of these boys has become like a big brother to me. But as the semester went on our group has expanded more and more. We have a lot of fun and we like to cause all sorts of trouble. For example, one weekend half of our friends went to the valley to see The Lion King. While they were gone, the other half of us were trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. I remembered a video that my Aunt Kathleen sent me a few years ago about a guy who went out of town and while he was gone, his roommates wrapped everything he owned in wrapping paper. I suggested that to my friends and we ran with it. With the help of their roommates, and the bribing the right people, we were let into each of their rooms. It took almost 4 hours and $25 in wrapping paper and tape, but it was so worth it and fun to see their faces when they got home.

One of our last dates before everyone went home for the Christmas break was a girl ask guy event and we decided to make it a Winter themed date. After our classes for the day, the girls piled into a truck, and we told the guys we would have a surprise for them when we got back. We drove up Mt. Graham and filled the back of a truck full of snow. After only getting the truck stuck once we brought the snow back to campus where we surprised the boys with a snowball fight and snowman building contest. After that, there was a talent show at the institute. My date, Eric, kept telling me he had this really cool talent but he wouldn't tell me what it was. He ended up calling me onstage and serenading me in front of the entire institute. Needless to say, we are going to have to dispel some rumors when we get back to school. After the talent show, we went to see the Eclipse concert in Safford. Eclipse is an all acapella men's group from Utah. They were really talented and so fun to watch. The original plan was to then go to the school's Winter Formal dance. But we were all so tired from such a fun day that we decided to have a pajama party at my house with cookie dough and Christmas movies instead of getting all dolled up. I think we made the better choice.

All in all, I am loving my time in Thatcher. I am really sad that I only have one more semester left. But I know it is going to be an exciting one full of new adventures and good times! Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Update - 2013

It has been a wonderful Fall at our house.  The kids are all doing well in school, keeping busy, and seeming to be happy.  Megan is in her 2nd year at EAC, in the Acappella Choir, and looking forward to wrapping things up there in the Spring.  She hasn't decided where she will go next to finish her degree.  She just made a quick trip back to Disneyland, so she's gotten her fix for a few months.  We feel blessed that she has an incredible group of friends, family and teachers there who love her and support her as she is out on her own. 

Ryan is enjoying a low-stress Senior Year.  He only needed 2.5 credits to graduate, but went ahead and filled up his schedule.  He is part of Jazz-Mad choir at Desert Vista High School, and had a great season on the diving team.  (Diving Board, not Scuba Diving).  Their choir will be going to New York City in the Spring.   His creativity has expanded in his Ceramics class.  He makes beautiful pottery, and now we have an extensive collection of gorgeous glazed pots.  One of his favorite things to do is take the jeep 4-wheeling, but he's always out doing all kinds of boy stuff with his friends.   We are fortunate that he still likes us, and spends time with us, too.  It will be fun to see him graduate in May. 

Cameron is our ever-stylish 8th grader.  She is getting straight A's, and enjoys school.  She was recently in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and sings in her school Honor Choir.  They are going to Disneyland in March and she's very excited.  Cameron is the energy in our house.  She's always "hatching up" something to do (as Grandpa Woods would say).   She loves to play the piano.  At her Christmas recital, she played a Jon Schmidt version of "Stars Were Gleaming" that was more than difficult.  It was beautiful, and it was fun to watch her tackle that piece for the fun of the challenge.  It's incredible to think she'll be in High School next year. 

In November, we added a new family member.  A lovely girl named Jacque, who is a junior at Desert Vista, was in need of a place to live.  We had an empty bedroom, and we have enjoyed having her stay with us.  As a bonus, she brought her dog with her.  We have never had a dog, but we have fallen in love with Tina, the Rat Terrier. 

Trish is still teaching in the Library at school and still in the Primary Presidency.  Mike is having great success at his Lobbying firm, and serving as High Priest group leader.  Our whole family is getting excited for the opening of the Gilbert Temple.  Ryan and Cameron will get to be in the cultural celebration, and we have invited several friends and coworkers to take the tour in the next few weeks before the dedication. 

We hope that this season of remembering our Savior is filled with happiness and love for all of our friends and family.  May 2014 be a wonderful year for all of you!

Ryan's Summer

Its been a while since I posted, I've been quite busy with work and school and such. Over the summer, I went to EFY in Provo, Utah for the first session. It was such a cool experience, I met lots of awesome people and a bunch of cute girls too. The guys in my group started a competition to see who could get the most girls numbers throughout the course of the week. I got 5 within the first 2 days! Pretty impressive, I know. At the end of the second day I scored a college girls number, after that I stopped trying. I wanted to end on a high note and not risk getting shut down! Overall it was a great experience and I wish I could go back next year.

 After getting back from EFY, our priest quorum went to the Grand Canyon to hike Havasupai. We drove to the trail head and arrived around 9 pm. We slept in the parking lot on our mats under the stars just 30 feet away from the edge of the canyon. Waking up early in the morning, we hiked to
the bottom of the canyon before the heat of the day hit us. As soon as we got to camp, we dropped off our packs, changed into our swimsuits and  headed over to the waterfall. The water was freezing cold, the color was a gorgeous blue and the heat was over 100 degrees! The surrounding landscape was dry as a bone, yet the area right by the waterfall was an oasis of shrubbery and greenery. There were picnic tables set up all around the base of the waterfall, and while some friends slept on the table, I slept on a little walkway that wrapped around the waterfall. It was only about 3 feet wide, had I rolled to the side at all I would be soaked and a bit unhappy. Overall it was a great experience! I cant wait to visit again.

Jamaica me rested and relaxed!

Jamaica in July has become somewhat a tradition for Mike and Trish.  We really like it there.  We enjoy the all-inclusive resorts and the wonderfully friendly people we meet.  For the past many years we have been going to resorts in the SuperClubs family.  However, they keep selling them and we have had to move around a bit.  This year we tried a Couples resort.  We spent a week at Couples Sans Souci in Ocho Rios and had one of our best trips yet. 

Couples Sans Souci is built on a steep incline, so the views are gorgeous.  The resort is very keen on customer service (something that we have been missing in recent years), the food was wonderful and we were spoiled and pampered all week.  One of the biggest draws for us each year is the scuba diving which is included in the price of the trip.  The diving in Jamaica isn’t the best we’ve experienced, but it’s not bad.  There are always surprises and you never know what you might see.   The dive crew here was excellent!  For the last few years, the crew has had each diver carry out and bring back their own equipment to the boat, including the women.  Not a problem.  But these guys said “Not the ladies!” and they took Trish's equipment out and back for her.  She just grabbed extra fins and weight belts so she wasn’t empty handed.  They were fun and showed us a good time. 

We always seem to meet interesting people on these trips.  We made some great friends from Scotland on this trip.  They are about our age.  She was in the cast of “Lord of the Dance” and now runs a school for Irish Dancing and also judges competitions.  He dove with us, and we swear is James Bond in disguise!  They come to Couples Sans Souci every year for a month at a time.  This was their 13^th trip.  That speaks pretty well for this place. 

We don’t know what next summer will bring, but are hoping to return soon!  They are starting to refer to us as “JAmericans.”  That’s OK by us. 

 

 

 

 

 

Disneyland 2013

For those of you who think that I go to Disneyland every other week, most of you will be surprised to know that I just got back from my first trip in 2013. It's been 8 months since  I was last there, and it was a much needed trip!

A year ago, right before we all left for our first year of college me and some friends from high school decided we needed a trip to Disneyland to say our goodbyes and celebrate our completion of Senior year. This year we used the excuse that it was a celebration of finishing our first year away. Even though we are all legal "adults", we're all children at heart. Every year we each pick a character, and emulate them in some way. Last year we used "Disney Bound" as our inspiration. Disney Bound is a fairly popular blog that a lady has created. She takes everyday clothes, and styles them to a character. I was Tinker Bell. :) This year, thanks to Pinterest, we had the idea to make tulle tutu's that represented our character. I chose to be Minnie Mouse. I had a red tulle tutu, with black accents.

This trip was definitely in the top 3 greatest Disney trips ever. For example, we were in the park for less than a minute, when we see Mickey Mouse running to greet us. He didn't have a handler or anything! I think he saw our tutu's and thought "Oh those poor girls...." haha. But we all got our Mickey hugs and kisses, and he took a picture with us too. :) That just set the tone for the rest of the day.

The crowds were small, the weather was perfect, and somehow, the longest line we waited in was only 30 minutes long. At the end of the day, we decided we really wanted to see World of Color. I had never seen it, and my friends were appalled at me. So we got our tickets, and decided to ride Indiana Jones one more time before we booked it to California Adventure for the show. After we got off the ride, we were climbing up the stairs trying to beat the crowds, when I tripped and fell UP the stair case..... I'm talented I know. I didn't notice anything at the time, and just kept going, because we wanted front row seats. But as soon as we got to our spots (Front and center!) I noticed my foot was hurting a lot. I couldn't put any pressure on it, without wanting to cry. I thought my feet were just tired from the long day. But my friends insisted on going to the Disney nurses, just to be sure. She couldn't really do anything for me, except give me Tylenol, an ice pack, and a Minnie Mouse sticker.

It was a perfect Disney day. I wouldn't have changed a thing about it. It sounds silly, but no matter how old I get, I will always love Disneyland and all its magic. Like Walt Disney always said, "Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional."

Mickey loves us! :)

Pre- Injury

Oh my tulle.... (Minnie Mouse, Cruella DeVille, Merida, Aurora)

Hawaii

Hello - this is Cameron. This past June we had the opportunity of going to Hawaii with my cousins, Kreston and Conner and my Aunt Susie. It was so much fun. We stayed in Waikiki for four days, then stayed in a beach house on the north shore right on Hukilau Beach for four days.

In Waikiki we did all the tourist things, eating big plate lunches (yum), hiking Diamond Head, walked the streets at night to see all the street performers, Pearl Harbor, the changing of the guards at the Kings Village, the International Marketplace, and so much more. My favorite part of Waikiki was the surfing or just the time we spent relaxing on the beach.

When we were in Waikiki we had the chance to go diving. It was so much fun and the animals were so amazing. There were turtles bigger than me and so many colorful fish!  It was better diving this year.  I didn't burn up all my air so quickly.  I still did flips and stuff but still had some air left at the end of the dive.
          
After those amazing four days we packed all our stuff up and went up north. On our way we stopped at the Swap Meet, and Pali Lookout. The Swap Meet was so much fun and I got some good (cheap) souvenirs.  Our Laie beach house was in the greatest place possible.  It was right on the beach, about 20 steps from the world famous Hukilau café, 5 minutes from BYU and the PCC and to top it off, it had a beautiful view of the Laie Temple. Laie was so relaxing, and just perfect. While we were there I had the fantastic opportunity of doing Baptisms in the Hawaii temple. That was so much fun and a great experience.

Overall this trip was full of so many laughs and great  memories, I cant wait to go back soon! 

                                           We got "Lei'ed" not even 10 minutes into our trip!

Ryan tied me up with a vine at Pali Lookout

Scuba Cameron

Big Honu (turtle)

 

 

 

 

 

2 Semesters Down

Summertime and the living is easy. And summertime is the best way to end an awesome second semester at college. As you know I've been living in Thatcher Arizona, attending Eastern Arizona College. Its been another great semester full of fun times and crazy adventures. From random trips to Tucson, Duncan, New Mexico and Mt. Graham, to bonfires and game nights every weekend. One weekend we decided to try out a "real" college experience. We went to our first college house party just to say we had. The music was loud, the dancing was.... exotic, and the kids were cliché college party kids. When our heads finally were pounding to the beat of the music, we ditched out to go play glow in the dark Frisbee. While we have never been back to another house party since, we are glad we had the experience.

Game night

Because Thatcher is such a small town, we had to get fairly creative in the ways of entertaining ourselves. One weekend we bought glow sticks and golf balls, climbed to the top of Red Knolls and saw who could hit them the farthest at 10:00 at night. Another night we played a Mormon drinking game, which was essentially Beer Pong, but with energy drinks. That was an interesting caffeine buzz that night.

Random road trips to Duncan, AZ

This semester I also had the incredible opportunity to be a part of the choir at Eastern Arizona College. The theme of our Spring Sing concert was all about time. But our show choir also did a Disney themed set. Everyone in Thatcher that knows me is very aware of my slight Disney obsession. So because of the high nature of their set, the girls in the show choir had some really intense quick changes. The girl who played Princess Jasmine was a really good friend of mine, and she asked me to help her with her quick change. We had three minutes to turn her from blonde Karissa to Princess Jasmine. The first few times were super stressful, but eventually we got into such a good rhythm that we even had time to spare. The rest of the concert was absolutely beautiful and so much fun. I love being a part of the EAC choir and I'm so excited to return in the fall.

Karissa Self AKA Princess Jasmine

Yup, it's official. In the fall I will be returning to EAC. My best friends parents bought a house and so I am moving out of dorm and moving into the house.  Yay!

  I am on track to graduate with my Associates Degree in Education next May. I'm so excited to make all sorts of new friends and have all kinds of new experiences while in Thatcher for one more epic year.

Ready to go Diving!

We are getting ready to go to Hawaii!  We are diving with the "Reef Pirates" on Oahu, because they have a cool name, and we want cool dive T-shirts.  It's been a year since Megan, Ryan and Cameron dove in Puerto Vallarta, so they had a scuba refresher course.  Stan, at Bubbles Up Diving, did a refresher for them last year, so we called him again.  He's great.  The kids probably didn't need a refresher.  They did fine in the pool.  Cameron stood on her head most of the time (which is typical for her.)  She's not happy unless she's flipping and spinning and twirling.  Love her!   I'm going to try to get the kids to do entries this week, because it's been 6 months, but we'll see how that goes. 
Aloha!

Volleyball

Bonjour fellow blog readers, lately I have been into volleyball. I had the opportunity of playing in a beach volleyball tournament! It was the weekend of Thanksgiving. The team consisted of me, and three other friends. We had a ton of fun, and we should have won second place! But the director of the tournament wasn't very trustworthy and he kept changing the rules for the team he liked. Luckily, my amazing father who is great at arguing helped us lose fairly. I guess the only good thing of the tournament was that I got a t-shirt out of it!

Now I am on another team with my friends. We are pretty good, we have only had two games, but we have won one and lost the other. This season my dad isn't coaching, which is sad. This coach is good... but it's his first time so he is just learning how to coach. But I am having a great time, and learning a lot. By the time I am 16 I'll be in the Olympics. Just kidding ;)

Busy Ryan

Hey guys its Ryan here! Its been a while since I have blogged and as I have been busy with school work, sports and a new job.   

This fall I got a job at Sprouts, it's a farmers market and they've got some great deals! You should definately go check em out. I have to go get carts from the parking lot and bring them back to the store, I bag groceries, sweep the floor, help little old ladies out to their cars... oh  and I clean up barf too... That was a fun day.  Tons of fun. 

Anyways, school has been going good! I am talking some hard classes and earning some college credit.  It makes for lots of homework.  But, I guess it is better than watching TV or texting with girls (but I do that anyway). It's great that we are finally out for winter break. But enough about gross school and work, lets talk about dive.

This semester I was on the Desert Vista High School Dive Team. I joined at the beginning of the school year because my friend said it would be fun. I came in with no previous diving experience, just a can do attitude. This attitude kind of changed after my first splat. A splat is like a belly flop but it can be your chest that "flops" or your legs or your back. It is just a painful experience in general. I once had a very bad splat, on my thighs. I was trying to learn a backwards dive, where you jump off the board facing back towards the steps of the diving board, and you dive straight back into the water.  In diving, the entry into the water is the part of the dive that can determine if you have a big splash or not. My coach wanted me to work on my backwards entry so she had me get up to the top of the high dive and stand at the edge of the board with my back to the water. She had me stand with my hands clasped above my head and and she told me to not move at all and just fall into the water. She said if I stayed straight as a board I would be okay. Me being a little new diver I just hopped up there and tried it. Bad idea... I forgot to keep my body straight and my legs bent so they were parallel with the water when I landed. Essentially I did a "Thigh Flop". Very painful, and very loud! The whole swim team that was swimming in the other pool looked over to the divers wondering what the loud smack sound was. Yeah, It was painful but I swam a couple laps and I was fine. Coach told me that I forgot to stay straight so I hopped up there again, intently focused on staying straight. Once again I forgot to keep my body in line and I smacked again. Well by the 4th or 5th time I was losing interest in this drill so I took the rest of the day to work on some other dives. After getting out of the water I noticed that my thighs were bright red.

Normally after a splat or two, the redness will go away in a couple hours... my legs stayed like this for a week...But I'm all better now.

Anyways, it was nice catching up guys! I cant wait to see you all again.

First Semester of College

First semester of college? Done!  What a crazy four months it has been. Living away from my family and "on my own" was definetly a growing experience. I put "living on my own" in quotes because I was always surrounded by family in Thatcher, and my 13 other roommates. Can I just say, living with 13 girls at once can be the most frustrating, exciting, stressful, interesting experience of your life? Not bad per say, just interesting.... :) And it seems everyone in Thatcher is obsessed with marriage! I don't understand it at all! Let me set the record straight, I am NOT getting married now, or anytime soon (Despite my Pinterest boards.)  I am going to get my teaching degree, THEN maybe think about marriage.

Besides, I'm having too much fun dating. Those EAC boys plan some wild dates. I think the most random date we did was one my friend and I planned. We set up a scavenger hunt around campus, and had the boys find different supplies for a picnic. Then they met us at the park for the picnic. The plan was to fly kites and play games at the park, but it started pouring rain. So we no kite flying but we stayed out and just played in the rain.

All in all, I love college. I love Thatcher. It's been one big party, and a experience I would never trade for anything in the world.

College Girl

This is it people!  Megan has offically spread her wings and flown the nest! You know how most country songs are about how girls want to get out of the small town for the big city? My life went the exact opposite. Here I sit in little old Thatcher Arizona. Population, 4,865. Number of stoplights, 4. The "mall" is Wal Mart, and there are an infinite number of tractors. To say the least, it's a little different from home. But so far I love it! I've grown up always knowing that Thatcher was there, but in just one week I have learned a lot about the beauty it has to offer. For example, Mount Graham. Never have I ever seen a mountain and thought that it was beautiful, until I saw Mt. Grahm at Orientation. It sounds so stupid, but I honestly love waking up and getting to see it as I walk to class.

So far I've met a lot of nice people, but I have also met my share of weirdo's... I guess everything is an adventure!  Right now my plans consist of getting my Associates here, then joining the sister program with NAU to get my teachers certificate for elementary education. My week basically consists of the following. Monday, Wednesday, Friday I have class from 8 to 2 with a two hour break in the middle. Tuesdays and Thursday I have two classes at 9:30 and 1. The rest of my time I need to fill with sitting in with local teachers and watching them teach and then taking notes on the pro's and con's of their style of teaching for my "Intro to Education" class. I guess all I can say really is that I'm not dead yet, and Im really excited for what EAC has to offer for me and the people and opportunities that will be presented to me.

Ryan's summer fun

Hey there guys, this is Ryan.  It’s been a while since we last chatted. A lot has happened, I went on vacation, school started back up and my parents got a Jeep that they let me drive! First off, my summer vacation was amazing! I went on a week-long cruise to Cabo San Lucas Mexico and Puerto Vallarta -- too much fun! We went Scuba Diving and zip lining as well.  After we got back from the cruise I went on a Man-cation; basically a man adventure for a week. We went camping in Sedona, Arizona. As part of this Man-venture we went cliff jumping, paintballing, off roading, golfing and hiking.  My favorite part of the trip was by far paintballing.  We found a really cool paintballing arena already set up out in the desert.  We all got guns and had a blast shooting our church leaders.  They weren’t as good as we were so we had to switch teams halfway through just to make it fair.

After getting back from that vacation we started school the next day.   I am now a Junior in High School and this summer I got my drivers licence.  So, now I can drive to school, but there’s only one problem, no car.  I made a PowerPoint for my parents in an attempt to convince them to get a Jeep. I showed them all the used Jeeps in the local area. We looked around and found a yellow one not too far away.  They bought it and it made me so happy!!  I love it so much, it’s a stick shift. I had to learn how to drive stick, which was not too difficult but I did have my fair share of stalls. My record was stalling six times during one green light!  Hah beat that. Anyways, I miss you all! I hope to get together soon and party it up J

Cameron at Girl's Camp

Hi,  Cameron here, so this summer was a blast!  One of my highlights was Girls Camp. It was my first time going to camp. I had so much fun.  We did a lot at camp, like rotations which was really fun. For one rotation we went on the zip-line. It was great.  When we would fly by the group that was on the ground would shoot marshmallows at us. For another rotation we played capture the flag with a water balloon in the middle of the woods.  That was really fun, too.

Since I was a first year we had to go on a hike. The hike was supposed to be a thirty minute hike just up and down a mountain. Sadly, the leaders got lost. The thirty minute hike turned into a three hour trek. We got so lost we ended up in a whole different campsite!  I think my favorite part of camp was the food. The cooks were amazing. I am so glad I got the opportunity to go to camp this year and I am really looking forward to next year.

Jamaica, Land We Love

 

Link to Photos

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/107147437197684801004/Jamaica2012#

Mike and Trish enjoyed another week in Jamaica this summer. We have a group of friends that we meet there each year. Some like to scuba dive, and we all get a group rate. Here are some of the photos from this year’s trip.

One of the highlights was the really big shark that Mike found in a hole in the coral. He took several photos of it, until the flash made the shark mad, and Mike got out of that hole, quick! We are still amazed by all of the weird, beautiful creatures that we encounter under the sea. The coral, too was a nice surprise. At depth, there is very little light, and color goes away. However, when you light up the coral with a flash, you can see its real color. This brain coral was Green, Yellow, and Red. The colors of Jamaica. It was a fun surprise.

The only problem with this trip was that we took it BEFORE we took our family vacation. Next year we think we should take the family trip FIRST, and then we should take our all-inclusive relaxing vacation afterward, to rest and recoup.

Cruisin' the Mexican Riviera

The week before school started we went on a 7-day Carnival Cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We were aboard the Carnival Splendor. We left from Long Beach, CA. There were only 2 ports of call. The first was Cabo san Lucas. We’ve been to Cabo on a cruise before, but this time we were all scuba certified, so we tried diving. The dive site we visited was called “Pelican Rock” but it was not far enough away from civilization, so the visibility was terrible. There were small rays and some eels, and the fish we could see seemed to be very large, but if we got more than a couple of feet away from each other, we were pretty much lost. It was not anything like the Cayman Islands where we took the kids diving last year, so we declined a second dive, and hoped when we got to Puerto Vallarta it would be better.


We had 2 days in Cabo, so the second day we did the zip line tour that we’d done on a past trip. The company is Costa Azul, and the zip lines are over huge canyons. We also got to do some rappelling. We’d recommend Costa Azul to anyone going to Cabo! We did some shopping and had lunch at Sammy Hagar’s restaurant, Cabo Wabo. It was a Rockin’ Place! The food was good, too.

Puerto Vallarta was a new port for us. None of us have ever been that far down in Mexico before, and we were pleasantly surprised at the modern, clean city that it was. The dive company we used is called P.V. Sea Divers. They were all from England; young, fun, and very professional. We’d dive with them any time.

The first site we dove was called “The Arches.” The kids got to do a backward roll into the water, which was new and fun. The water was warm and clear. We were diving along the San Andreas Fault, which was pretty cool. The second dive site was where “Night of the Iguana” was filmed. There was a big pole with iguanas on it.

We saw eels, sea snakes, rays, and tons of puffer fish. There was a pretty big sea horse hanging out on some coral. None of us had ever seen a sea horse before. He was well camouflaged, and we had to have him pointed out for us. We saw octopuses and more puffer fish than we can count. The kids were getting pretty good at finding hidden sea life, and Cameron somersaulted, and flipped, and spun until she burned her tank of air and had to go back to the boat early with one of the dive masters on both dives. We didn’t mind though. If that’s her idea of a fun dive, we’re glad she had fun.

We had 2 days at sea to get back to L.A. Megan, Ryan and Cameron had fun hanging out with other kids on the ship. With unlimited food, room service, (and ice cream all day long) and the freedom to swim, golf, and socialize, without having to be right with their parents is one of the reasons a cruise is not a bad option. The last day was kind of cold and rainy, so they closed the glass roof on the pool area, and turned the Olympics on the big, big screen. It was fun to cheer our U.S. athletes in the midst of an international crowd. Here is the link to the album of photos from the trip. https://picasaweb.google.com/106563589911434999602/MexicanRivieraCruise2012#

 

Ryan Gardner - Eagle Scout