Tennessee Trip

We went to Pigeon Forge for Austin's Birthday Party. This is the minature golf part. It was crazy to golf with so many people.

This is the mirror maze at the same place. We all had to put on plastic gloves. I guess Brittney got a big kick out of this. Owen and Emily are in the backgroung.

This was a very cool room in the mirror maze. The white wall really isn't white - it had beautiful colors that moved when you moved - that's why we have our arms up. This is Bob, Owen, Casey, Aaron and Emily.

You can see the real effect of the mirrors - you had to walk all the time with your hands in front of you so you didn't hit the mirror or the glass.

Notice in the video that Aaron gets down to dance in front of the Colored Wall and runs into the glass, right at the end of the video.

Austin's Baptism

Casey and Austin

Austin with his grandparents - "Pops" (Allen), Grandmother Susan,

Grandma Susan, and Grandpa Bob.

Grandma Susan, Austin, and Grandpa Bob

Uncle Joey, "Pops", Susan, Susan, Bob, Casey

Kristy, Austin, Owen, Emily, Aaron, and Brittney.

Red Robin is where we celebrated with a dinner.

This is Bob, Susan, and Owen.

St Croix Diving Trip in January

This is the scuba diving group, (plus about 8 more) that we go with in January. We went aboard this boat with 20 other people and a crew of 12. Altogether 48 people. It was a bit rocky this time and I am more than ready not to do a live aboard again for many years.

The sealife was plentiful and this is one of the many turtles that we saw. They are a bit different than the turtles we see in Hawaii.

Here we are underwater. The dynamic duo. It's great for Bob to have a pink snorkel
and bare legs because then I can tell who he is from all the other men.

This is a huge moray eel. He was about 8 ft. long and huge. The picture doesn't do him justice because he was so big. I wanted to have a comparison with him. He was about as big around as Dax. They are usually pretty territorial. He did get a bit nervous with so many of us around.

This is a seahorse. We don't get to see many of these. This one was by the dock of St. Croix. It is probably about 3-4 inches. His tail is wrapped around the sponge to hang on. We saw a black seahorse about 20 feet away from this one that was about 4 1/2 inches long.

This is an Arrow Crab. I hope the picture is good enough for you to see the bright blue on his pinchers, his bobbley eyes that caught the flash, the stripes going up to his top, and his pointed "feather" top. They were quite numerous but beautiful. He is probably 5 inches from top to bottom and about 6-7 inches spread out legs.

This is a squid. We have only seen squid at night and they camouflage themselves to be iridescent because we shine our lights on them. There were about 10 squid in one place and they were different shades of dark gray to black. We went back on a night dive to see them but could not find them.

We had a great time with everyone. The diving was good and the island of St. Croix and Puerto Rico were beautiful.

Taxes have started and life is busy. We look forward to Hawaii in May, Trek in July, and the Family Reunion in July!! I will e-mail soon about it.

Love you all, Mom and Dad, or Grandpa and Grandma!!

NOVEMBER PANAMA CRUISE 2009

Nov. 8th we left Portland and flew to LA and embarked the Coral Princess for this exciting Panama Canal Cruise with Bill and Leah. The first place we went was Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico. We have been there before and really enjoyed the warm air and the beautiful scenery. I love the "Chiclett Kids" (we bought about $10.00) and of course had to go the the Hard Rock Cafe for Bob and the Jewelry Stores for Leah Jane. Bill is a good sport to put up with all of this!!













This is a Lobster we caught and put on a building before we left the city - bet you couldn't tell.

Beautiful Acapulco and the famous Cliff Divers. It was pretty amazing to watch them dive. Many of them go blind because of the pressure of going into the water. They now have more divers and try to spread out the number of times that they dive in a week. They also know how to work the crowd after their dives.

Hautulco, Mexico is a beautiful government planned community. They are already putting in 4 lane highways and planning great things for this area. This is an older hotel with a great view. Hautulco has 7 bays like this one. A very scenic place to go.

COSTA RICA - PUNTATERAS

We had a great time in Costa Rica. We went off the ship and got out own tour. We rode in a van into the mountains for about 1 1/2 hours then got on horses and rode for 1 hour. We then did the zip lines. It was over 4 kilometers of ziplines, 25 lines and 2 repelling lines (because it was to steep to zip), over waterfalls and streams the whole time. It took the whole day. At the beginning the guides told us once you started you had to finish because there was no other way out. Sometimes we went from tree to platform in tree, to platform on the ground. It was very exciting.

PANAMA CANAL

The biggest attraction of the trip was the Canal. We spent the day before in Puerto Amador just outside the canal. Bob was not able to go off the ship because he was quarantined for the H1N1. I didn't go because my knee was swollen from zip lining. I did finally go ashore with Leah to do some shopping. The next moring we went into the canal. Just as you get past the downtown area and look on the starboard side (right), you can see the Panama Temple. There is a picture below. The 3 sets of locks are amazing. The manmade lake, the dredging that continues and the beautiful country side make this really one of the wonders of the world. They have started a new canal for super tankers that will meet the canal at the bridge of the Americas. It was fascinating to watch all that was going on.

The Temple

The Bridge of the Americas - Bob is still in Quarentine but....

Cartagena, Columbia

Before the cruise, I read many things about the different places we were going to visit and Cartegena had warnings not to go there alone. However, when arrived we found that all the drug lords had moved to Juarez, near the US border and therefore it is a very safe place to visit. We had a great time visiting the old town. These shops are set up in the old prisons. It is a beautiful city with great museums. Columbia is known for its emeralds. Leah bought an emerald here.

We also went to Aruba, and of course the only thing to do is to shop and shop. I lasted about 1/2 and hour and then went back to the ship. Bill and Leah shopped for about another hour and Bob gets the shopper of the year award for perseverance and finding the Hard Rock Cafe!!

Coral Princess This is the time of the cruise where you have to scrub up and look like you're going to the Senior High School prom. Fine looking couples, don't you think?

Eric & Rachel visiting July 09

While Eric and Rachel were at Becky's House we got to go to the Campbell's Pool!! Here are the pictures and movie that we took.

Cassidy and Kailey underwater

Brady

Dax & Cass

Zak

Rachel





Daphni

Eric







Zak

Zak, Happy Brady, and Chinese Eric

Kids at the Omnimax show

Daphni, Rachel and Kailey














6 Chillin

Zak

It's a miracle !!!!!

Yes, it is a miracle. ....... We (meaning Bob) have started a blogspot. We decided it was way past time to begin communicating with a blogspot.
We will try to make the site entertaining and insightful, but will at least settle for updated and a few lines about our adventures. It will be a great way to show some of the spectacular photos from our travels.
Bob has a painful way to get me to do this so it will always be short and sweet.
Becky, maybe Cassidy, and I are planning to go to the beach with Daphni, Brady, and maybe Kailey and Dax. It should be very fun and relaxing. Love, Mom and Dad