Tales, tennis and true friends

Katie volunteered at the Princess Festival this month. They gave her a pretty princess dress to dress up in and Aubree did her hair. They had this awesome "pumpkin" coach to take pictures in, so fun.

What girl doesn't love being a princess?

David got to go to BYU tennis camp this summer. He absolutely loved it. He asked if he could go every week of the entire summer. Hmmm, well that would be fun. This is his team at the end. His team won the most points so here they are doing their cheer, the Haka. It was especially fun because cousins Josh and Lindsey were there with him. Also, cousin Tara and Uncle Brad were coaches. He learned a lot and has a new love for the sport.

Caroline had a reunion party with her friends that she spent 2 years with in the ALL program in 5th and 6th grade. Most of these kids are in a lot of the same classes still in Junior High. It's awesome to have such great friends!

Please keep reading, I left out some pictures for this post...sorry.

oops there's more today!

I forgot I had pictures on the video camera that hadn't been put on the computer so here are a few more...

BYU tennis camp!

Katie is the pianist for the Orem High Jazz band and they had a float in the Lehi parade. This is a scaled down group but they sounded awesome, as always.

Katie!!

Desolation Canyon River Trip

Crazy boys ready for a crazy 4 day river trip down Desolation Canyon.

A little spa time! Just kidding boys, love ya. Were you feeling the mud for the rest of the week?

Crazy June

This is how we started summer. Less than 24 hours after graduation, Nelson and I flew to Cabo San Lucas with his parents, sisters and their spouses. We left all the kids behind to fend for themselves. This was paradise. I plan to post a lot more vacation picture so check in later and search backwards because the dates will be the end of May. Really the only crazy thing about this trip was the crazy fabulous pico, tacos, and great time!

Michael was ordained an Elder and grandparents came to be a support. Grandpa Lorin rode the shuttle from St. George and returned 12 hours later just to be here, crazy!

This bunch of gals is the real reason my summer is crazy. I am the camp leader and camp is 5 days from now. I am going...crazy. We did our 5 mile hike before camp to give us more time at camp. Camp this year is short because of the 4th of July so we are getting some things done ahead of time.

Teenagers crazy work schedules...I feel like I might have newborn babies again. Katie and Michael are both lifeguarding and their shifts run anywhere from 5AM to 11PM. Luckily, Katie will have her license soon and I might get more sleep.

There is something seriously crazy about this bunch of guys. This is the teachers and priests high adventure trip, river rafting desolation canyon. All I can say is...pray. I hope they all come back in one piece, not too sunburned, waterlogged, bug-bitten, etc. Ok, really I am jealous because I think this looks like a blast! Nelson and Michael are going to have stories to tell!

Crazy boys!!!

Cabo Day 7 and home again

On our last full day we went on a deep sea fishing charter.

Hanging out in the boat.

Nelson and Oranee on the back deck.

Remember the cool jumping sting rays Nelson and I saw earlier in the week? We saw a huge group of them on our fishing trip.

Aren't they amazing?

We had about 5 lines out at all times trolling for fish. Oranee started reeling this one in and then Lisa took a turn and got it in. Sorry for the blurry pic but sadly it's the only one we got. This is a tuna and we actually left it for the crew at the end of the day. I guess none of us really wanted to cook. We had a marlin on the line and lost it but it kept swimming around our boat. We were trying to drive where it would go and temp it with our poles but to no avail. It was an amazing fish to see.

There were huge groups of dolphin jumping and some came really close to the boat. This is Nelson lying on the very front of the bow trying to touch the dolphin.

He got pretty close here.

Pretty cool.

This is Dave trying to catch our fish from the Old Man and the Sea.

On our way back to the marina, we fed the rest of the bait to the pelicans following the boat. They were pretty brave.

Too brave in fact. One took a chunk of Chuck's hand with the fish. Ok, not too bad, it just bled.

Back at the marina there was much to entertain us.

Relaxing....how nice.

Cindi and Brad didn't go fishing with us and spent the day at the beach in town.

For dinner we went to a recommended place that was much more of a place for locals it seemed than tourists. We ate dishes I have never seen before and they were good.

One last look out at the ocean before we headed home...goodbye paradise!

Cabo day 6

The pool at the Sheraton was a nice change from the ocean. After the man of war incident we thought this even more so.

There is no doubt this is such a beautiful place.

Ok, there was more than one reason the ocean lost its appeal.

Nelson thought he was back at divorcee beach and suggested he go for a swim. What!? Yeah, that's what the lifeguard said, too.

For all we did and saw Kib gets the true Mexican experience award. We had been planning on going on a deep sea fishing trip on our last day. Every day in town we would talk to the charter boat people and check out what kind of deals we could get. We finally decided who to go with, and Kib went into town to make final arrangements for the trip. On other days during the week in town we had parked in this crazy packed parking lot. The guy in charge of the lot, Lazarus, moved those cars in and packed them like I have never seen before. He has connections with some of the charter boats and tries to steer you to them, become your friend for life, you know. When Kib went to arrange our trip, Lazarus wasn't around so Kib just parked on his own, how foolish. Maybe when Lazarus is around it's ok to park illegally and he has connections with the police, too. When Kib came back from setting up our trip, the police were at the rental car and had removed the license plate from the car. They said that a tow truck was on the way but if he would pay "the fine" of 300 pesos (around $28) they would call and cancel the tow truck. Unfortunately, Kib didn't have any cash or a credit card to get any cash at an ATM. He had cheapo sunglasses purchased earlier that week but they looked like they had the same pair on already. Then he felt his ipod in his pocket. Now this was an older ipod but an ipod none the less. Kib offered his ipod to the police if they would put the plates back on the car and just let him get the heck out of there. Way to go, Kib! Bribing the Mexican police with your ipod and not spending time in a Mexican jail! Maybe that wouldn't have happened but for it you get the true experience award. Never a dull moment.

What could be more romantic than horseback riding on the beach at sunset? Not much.

I must admit, horseback riding is something I am not generally excited to do. I had a near death experience on a horse a few years back and they aren't my favorite animal. However, this was too cool to pass up. Also, there were no ice covered mountainside cliffs to be riding on so I figured I was safe. We rode for an hour down the beach and back. The horses didn't want to get too close to the water and there was a fence on the other side of the beach so there was nowhere to run off to. So far, I was safe. They ran some and I really enjoyed it. I guess I'm back in the saddle again.

Cabo Day 5

Remember Ali's bee sting? Well the next morning she woke up to a bad situation. Her finger was more red and swollen and it looked infected with the infection starting to run up her hand.

She spent the morning at the American Hospital getting a nice old shot of, well, we don't speak Spanish so we were hoping they knew what they were doing. She had to keep her arm elevated above her heart for the next day and take it easy. So much for her having a wild time. We actually didn't know any of this had happened because we weren't in the house with them and we got up early and went scuba diving by ourselves. We went back to Pelican Point where we had gone snorkeling and it was great. Sorry, I didn't take an underwater camera this time. Scuba diving is so awesome. To be underwater in the quiet of another world that is so beautiful if one of my favorite things in life.

Since I am blogging so long after this trip I am having a hard time remembering the sequence of events without pictures. We also rented a waverunner and rode all over the bay. We had an hour and explored Pelican Point, Lover's Beach area and the arch. When we went out to the arch, the waves were pretty big. We rode in, though and sat on the waverunner and just looked at the scenery for a while. The water was so clear you could see the bottom. There were glass bottom boats coming in and going out also and it's not really a huge area. I was getting nervous, ok panicky, because we had turned off the engine and were just bobbing in the waves. A boat was coming toward us and just as we were about to move I looked down at the water because it had turned dark. Just then, a sting ray jumped out of the water! I didn't even know sting rays jumped! It was so cool! It jumped so high and over and over. We rode around and could see the group of them under the surface of the water. They eventually moved on but that was such a thrill to see.

Cabo Day 4

Hmmm, ok. This is something else not seen in the good 'ol states. Sometimes it's true, but people here don't go making signs advertising extortion, blackmail, bribery and other not so nice practices.

See the guy on the left? He's the heavy. yeah.

We should've turned right around in the parking lot. Ali got a really bad bee sting not 20 feet from the parking lot as we walked to the beach. It may be hard to see but it's pretty red and swollen. We suited up, yes, wet suits, to go snorkeling and were off. But not before everyone had a good little snicker calling us Todd and Margo. You may remember the yuppy neighbors of the Griswold's in Christmas Vacation who were outfitted to the 9's for each activity. I am going somewhere with this information, just wait...We went out snorkeling and saw some great fish and shells. We were ahead of everyone and as we came back along the shore we met up with everyone but where did Brad and Cindi go? I guess Brad got stung by something and were headed back to the beach. Everyone else kept going out and we headed back, too. Just then, I got stung on my arm just above my elbow. It was the most excruciating sting I have ever felt and it just kept getting worse. I was yelling(kinda weird with a snorkel in your mouth) and crying at the same time. Nelson tried to see what it was and saw a tiny blue thread looking thing on my arm. I turned him around and wiped whatever it was off on the back of his wet suit. It was gone but the sting remained. It was horrible. I admit, I was whimpering the whole way back to the shore. It just wouldn't stop and seemed to be getting "hotter". When we got to shore, I stripped my wetsuit to my waist and waded out of the water. The stinging was worse without the cold water on it. We went to where everyone was on the beach and that's when we heard what had happened to Brad.

He got it much worse than I did. All over his back and on his ear.

It's hard to believe this tiny little guy could be responsible for so much pain. The Portuguese Man of War "body" is only about the size of a quarter at most and then has a thin, hairlike tail. They float at the surface of the water with the tendril coming down into the water. So Brad just swam through a bunch of them and then I swam through the same spot I guess. Luckily for my Margo wetsuit or I would've had the same outcome I think. Too bad everyone hadn't had them on.

The beach was quite picturesque in spite of the many negative encounters we had here. In the background you can see us with the lifeguards and another lady who got stung. Glad that was over! Brad swore off the ocean for a bit after that and I admit I didn't willingly run right in after that.

Back at the house for some lunch and relaxing!

That night for dinner we went to Zipper's beach. That's the name of the restaurant also. I like this picture of Chuck and Oranee, so cute. Everywhere you eat it seems they serve jalapeno peppers. So, Brad and Dave are at the other end of the table from us and were sampling the stuff. They said it really was fine and what was all of the fuss about peppers? They offered me one and all I can say is those guys need to take up poker. I took one and bit about half off and proceeded to eat it. After a second, I figured out that they were down there elbowing each other and waiting for the steam to come out my ears. I calmly ate the pepper and thanked them for the treat. After a minute they came clean that I was supposed to have been the victim of foul play, what was up? Well, I lucked out and got a pepper that tasted much like a bell pepper, maybe that was what it was, joke on them!

The sunset was so pretty I'm not sure my camera quite got the drama.