Down Under 2008

Chris recently visited Australia for 10 days! This first picture shows one of many beautiful clams that were all over the place. They were bigger than me!
This next picture is of a Minkie Whale. There were about 5 or 6 of them that followed us around. They were 20 - 30 feet long and really cool!


This was a sea snake that was fun to chase around. He didnt want much to do with us, but he was very poisonous.

This turtle was awesome! I captured some great video of him. His shell was beautiful and he didn't seem to mind us at all!



This was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. I don't really get it, but I think they are drafting off each other. Really cool picture! Do you like his teeth?


Had to do the handstand!
Oh, how cute!
5 kangaroos eating their lunch!
I was taught how to throw a boomerang. Watch out!!! They come back fast!















The natives taught me how to dance. Do you like my moves?


I found Nemo!!!!!!!

This was Nemos cousin. There were tons of clown fish in Australia. They were so beautiful!















Watch this cool video of me swimming in the middle of these yellow fish!



We saw several sharks on our dives. They were cool to follow around and watch, especially at night when it is pitch black and their eyes glow green when you shine your flash light on them!
The potato cod were amazing. They were huge and just like puppy dogs. They would brush up against you and werent afraid to push you out of the way. They dove with us for a long time, like they were our dive buddys!
This is a hairy ghost pipe fish. Does that look like a fish to you? I only saw one. Hope he has a mate!
This guy looked intimidating! He is a Coral Trout. I liked his teeth. You should have seen them up close!

Branson, Missouri

Last week we returned from our family vacation to Branson! This was a fun vacation because it was so different from anything we have done. We went to lots of shows and went to a theme park for 2 days. The theme park was called Silver Dollar City. It was all based on life in the Ozark's. We saw lots of hillbilly's the first day and started to get disturbing. The second day I enjoyed more as I accepted that fact that people can look like that. They had really fun rides! Chris especially liked one called Barn Swing. It looked to crazy even for me and I love roller coasters and stuff. We drank tons of frozen lemonade as it was so humid. We stayed up late every night watching movies, then slept in most mornings. The shows we went to were: The 12 Irish Tenors, The Duttons, SIX, Broadway, Dixie Stampede. It was awesome and fun for our kids to have so much culture in one week! They also has crazy miniature golf courses. We went to one with huge dinosaurs and a big volcano. The resort had a really fun pool area and crafts for the kids. We found out that it definitely is harder traveling with 3 kids. This was our first trip through the airport with all 3. Sophia did not like the plane very much, which made me a little nervous, but we all survived and had fun. This definitely was a trip to remember!

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Disneyland

This is a little late to be posting, but here it is anyway. We had such a fun trip to Disneyland the first part of March. Chris went lobster hunting and Melissa and I took the kids to Disneyland one day and then shopping the next. On Saturday night we picked up Chris and then went to Disneyland for 2 more days. The girls (Madeline, Olivia, Melissa Sky and Katie) looked so cute in their Minnie Mouse matching outfits. I pleaded with Chris to let us stay longer, but plans were plans and we had planned to leave Tuesday, so we did. I love my stable husband!

It was a great trip though. Sophia had her daily blowout so we ran out of clothing quick for her. I did wash in the bathtub everynight. I was really thankful for my washer when I got home.

Chris' Lobster Hunt

Chris went lobster diving in March 2008 off the coast of Santa Barbara island (northern most island in the channel islands - off California). This is the lobster that he caught and ate! Michelle, Madeline, and Olivia wouldn't eat any lobster because Chris had it crawling around the hotel room 30 minutes before he cooked it! It was plenty of food for a full meal and it was delicious! Chris also caught another lobster, but it was too small to keep.


There were also hundreds of sea lions that were quite aggressive. Several divers had their regulators pulled out of their mouths and their masks knocked off their heads! The sea lion in this video barked at Chris! Watch and see!

Do you like my lobster hat??

San Diego March 2007

In March 2007 our family joined the Allen family in San Diego for a wonderful vacation where we went to Sea World, the San Diego temple, and a beautiful beach where we saw sea lions covering an entire portion of the beach. We also went to the Wild Animal park (for about 3 hours). We had a lot of fun and will someday go back! It was the perfect time for Sea World. It wasn't crowded at all. Madeline said she wanted to get married in the San Diego temple!

Madeline and Olivia - Kauai 2007

We had a great time in Kauai, Hawaii. We went there in June 2007 and found the most gorgeous beach. Madeline and Olivia wore their white Easter dresses and we had a blast taking pictures of them. The water was perfect, the sand was pristine, and the atmosphere was unbelievable.