Winter Wrap Up

Since I'm terrible at keeping this thing up to date, I'm doing one post to sum up our winter. We ended the year by traveling to the Bahamas. JoAnna was gracious enough to give us her timeshare down there so we invited our friends Billy and Shelly and hopped a flight to Nassau. The highlight of the trip was scuba diving with Caribbean Reef Sharks!! We started the new year by going to Cancun with Andy's company, APX. We had so much fun!!! With the new year also came responsibilities...Andy had to focus on preparing his office for the upcoming summer and I worked as an RN on the Surgical-Trauma Unit as well as teaching 25 new nursing students in their nursing fundamentals lab down at BYU. We also found time to have fun. Andy and I took a road trip to Northern CA to visit family. We were lucky enough to crash a trip Glenn and Heather had planned to go to the Cooper’s place in Sea Ranch J We had fun playing on the beach and enjoying the beautiful weather!! In March, Andy spent 10 days in Costa Rica with Bob, Jeff, Jacob, and a few other friends and I spent a long weekend with my dear friend Sara and her baby Saylor in Portland, Oregon. We both had a lot of fun!! March brought around both of our bdays-Andy had a special Wizards and Dragons theme for his party (unbenounced to him). Andy was a trooper and even wore the purple cape and wizard's hat. :-) The biggest thing Andy and I looked forward to at the start of the new year was training for a half marathon set to take place in Calistoga, CA on April 28. A lot of friends all signed up for the race and it ended up with about 15 of us all running the half marathon and actually doing well (Andy wanted me to also mention that he beat Heather and I will mention that he took first out of all the friends)!! Wearing ridiculous outfits for the race was of course a must. ;-) After the marathon we went and picked up the newest member of our family, Ruby. She's a 9 month old boxer that we got from some friends in Hemet, CA (yes, we flew from CA to Vegas, drove to Hemet, then turned around and drove Ruby all the way home) that didn't have enought time and energy for her. We absolutely LOVE her! She fits in perfectly with our little family. Andy and I are now packing for our yearly summer move. We are heading back to Jackson, Mississippi. I will be commuting to SLC one week a month in order to keep my job at Intermountain Medical Center....yes, its not the best idea I've ever had, but I was unable to find a temporary nursing job in Jackson. Anyways...there's an update of our lives. Bing bang bong.

Christmas lights at the SLC temple

Hogle Zoo Lights

Making a snowman with Anna and Bert in our backyard :-)

BAHAMAS!!

Descending below our boat. Crazy what lurks beneath you!

There were about 75 sharks swimming around us. A few even bumped into us!

Andy and I are in the bottom right of the picture

CANCUN!!!!

So I kinda missed the memo when Andy said "1,2,3...jump" that he actually meant JUMP....I just stepped off and therefore Andy ended up hitting the water sideways since I wouldn't let go of his hand. Ooops.
Chichen Itza
On our balcony with a jetted tub :-)
CALIFORNIA!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

We had an indoor soccer game on Andy's bday-go NINJA TIGERS!!Andy's surprise Wizards and Dragons party after our soccer game

Andy literally decapitating the dragon pinata

Half Marathon!!!!

RUBY!!!!!
Ruby's easter outfit :-)

1,700 miles part 3

At long last....PANAMA!!!!

Watching the monkeys eat fruit from a balcony where we were staying in Panama City

Poison Dart Frog

Panama City!!!

Bridge to the Americas

Panama Canal

Part of the group

The 1960's Indiana Jones plane we rode on to Bocas del Toro...so scary!

The bat cave

Thousands of BATS!!!! The guys hiked in a cave through knee to waist deep water (only lights they had were their headlamps). Bats and cave spiders littered the walls. The cave got so small that the startled bats actually ran into the guys!!

Cave Spiders

The boys at the cave opening

Snorkeling at Starfish Beach (there were hundreds of starfish!)

We drove scooters to the bat cave and starfish beach. It rained all day. Makes driving scooters very fun! Our scooter only slid out sideways on the mud once with only one other scooter running into us ;-) haha

Ready to drive back to our hotel

Skyler and Bert were good scooter buddies :-)

One of the places we stayed...this one was called Beverly's Hill

Our room at Beverly's Hill (and yes, we had to use the bug net when we slept...there were bugs EVERYWHERE!!!)

The outdoor sink and bathroom 6 of us shared

Going on a hike through the jungle with local villagers as our guides

Very rare night monkeys. We woke them up so they would come say hi. That's as far as they ever came out of their tree home.

Little local boy trying to lure the monkeys out with a banana

Pond where we saw a caiman

Our group

Sloth Andy spotted up in a tree during the hike

So hot and humid!

Andy pretending to eat a sea cucumber (but it kind of looks like something else...it grossed everyone out!!)

The private deck off of our room in Bocas del Toro

From the deck looking in. I think 8 or 10 of us stayed in this room for a few nights. We had so much fun!!! We played lots of euker (a card game)

Team Brazil River Rafting!!

Top of Volcan Baru. It was a 14 mile round trip hike. Took us just under 4 hrs to hike up and just over 4 hrs to get back down. The trail was very steep and rugged. We started hiking at 2 am in order to summit at sunrise....absolutely breath taking!! Volcan Baru is the highest point in Central America and the only place where you can see both the Pacific and Carribbean Oceans in one spot.

The boys at the very highest point (it was a sketchy hike to get to this point)

I stayed down and the actual summit

A very fat and happy kuwati living at the summit. He had very sharp teeth!!

The hikers at the summit

The trail to Volcan Baru

There are radio towers at the summit...workers who maintain the towers ride up in this tractor and then stay on the summit for about a week before coming back down to town.

The summit was above the cloud forest, we hiked through it on our way back down

4 wheeling our rental in order to get to the trailhead

We had to get out of the car in order for it to not bottom out on some of the passes

After the hike, we joined up with the rest of the group at an animal santuary that rescued animals from human owners.

Very rare blue parrot

We had an awesome opportunity to get into a cage with monkeys and feed them craisens. They jumped and climbed all over you!!

The little stinker looking for more treats in my camera case!! Haha.

Baby sloth...so precious!!

The balcony at a place we stayed at in a cloud forest

The kitchen and tables were open to the outside. Andy looking out over the valley.

The pathway to the bathrooms and sinks

Rocky, a rescued kinkajou

Another sloth Andy spotted

The hike we had to make to get to the place we stayed in the cloud forest. Our cars were parked down on that road.

Very poisonous Coral Snake....another animal Andy spotted.

Andy spotted a sloth on the side of the road during the last hike before leaving Panama

Panama Zoo

A wild caiman living in the pond at the zoo....it wasn't in a cage!!! You could walk right up to it, if you were really sneaky. We weren't and it immediately submerged itself.

Panama Canal

1,700 miles part 2

After leaving Santa Rosa, we took a quick stop in San Francisco to go on a tour of Alcatraz. We had so much fun!! You put headphones on and it takes you on an interactive tour of the prison that held famous racketeers such as Al Capone.

After the tour, we stopped by Pier 39 to see all the cute seals while eating salt water taffy and ice cream :-)

We left San Francisco and headed south to visit Brigham, Shandell, Austin and their newest edition, Konner.

Our last stop before Panama was Las Vegas. We met up with Bert stayed with Krista and Anthony for one night and Anthony was kind enough to drive us to the airport at the crack of dawn and pick us back up 2 weeks later....thanks Anthony!! :-)

Next stop....PANAMA!!!

1,700 miles

Here's the first installment of much overdue blogging. Andy and I have been traveling for the last 6 weeks. We left Jackson, Mississippi (where we were for 3 months for Andy's job) at the end of September and headed to Kenosha, Wisconsin to visit Glenn, Heather and the kids. After Kenosha, we added a few hours to our trip back to UT in order include a stop at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Then off to UT to drop off our gear from the summer and pack for another 3 weeks of traveling. After 2 days in UT, we got back in the car and drove to Santa Rosa, CA to visit family. That is as far as I'll go with this post. . .

During our stay in Jackson this summer, we took a week trip over to Texarkana, Texas.

Kenosha visiting Glenn, Heather and the kids. . . .

Bowling with Glenn and Heather

Can't tell they're brothers by the way they make faces right when they see a camera. . .

Andy and I were lucky enough to accompany the Harris family on their annual apple orchard trip. We had so much fun...it took a while for us to fill our bags since we couldn't stop eating the apples!!

Isaac took advantage of Andy being defenseless!

Andy helped Noah put both of his legs in one side of his pants. Noah wouldn't walk, he just stood there and made his funny face. So cute. Of course this happened when Glenn and Heather left us alone with the kids!

Mount Rushmore was incredible. It looked fake. There are so many intricate details...it was hard to believe it was actually carved out of rock!

CALIFORNIA

We went to watch Lexi cheer at her high school football game, but she got injured the day before, so we got to hand out with her instead :-) We ran into one of Andy's old friends at the game. It started to rain a few minutes into the game, but we were tough and stuck around (until half time when it began to pour and you could barely see the field!!).

Andy with Faith and Max

The San Francisco Academy of Science opened the week before we got to CA. It was absolutely amazing!! The picture below shows the huge glass globe that enclosed the rain forest that had butterflies, a waterfall, plants, a huge aquarium, and lots of animal exhibits all the way through. The line to get in was long, but definitely worth it.

The kids looking like the ape behind them.

I was hoping Andy would do a picture like the kids and look like the ape behind him, but he didn't and I did, so I just looked silly. MaryAnn took the picture after I got embarassed.

Tricia and Jo trying to look like they were really in the African tundra

Huge aquarium at the bottom of the glass globe that had an arapaima (the big fish above Andy's head)

The clan on the roof

On the roof

Jo was nice enough to let us stop at the Golden Gate Bridge on our way home from the Academy of Science

We spent a day at the beach. It was a bit cold, but the views were beautiful. On our hike down to the ocean, Andy pointed out all of the poison oak for me to avoid. He's a good little boy scout :-)

2 adult seals and a baby!!

We stopped to have lunch at a point overlooking the crashing waves. Andy found a friend to share his lunch with.

Weekend at the Lake

Fun in the Sun

Andy and I have taken advantage of every free second we have together to go out and do fun things like going to the beach, fishing with Bob, and golfing.

Our first stop was Clearwater Beach. The sand is white and the water is warm...what more could we ask for???.....

....less people!!! :-)

The beach was so crowded the day we went. This picture doesn't give the crowds justice. It was absolutely packed.

Bob and his friends hang out at our apartment complex and fish in the Bay. They catch mostly catfish, but have seen black-tipped sharks, sting rays, a manatee, and horseshoe crabs. Andy and I will walk down and hang out with them every once and a while. The boys sure have fun!

The boys fishing.

Bob gave me his fishing pole so he could go grab something from his apartment. My job was to just hold it, but I ended up showing off my fish catching skills and reeled in a 2 1/2 lb catfish! ;-) Ha ha.

Skyler weighing the fish. I made sure they released him back to his home. :-)

There are lizards EVERYWHERE! This one was very inquisitive and kept blowing up his neck to show off the pretty colors.

Andy's favorite thing to do is golf.

Andy looking for the alligator.
He saw a 15 ft alligator right where he is standing about 2 weeks ago.
I'm kinda glad he wasn't out the day I was there :-)

The beginner golfer trying to make her husband proud.
(Yeah, the knee brace is pathetic, but I can't do much without it :-( ) .

The wind was really strong that day. You can see how much the palm tree is blowing.

Andy teeing off. He makes it look easy!

We are looking forward to more adventures here in FL! Andy's brother Glenn and his wife Heather are coming in June and bringing their 3 adorable kids--Bayley, Isaac, and Noah. I am so excited to have them come!!! We probably go to Busch Gardens Africa while they're here :-)

Welcome to our new home!

Let's go on a tour. . .

You first need to drive through the gate...don't worry, the security guards are very nice!

Once through the gate, you'll drive past the office.

Behind the office is the pool, hot tub, workout room, and sauna. Don't forget to say "hi" to the Conover girls...they're out swimming everyday!

You will then arrive to our building. The Bay surrounds the southern and eastern sides of the complex (our building is on the southern border)

Upon entering are condo, you will see our office to the far left....

Living room in the middle...

and the dining room to the right. . .

Our kitchen is small....but it came with dishes, silverware, pots and pans, a blender, toaster, and lots more!!! Our laundry room is adjacent to the kitchen.

This is the guest bedroom, but ours looks identical to this layout.

We have a weekly maid service that cleans the house, changes all of the bed linens and towels, and even restocks both bathrooms with Bath and Body Works shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and body lotion (Coconut Lime Verbena). What a life!!!! We are so lucky to be in such an amazing place!!!

Last, but not least...this is our walk-in closet. :-)

Hopefully this gives you an idea of where Andy and I will be living for the summer. We have an extra bedroom...don't hesitate to come visit!! :-)
We live right on Tampa Bay, 15 minutes from the beach, and we even live across the street from an orange orchard--they make fresh squeezed orange juice and grapefruit juice daily...its the best juice Andy and I have ever had!!