Cruisin' the Caribbean

The kids have been begging us to take them on a cruise so we decided to take everyone to the Western Caribbean as an early Christmas family vacation.  We visited Key West, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.  We cruised on the Carnival Freedom ship.

In Key West we walked to the beach and spent some time there and then went back to town for some shopping.

We spent the next day at sea getting some sun, reading and relaxing.

Then we arrived in Georgetown, Grand Cayman where we swam with stingrays and did some snorkeling.  It was awesome!

Candice giving a stingray a kiss

A stingray backrub!



Our next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  Mike and the kids walked up Dunn's River Falls and we all rode the Sky Explorer up to Mystic Mountain where we rode a Jamaican Bobsled mon.

Then we spent another day at sea to get back to Florida.  We played a lot of cards on the boat and ate a lot of ice cream (Tyler probably ate about 8-10 cones a day but didn't gain an ounce of weight, of course).

It was a great trip!!!

Volleyball senior night

Well we've come to the end of Megan's volleyball career.  She's been playing since she was about 11 yrs old, so it's hard to imagine not watching her compete anymore.  They had senior night at Logan High on Tuesday, October 26 (not really the last home game, but they were doing a breast cancer awareness benefit game for the last home game).  There were six seniors this year.

She got flowers from her dad and from her younger teammates and she also got a blanket that her teammates made (a tradition since Lacie Johns has been the head coach). 

I'll be sad not to see her play, but not sad to leave the Logan High Volleyball drama behind.  There have been few things in my life rile me more than the LHS volleyball program.  This year wasn't too bad, but the coaching is a far cry from great, unfortunately, and it has been frustrating to see them struggle.  It is a miracle Megan got through all four years with the number of injuries she's had.  We're just glad she's had something to keep her active and involved and it is something she can play with her sister, Candice, until they decide their bodies just can't take it anymore.

This is an expression we've seen several times when she plays, warms up, etc.  It's her "whoops" look.

Aggie Auction craziness

Many of you have heard me say, "The auction is coming up, so I'm a little crazy."  I'm sure you are thinking, "What's the big deal?"  Well, the organization of the event is up to one person, me, and with close to 300 people in attendance, 125 silent auction items, and 10 live auction items, it takes quite a bit of time to pull it all together.  I won't bore you with all the details.  The major problem is I can't do most of the stuff I need to do until the last week because I have to have all of the reservations in and items cataloged before I can prepare all the materials for the evening and of course everyone waits until the last minute to register and finalize their donations, so I work about 12 hours a day during the week before getting all of that done.  I'm not posting this so you think I'm neat--I just want everyone to know there is a reason for ignoring everything else but my family (and they still had to fend for themselves quite a bit during the week) and work.  So, I'm sorry for being out of touch and introverted for a while.  Here are a few pictures so you can see what the event looks like.

Live Auction items and stage set up

My boss, Tom Hale, and Amanda Butterfield (former USU student-athlete, soccer), our master of ceremonies for the event.  She is great!!

Dinner

Our great student-athletes helping with raffle prize distribution

By the way, it was a success as we raised over $90,000 for USU student-athlete scholarships.  I've decided I hate the auction--all the work and worry--and don't want to ever do it again, but like childbirth, when it comes time to do it again I will probably have forgoten how bad it really was.