The Rocky Mountain Rivals

Joe and I are playing on some awesome soccer teams as part of a"college development program." It's a program that has a guys team and a girls team for people that are looking to get exposure to some universities and colleges, has-beens that have used up their eligibility and can no longer play for a school, and never-beens (like Joe and I). Officially, we are named the Rocky Mountain Rivals. We are playing a few local college teams and other amateur developmental teams. On August 23rd we traveled to Rock Springs, WY where we played Western Wyoming Community College, where unfortunately my women's team did not come away victorious, but luckily the men's team saved face by squeaking in a game-winning goal in overtime.

Joe actually made this divot in the grass with his knee when he went down in a slide tackle. His knee was bloody, but the grass definitely got the worst of it.

A Good Week

Well, Joe just left me to spend the week in Logan, UT to take a short course in stream restoration at Utah State. While he spends 13 hours a day learning how to restore streams to their naturally beautiful and environmentally friendly state, I will spend 12 hours a day saving lives and hanging out with crazy people in the ER. I am definitely going to miss my wonderful husband. Hopefully the awesome week that we spent together last week will hold me over until he returns home on Friday.

Since I moved to Provo 6 years ago, knowing that I wouldn't live here forever, I started creating a list of things that I absolutely wanted to do before we leave. One of those things was to snorkel in the Homestead Crater in Midway, UT. On Tuesday, this lofty dream came to fruition. With our good friends Chad and Sara Tibbits, we put on our flippers and masks and snorkeled in the 65 foot deep natural crater, filled with 96 degree mineral water. This crater is the famous scuba certification site in Utah, and I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I believed reports that at the bottom of the crater lives a large fresh water shark. When I realized that what I was actually snorkeling in was more of a giant hot tub sitting under a 90 foot limestone beehive, I was only a little disappointed.

On Thursday, we had the luck of attending a Brian Regan comedy show with Amanda and Pete Nettisheim and our good friend Tim Whiting (who just moved to D.C. . . we will miss you Tim!). Brian Regan is one funny man.

The rest of our week was spent camping in our living room, with every blanket we own (which is a lot of blankets) spread out on the floor, falling asleep watching the Olympics (and cheering particularly hard for the US swim team with Dara Torres, Jason Lezak, Michael Phelps, and company). GO WORLD!!!

Congratulations Jeremy and Callie!!!

Demo Derby!!!!!!!!

Joe and I attended our first ever demo derby in Heber, Utah this weekend. I love small towns! (and demo derbies I just learned) Demo derbies are amazing. Drivers in little cars (and sometimes in big trucks as pictured above) drive around and ram into each other. I cannot believe how much damage some cars can sustain and yet continue driving. Luckily, the worst human injury we saw was a bloody nose (when this truck rolled the ER nurse in me definitely imagined the worst).

We attended the event with Caleb & Kendra and Amanda & Pete and their adorable family (Sydney and Lily are pictured above).

The end of our great adventure in Central America

They say that all good things must come to an end. On June 8th we traveled from Belize to Cancun. We spent an enjoyable day soaking up the sun and the beach for the last time and then reluctantly boarded a plane to return home, having had some awesome new experiences and having made a lot of great memories.

Central American Adventure June 7

On June 7th we stayed in Corozal in Northern Belize. We visited the beautiful Mayan Archaeological site Lamanai meaning "Submerged Crocodile." The site had to be reached by a scenic boat ride down the New River, which we nearly missed because the public bus took more than an hour longer than expected. Finally, at one bus stop (where the bus was going to have an unanticipated 20 minute wait) we managed to find a phone where we called the guide. He told us to get off the bus (we were still several miles from the destination) and he would come pick us up. Because of his kindness we were able to make the boat and visit Lamanai. We spent the day climbing the massive limestone pyramids and listening to more howler monkeys howl.

Central American Adventure June 6

On June 6th, we left Caye Caulker. We flew off the island in a little 15 seater airplane. The airport staff asked us to arrive 15 minutes before flight departure; we each received a boarding pass made of a 8 x 11 green laminated paper, labeled BOARDING PASS which we had to return prior to boarding the flight.

Only a few minutes into the flight we were completely surrounded by clouds.

This is the view of the landing strip as we approached and a picture of our little airplane.

After spending a few hours in St. Petersburg on Ambergris Caye, (the rich man's version of Caye Caulker: very developed with large resorts, nice restaurants, and shops), we traveled on to Corozal, Belize where we stayed for the night.

Central American Adventure June 4-5

While much of our time on Caye Caulker was spent just enjoying the serenity of the island, one day we took a sailing trip out to the Barrier Reef (2nd largest in the world, just behind The Great Barrier Reef in Australia) for some snorkeling. We stopped at 3 locations: The Hol Chan Marine Reserve, The Coral Gardens, and Shark and Ray Alley. All three stops were fantastic, with a wide variety of marine life.

At the Hol Chan Marine Reserve there were huge Conch shells, which although it is illegal to take an uninhabited shell as a souvenir, our guides made us this salsa like stuff with fresh Conch (or whatever animal lives inside a Conch shell) for a little fishy kick.

The grand finale was the stop at Shark and Ray Alley (very appropriately named).

Guess what Big Steve said after wrestling with the shark, chumming the water, and watching the nurse sharks fight over the prey . . . "Okay, jump in." So we did. Not only did we swim with the sharks, but we saw several rays, including a huge Eagle Ray, a Moray eel (which was way scarier and meaner than the sharks), some squid things, Barracuda, and a lot of other cool and freaky ocean creatures. I even pet the shark (if you can pet a shark). It was AWESOME!

Central American Adventure June 2-3

On June first, we traveled from Belmopan, Belize through Belize City and out to Caye Caulker.

Caye Caulker is a beautiful little island, "a backpacker's paradise." There are only 3 trucks on the island. The other options for transportation include golf carts and bicycles. The natives are friendly fisherman and tour guides. I didn't meet a person who didn't consider himself lucky to live there. We only planned on staying a couple days, but like so many others, were drawn in by the laid back atmosphere on the island, and stayed 4 days? or 5? I think we all lost track of time.

This diving board is in an area called The Split. In 1961 Hurricane Hattie came through the island and tore it in half. The Split is the stretch of ocean that now separates the two halves of the island. Oh yea, and Joe did his first back flip ever. . . and it was SWEET!!!!