Camping: Santa Cruz Island

We are here in Oxnard getting our kayaks and heading to Ventura Harbor to take the ferry to go camping on Santa Cruz Island! We will try and update you guys along the way but will be there until Sunday. Wish you guys were all here with us. Love!

Jeff's Shots in Scuba Diving Magazine

Scuba Diving Magazine published some of Jeff's shots on their website when he tested photo equipment back in April! They posted about 6 of them... but they didn't even post the BEST ones! He  had a lot of fun testing... its cool to see his photos up on the site!

To see all of his shots, click here!

Another great SMARTY event!

We are here at Falcons Lair in Hollywood! Beautiful night.

Jeff's Bday Celebration

Just wanted to post some pics from Jeff's actual Bday celebration! We went to the Aquarium in Long Beach and took a Blue Whale Cruise! Above is a picture of us waiting for our cruise boat.

We saw a TON of dolphins and 2 blue whales! Blue Whales are the BIGGEST animals on the planet (yes, not just the ocean-- on the planet!) and can reach up to 110 feet!

We all had such a great time! I still can not believe that we saw these beautiful animals right off the coast of where we live! Amazing... you can only see them a couple of months off the coast as they migrate through.

We took a million pictures so these are just a few! Click here to see the rest of the pictures!

Jeff's first pedicure!

We are getting pedicures before our BBQ tonight! Rose is in the back so u can't see her but looking forward to seeing everyone later...

It's aerobics time!

Ha! We are all in class!

The Oil Beneath The Oil

The news today- the oil beneath the oil. Here is a snippet from the article:
"If [oil's] buried and you have a five-year-old out here next summer building a sand castle and they uncover a layer of tar and oil, that's not going to be good," said Tiffany Roberts, a University of South Florida Ph.D. student.
Click here to read the entire article.

Jeff Makes the Cover Again!

They have gotten some major mileage out of this one shot of Jeff and Bill! Let's see how many times they can use it! I think 5 so far and counting... Too funny! It is a GREAT shot by the way!

Here is a link to the live newsletter!

Miss you already mom and dad!

Thank you so much for everything you did for us over these past 9
days! We enjoyed ourselves soooo much! We all love you guys and we
will call you tomorrow!

Happy 4th!

Love you guys!!! Happy 4th to all!

Pensacola in July

 

Just wanted to post some pics of our trip so far! We have done SO much since we have been home! The pic above was taken at The Carrib- where Wendy's dad lives. Its a resort where they have a bunch of pools, water slides and they have a lazy river! So fun...

 

We went to the pool on NAS that had a rock climbing wall (which was super hard!) and another cool slide that everyone had fun on! Let's just say we had wayyy enough sun.

 

One day, we went canoeing and tubing down Coldwater Creek and that was an adventure. One canoe tipped over (and Jeff and I were NOT on that one!) and it was just one event after another all day long. All in all, we had fun but I don't think will be doing that again on July 4th week!

 

Today, Jeff took ALL the boys fishing after church and eating at King Buffett and they actually caught a bunch of fish! We tried to tire them out so they would crash after fireworks tonight. It worked!

Sunday Mass : Pensacola

Here is a group shot with the DelaCruz ladies! Wow- can't believe how
big Alena is!

June 29 : Oil on Perdido Key, FL

Oil on the beach: Perdido Key, FL

Yesterday, we stopped along Perdido Key to get a glimpse of the oil. It was unbelieveable how empty the key was- not so much because of the oil but just because since I was born here in 1973- I've never seen the beaches this empty- not even during the winter months- and this should be the busiest week of the year. So sad to reach the entrance to this beach and see the red flag.

As we approached the beach, this is what we found. Oil all up and down the beach in both directions as far as the eye can see. Some of the oil you can tell had been there for a while (not sure how long a "while" is- maybe a few hours or a few days?) and then some oil JUST washed up. The oil above and t the bottom left was more thick and gooey unlike some of the globs that you can tell were fresh ones that just came on shore.

The crazy thing was that there was no one in sight doing any kind of cleaning up. We saw 2 guys in a jeep driving up and down the beach and at first I thought they were going to tell us to leave the beach but they just passed us and went up and down the beach doing their thing. One thought is that they were there to clean up any animal that washes up on shore that is covered with oil so that no photos are taken of them and can be posted as more evidence. BP is really trying to cover their tracks.

The other thing that was interesting was the water and although at times looked clear, when it washed up on shore- it left this light brown mark- almost like someone poured a bunch of tea in the ocean. This left stains on the beach as the waves would roll back in the ocean. Not a good sign. Also- you can see from the picture below how the surf was definitely heavier than usual- also not good for the beaches.

By the time we got back to the boardwalk, we all checked our feet for oil and although we thought we were walking on parts of the beach that had no oil on it-- some parts had oil beneath the sand that you couldn't even see. So needless to say when we got back to mom and dads- we had to wash our feet really good to make sure all the oil was off of us.

I am so saddened about what is happening to my home town and to the whole Gulf Coast. We are going to Pensacola beach today to see what's going on over there. We will post more- stay tuned.