Watch out Lance Armstrong!!

Since I have had such a hard time running lately, because of my knees and hips, I decided it was time for a road bike. I was a little shocked by the prices, mostly because I had looked at Wal mart at their huffy bikes first and expected their prices to be similar at a specialty bike store, but I found a really good deal on last years top model. And I think it's so cute!!! I have big plans of all the races I will be doing this summer, I just have to learn how to use my gears first! Wish me luck!!!

1 Year!!

This guy and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary last week, and what a year it has been. Some of our major highlights have been:

*2 cruises and being able to scuba dive together
*we ran a half marathon
* Trip to Hawaii
* Trip to NYC
*wakeboarding all summer with our families
*Lake Powell
*Moose
*Thanksgiving in St George with the Nelsons
*Christmas in Ohio with the Clarks
*5k with the Clarks
These are just a few of the highlights of our first married year together. I love spending everyday with Ryan, he always makes me laugh and makes me feel special and beautiful. He is the Best!!!

Cozumel

Our last stop was Cozumel! It is one of my favorite places I've ever been. And it was this last day that we all decided the Clark's would go and just stay there on our next vacation, I have verbal agreements from all of you, so don't even think about backing out. I've already started looking at houses!! The weather was beautiful and the ocean was so blue and crystal clear it seemed fake. The picture above is at the dive shop signing in and getting fitted!
Our first dive of the day was like passing through a mountain range under sea. This is a picture of us swimming through some caves.

When we first went down to bottom of the ocean there were all these conch shells, everywhere! I wish we could have taken some, however we were in a preserve, and couldn't touch anything!


My dad just loves Scuba diving, and I love that it's something we all can do together!
These three sexy ladies are my aunt Sue, my aunt Pam, and my momma!
This is my aunt Patti, my cousing Sydnie, and Tan Tan!
No, he's not standing on a bucket he really is that tall!
This funny little fish was triangle shaped, he was completely flat on the bottom with a crazy tail, he absolutely did not look real. Our dive master found him and rubbed his belly and when he did that the fished followed him where ever he led him. So we passed him around from person to person.

Un-Belize-able

Thursday we made our way into Belize. Belize used to be a English settlement so everyone speaks English. There are 3 stop lights in Belize City and 1 of them works. We started on a 45 minute bus ride, and traffic rules are more like a suggestion rather than law. After the bus ride we loaded into our boats and and had another 45 minute boat ride up the river through the jungle. After I heard we might see alligators, I swear I saw at least 12. Not really but at that point every branch in the water turned into a tail.
We arrived at the Lamanai ruins, which are ancient Mayan temples. It was pretty cool seeing something so old that was still in relatively good condition.

The first temple our guide showed us, we were not allowed to climb on. So when we went to the next one and he said we could climb to the top, I took off. I was racing someone, and when I got to the landing on the top, I panicked a little when I realized I still had to get down. It is steeper then it looks, and a little scary! Not to worry, we all made it back safe!

The made us yummy chicken, beans and rice! And I thought it was incredible.
We had another formal night on the ship that night..............
and Melanie and Sue got down with their badselves!!

Roatan

Our second stop on the cruise was to Roatan, which is a small island off of Honduras. It was definately the poorest of the stops. It breaks your heart driving down the roads and seeing all the dilapidated houses that people were living in. None the less, it is beautiful!! It looks a little more like Hawaii than anything else in the Caribbean, and there were lots of dancers and drummers performing on the pier when we arrived. Roatan was day 1 of scuba diving and we were so excited, we hopped in a van that drove us to the other side of the island where the scuba shop was. It was the neatest little place in the middle of the jungle!
This is Mackenzie, my niece, and Tanner hanging out on the peir.
This is my two younger brother, Tanner and Sean, and my dad and I filling out forms and getting fitted for all our gear.
Ryan and I getting ready to get on the boat.
We had 21 family members diving that day! It was so cool to be sharing this experience with so many people.

Just hanging out


This is my mom at 75 feet below the surface!
It's always incredible to me what the bottom of the ocean looks like, I'll never get sick of it. In Roatan we did a wall dive, which means we went to the edge of the reef where there's a wall that then drops off in to the abyss. The colors are so bright and vibrant, which sadly is hard to capture on a camera. Tan Tan

Later that night we went to the Magic show on the ship I tried really hard to be chosen to go on stage and did not succeed. It was pretty good anyway.

Grand Cayman

Our first stop was Grand Cayman which is part of the British West Indies, so English is the language and they drive on the other side of the road. It is a very nice, clean island. We were all headed to Sting Ray City, which is a sand bar about 5 miles out in the ocean. Back in the day when the fishing boats came in from the reef they would stop here to clean the fish and dump the extras into the ocean. The stingrays soon caught on, and then the divers caught on that there were always stingrays, and thus the popularity now. I was fully expecting to go to an aquarium, or man made pool and I was shocked when our boat took us to this sand bar, anchored the boat and gave us squid to feed them. It was incredible!! It took me a while to feel okay with them just swimming up on my chest looking for food, but it was awesome.
This is Ryan and I on our boat ride out to stingray city. The water was unreal!
This is Sean! All the dark spots in the water are rays.
We also did some snorkeling a little further out and this was one of the fish we ran into. I believe it's a trumpet fish but I could be wrong. We also came across a giant eel hiding under a rock and I was terrified. Although at the same time, in this crystal clear water, nothing really seems real.
This is my immediate family after snorkeling.
Sean and I obviously trying to alert the photographer that there was a giant ray behind them.
My dad dancing with a sting ray.
Even Grandma got in the water to play with them!! The look on my mom's face says it all!!

Finished with a fun day in the sun, we're all headed back to the ship!