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This is the last summer that the 3 youngest are all still in high school. Who knows what will happen next year, so we went all-out. Two weeks in Florida with my sister Sooz and her family and a 6 day cruise.

Saturday, July 19 – Linda, Katie and I arrived in West Palm Beach. CD and Connor flew in about 30 minutes after us. We all got settled at Sooz’s and hung out with Terry, Sam and Max.

Sunday – Hooked up with Sally and Jim. Went down to the waterfront for a nice lunch. Later, we went to go see mom. She’d taken a fall a few days earlier and was in a rehabilitation hospital. lots of stitches, looking pretty rough but in great spirits.

Monday – Sooz drove us down to Ft. Lauderdale to catch our cruise ship. Of course, the first thing you have to do is practice what to do if the ship sinks. That always throws me off…

Tuesday – Key West – We woke up with the ship already in port. A day of kayaking was in the cards for us. Linda really liked Key West. After a short drive, we settled into our kayaks and followed our guide through the mangroves around the islands and back. Much fun.

Wednesday – Cozumel – This was a day I was really looking forward to. We were destined to spend a few hours with the dolphins. A short bus ride got us to Chankanaab, a park of sorts, that had a large area with what seemed to be about 20 dolphins. After jumping in the water, we spent about 45 minutes playing with a dolphin. It started out with lots of petting and the dolphin showing off for us. Then we each took turns doing 3 different things. First, we’d do the whole “pose for the camera while the dolphin ‘kisses’ your cheek”. Then it got fun. We’d swim out about 60 feet and the dolphin would come up to us and roll over, then we’d grab the bottom fins and he’d pull us back – fast. Finally, we’d swim out with a boogie board, lay on it, and the dolphin would push us back with his nose against the bottom of our foot. It was really cool and he’d get cruising.

Thursday – Belize – This time the boat anchored offshore and we took a tender to the port in Belize City. An hour’s bus ride took us through a lot of diversity. A hurricane had been through just a few days before us and things looked a little weathered. We arrived in the jungle and first went tubing through a cave. It was pretty cool. It was very, very dark, but we had these strap-on lights on our heads to see with. Then we had a quick lunch and headed up to the jungle canopy for our zip line rides. There were 7 or 8 of them. In a couple of cases, you couldn’t see the ground, the sky or the other end of the zip line because it was so dense. We had a blast.

Friday – We had a nice, peaceful day at sea. We all mostly just hung out, relaxed and prepared ourselves for being back in the world of the living.

Saturday – Back home at the Clark’s, we had a very lazy day catching up on our rest!

Week 2 – Was pretty much as vacation blur. Highlights:

• Saw mom a bunch of times. She’s looking a lot better and finally got settled into a new place where she can get some extra care.
• Hit the beach a couple of times.
• Played Rock Band a lot. Sam’s incredibly good on the drums.
• Went swimming in the pool just about every day. Sometimes twice.
• Made tacos for dinner just like dad did (fried the shells ourselves).
• Sam taught Katie to play the guitar (a real one).
• Spend a day on the water taxi in Ft. Lauderdale (loved it).
• Amy came over for a couple of days.

Sooz, Terry, Sam and Max were all wonderful hosts (many thanks). We all had a fabulous time!

And it seems you can be too if you’re willing to spend a few days with your favorite video game console. We got Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii for Christmas. It’s the first guitar game in our house, but we’ve played Dance Dance Revolution (controller pad as a mat on the floor that you “dance” on) and Singstar (sing along with a microphone).

The basic idea of Guitar Hero is that you have a controller shaped like a guitar. You press buttons located on the neck of the “controller” and strike a “strum bar” in time with the “notes” on the screen.

I’m not rhythmically inclined. As a child, my piano teacher suggested I find another calling. For me, and the many people in the word like me, the game enables some type of participation in the music world that has never been available before. Even Linda and Katie (who are both miraculous on the piano) enjoy the game (and are far better than I).

The game quickly became very popular in our house. So much so that we went and got Rock Band for our PS/2. Same idea, but now you have 2 guitars, a drum kit and a microphone. A whole rock band. Personally, I like the Fender Stratocaster controller from Rock Band more than the Les Paul controller from Guitar Hero.

So, here’s the score: Connor is a beast, Katie is very good, Linda is great, I’m okay and CD’s getting better.

We had a great Christmas this year. CD & Connor came out. It snowed. Half of us ended up getting sick…

CD got sick first, then Connor and then me. That part wasn’t very fun. We played spoons. I never realized how bloody things could get when you play with girls that have nails. CD and I went skiing up at Alta, but it was too cold (-4 F) to last very long.

Linda got me Guitar Hero for my Wii. I’ve never really been very rhythmic, but it’s sure fun to be a rock star in a video game. Connor is beastly good, Katie is great and the rest of us are still catching up.

After the kids went home, Linda, Katie and I headed to Las Vegas to see Linda’s mom Chris and to see circ de soleil.

Check out the Christmas pictures here.

CD and Connor came out this summer and we headed to San Diego for a few days of relaxation on the beach. We stayed in La Jolla, rode bikes around Mission Bay and learned to surf as well.

Joe posted two pictures from Katie’s Recital.  Here is a link with the rest of the pictures:  

 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZt2Tds0aNmEJ

Linda’s mom was in town last weekend and Katie had her summer dance recital. She’s been working really hard and doing a great job. I got to use my new lens, the 70-200 f/4. It turned out to be pretty sweet. I’ll post a few shots of Kate doing her thing.