Here's Cam and Syd peering at the beach on Monday morning.  Cam is ready for pre-school and Syd is staying home because she had a bad cold (almost better now).  Last week, Cam was sick and Syd got to go to pre-school without her sister.  Both girls did great at pre-school on their own.

The move back into the building!

Melissa and the babies moved into the building on Saturday.  I spent the last few weeks getting it ready for them.  Living room view reflects pre-move and post-move appearance.  Here' s Cameron making good use of the castle furniture prominently located in the middle of the living room!

Hello everyone! School is approaching its 3rd week and everything is finally falling into place. The "DG Dozen" aka my new home for the next 2 years has been a blast! I am living in the above garage 2 person apartment with my friend Nicole. Our place is mostly finished except for we need to get some pictures and decorations for our living room.

As far as school goes my classes have been going really well. I am in a Gender Woman's Studies class this semester which is very interesting. A lot of my classes are focused on a lot of online reading and quizzes so I have a lot of free time this semester. 

Hope everyone is doing well!

-Nicole

All of our roommates during recruitment

My Room

Some of us on our first night together

Trip to East Cape

Went this past weekend to East Cape, Mexico, just North of Cabo San Lucas for a fishing trip with a couple of guys from work (Denny, his brother, and Mike Loy).  Our trip was delayed a day due to tropical storm Lorena but it was great weather when we got there.  Lots of great fishing.  The morning started out at 6:30 catching giant squid for bait and then getting sardines followed by a day full of catching lots of fish.

I think we caught about 10 species including Yellow Fin Tuna (about 50), Durado, White Bonita, Amber Jack, Marlin, Trigger Fish, Grouper, Skip Jack, Lady fish, Rooster fish, and several types of Rock fish.  Every day we kept a yellow fin for fresh Poki and a duardo or grouper for dinner. Even with this, still loaded 75 lbs of fish in the freezer tonight.  Denny coming home tomorrow with another 25+lbs of fillets that I caught today.

The town (Los barriles) was set up for fishing. When we finished for the day we dropped our catch at the dock and they fillet, vaccum pack, and freeze the fish.  They then pack in a freezer box to take on the plane.  They also smoke fish so we got 10 lbs smoked.  After eating tonight, we should have got more.

One of the highlights of the trip was a large whale shark swimming up our chum line and hanging out about 2 feet behind the boat for 10 minutes.  Picture not great though you can see the shadow.

Durado

 

 

Grouper.  Fillets by splitting in half from the top and pulling out all the bones.  then stuffed with vegetables and bakes for an hour covered in a spicy sause.

 

 

Marlin

 

Whale Shark

 

 

Catch of the Day

Rooster Fish

Anderson Island: The Best Kept Secret!

We spent 4 days on Anderson Island last week as summer's last hurrah. What an incredible place. Despite having an odd history of attempted development into a golfing/retirement community twice in the last 60 years, it has managed to remain essentially a heavily treed, and wild NW island, with empty beaches, and marine parks.

The Ferry over

Retrieving the crab pot

 

Looking North from the cabin on a foggy morning

 The cabin

Lottie swimming after Bob. She's going to get eaten by an Orca whale one of these days!

A Marine park beach. Nobody on the trail, nobody on the beach.

 The local swimming lake. Though only 7 miles long Anderson Island has 2 freshwater lakes: deep and not at all mucky.

 A dilapidated fishing house off the beach, situated in an interesting wetland.

 Lunch on the deck.

 Fishing off the beach. Ben caught a sculpan.

Copernicus

I just got a hamster and named him Copernicus. he is very active. his two favorite activities so far are chewing the cage bars and attempting to run on top of his wheel.

 

 
 

 

2013 Family Reunion

 

So nice to see everyone.
Thank you Mom and Dad Ison for getting us together.