Spencer's Baptism

Trip to Roanoke

We went to Roanoke, VA to compete in the regional Tae Kwon Do competition.  This is Grant doing his one steps

Clark in ready stance about to perform his patterns

Spencer showing the orange belt form

Three awesome Tae Kwon Do-ists

While we were in the region we took advantage of the Spring weather and took a hike to the Devil's Marbleyard.

A huge mountainside just covered with boulders.  Just perfect for our crew of climbers.

Laurel got in on the action, too.

Grandpa found a short cut to the top, which we were all glad for on the way back down.

Puerto Rico

Scott had a conference to attend for the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society.  It was located in Puerto Rico this year!

Dr. Haines and Dr. Thornton presenting their project.  The research poster was OCT upon presentation of acute and subacute NAION.  That is Optical Coherence Tomography in Non-arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy.  

Grandma came to stay with the kids for the week, so Jen could come too.  While we were in Puerto Rico we got to do all sorts of amazing things.

We had some amazing food while we were in Puerto Rico.  (We decided we had to suspend our pescatarianism while we were in PR.)
This was dinner out at a roadside BBQ stand with some of the recent Iowa Alums.

While were in PR we also had: Mofongo with conch and churrasca, fantastic breads and desserts from a local bakery (Tres Leches is Superb!), fried yucca stuffed with crab, sweet plaintains with meat stuffing, cod fish with yucca, fresh coconut water, Puerto Rican Chinese food (the sign said "Chinese with the taste of Puerto Rico" and we had to stop.  They served shrimp in chile sauce with fried rice and french fries.  The combination of soy sauce packets and ketchup packets was too much).  And a seafood super soup complete with octopii.

We hiked in the El Yunque rainforest 

We climbed all the way to the top of Mt. Yunque

We were up so high that we were mostly in the clouds.

We spent a lot of time at the beach.  We found this guy at our favorite spot one day.

This was the view from our hotel.

We took an amazing kayak tour to Laguna Grande.

We kayaked out around sunset then we got to witness the amazing bioluminescent water.  Then we kayaked back through the mangrove swamp and across the bay in almost complete darkness.

We took a boat tour in the Atlantic out to a coral reef to snorkel and then we made our way to a little deserted isle with one lone palm.
Snorkeling tip #1- jump in with a granola bar.  The fish cannot resist it.  

Then we made it out to Old San Juan and toured the very impressive fortifications and charming old city.

The amazing thing was that we did all that in one week, and Scott still attended the entire conference.