Family Mellmann

We have been enjoying a nice vacation with great weather, great diving, and good food.  Now it's time to turn our sights on home.  Tomorrow morning we will pack our bags, return the scooters, and check in at the airport bound for colder climates. Here are a few pictures from our last week. Diving Pictures Ferry to Mainland Mexico to go to Rio Secreto Rio Secreto More diving. Sunsets

Today we had two very nice dives; great visibility, lots of fish, and easy current.  I also had some time to continue my camera experiments (new light attachment).  Here are a few shots from today. Sea life  Anemone (the right side is lighted...check out those colors)  A giant langusto (lobster)  A giant...teenager filming a turtle munching on...everything  Turtle The "despite" part was surfacing with carbon monoxide poisoning from bad air.  Headaches and nausea were the extent of our symptoms, but it sure did wipe us out for the rest of the afternoon.  Tomorrow is a non-diving day so we should have plenty of time to recover before our next dives.

Beautiful weather.  Beautiful views. Sunset over the Caribbean. (Patrick's the one with yellow fins.) Our non-diver (she sits on the boat reading). These two fish practically ran me over they got so close.

Patrick sang with the Youth Choir at church tonight.  It's so fun to see him up there, and to hear him sing.

Early (very early) tomorrow morning Patrick and I, and all the junior and senior high students of Trinity, will be driving to Merrimack New Hampshire for the annual Academic and Fine Arts Competition among New England Christian schools. Students compete in academics (math, science, history, language arts, etc.) and art (acting, instrumental music, vocal music, speaking, photography, drawing, fiber arts, woodworking, etc.), and can compete individually or in groups. Patrick is helping his friend put the finishing touches on his competition piece.

I used to ponder the divine humor in my first child being a boy.  I'm a girl; what do I know about raising a boy?  Like a cat bringing a dead rodent home for show-and-tell, Patrick would bring me bugs, worms, snakes, and all manner of creepy, crawly, and slimy.  Then came puberty...and driving...and dating... And through it all is woven a fantastic sense of humor and a grand fascination with all sorts of oddity. Such as, "Why do you get dizzy when you stand up too fast?"  "Why are there no 'B' batteries?"  "Why is vanilla ice cream white when vanilla extract is brown?"  "If you are bald, what hair color do they put on your driver's license?"  Or, today's treasure,  "Why does this magnet stick to my arm?". (answer: there's a BB in his arm) My favorite part of the video (aside from "cool" factor) is the goofy grin on his face at the end.

It has been a somewhat disappointing winter, so far. It's either cold and grey with little/no snow, or it's snowing beautifully only to give way to a warm snow-melting day. Today we get this beautiful, large flake, snow.  Perfect timing for this afternoon's snowboard lessons for Katherine, and Patrick's ski day with friends, planned for tomorrow.

Vermont winter is finally here. And with that comes ski and snowboard season. Today, Katherine started her third year of snowboard lessons. Since Patrick has graduated from the ski program (it only goes through eighth grade), Katherine brought a new mountain buddy, a classmate from Trinity.

It's our last day of Christmas break. Patrick is enjoying his last moments with a friend, Katherine is enjoying a little screen time, and Jörg continues his work with taxes and all things accounting. I have accomplished a few projects (or parts of them) over this break, but I will bid a sad farewell to this Christmas break knitting in front of the fire while I watch a TV show and enjoy the smell of beef stew wafting from the crockpot.