A Visit to the Zoo

Day two of the trip we did what every tourist in Australia must do...fed kangaroos and cuddled koalas..OK, we didn't cuddle the koalas but we looked at them at this zoo.

Our Australian Adventure

We were fortunate enough to be invited to join the SUU Thunderbirds Men's Basketball team as they played 4 games in 4 different cities on the Eastern Coast of Australia. A group of 9 players, 4 coaches and some of us "hangers-oners". Enjoyed seeing the home country of 3 of the players.
Australia is an amazing country full of life and beauty and offered much, much more than I ever imagined. 9 days flew by!
Team Cook back in Cedar City did great and survived (even thrived) without Mom and Dad around. We owe our kids and sitters a huge thank you for making this wonderful trip so stress free for us. Love you all.

First Stop: Cairns

The boat ride was a bit cold, after all it is going into winter there but we had an amazing time. Brad completed 3 dives. I did one dive and snorkeled. I found Nemo and Brad swam with Crush the turtle for about 20 seconds!

This is B as we head out to the Great Barrier Reef for a day of diving..First day in Australia..This is the way to spend it. Amazing.

7th Heaven

Charlie and Jack had their party today at Funtime Inflatables. There were 12 boys their age from school and soccer as well as Sam, his friend Mohammad, Cairo and her friend Janica. It was a wild, crazy, good time.
Love you boys.

Cairo Turns Double Digits

Cairo turned 10 yesterday..SCARY!
Cairo wanted to give as well as receive on her birthday so she requested that her birthday guests bring a donation to the local food pantry. The girls who came to the party were very generous to Cairo and to the food pantry.
She is so much fun and easy to be around. What a great help around the house.
We gave her this cute Cruiser bike which is just "SO CAIRO". It's cute and stylish and has personality.
We love you Cai..PS: Stop growing..No more birthdays for you!



We had a party with the theme of Minute to Win It. A new game show that is on in the evenings featuring challenges using household items. The challenge must be completed within 60 seconds to win the prize.
Brad was the host..White hair, lots of jewelry, black shirt. He did a great job.

Bergen Visits Cedar City

We were lucky to have Bergen here for 3 nights last weekend as our guest. She is such an easy baby and was a delight for the kids and Me and Brad.
That same Friday, Sam and Cairo had a science fair at school so she went to see their projects.
Sam's project was to create electric energy from a potato.
Cairo created static electricity by rubbing wool on a Styrofoam plate.

Mountain Meadows Historical Site

While Cory, Angie and family were here for the Easter weekend we decided to take a short road trip to the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The massacre is a black mark on Utah history and the location of the event is about a 45 minute drive from Cedar City. Brad has wanted to see it for some time and this was a great weekend to take it in. The kids were interested and troubled by the history that took place there. It was quite morbid and disturbing. A classic quote by Chasik was, "I thought today was supposed to be fun." Cory responded by saying, "Nobody promised you that." It was quite funny. To see that Chasik found the experience disturbing and "Not Fun" just re-enforced how our children have a sense of morals and know right from wrong. I have to admit I felt a little bit like Chasik. It was such a beautiful little meadow and I felt like the tragedy that occurred there was something I wanted to push from my mind. Brad commented that it is important to visit history that is unpleasant and learn from it just as we learn from positive, uplifting historical sites. It was a nice day and we created memories together with family. The beginning of a great weekend.

Easter 2010

For Easter we had a nice brunch, listened to LDS General Conference and the children had an Easter Egg hunt. The weather was beautiful with a clear warm morning. We managed to have the Egg hunt outside just as the weather turned a bit gray and started getting cold. As a fun little edible craft the kids made nests out of chocolate and chow mien noodles then filled them with candy as the eggs. All the kids participated but a few of them were hard to catch on film.

The Long Ride Home...

We spent 14 hours in the van getting across the border and all the way to Flagstaff on Friday. Saturday morning we awoke with renewed energy and excitement to see the Grand Canyon. I have never seen it and I found myself getting more excited the closer we got. We arrived at the South Rim about 2 hours after leaving Flagstaff...That was an easy ride. The canyon did not disappoint. WOW!
After about 2 hours there we forced ourselves back into the van and hunkered down for the long, long ride home.
We made it. Daylight Saving Time didn't do us any favors since we were in Mexico last weekend when it changed and they don't recognize it. So we got home even an hour later than we thought we did.
All that matters is we are home. We are safe. And we are tighter as a family and better as individuals for having spent the past week having fun and giving of ourselves to those who are less fortunate.

Our Last Night in Guaymas

A week on the Ocean wouldn't be complete without a lot of great seafood...served with tacitos, guacamole, salsa, chips and fresh veggies.
On our final night there we didn't have dinner plans with any of the group so I decided to buy fresh lobster and shrimp from a vendor who parked his truck in the parking lot of the condos every evening.
Upon arriving at his truck I realized he sold a whole lot more than fresh fish! It was heaven..fresh asparagus, fresh guacamole, pico and refried beans (made that day by his wife)He had garlic, onions, limes and everything else I may have wanted to season the meal to perfection. It was so much fun cooking up a delicious meal of fresh food while Brad and the kids played on the beach with the sun setting.
After dinner we caught up to the group (who Cairo had been with for the past 2 days) for a final farewell bonfire on the beach. They had ingredients for s'mores and we all talked and reflected on the great week we had in Mexico.