Summer officially began on June 13th and its been wonderful. Brandon is now one of the train conductor's at Short Pump mall (pics to come later). Jackie has been working her summer hours as dictated by the office which include ten hour days. We were fortunate enough to have time to take an eight day cruise on the Carnival Freedom out of Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Our ports of call included Cozumel, Mexico; Limon, Costa Rica; and Colon, Panama. We returned to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum in Mexico where this picture was taken. This time, however, we brought our suits so we were able to enjoy the awesome beach below.
Costa Rica attacked us!!!
We started our excursion in Costa Rica with a bicycle ride through the jungle and a town. Then we descended to the rapids of the Reventazon River. We think the translation is roughly "explosion." That is exactly what happened to us. We were minding our own business paddling when the river threw us out of the raft. After a drenching soak in the river (lungs and all), we resumed our ride. It was awesome! We survived and therefore won. 
Our last port in Panama was uneventful and somewhat disappointing. Overall, the cruise was great.
As July comes to a close, Jackie will resume work August 3rd. Brandon starts at his new school (same county) August 17th but is very busy driving the train until then.
days in New Zealand and we will be updating our blog with several new posts over the next two weeks. Check back to hear of our journey and stories and pics we will have to share. Stories from figuring out strange washers and thermostats, bubbling mud, molten earth, left side driving, black sand beaches, rafting, to amazing drives through the most beautiful land on earth
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Well I officially start back to school this week for teacher training. I have enjoyed my summer but it has come to an end. We have time this week to set up our rooms and get our lessons together for the first week. We will get our schedules and class rosters. Here are a few shots of my room...it is pretty big so I have to find stuff to fill up the space with. We are still bummed that we are not in the same school, but our hope is that after this year that I will be able to make it back over to Spotsy. We just enjoy one saving gas, but also have time together on the ride to and from home. That way we don't feel so bad doing our own things in the evening if we have or want to.
Summer officially began on June 13th and its been wonderful. Brandon is now one of the train conductor's at Short Pump mall (pics to come later). Jackie has been working her summer hours as dictated by the office which include ten hour days. We were fortunate enough to have time to take an eight day cruise on the Carnival Freedom out of Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Our ports of call included Cozumel, Mexico; Limon, Costa Rica; and Colon, Panama. We returned to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum in Mexico where this picture was taken. This time, however, we brought our suits so we were able to enjoy the awesome beach below.
We started our excursion in Costa Rica with a bicycle ride through the jungle and a town. Then we descended to the rapids of the Reventazon River. We think the translation is roughly "explosion." That is exactly what happened to us. We were minding our own business paddling when the river threw us out of the raft. After a drenching soak in the river (lungs and all), we resumed our ride. It was awesome! We survived and therefore won. 
Our last port in Panama was uneventful and somewhat disappointing. Overall, the cruise was great.
