Connecticut

Not the best picture, but so cool to see!

I'm back on the island now for our last 6 weeks, I can't believe we're almost done here. I had a nice vacation back to CT for a few weeks. Owen was busy with a lot of exams, so I figured I'd get out of the way (after making him tons of food and cleaning everything, he was all set) and visit family and friends. I got to spend time catching up with a lot of friends I haven't seen in a year (or more in some cases). Here are some highlights from my trip....

• Time with family
• Lots of time with Michelle & Evan
• Finally saw a bear (everywhere in CT now)
• Caught up with Boux and Whit
• Got some time in at the lake
• Fireworks at the lake for 4th of July
• Jared's Graduation
• beach day in Rhode Island with my dad
• Finally met Olivia! (and of course saw Robin, Colin, & Connor)
• Awesome spa pedicure day with my mom
• lots of Starbucks and Chipotle of course
• Trip to the Boston area- great visits with Lauren & Alison (thanks!)
• Owen passed his last class at AUC! now just lots of reviews and exams until the end

Overall it was a great trip, I loved seeing everyone. My apologies to those I wasn't able to see this trip. We'll be back at the end of August and will stay in CT (mostly) until January, so there's plenty of time to see everyone!

In the backyard of my parent's house

Lake House - Massachusetts

Hanging out on the boat

Not a bad place to get some work done

Beautiful sunset at the lake

So nice to be stateside for 4th of July

Fireworks over the lake, watching from the boat

Jared's graduation from Universal Technical Institute (Norwood, MA) for Automotive Technology!!

Boston

View of Boston from Castle Island, South Boston

Manchester by the Sea (North Shore of Boston)

AOW- Deep Dives

Lion fish at FuShang

So I finally got around to getting my Advanced Open Water certification! I can now go to 40m/130ft. We did one day of basic dives with navigation, buoyancy, and search and recovery training. The more exciting dives were the second day; both deep dives to wrecks. The first was to the FuShang at around 110ft, my deepest dive yet. The other was the Porpoise at 90ft. Owen tagged along on the dives and got to do some "discover" tech diving with Chris. He used nitrox and a two tank system and was more independent on this dive, following his own dive computer. Overall it was a great day of diving and we look forward to doing more deep dives. I didn't bring my camera on these dives but another person did, so all pictures of these two dives are from Melissa Hollingsworth and James Pogue (thanks!). Here are just a few, but visit Deep Dives to see more. We'll be trying to get a few more deep dives in before we leave, so I'll be bringing my camera along next time.

**Notice the huge different in colors from the diving pictures in my last post. At these depths, everything just turns to shades of blue.

His sleeve (that I'm pointing to) was bright red on the surface and purple/blue at about 75ft

FuShang

Trying out the two tanks

Enjoying the independence 

Porpoise 

part of the Porpoise we got to "go in" basically a big opening that you can look around in (that's me with the fins)

Wrecks are so interesting with all the places to look around in

Tons of HUGE lobsters at Porpoise

Lots of Diving!!

We have been trying to get as much diving in as we can before we leave. We've done a handful of new locations and some others that we've done already. The spots we've dove before provide a great opportunity to play with the camera more. We love diving with Octopus Diving and will be sad to not see Chris and Sally all the time. We highly recommend diving with them if you ever make it to St Maarten, they are the best! 

Here are some highlights from our recent dives and check this album for lots more! 

Love the texture on this coral

Flamingo Tongue Snail

Sea Anemone

French Angelfish

Nurse Shark

Sting Ray

These are so hard to get a picture of! As soon as you get near, they close up. So glad I finally got one!