Afternoon Trip to St. Petersburg

Yesterday my family and I (minus Daughter of the King, who stayed home with a cold) made a trip to St. Petersburg to see G.I Joe play a baseball game. You see, he's on this mission... one that I can't talk about. But anyway, so yeah... we went to St. Petersburg. Being the big Little League fans that we are, we decided to drive by the LL Southern Region Headquarters. I promise we went by there. I have proof...

See! Look, the sign says it all! :) It was kinda bittersweet though. You see, the southern regional games aren't going to be played here anymore. Last year, the last game was played on these fields...

No more little ball players will sleep in these cute little dorms...

Not sure what the building above was, but it looked kinda sketchy to me... In all honesty, everything was kind of in poor condition. It was really rundown.

But, a lot of little ones dreams came true on this very field... Ball players stepped off this diamond field on the way to Williamsport. You could just imagine the excitement and emotion... Pretty cool eh?

Surfs up Dude... I mean dudette! :P

So, remember the really cool group I found at my University? The one that does all the outdoor adventure trips? Well, they are called OA (Outdoor Adventures, spiffy eh?) and they are one of my best friend. Anyway, they had a "Learn to Surf" trip a couple of Saturdays ago. It was only $20 and I jumped on it! It included transportation, lunch, equipment, and instruction. Who can beat that?!? I got Daughter of the King to do it too... It was amazing! Take a look!

When we got to the rental shop we all got our surf boards and headed out to the beach. Then we were given a quick 101 on how to surf. It's really very simple... but oh so hard. LOL Anyways, after the 101 all 15 of us headed out to the ocean (this is when I had a flashback of the movie Surf Ninja... you know, the part when they are all surfing on wooden surf boards?). Let me tell you... it's a bit of a work out. It's like the waves were saying "you no come past me!" I swallowed about a gallon of water at one point... Anyway, the picture above is after we all defeated the waves and made it past them. We just chilled for about 10 minutes...

I lost my favorite hair tie and had to go all primal... Darn you waves! You know, I've always been a bit weary about sharks, but during this trip I was fine. I was like: If I don't get bitten, I don't get bitten... If I do get bitten, I get bitten... If I do get eaten, I get eaten and die... I am ok with this. That's how I got past my fear... P.S No one died during this trip.

Paddling and trying to catch the wave... or let the wave catch me...

Look like a monkey... but awesome pic.

Doublely awkward angle! But look at the form... we'll start from the bottom going up. My feet are in perfect position. Since I am going regular style, my right foot is back and the left is forward. My knees are bent... somewhat. And my fingers... just look at the tension! If I bend them this way and so... it'll help keep my balance!

The sister duo! About 2 second after this wave, I jumped off my board (handed my ankle thing to the person they cut out of the picture)... swam to Alex's board... and jumped on. We then preceded to surf the wave on one board. It was amazing... Then she pushed me off...

It was a big workout. The way we were taught was to push ourselves up, and in one fluid motion stand up. Imagine doing a quick pushup and standing up sideways... all while a wave is trying to WIPE you OUT! It was hard, but amazing!

The waves weren't anything like they have in Hawaii, but they were pretty good sized for learning how to surf...

You may not be able to see me... but, I'm in that little roll of the wave. I was crouching real low. If the pic was taken 1 sec later, you would have seen me come out waving and smiling and throwing kisses to the crowd on the beach... And they would be throwing sea shells at me (sort of like throwing flowers at a ice skate competition...).

Just chillaxin. I wonder... what was swimming below us at this exact moment???

I think I just rode this one in on my stomach... my foot (which is in mid air) asked me to give him a break.

All in all, the trip was awesome! Everyone stood up at least once and felt they had accomplished something. I did above and beyond what I thought I would be able to do, so it was all amazing! Surfing is another new friend of mine! :)

Summer is Here...

Ok, I know I haven't been very faithful and have not posted in a while... ok, a long while. Instead of trying to catch up all at once, which would take forever to do cause a lot has gone on, I'll slowly catch you up on the going ons. This post will be about a College&Career event that took place this past Saturday... Only 4 came. Daughter of the King, Jordan, Boz, and myself. The others, well... they just didn't want to have fun I guess...

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures, taken from none other than myself (I've got photography skills like none other! hahaha)...

This, my friend, is the sky. You will never see another like it. If you look close enough, you'll even be able to see a bit of the Atlantic ocean on the bottom of this magnificent photo. This water has travelled all the way from Africa. You are lucky to be able to see this...

This is her. She would not like it if I told you who she was, but it's her. I promise.

This is, hmm... This is, umm... This is... ehh moving on...

This is Daughter of the King... And little ocean fuzzles.

This was a wipeout... Watch, laugh, and enjoy.

Finally a good one!

Daughter of the King... just cruising on in.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Well, we decided to give surfing a go. It didn't work out so well. You see, the waves weren't that hot. Anyway, the process of getting the boards and loading the boards in the car was an adventure... As you can see, it was very illegal.

And this was the culprit...

So, was she... and I guess the person behind the camera. Yeah, we're all toast!

Oh, can't forget the little friend we made on the beach (which happened to smell like dead fish... gross!). This little guy was being tormented by a little girl who kept kicking dirt on him. He found refuge under our umbrella. He was dubbed "Mr. Crab."

This photo speaks for itself. A fun time was had by all!
This summer has been great so far! Hope all are having a blast as well! :)

"What's Going on... on, on... "

So, I haven't been very faithful in posting. But, I'm going to try better. We'll see how it goes. :D

Lately, it's been very busy. Baseball and softball season has started. Both my brothers are playing on two teams (Little League and a local Private school baseball team). Daughter of the King, my dad, and I are on a co-ed softball team from church. So, our whole Saturdays are jam packed, not to mention the midweek nights of baseball. It's all great fun though!

School is going most amazingly well. I don't think I'd ever say that I liked school, but I'm loving it at the moment. I'm getting along very well in my classes and am just loving the University atmosphere. I only go on Thursdays so I have to soak it in all at once.

Scuba Diving has crept it's way into my life. It's my new passion. The confined water dive was great as was the spring dive. But, I must say... the spring water was icky and green. I had shells in my hair for 2 days! I know... gross! Anyway, the open water dive is coming up this weekend. Exciting eh? I've been watching Human Prey for the past few weeks, and I've learned a lot about what to do and what not to do if you have an encounter with the kings of the ocean... It's going to be an adventure for sure... I can't wait!

Oh, just the other day I got a casting call and was an extra for a day. I got to run all over the set and jump, climb, and crawl over bleachers and columns. You see, there was a car explosion and we (me and about 75 others) were running for our LIVES. It was so much FUN!!! I was getting really into it... Got the scrapes, cuts, and bruises to prove it... lol There were some pretty interesting people there. There was someone there that had met Adam Sandler (whom he told almost everyone...), a girl that dances for the Orlando Magic, and a guy that fights Indiana Jones on the airplane (at MGM Studios). Do you want me to mention the food? It'll take only a moment. There were little bagels, animal crackers, and chips. That's what held us over from 6:15am - 10:00pm. Oh wait, we did break for lunch at 1. We had chicken and rice. Couldn't have seconds though. I felt like Oliver Twist: "Please sir, can I have some more?" I considered sneaking away into the park for a minute and getting a nice juicy burger and fries... but to no avail, they had a guard that was at the only entrance/exit and there was no getting a free cookie from that one (story for another day)...

So, that's what's been going on so far in a nutshell... :)