So this year’s Halloween activities weren’t exactly what we had planned, but we still ended up with more candy than we know what to do with. This year the kids dressed up as Sharpay from High School Musical (Hailey), Dorothy (Mallory), Little Bo Peep (Annie) and Jack was a Sheep. We had a couple days worth of Halloweening including a party at Grandma’s house and a pretty crazy round of trunk-or-treating at the park.

So I’m sort of going back in time here a bit as I try to catch up on a few recent events. About a month ago I took the girls up to Bear Lake for the weekend for our annual wood cutting event. Every year we cut down several trees to use as firewood through the winter and this year the girls got to help a bit. It always makes for a fun weekend (even if a tiring one) and this year was no different. And as an added bonus Hailey and Mallory got to play with Nana and Papa’s new puppy Dixie.

About a week ago we got the opportunity to go through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. We sort of went for Hailey’s birthday, but it just happened to be a good day to go. We invited my whole family and Emily’s parents and went through as a group. The temple is incredibly beautiful and there’s definitely a special feeling there even though it hasn’t been dedicated yet. There is a set large staircases in the middle of the temple which give it a very unique feeling. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but they give a very “homey” feeling as you walk in. There are several special features that make it unique and special and I can’t wait to be able to attend a session there. It was a great end to Hailey’s birthday and the fact that my dad took us to Panda Express when we were done helped a bit too.

This week I got the opportunity to head down to California with my Dad and brothers to go scuba diving. We’d been planning this trip for quite a while, but due to people constantly bailing out, we weren’t sure we were going to get to go until about 2 weeks ago. Luckily, we were still able to make it work.

On Wednesday morning we got up and on the road by 8am and drove straight through to Long Beach harbor with only a couple gas stops. After arriving at the harbor and putting all our dive gear on the boat, we drove into town and got some dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp house. After some fine seafood we went back and bunked down on the boat. The next morning the crew got the boat up and running around 4:30am while the rest of us were still sleeping. I finally woke up about 8 while we were headed across the channel to Catalina Island. After grabbing some pancakes in the galley, the captain shouted out to inform us that a pod of Dolphins was swimming along the bow of the boat. It was a good start to the day.

After arriving at our first dive location we all started getting our gear on. The fog that had rolled in the night before was still laying low on the island and the captain pulled out his bagpipes to play for us as we got in the water for the first time of the day. With the fog and the bagpipes, it was a little like diving off the shore of Scotland, but lots warmer. We made 4 dives that day at Ship rock and Two Harbors. The last dive of the day was by far the best as we got to dive through a cool kelp forest just outside of Two Harbors. We saw lots of starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers and we even found a random shark egg drifting along the rocks on the bottom. There were tons off cool overhangs and walls to explore and the visibility and colors were great. My Dad’s neighbor even caught a small octopus and brought it up to the boat. After diving that evening, we ferried onto the beach and had steak cook out on the beach.

Friday morning we got another early start and made 3 dives at Rock Quarry and Whale Rock. Again, the last dive of the day was the best and we saw multiple Spanish Dancers and even a horned shark. There were some great wall dives and we explored lots of cool terrain. Although diving through the kelp is one of my favorite things. I love the surreal feeling as the kelp sways back and forth around you. It’s like flying through a quiet forest, except the whole forest seems to move around you. It’s hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it, but it’s a cool experience.

After finishing up our dives we cruised back to the harbor at Long Beach and we all hopped in our cars and started the long drive home. We were all tired and sore and a little sunburnt so a long drive was the last thing any of us wanted to do, but we made it as far as Mesquite before crashing at a family friends vacation home. We slept late and after getting a big breakfast at the Casa Blanca casino, we finished up the drive home. It was a quick trip with lots of road time, but the diving was great and it’s always fun to get away now and then. We didn’t get any underwater pictures this trip, but check below for the pictures and videos we did take…

And here’s some video of the dolphins…

And here’s Captain Greg and his bagpipes…