The whole gang of 24 loaded up in the mini-bus (behind them) for the 12 hour bus ride to Mexico.
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The group led the kids in music and story time.
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They also coordinated crafts and games for the kids.
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and had some free time to just play with the kids.
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The group worked on several projects such as covering up grafitti at a local park
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picking up trash and pulling weeds
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and even had a chance to enjoy the playground there.
Here we see Andrew rocking Zachary to sleep for his afternoon Siesta. ;-)
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Here's the whole group at at the park along with the kids from the orphanage.
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Our group also worked on a new nursery facility going up across the road.
They unloaded a lot of plywood and carried it upstairs and also cleaned the
floors in prepration for the flooring to be installed.
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We loaded up the kids from the orphanage into several vans and hauled them all
to the beach for an afternoon of fun in the sun!
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Here's the mob in front of the boy's wing of the orphanage.
The building off to the right is where we slept.
This is the first time we have been able to stay on-site which was really nice.
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We brought and prepared all our own food. However, we enjoyed dinner out one evening.
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Nobody drinking the water here, although you do have to watch the ice cubes too!
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Like I said, very nice (and big!) house. We fit 15 of us comfortably.
There was a full kitchen on the 2nd and 3rd levels, two laundry rooms, seven bathrooms, about a dozen bikes in the 4 car garage, etc...
This place was like a nice B&B. We were there over the 4th, so we all enjoyed the fireworks from the main 3rd level balcony.
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Rachel got a delicious cake made up for the occassion.
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During the week, Mark took a group picture on the beach,
and Diane picked out a nice frame for it.
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Rachel also found one of their old wedding pictures, and had it enlarged.
What a handsome couple! (in the poster too :)
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We took the group photo in front of the grass-covered dune.
I caught these pics afterwards, so the light was getting pretty low.
(i.e. sorry for the fuzzy-ness :)
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Tried to capture a little bit of the sunset here.
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Everybody had a great time this week.
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Postcards available for order. ;-)
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After everybody left I stayed behind to catch a few more sunset photos.
We were on the Western end of the Eastern Standard Time zone, so it was almost 10PM before it got dark here.
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Some interesting contrast.
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Just when you think the sunset is over, it just keeps getting better.
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This was actually a different day, and from our balcony.
You can spot those trees in the panorama shot at the end of this section.
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Here's a shot of the lighthouse at the end of the pier after the group photo.
They shot the fireworks off just behind here.
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We all had a great time jumping off the end of that pier.
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The water was cool, in a refreshing way. :-)
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Jessica working on her form for swim team.
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One of the few where Zachary wasn't hamming it up for the camera!
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Now this is more like it.
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The whole Leon family about to give it a try. (really, we did jump, we weren't just posing. ;-)
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Captain Micah gets ready for "a 3-hour tour".
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We won't talk about the run-in with the Coast Guard soon after this pic.
Fortunately, Micah out-ranked the guy, so they weren't too worried.
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One afternoon, we rented a houseboat on a lake just a little bit inland.
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They got going pretty good, although these pictures don't do it justice.
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One day, some of the guys got up early (especially us on CA time!) to go fishing for King Salmon and Trout.
The lake was a bit bumpy in the morning, but got very calm in the afternoon.
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One of Zachary's catches was a two-fer. The eel bailed out before we got him in the boat.
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The Tongue Tide III was a really nice fishing boat - very stable and well rigged.
Thanks Dave for a great day on the lake!
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A decent catch for the day - guess what we had for lunch the next day!
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Hannah made signs for all of our rooms!
I forget who these guys are though.
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Here is the view from our top balcony.
WARNING if you are on a slow connection - over 1 Meg!
After it loads, click on it to zoom in, and then get ready to scroll left-to-right.
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Of course we had a roaring campfire each night complete with s'mores, marshmallows, and pies.
This year was relatively warm and we didn't have to break out the hats and gloves
for the cold nights we have seen in the past.
Yes, that is Zachary hiding behind the flames. He was a big camera-shy on this trip!
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Jessica pretending to be the Lodge, and Zachary ducking out of sight from the camera once again!
This was our hike up to Pfeiffer Falls. They closed the Redwood Trail and the new trail is more
strenuous and not at scenic, but the falls are still worth the trip!
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Here we are humbled by a giant Redwood near the trail head.
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This is also one of the nicest days we have had at the beach on a long time with plenty of sun
and very little wind.
Zachary and Scott did a bit of climbing on the surrounding rocks.
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After we pack-up the tents on the last day, we take a group photo at this tree, which we have named, "Fred"!
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The Christmas portrait.
School Pictures
