Happy Birthday Mandy!!

Happy Birthday Sis! You are an amazing sister and an even better wife and mother. We all love you so much and wish you a happy day!

Update from North Idaho

We had a great Christmas with the Zirkers. We did puzzles, watched movies, took naps and read books. It was all around fun and very relaxing.
We've been hit with snow for the past two weeks and its just been getting out of control! This picture was taken 2 weeks ago when I was sent home from work early because no one could make it out of their driveways to get there, other than myself and 2 other girls. Since then we have probably gotten another foot or two.



We have learned that if a certain deputy takes Christmas day off, the other deputies on his shift will bury his cruiser in snow that night they have to work. Matt was sent a picture/text message that night saying to the effect of "Now you see it...now you dont." I thought it was funny...



It's official!!!! We drove by our soon-to-be property and were suprised to see that they had broken ground on our home! They said they had started leveling and plowing yesterday and today were laying the foundation!! We're going to drive by every week to photograph their progress.

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with our Ava this year. She was so excited for Santa to come to our house - she could hardly stand it! Unfortunately, Ava has been sick ALL week. But that didn't stop her from enjoying some of the massive amounts of snow we have received around here.
What a blast! I think this is the biggest snow man I have ever seen!
We love you all! Enjoy a few pics from the Oakes clan!

Merry Christmas to All - We sure miss everyone and we hope your holiday was excellent!
Love You!

Jacob Jabbering :)

These videos were just too cute not to share!

Jacob was "reading" / singing to himself after breakfast one morning.

Jason got a little electronic sudoku game in his stocking and Jacob thinks it's a cell phone. He loves have whole conversations on it. :)

Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pictures and videos of our Christmas in sunny.... I mean SNOWY?!! Las Vegas! Our love to all of you! We miss you like crazy and hope all is well with you and yours!



The bottom of our Christmas tree didn't stay decorated for long-- I put all of my metal and indestructibles down there.:)




This is the view outside our window! Jason brought me home a snowball. :) Vegas made national news and the kids got a snow day out of this--I told them they were pansies!

Jacob had a lot of fun ripping paper, but soon discovered that there were presents inside! He was very excited!! He got a new ball, some power tools, and that harmonica that you can see Jason playing. :)

We had tons of fun together and with Jason's family-- it was a very merry Christmas!

Last Installment from Cancun - (and back to reality)

For our last day in Cancun, we made it an all day trip to Xel-ha and Tulum. This was a spectacular day filled with wonder and amazement at the beauty of our great earth, it's lost civilizations, and our privilege to encounter just a small portion for our memories.


The beach below Tulum is secluded and beautiful. Just a little further south there is a community of Cabanas and beautiful private beaches for diving and getting away from the world completely. Perhaps next time this is where we will start.



I couldn't resist taking this postcard picture of the beach at Tulum. It was just too stunning. All that's missing is a hammock and me sleeping in the shade...
This Parrot fish kept following us around. He was a good 3 feet long and kept crunching away at the coral. A very noisy clicking sound that was a mystery until we saw this big boy.
There were three manatees in a cage that I came up to and took a picture. I reached through the bars and petted one. They are like gentle giants, curious, and graceful in the water.
There were great conch shells everywhere! This is the biggest one I found and brought up for a picture. All still had the critter inside and were very healthy.
Just me fooling around in the many caves and passage ways in Xel-ha. What a beautiful park!
This big boy commanded respect and we kept our distance. They just LOOK mean whether they are or not...

Arriving at Xel-ha at 9am in the morning we pretty much had the park to ourselves. It was serene and beautiful, unrushed by the later crowds. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I was amazed that Sue didn't want to stop for breakfast, instead, getting into the river at 9:20 until 11:30 only breaking for brunch and some time in the sun and going back again for another 2 hours in the afternoon. I'll make a water dog out of her yet... ;o)..

More from Cancun

Just a little more from our adventure in Cancun... Yesterday was by far our biggest day as the previous day we had left for Chichen-Itza but got turned back by a very expensive toll road. So...once again we tried the next day. It's over 200 pesos for the toll road and they have military guards with uzi's at the ready in case you want to make a run for it. It's really strange on this highway. At first we couldn't figure out why there wasn't any traffic. You could actually go maybe 10 or 15 miles without seeing another vehicle...and then when you did, they would fly by at about 50 over the speed limit. So, I began trying to pace them and their average speed was about 150 K/h in a 110 k/h maxima speed zone. I eventually maintained about 140 toward the end.




This Cenote was almost magical. There is a hotel above and a locker room for changing. All around very spotless, beautiful gardens, and hardly any people. Compared to the thousands at Chichen-Itza, it was a real relief.
On the way home it was quite late and we decided to take the regular highway without the checkpoints and tolls. ..big mistake. This road went from town to town and each one protected by Topes = speed bumps - very big ones... I think we must have gone over 150 speed bumps on the way home. Then, between cities, everyone goes a 100 kmh, passing on hills, corners, and running with their hi-beams on. YIKES!! The road was narrow, no shoulder, and people without reflectors would be riding their bicylcles along the side of the road. Crazy people! All in all...dad was a nervous wreck by the time we got to the hotel.

That's all for now... tomorrow we go to Xel-ha... It's an all inclusive swim with the fish aquarium that's pretty big and a must see from what everyone says. It's an all day deal at any rate.

Love you all,
Steve & Sue

Merry Christmas from Cancun

Hello, and Merry Christmas from Sunny Cancun! What a wonderful place this is. We have seen and done so much this week that we wish we had another week just to be lazy and lie on the beach. We have traveled over 500 miles in our rental car and just yesterday went to see, Chichen-itza, Ek Balam, and a beautiful Cenote - an underground cave with a pool of fresh water. Wow! What an experience. We left at 7am and got home about 10PM. A very long day and scary traffic all the way back.






Here, at Chichen-itza Sue bought a hankie from this wonderful old Mayan lady. Sue looks pretty tall next to her and she was the real thing. There were vendor everywhere which spoiled somewhat the sacred nature of the place. When we got there early in the morning it was quiet at serene. Shortly after, all the busloads of people came and it really got crazy.

Here is Sue, signaling to me she's OK, while I'm 35 feet below with a scuba tank. What a wonderful adventure on Cozumel island.

The clarity of the water and warmth was amazing!

This was taken from the top of Ek Balam temple. Way out in the hinterlands. Hard to find and at the end of a long one lane road with very little signage to tell you where to go. We first ended up in this little town of Ek Balam but turned around and found it with a sign that said Ek Balam ARQ - meaning Archealogical site.

Sunset Last Saturday

I thought you all might enjoy this beautiful picture I took last week just down the street from our home. It was one of those rare moments. I was going for a walk and just had to run back home to get the camera. What a shot!!

Well, we landed safe and sound in Cancun this evening and we are beginning our vacation super tired. We had our Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra concerts Friday and Saturday with two other rehearsal this week. Needless to say, we were both pretty tired from the concerts, getting up on Saturday @ 4:30am for our temple shift and again on Sunday morning @ 3:20AM to fly out of town. Mom's wasted, but we came to a perfect place to get away from it all and just relax. It was 82 degrees when we landed. We will try to post a couple of blogs here during the week.

We sure love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!

A great Thanksgiving!

These are some of my favorite photos from our Thanksgiving. Thank you all for making it such a fun time a great memory. Love you guys.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's some pictures of the kids that I thought everyone might enjoy! It was such a JOY to be with all of you this weekend. I can hardly believe how much everyone is growing-- pretty amazing family! LOVE YOU!!!!!!