Its been a pretty incredible year, and to think it all started here:
And just a few hours later, I had the pleasure of welcoming our precious little daughter into the world!
So I guess technically this would be considered her Birth Day... any just look at her now - one year later:
Family portraits at this age seem to be much more difficult! We took this using our new fancy tripod but Elizabeth has no concept of 'look at the camera and smile' so this was about the best we could get of her - i guess if you take enough pictures.... Anyway, Happy Birthday Elizabeth!
This is an older picture of all of us from our Cozumel trip a few years ago. (From left to right - Rich, Jenn, Kate, and Jan)
On our second dive in Belize we dropped down to about 40' and kneeled on a sandy area between a couple of coral formations. The dive master brought down a PVC tube with a bunch of holes in it and a bunch of fish guts inside to chum in some of the locals. It didn't take long and we were quickly surrounded by 20-30 4'-7' Nurse sharks (non man-eating), several very large groupers, and a couple of rather shy moray eels. You can see in the video that the sharks were actually quite friendly!
The Groupers here were more like cats than fish, this was the first time that we had ever been diving with 40+ lb fish that would actually let you pet them - but never for very long.
Here is Kate (on the right) and I hanging out with some of our new friends that we made on our safety stop. See you next time!
It was with this idea in mind that we loaded up the car and headed off to one of the most spectacular nataional parks in the USA - Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, for a hike and Picnic.
After a short hike up from the Bear Lake trail head we came upon Nymph Lake. So far little Ellie was enjoying the ride and the view. While the backpack looks HUGE, its actually quite comfortable and light - at least for now - she is growing fast!
On the way up to Dream Lake we encountered a little bit of snow still lingering from a heavy snowfall winter. While it looks wintery, it was actually quite warm - almost 60 degrees and sunny. Apparently though, they got about 5" of snow only a few days ago up at the higher elevations (the area we are hiking in). 
Dream Lake - our destination for today's hike. The majestic mountains reflecting off the lake were breathtaking and well worth the hike.
We found a nice little flat spot for Elizabeth to get out and stretch her legs and have our picnic. She found several chipmunks that were very interested in her - particularly the trail of food that she inevitably leaves behind. The park ranger didn't find it all that amusing seeing the chipmunks running around with goldfich crackers in their mouths, but we honestly wern't feeding them intentionally. Judging by how many and how fat they were, it would appear they find plenty of food to make it through the winter. While Kate and Elizabeth were eating and playing with the local wildlife, I was off doing a little fishing for some small but incredibly beautiful green-back cutthroat trout. Unfortunately I didn't have much time before Elizabeth was pretty worn out. So we packed everything back up - including Elizabeth and headed back down to the car.
It didn't take long before I heard someone snoring a few inches from my ear.
As with most great days in mountains, this one ended with a nice cold beer and a dip in the hot tub - or at least our own variation on the theme!
June 21, 2019 Starting In Dublin, Clockwise Around: (technically we did Dublin, then Glasgow, then Belfast and on to Inverness......
