Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tanner David Steed

On the evening of the 26th, Natalie showed up at our house and Dave came after work. She had been in labor most of the afternoon and drove here while having consistent contractions! After a little bit, the left and headed to the hospital.

A few hours later little Tanner David Steed was born. He weighed 8 lbs. 13 ozs. and is so cute!


Everyone got to visit and hold him over the next few hours starting with Grandma.

Look at that smile!

Rebecca's turn.

And Grandpa.

Rachel came by that evening. . .

. . . and Cameron.

The happy mom and baby.

Come on guys! I just want to sleep.

The new little family.

Dressing him for the first time.



He was fine until the pants went on. He didn't like that at all!


Then he went back to sleep.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Freezing at the Football Game

The temperature really wasn't that cold - low forties, but the wind was awful and just cut right through coats and clothes and we simply froze!


I had been looking forward to this game for a year. I really hoped that the Cougars would hand out a little payback for last year. Unfortunately, they didn't. Very disappointing!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Rainbows

Just like last month, I have not seen a lot of rainbows, but this one was bright and full!

October 12, 2009 Dives - Mahi & Makaha Caverns

On Monday, October 12, 2009, I dove with Jo (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts. We did two dives, the Mahi, a 95 foot deep dive on a ship that was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and Makaha Caverns, a 50 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef with lava tubes and swim-throughs.

Since I was with Jo, we were first in the water. There were 13 divers and two "guides", so they paired up all the divers and the two guides each took a group.

Visibility was good - about 60 feet. Our group consisted of Jo and me and three women who were diving together. Jo told me she would see me on the bottom so I did a giant stride in and descended immediately. There were several Spotted Eagle Rays hanging around and when I got to the bow of the wreck, I spotted a Hawaiian Green Lionfish hanging out in a coral head.


Hawaiian Green Lionfish

When the rest of the group got down, I showed them the Lionfish and then turned my attention to the Spotted Eagle Rays. There were a lot of them.






Spotted Eagle Rays

Here is a patch of Corrugated Coral. It looks pretty impressive in the photo, but it is a macro photo and is probably just two inches across.

Corrugated Coral

A dark blue Variable Terpios sponge.

Variable Terpios

Lately, it seems like there are always at least a couple of Blue Dragon Nudibranchs hanging out on the hull.


Blue Dragon Nudibranch


I did my safety stop under the boat and then swam up to the ladder and climbed out.

On the second dive, we made the normal tour through Makaha Caverns. This is my first dive with my new camera filter so I was taking lots of photos to figure out how it affects things. All I can say is, Wow! It makes a huge difference on the shallow photos. The reef actally has color!

Lei Triggerfish


Whitebar Surgeonfish, Lei Triggerfish & Yellow Tang


Lei Triggerfish, Saddle Wrasse, Convict Tangs, Brown Surgeonfish, Common Longnose Butteflyfish & Humuhumu-nukunuku-apua'a


Whitebar Surgeonfish


Yellowtail Coris & Lei Triggerfish


Yellowtail Coris


Humuhumu-nukunuku-apua'a



Yellowtail Coris


Pinktail Triggerfish


Milletseed Butterflyfish


Moorish Idol


Green Sea Turtle


Divided Flatworm


Threadfin Butterflyfish

Getting the camera filter has been an unqualified success! The color that it adds to the fish and reefs under 50 feet is fantastic. Here are a couple of photos of the reef.



Teated Sea Cucumber>


Blackfin Chromis

The last 10 minutes of the dive, my camera housing began to fog up. You can see it in this photo.

Hawaiian Hogfish (juvenile)

We got back to the boat with time and air left, but my camera was so fogged at that point that I could not take an photos, so I slowly ascended and got out.