2005 in Review

Holiday greetings, family and friends!

Welcome to the Medina family's 2005 in review. Instead of a long Christmas newsletter, I decided to save some trees and create this blog for those interested in seeing some of the highlights of this past year. Maybe you're here to see if YOU made it in our blog, but never-the-less, we're glad you're here. Enjoy the photos and at the end, we'd appreciate any comments you care to leave. If you'd like to see the picture up close, click on it.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and may God bless you all in 2006!

Adventurers is a big part of our lives, so here are a few pictures from that life...(click on the pictures for close-up)

Summer, along with her friends (L-R) Ann Marie, Natalie, and Michelle, helped Uncle Keala (Ann Marie's dad) find his 1000th geocache at Del Mar Beach. And to think he started geocaching earlier that same year? (Wonder who got him started on that? Sorry Barb! LOL!)

The girls were so happy to be a part of this historic moment they were jumping for joy...or they were scared to death of something in the cave, I don't quite remember.

Part of the Adventurer club posing with our sign at beach vespers.











Another Adventurer outing we did last year was a sledding trip to the local mountains. Here we we perfected the "blob" formation--it was a blast!


Another memorable Adventurer camping trip was at El Capitan. We'll be going back for a 3rd year in a row this coming spring, it's that popular with the club.






The Adventurers went to see their first play entitled, "Esther". Our club took up over 100 seats of the 120 seats in the place! Here are some of the kids getting a shot with Queen Esther.





Adventurers do outreach and community service, and here's Summer showing her awards after singing at a retirement home.






Every summer, we head back to MI and spend a week at Camp Au Sable, a camp up in northern MI. When we do this, we "force" my parents to take a vacation so we can actually spend time with them. It's great because they can play golf every day, do fun things, all while not having to cook a single item or clean a single plate! Can't beat that!




One of Summer's favorites was to take horsemanship class this year, now that she was 8 years old. While she and Keri were doing that, I was off doing archery.





The Knowltons, Lolo and Lola Medina, and Team Medina pose for this picture in front of the newly built Deer Lodge. We were one of the first families to stay in this fine accomodation! Fortunately, the Sat. night before we arrived the next day, a severe storm blew in and a big tree fell just feet from hitting this lodge. It was a miracle it wasn't hit!


Every year, Summer makes new friends at family camp. Here she is with 2 brothers, Donny and Joshua Latour, boys of parents I knew from way back. By the end of the week, they were all best buds.


A popular event is the high ropes course. Here, Josh and Summer prepare to go down the zipline.


Because Summer is into ballet, she loves going to the ballet. We were able to see "Sleeping Beauty" down in LA. Despite being up in the balcony, we had a good view and with our binocs, you could almost see them sweating!

We did various outings this past year. On this particular one, we found an interesting growth of girls along the beach.

Another outing, we found a place that locked up kids in "time out" way up high. What a great idea!


Most of you know Summer is into swimming. Here's where she fine tunes her technique every summer--at Coach Jan's lessons at her father's Coach Walt Anderson, a former Olympic diving coach. She's a great teacher and Summer gets better each summer she's there.




2005 was the year exertainment became a reality for me. Here is a shot for our clinic marketing dept. showing Summer and cuz'n Josh playing DDR (dance dance revolution, one of the first well-known exertainment games).

Summer and her friends going for the high score on Mario DDR for the Gamecube in our living room.






Josh and Summer checking out the awards at a recent recital. They both did very well!


Summer's getting better and better at roller skating. Here she is at Natalie's b-day party at a local skating rink.




Swimming is a big part of our lives, since it's one of Summer's "PE" activities for homeschooling. She has been a member of the Redlands Swim Team for almost 2 years now, and has been averaging a meet a month. She's on the B-team and she swims 3x/wk for 1 hr. and 15 mins., even during these cold winter months (yes, it does get cold in the winter here in SoCal once the sun sets!)

Summer and her good buds Jenny, Michelle, Hannah, and Gaby at the Redlands Swim Team awards where Summer won "Most Inspirational Swimmer for B-Team" this year.

When they have relay races at the swim meets, Summer will usually swim the butterfly leg. It's a fun way to swim with friends. Here's one of the 1st place relay teams she has swum on this year.







Is she praying before she gets up on the starting block???




Ok, she's finished praying and gets ready for the start. She's on block #4 (behind the blue capped swimmer), in the middle of the pack, which if you're into swimming, she's a "marked" swimmer! LOL!

"Fly, baby, fly!" Summer demonstrates pretty good form on the butterfly. She whips me in this everytime (unless I use fins, then I can at least keep her in sight. LOL!)

Here are the 5 Muskateers during their swim team pictures.


A new thing this year--sailing with Captain Rasheed (aka Thomas, lead guitarist for Iron Cross). Here is Summer "driving" her first sail boat out into the Pacific Ocean.


The 5 Muskateers pose on the sailboat safely back in the dock.





The kids pose in the sleigh after a great meal at a Japanese restaurant, thx to Dee and Holly.






We had a chance to see a lifesize replica of Moses' tabernacle in the wilderness. It was very interesting, and not as big as I thought it was.

There you have it! Just a very brief view of 2005 in our lives. By this time next year, I'll have updated this blog all along, so you can just review the blog. Hope you enjoyed our whirlwind tour of the past with us. Many of you reading this were part of some of these events and we look forward to making more memories in 2006. (Thank God for digital photography!)

May God bless you all in 2006, and keep in touch!

Ernie, Keri, Summer, and Ozzy
ps. I promise to get a shot of Ozzy in here soon.