Mother's Day Part One

I have to write about my Mother's Day in two parts, as I had such a spectacular day, with plenty of nice pictures, that it will take two posts to share. I'm definitely not complaining. I had a great time. I woke up Sunday morning, put on my swimsuit, packed my dive gear and our picnic lunch to take on our boat dive to Bonzai. We were scheduled to go with a group of ten, for two dives. We decided to meet Sarah and Chris for breakfast first. Just as we were walking into the restaurant for breakfast, Harry got a call letting us know that our boat dive was cancelled for the day, due to rough seas. When Sarah and Chris arrived for the breakfast, I told them that since my boat dive was cancelled, they had to go diving with me at Lau Lau. Thankfully, they were willing. But really, what can they do when it's Mother's Day, and the Mom says she wants them to go diving with her? Sarah bought me some very nice, very thoughtful gifts. And now she was going to go diving with me, so already I felt like I had a great Mother's Day, and it wasn't even noon.

Below you see Harry and Sarah checking something out at Lau Lau. Yes, it would have been nice to have Josh and Regis along on my Mother's Day dive, too, but they did call me while I was at the dive shop - to wish me Happy Mother's Day. I miss them. Here's Sarah sharing her findings, so I can take a picture. Yay, my daughter and my husband are diving with me on Mother's Day! Fun stuff. Sarah at the rope, no doubt shivering. Nemo and friends also not too far from the rope. Mystery ball hanging out in the coral near the pipeline. Sarah pointed this out to me. She also pointed out a couple of nudibranchs, but my photos were all blurry. Bummer. Here's Harry holding a private meeting with some of his friends.

I'm not sure what they were discussing, but they decided to take it under ground. Notice the bouncer dude standing guard. Harry found a shell with the operculum still there - very nice. He knows the names of these shells, but I don't, so you just get "shell" from me.

The coral is so pretty along the pipeline. I got Harry to look at my camera for this great shot of him and the coral formations.

This was a photo from the beginning of the dive, but I thought it made the perfect ending to my Mother's Day dive story. Chris and Sarah are swimming through the fish ball on their way out to enjoy the rest of the dive. The visibility was not so good when we first jumped in, but it was ok once we got out a ways. I also got a picture of this really big fish that was chasing the fish ball, but maybe I'll post him another time.
Sarah and I are at Oleai beach after our dive. It has become our annual tradition to remember my Mom on Mother's Day, with a small floating memorial of island flowers. This year Sarah made it on a palm frond. We waded in, thanked God for the time we had my Mom in our lives, and pushed our little float out to sea. Happy Mother's Day, Mom - I miss you so much.