Cub scouts

Christopher earned his religous knot this year. It is one of two badges that he can carry forward to his Boy Scout uniform.

Wolf badge

Christopher earned his Wolf badge this year. Here he is getting his badge pinned on by the Cubmaster.

Spring break - the Canary Islands

We spent spring break this year at the Canary Islands (us and the rest of England I think!). This was our hotel, Santa Barbara Golf and Beach Club. It was a very nice hotel (we had a 1 bedroom apt) that had 2 pools.

The view

This is what we could see when we stood on our balcony. It was very pretty with the ocean in the background.

Pool time

After doing some exploring in the morning, we hit the pool for the afternoon. They boys swam while Sheila took advantage of the warm sunshine and laid out.

Get away, the waves are coming!

Several evenings Tom & Christopher would go out walking after supper. This night they decided to see if they could beat the waves coming in.

Rock climbers

One of Christopher's favorite activities was rock climbing. There were plenty of rocks for him to climb on at the "beach" below our hotel.

Tom & Sheila with our hotel in the background

This was taken during our walk. Our hotel is behind us to the right and the ocean to the left.

Easter morning

The Easter bunny managed to find us on our vacation. He left eggs for Christopher to hunt and a PSP game.

Go-karting in the Canaries

Christopher took a turn at the go-karts. These were the pony go-karts (we signed him up by age) but he didn't fit very well and they didn't go near fast enough for him. Next trip he went one size up and had alot more fun.

Volcanic rock

Sunday morning we headed up to a volcano at the top of Tenerife Island. We decided not to take the cable car to the top as it was quite cold on top of the mountian. Here is Christopher posing next to a former river of magma.

Volcano beach

Coming back from the volcano we stopped at this beach. The sand was made up of volcanic rock, once wet it was like mud.

Enjoying the beach on Tenerife

Monday we ventured up the coast to go to Santa Cruz, Tenerife to visit the beach. It was an amazing with lots of sand, low water and no people. Christopher played for hours before we could get him to leave. He made several British and Spanish friends by the time our trip was complete.

Beach day

Tom enjoying the beach

Congo River

We spent Tuesday at Aqualand. Here Sheila and Christopher are taking a turn on the Congo River

Hi from Christopher at Aqualand Park

A big wave from Christopher before going down a slide at Aqualand Park in Playa los Americas, Tenerife.

Making a big splash

Christopher spent about 2 hours going down the slides at the castle in Aqualand.

Dolphin show

While at Aqualand we went to the dolphin show. Everyone seemed to enjoy the show.

Los Gigantes, Tenerife, Canary Islands

We went on a whale/dolphin watching cruise on Wednesday. These giant cliffs are called Los Gigantes.

Pilot whales

Here are pilot whales we saw while on our cruise in a channel between two of the islands that make up the Canaries.

Monkey Park (Parrot on his shoulder)

Thursday we visited Monkey Park. We got to go into the cages with the monkeys and feed them some special "monkey food". Christopher really enjoyed his time here as he really seems to love monkeys.

Feeding a Lemur

This lemur was real gentle and his paws were really soft.

Pick mine, pick mine

Sheila and Christopher each tried to get the monkey to take their food, Christopher won. The monkeys generally liked sunflower seeds and when taken, they would crack the shcll, eat the seed and spit out the remainder of the shell like some humans do.

Monkey on his back

Somehow Tom always ends up a monkey on his back (remember Gibraltar?) This one didn't bite or poop on his shoulder...I think we like monkeys again.

A trio of monkeys

Tom was letting the monkeys pick out their own treats. They spilled more than they ate which reminded us of our Christopher when he eats popcorn in the living room.