Danielle and I completed the Buster Brit Triathlon at Oak Mountain on June 13th. The race was not postponed despite the horrible weather and lightening strickes minutes before the race started. We definitely had a good chance of being those people on the news that you say "what were those idiots doing, they deserved it."

What is better than studying for the Bar exam? Answer: Anything, but especially going to the lake for a day to get away from the books. Danielle and I went to Lake Wedowee for the day with some friends. This is how serious the weekend was (just look at that face):

Compliments of Megan:

We accomplished one of our New Year's resolutions last night (6/5/09) - playing guitar and singing in front of people!!! We played for my first time ever (and our first time together) on stage at a coffee shop in downtown Birmingham called Urban Standard on 2nd Avenue. Our friend, Katie Lantz, signed us up to play at an open mic night they have once a month. There were probably 40-50 people sitting around the stage - spectators, other people playing music and some who just got up to read poetry. Danielle's mom surprised us and drove down from Lexington to watch us play, so we played a second song (Flies on the Butter by Wynonna Judd) because it's one of her favorites. We hadn't practiced the song, but had a great time fumbling through it. Click (or copy and paste) the link for our cover of "Angel From Montgomery" originally written by John Prine and covered by a number of artists including Susan Tedeschi and Bonnie Raitt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSkOWuspSq8


Post accomplishing our New Year's resolution
First time on stage together.

Surprise visit!

Lea's graduation from Transylvania University Sean's graduation party

Danielle and I went to the Tyrone Wells concert at Workplay theatre on 6-3-09. Opening acts included Tyler James and Andy Davis. First concert I have been to without an encore (a little weird in my opinion - I needed closure!)

Graduation from law school on May 16th, 2009.

New additions to the family. Danielle and I came back just in time to see her sister's (Chelsea) baby boy, Langley, born on May 5th. Much to our surprise, my sister (Ashlye) was induced two days later and we traveled to Mobile to meet baby Ward. Both Chelsea and Ashlye were originally scheduled for delivery three days apart in late May. Howard Ray Hix III

Chelsea and Langley Combs Schomp

Getting ready for birthing babies

A few more Hawaii pics. Coincidence: Danielle and I set a wedding date for April 25th, 2009, but obviously cancelled the date to get married in New Zealand. However, before we cancelled the wedding we had decided on dancing to Ray LaMontagne's song "You Are the Best Thing" from his Gospel in the Grain album. On April 25th we were in Hawaii when my sister text us to turn on SNL. Ray LaMontagne was on SNL (which was a rerun from a month or so earlier) playing "You Are the Best Thing", so we decided to get a pic and dance to the song on our original wedding date.

Waterfall on the Big Island - on our way to Hilo airport to fly home

Setting foot back on the mainland in Lexington, KY

Arriving to the Big Island Hawaii for our final destination before home!

4 Seasons resort beach

Lagoon in front of the Fairmont Orchid resort. We were able to snorkel with 5 to 10 wild sea turtles every day that fed just off the jetties in this picture.

Part of the waterfall gardens around the resort.

Arriving to Fiji!This pictures captures 30 years of history. Over 30 years ago my parents married and went to Hawaii on their honeymoon. While there, my parents decided to play an innocent game of ping-pong. My mom, who grew up playing sports and had great coordination, defeated dad the first night they were in Hawaii. Feeling severely dejected and emasculated, my father walked away from the table without saying a word to his bride and proceeded to go swimming around 9 pm off the coast of the island. Mom always said she thought they would be flying home the next day after the way dad acted about losing. Now, after 30+ years, I am proud to illustrate this picture taken immediately after my defeat over Danielle during our honeymoon. Truly a great day for male Davises! Pool-side bar at Sonasali resort

Fijiians climbed the coconut trees to retrieve fresh coconuts for us to drink

Fiji sunset

Rotorua. Danielle and I randomly ran into a friend in my study abroad while hiking the Tongariro crossing. His car had broken down on the north island and he needed a ride to the airport the following Monday. We were both going to Rotorua for the night and he wanted to attend the Maori cultural dinner. Although we were skeptical and felt the event was a tourist trap, we decided to attend. On the bus ride there Danielle, without me knowing what she was doing, nominated me as a "Chief." This required me to lead the entire bus in several songs, but more importantly when we got to the dinner it started with a ceremonial peace offering where warrior Maori came out dancing around with weapons, sticking their tongues out and yelling chants. This is not really my thing, but as fate would have it I was selected by the warrior to accept the "peace offering" while about 200 other tourist stood around watching this spectacle. The facilitator told me to "walk very slowly and carefully so as not to show a sign of disrespect to the Maori tribe." On the verge of breaking out into laughter I picked up to the peace offering. In the end, the warrior shoved his spear close to my face and then walked away, which meant we could all enter the tribal grounds - HURRAY (I've never felt like such a tourist, but Danielle seemed to get a good laugh out of it)!!

Lake Taupo - Easter weekend. Keeping with tradition, we woke up Easter morning to two chocolate Easter bunnies with their ears bitten off. For as long as I can remember my dad (aka Easter bunny) would open each chocolate Easter bunny box the night before Easter and take a bite off the ears of the bunnies before replacing the bunnies back into the Easter baskets.

Danielle and I took a trip up to New Zealand's north island. While the south island is better known for the outdoor trips, the north island has a hike rated the best 1 day hike in New Zealand and rated by some travel magazines as a top ten 1 day hike in the world - The Tongariro hike! We decided to make the 8+ hour hike over some of the most diverse and difficult terrain I have ever hiked (we even got to hike across an active volcano peak where you could scratch the groud and feel hot steam coming through the dirt). The hike is usually not too bad in the summer; however, a snow storm put a ton of ice on the ground for our hike. I am not exaggerating when I say that this was the most nervous I have ever been! Parts of the hike were completely iced over and the trail did not have any proper footing. During the winter this trail requires a professional guide and I'm pretty sure they were not expecting a snow storm this early in the year because we were not equipped for this hike. Danielle and I decided to make a side track to complete the Tongariro Summit. Our camera died after this summit. We completed the 19 kilometer track in 7 hours with a run through a fern forest to catch the 3 pm bus back to Lake Taupo where we stayed for the weekend.

A few more Abel Tasman pics

Swimming at one of the bays we pulled in to kayaking

Overlooking the bay where we dropped off our kayaks

Sunrise the 4th morning - we camped in a secluded site right off the beach!!

Low tide crossing -- during high tide this area floods with water over your head.