a beautiful weekend in tahoe

we headed up to tahoe for the weekend to spend some quality time with a handful of pete's co-workers. it was my first time to lake tahoe and my first time skiing on an actual mountain (the hills in minnesota don't really count). it was fun to play in the snow without the thermometer being below zero!

jenny, andrew, and pete

i survived our skiing adventure!

emerald bay, lake tahoe

a belated christmas on the frozen tundra...

why we travel to minnesota in january is a mystery to me...as much of a mystery as the people who choose to live in that ungodly cold state! the temperatures did make it above zero this year, though, so that was an improvement. the house grew increasingly warm as my whole family descended on my parents' house for our belated christmas get-together. lefse making, pheasant hunting, snow fort building, and continuous cooking was the agenda for the weekend.

nearly the whole family...we forgot to take the photo before brian left

 kieran with his fire chief hat and new turnout boots!

 luke (2) and kieran (4) in the snow

alexandra lynn - her first christmas

in addition to celebrating a late christmas, we also celebrated madeline's end of treatment for leukemia! when i asked her what the best parts of being done with treatment were she said, "my port is gone and i can eat ice cream whenever i want." we have all learned so much from her over the last two and a half years and i know that she will continue to guide us through the next phase of watching and hoping the cancer doesn't return.

the bravest 12-year old i know

cassie turned 13 in december! she still has some spunk left in her and shows her puppy spirit on a regular basis. she has slowed down a bit and has either lost her hearing or chooses not to listen to us more often, but she is a bright spot in our lives. 

cancer FREE!

it is with GREAT hope, joy, and excitement that i report that my niece, Madeline, is officially finished with chemotherpy! after 26 months of treatment, she is leukemia free! the only wish for her 12th birthday came true...

thank you all for your support and well wishes during her journey!

life changes. . .

since it has been a ridiculous amount of time since i have managed to update this blog, there are many, many changes that have occurred.

#1 - we bought a house in felton, california, in august. we love it and have room for you to come visit!



#2 - pete and i got married in october in the back yard of our new house. pete's sister married us and we were surrounded by 12 of the best people in our lives.


#3 - the day after we got married, i defended my phd at uc santa cruz! i know what you are thinking...and yes, it maybe was a little crazy to get married and a phd in 24 hours, but i wanted the same people to be at both events so it only made good logical sense.


#4 - i was offered a post-doc with stanford university working for the center for ocean solutions. i actually started my post-doc before i had the "doc", but couldn't pass up the offer. COS is a collaborative group that uses cutting-edge science to inform policy in california and beyond. i have mostly been working with lawyers (they are nice people) and learning the ins and outs of coastal zone management in california. it is definitely a shift from what i have done, but it has been a really good learning experience, and i am really grateful to have a job. i have also maintained my ties to uc santa cruz by getting a research associate appointment. i still have grant money to work in big sur to tie up some loose ends after the fires burned through there in 2008.

#5 - madeline has an end date for her treatment!! she is a super trooper, is flying through the 5th grade, and is living life to the fullest. she will be finished with treatment on 11 december 2010 - just in time for her 12th birthday! we are going to celebrate!!!

the rest of my family is doing well. cassie turned 12 in december and is still going strong. we were in minnesota at the end of january to celebrate a "belated christmas" with my family. it was cold, but we managed to do some pheasant hunting (pete is a natural), sledding, and 4-wheeling while we were there.

pete has been away often for the last couple of months driving the boat and mapping the sea floor in northern washington. my travel schedule is much reduced these days, but i did make a trip to san diego and portland last week for two different science conferences. in addition to seeing good friends there, i was able to meet up with others from my days in oregon. it was great to reconnect with so many good people.

the days are getting longer, the trees are blooming, and my daffodils are getting bigger every day. welcome spring!

the spring update

i guess it's about time for another whirlwind update. i'm not exactly sure where the last six months (!) have gone, but they've gone fast. it seems like i've spent more time in front of my computer during that time than is healthy for a person, and yet i'm still staring at one. i just gave my committee chapter 3 of 4 and have fully come to the conclusion that i love being in the field and could leave the long days of sitting in this chair! i will be finishing my phd in september and have been writing grant after grant and application after application for jobs once i finish, but this isn't the greatest time to be asking people for money. pete is loving his job at the USGS so i'm trying to stay as close to santa cruz as is possible. if anyone has a job for me...

in march cassie and i took a semi-cross country trip to minnesota. besides the blizzard, 35mph cross-winds, and a tornado, the drive wasn't too bad. :) cass was a trooper and a great co-pilot. i stayed with steph and david for a night and got to see steph's new yoga studio (it's beautiful!) and attend one of her classes. if you are ever in des moines, iowa, you should stop by studio om. i spent most of my time at sister sarah's house to help out while maddy finished the last two weeks of her hardest phase of chemotherapy. she navigated those stormy waters well and has now entered the maintenance phase of her treatment. she has energy, feels great, has been back at school almost every single day, and has a big smile on her face most of the time. it is so great to see! she'll be in this less intense phase for the next 18 months if all continues to go well.

while i was in minnesota my grandpa was admitted to the ICU in grand forks, north dakota, with a severe case of pneumonia. getting to grand forks to visit him was a bit tricky because the flooding red river had closed all but one bridge into the city and that one was nearly under water too. he was in pretty rough condition when i saw him and he was later transferred to fargo, nd, where he died at the beginning of may. he had a good 88 years of life and we're all grateful that his soul is free from his suffering body. he was the last of my grandparents and his presence will be missed.

although the last two trips to minnesota have been for less than uplifting reasons, it has been wonderful to see my family so frequently. kieran turned three last week and luke continues to grow like a weed. he is definitely giving his brother a run for his money in the weight category. it is possible that i have seen my family more than pete in the last couple of months. the survey has had him off on adventures from san diego to puget sound. he finally learned how to shoot a gun so he can protect himself from polar bears when they do work in the arctic (hopefully in 2010). he has also officially added 50-ton boat captain (madeline thinks he should start driving a cruise ship and take us with) and truck driver to his list of titles. i keep hearing from the scientists that he's going to get rookie of the year so he must be doing something right.

if your summer travels bring you to the west coast, let us know...we'd love to see you!

be well.

soberanes point, big sur, ca

poppies in full bloom at the pinnacles national monument

kieran's 3rd birthday!

madeline with auntie steph

the whole foley family plus my mom's brother and sister

french polynesia

happy holidays! pete and i just returned from a five and half week stint in french polynesia. we spent four weeks on the island of moorea helping teach a UCSC marine ecology field course. the students spent five weeks in santa cruz learning about coral reef ecology and then spent four weeks in moorea carrying out independent research projects. our days in moorea consisted of eating breakfast on the veranda of our beach house, diving or snorkeling with students in the morning and afternoon, dinner, planning for the next day, sleep. repeat. we were hosted by the french field station CRIOBE while we were in moorea. they allow us to use their boats and vehicles, provide us with our meals, and the students live at the station. the water in moorea is a welcome change from santa cruz - clear AND warm, which makes the field work a lot easier. unfortunately, the waters around moorea have had an outbreak of the crown-of-thorns seastar. these seastars are bad for a number of reasons - they eat coral so most of the reef is now dead coral, and they are extremely toxic. they have enormous spines (see photo below) that will go through a wetsuit with no problem. unfortunately, i had a little run-in with one of these guys. we were on a night dive with our students at one of our sites and my leg brushed up against one that i had not seen. :( fortunately, the three punctures did not get infected and i managed to avoid a trip to the emergency room!

teaching staff - melissa, tish, alessio, jimmy, my pete, giacomo, advisor pete, joe

opunohu bay - our home

shark tooth mountain - the view from the field station

giant clam

moray eels

crown of thorns seastar - these guys are BAD!

after the class ended, pete and i headed to another group of islands in french polynesia called the tuamotus. the tuamotus are all atolls compared to the high standing islands in the society island chain (moorea, tahiti, etc.). our first island was fakarava - a sleepy little atoll known exclusively for it's amazing diving. the first day we were there we were fortunate to get on a dive trip to the south pass of the atoll. it is a trip that dive shops do rarely because it is 60kms from their base. the first photo below was taken from that pass...the sharks were AMAZING! there are also no crown-t0-thorns on the atolls, so the live coral cover was incredible. the fish were also more numerous and bigger than anything we saw in moorea. almost all of the dives we did were drift dives through the passes of the atolls. these dives are neat because the current creates congregations of fish and as a result their predators. we would start our dives in blue water where we would see lots of pelagic species and then drift in over the reef and see those species. the current was so fast some days that i felt like superman underwater...we were flying and there was no stopping! we would eventually drop down into a bowl while the current continued overhead. this bowl, called ali baba, was filled with thousands of fish doing the same thing we were...escaping the current.
we had six days on fakarava. we would usually dive in the morning and then take our bikes (provided by our pension) and find someplace to snorkel. we spent our evenings playing cards (loser had to do dishes) and pouring over the fish field guide to figure out which new species we had seen during the day.

fakarava sharks!

goat fish in ali baba - hundreds of them!

live coral

mode of transportation

after fakarava, we headed to rangiroa for a day. we were met at the airport by a dive operator that our fakarava dive outfit had arranged. jean-jacques wrote down what gear we needed and picked us up in the boat at our pension 30 minutes later. it worked out brilliantly! we did two dives in rangiroa - similar drift dives to fakarava, but slightly different. the pass is a lot deeper in rangiroa so we were not as close to the bottom there. we did see lots of different species - turtles, eagle rays, and our most prized fish of the tuamotus - the golden hawkfish! the hawkfish is one of mine and pete's favorites and the golden species is only found in the tuamotus. we had both been looking for it since we arrived and had had no luck. i spotted one in the last ten minutes of our first dive in rangiroa...we were so excited! (we know we're nerds)

school of barracudas

golden hawkfish - our prize fish

after our short stay on fakarava, we headed to our final destination of tikehau. tikehau is a tiny little place where we had nothing more planned than relaxing. our pension was on its own little island and we were picked up from the airport in a boat. the snorkeling in the lagoon was not very good, but the waves were small enough that we were able to cross the crest and snorkel on the outside of the atoll. the first day we snorkeled out there we swam out to the edge of the reef so we were in blue water. as soon as we arrived there, a whole mess of gray reef sharks starting coming up from the depths straight at us! it was slightly intimidating even though they were no bigger than i was. they started circling around pete...there were 22 of them! then a big school of barracudas came in and started following us around. the site was also hawkfish central, so we checked off another two species we had not seen before. tikehau definitely fit the bill of relaxation...

tikehau intertidal

while we were in moorea, pete was offered a job with the US Geological Survey in santa cruz. after days of deliberation, he decided to take the job. his last day at the university will be january 2nd. he is excited for the new challenges his new position (marine engineer) will bring but is sad to be leaving the university after ten years.

the next six months will be busy for me as well. i am hoping to finish my phd by june 2009 and am actively writing grants and applying for post-docs in the bay area. keep your fingers crossed!

cassie turned eleven last week and is as spunky as ever. she was really excited when i came home, and i am so happy to have her around me again.

my niece madeline turns ten tomorrow and is giving her leukemia a run for it's money. her perseverance and unwavering attitude have been amazing to watch. all signs point to her treatments working well and her body fighting the cancer cells with avengence. she's been able to keep up with her school work and was able to go to a full week of school before the break started.

we're off to oakland to spend christmas with pete's family. wishing you a lovely holiday and best wishes for 2009!

madeline elli

my 9-year old niece madeline was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia this week. she is a trooper and is taking the news with grace. the rest of us have much to learn from her! ALL is the most common form of childhood cancer and the treatment success rate is high. she started chemotherapy on wednesday and will continue on some sort of regiment or another for the next three years. she is back at home now with her two younger brothers...who i know will help to keep her spirits up while she's travelling down this uncertain and scary path.

i'll try to keep up with news on madeline here, but sarah has also set up a CaringBridge site at

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/madelinefoleywillcox