Boogie-boarding-buddies

I am back to post a snippet from the last month. We were in Puerto Rico for a little vacation so I'll have to post those pictures next. I have wanted to go to Old San Juan and visit for longer than just our way through on an overnight flight. And now, I have some new insights about Puerto Rico, and have decided that for people wanting a Caribbean vacation without the big price tag (especially the @ $200. price tag for a passport for each family member!), that Puerto Rico is a great choice. Lots of culture, history, similar foods and traditions as the rest of the Caribbean, and clear blue beaches make the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico a perfect choice! Don't worry if you don't speak Spanish- you can learn enough words in a 15-minute session with a Spanish-English dictionary to get around in a car, and most people around San Juan speak some English. It's fairly cheap to fly from the States, and in my opinion is a great vacation spot with plenty of things to do.

So on to this blog post- we discovered the best boogie-boarding beaches that we've ever experienced right along the Isle Verde beach outside the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. The waves were consistent, and the beach was shallow- less than 2 feet- for at least 200 yards, so you can catch a good-sized wave and ride it all the way in. The two older kids, who had been fighting all day, had so much fun together on the waves that all was forgotten and afterward they were hugging and dancing around like it was the best day of their lives.

And last but not least- the little guy watched the older kids having so much fun that he had to have me rent him his own boogie-board. He insisted on carrying it out to the beach all by himself, and after one 40-foot ride on the waves, he was all done and ready to move on.

"It's Fall Somewhere"

You wouldn't know it because we are still in the middle of summer heat, but school has started and we've begun some of the usual "Fall" activities. The kids were in a performance of "The Jungle Book" with the help of the Missoula Children's Theatre who came back again for the second year. Brennan played a part of Kaa (the python) and Payton was a monkey.

We participated in the 2nd Annual 5K race/2K family walk held at the Marriott Golf Course to help raise money for the Children's Home. Brennan ran his first 5K and said it was pretty easy. He wished our friend, Dave, could have run with him again this year.

And since you've never seen the pictures from the first day of school- here you go. The little guy began full-day pre-K which is a combined class with kindergarten. He loves going to school and everyone there loves him too, with his handsome little smile.

nine- ten- eleven

Adrian celebrated the big 4-0 this last weekend. He told us during the birthday breakfast that he has been waiting for 30 years to be able to have his birthday on nine- ten- eleven. Sept. 10, 2011. We had lots of activities planned for the day, which luckily happened to fall on a Saturday, BUT, it also happened to fall on the day that projections for tropical storm/hurricane Maria was scheduled to go right over the top of us. The whole island was shut down, and on Friday afternoon after seeing all the boats brought in and the businesses closing in preparation, I reluctantly came to the realization that we would have to cancel all the surprises- breakfast and golf on Sat. morning, swimming later on, and a sunset catamaran cruise/dinner that night.

The funny thing is that the storm basically fell apart in the middle of the night, and although it was cloudy and dark on Saturday and everyone waited inside for it to hit us, we hardly had a drop of rain. So instead, we sat around all morning in our PJ's, then Adrian and I went into town and found a Taiwanese restaurant open for lunch (thank you to those hard-working Taiwanese people!) and our friends, Brandon and Tamsin, babysat our kids AND cleaned the church for us since it was our scheduled week. Now THAT's a birthday present right there!

In the evening, I prepared a traditional English meal (nostalgic for Adrian since he served his mission in England) of leg of lamb with gravy and mint sauce, yorkshire pudding, roasties, veggies, and trifle. I know that I bought a "40" candle 6 months ago in preparation of this day, but now it is lost, so we went with the "39" candle instead.

This is the homemade birthday card that I made and had about 100 people from the hotel/church sign. They all laughed and laughed and were impressed with what you can make someone look like with technology and photoshop. I know most of you except our fellow Kittitian's won't even be able to understand what this "language" is. I'll just say that if you have traveled much, even within the U.S., you will know that just because a country or group of people speak the same language, it doesn't mean you will understand their local dialects and phrases. I would actually say that about 50% of the time, unless I am trying to communicate with someone, I go about my business as if they are speaking another language, because I really can't understand what many locals are saying. In fact, sometimes tourists approach us at the hotel and ask what language the locals on this island are speaking. They are surprised when we tell them that it is English- or a version of it.

Giving service

I mentioned before the service project that we performed at the Cardin Children's Home. It was specifically for the youth and YSA, and also the mission presidency and their wives who flew in for the weekend from San Juan, and there were a few others thrown in, including Brennan. It is funny how a day of hard manual labor, given in the spirit of service with no payment or compensation (except the sack lunches we provided everyone), can be so rewarding and unify individuals. During the six hours we spent at the location, there were many people throughout the community of St. Kitt's who stopped by to take pictures and talk to us and marvel at the fact that there were so many people present, willingly giving up their day, and ESPECIALLY so many teenagers and young single adults. They were actually quite shocked at that. But I just thought, "Of course we're here willingly to serve, and not one of these youth has a hangover (today or any day)- it's the "Mormon Helping Hands!"

This is one of the little boys who lives at the home.

Ha ha- I think Ricky was really scared for a minute there. I'm sorry that his face is shaded because you should have seen it.

A fashion show for the Young Women.

Besides the mice, rats, cockroaches, lizards, and other creepy crawly creatures that we came across, was this HUGE centipede. They are very common here and give a painful bite, which can also make you very sick. We haven't had any personal experiences with these things, but we know plenty of people who have- including quite a few friends who have been woken up in the night while being bitten by one. These guys are REALLY fast and are hard to catch. But the crowd gathered to see this one that Bro. DeCosta was determined to kill so that it wouldn't harm the children.

This is part of the centipede after it was cut in half. It still moves around for a while even though it is dead. Disgusting.

Bro. Decosta wanted to "educate" us all on the parts of the centipede. Can you see the little black pincher's that it uses to bite and administer venom to it's victim? Again, we had to hold it down because it was crawling all over the place.

A rewarding day of service and fellowship.