Our internet is working in our apartment! For the moment at least, keep your fingers crossed it stays. We have been adjusting to everything here and are really loving it. We are still having some issues with food- ie finding some Josh can eat, but he has really been a good sport and at least pretends to like the "meals" I have been making. Apparently the chicken man delivers on Thursday, and then maybe I can make something besides fried potatoes or scrambled eggs. We love our apartment and are pretty much unpacked and settled. It's taken a few days to take care of everything we've needed to get settled, and it will still probably take a few more, but we were able to have a day of fun hiking and swimming. Our neighbors the Fredericks took us in the car they rented for a little while to a place called Bense pools. And they took some pictures for us too! It was a 20 or 30 minute hike through the rainforest to a natural pool. Here we are toting Shane in the hiking backpack. I'm so glad we got one! A shot of some of what we hiked through
And the beautiful pool we got to at the end! It looks straight out of a travel brochure or something, except that's the best thing, Dominica is so untouched by anything. We were out here with noone around, except some natives that walked by carrying bags of bananas or something on their heads.
Then we went to #1 Beach, where they filmed part of Pirates of the Carribean 2. Again, it was like our private beach. Shane played in the little river that ran by the beach, and splashed like a madman as usual. I think as long as I take this kid to the beach and pool frequently, he will be happy as a clam.
I ran to my backpack to get his food out, but apparently wasn't fast enough because he decided to eat the sand instead.
We made it here without really any problems! Hooray because lots of people ended up getting stuck in Puerto Rico for a night or two for various reasons. The only problem was that I left my digital camera at home- I was slightly devastated but we do have the video camera, and I should be using it more often anyway! We are trying to find a little memory card to fit our video camera so we can take pictures, then things will be great. But here are some little video clips of the beautiful place we live now. We are adjusting to humidity and sweating all the time, as well as all the walking, but other than that things are great. Shane has been a very good boy, just a little thrown off with sleeping and such. I'm so happy to have my jogging stroller back and so is he, but he loves it a little too much and always ends up catnapping in it despite my efforts otherwise. Anyway, we will keep you updated, but for now here are some videos to watch. They are all very short clips I just took of places along our walk to campus, but telling too.
This is walking out of our door and you will see how close we are to the water. One of my favorite parts!
The drivers here are CRAZY and use their horns whenever they pass you. These drivers in the video were very tame though.
The Caribbean (or the ocean, I'm not sure?)
There are lots of Roosters everywhere, and they don't just crow when the sun comes up! But they don't seem to bother Shane too much.
Beautiful rivers everywhere
And the beach just next to campus. It is black sand but soft and I love the way it shimmers when it gets wet. The water is perfect for Shane. We've already met a lot of people and everyone has been really nice.
... will be from Dominica! We are leaving tomorrow night on the redeye from LAX and will get there Wednesday afternoon. I'm sure things around the blog will get a lot more interesting, although hopefully I won't have too many crazy stories to tell! We are excited for this crazy adventure and grateful for this opportunity. Stay tuned!
One of the best things about being a teacher is I'm still getting paid and not working, which has left us with almost 3 months to party hardy before we go to med school and Josh begins to live in the library. We've taken advantage of this time this week by going to the beach the pool
enjoying Grandma's backyard
hanging out with old pals
and going to Knotts Berry Farm again, this time with Shane. He loved it, but not for the conventional ways. He wasn't so sure about Snoopy,
and was a little scared by the drop on the log ride
but he did enjoy standing against things and watching all the people (a favorite pasttime of mine as well)
What's not to love? The weather's great, my neighbors have a pool we can use, my parents are here to watch him while we play tennis, and my sister and her two girls are here for a couple weeks too. Shane loves having Kate and Lizzie around. I should stop buying him toys and just pay little kids to come over, because he is way more entertained by them! They are so good to him too, if you look closely near Kate's nose you can see the bite marks on her face. Shane was giving her kisses and got a little carried away. Sorry Kate! Looks like I will have to watch this little man around the ladies. We went to an Angels game on Friday night. He wasn't sure what to think at first. And on a sidenote, how did I end up with a blond-haired blue-eyed baby?!
Then he realized he loved it and had a blast. Usually around 7:30 he practically tells me to put him to bed, but he stayed awake the whole time and was pretty entertained
I thought for sure he'd fall asleep in the car, but he was pretty slap happy or something on the way home too. What a toothy kid, he got his eighth one before he turned eight months last week. I am hoping we will have a little break, this kid has pretty much been popping out teeth nonstop for the past 3 months. At least I know there are only a finite number of them.
We've spent the past few weeks in Manti with Josh's family, and have had a lot of fun. We joke that there is a curse on the family or something because there are 6 boys ages 4 and under, and no little girl grandbabies for Josh's mom yet. But I'm hear to tell you, boys are pretty fun! See: Shane sure thought so. He loved watching them and playing with them.
Especially his Uncle Matthew
And they were so cute with him too
And only occasionally stole his things. You can't blame Taylor though, even though he is 3, Shane wears the same hat size as him. We can only hope that huge head is housing a ginormous brain! (Just kidding Shane, we love your big noggin!)
And Shane stole a turn with their toys when they weren't looking.
The big news was that Josh's sister Hannah added another boy to the family by marrying Dallin on Saturday.
We spent a lot of time beforehand getting the house ready. Josh helped build their beautiful new deck and I painted the wall underneath. Since we're currently homeless, it was kind of like free therapy fixing up someone else's house!
We drove to California today and will be here until Aug 25th when we leave for Dominica. Thanks for having us Dettingers! We will sure miss you guys!
And the beautiful pool we got to at the end! It looks straight out of a travel brochure or something, except that's the best thing, Dominica is so untouched by anything. We were out here with noone around, except some natives that walked by carrying bags of bananas or something on their heads.
I ran to my backpack to get his food out, but apparently wasn't fast enough because he decided to eat the sand instead.
I can't believe we live here!
