Thank Goodness

Thank goodness Josh is done with 2nd semester!  We are halfway through our time in Dominica!!!!

Thank goodness Shane is such a good little traveler- we left at 4:30 am yesterday and got in Manti 20 hours later after spending almost 10 hours in the air.

Thank goodness I had extra clothes with me- he threw up all over me 3 or 4 times on the windy ride to the airport.

Thank goodness little boys love watching planes so much- it made the day pretty exciting

Thank goodness we're here now and don't have to do this again for a little bit- I'm a little worn out on traveling!

Thank goodness for America!

Soaking it all in

While Josh is busy with finals, Shaners and I are busy soaking in these few days here before we all go visit the Dettingers on Friday for a couple weeks.   

We are pretty stoked about getting to go home for a little bit and being with the fam, but are packing in the fun (and sun) before then!  We've been to the pool I think every day, 

spending as much time with friends as possible,

 and splashing our little hearts out.

If only he knew what adventures are waiting him on Friday!

starcrossed lovers...

When the boys are studying all day...

...the girls like to play!  We are approaching finals week here at Ross and all the students are busy busy.  What's a wife to do?  Go have fun!  I am so lucky to have so many great friends here that are always down for doing fun things, it makes life here so much better.  Last week was packed with fun- there were the usual trips to the pool and playgroups, but we also took a trip to #1 beach on Friday.  Here we are at the trailhead (me and Shane, Liz Prince, Liz and Emmy, Amber and Lily, Becky and Jazz, Jacki and Keira, Jessie and Hawken, and Jessie's mom with Matix).  

5 little one year olds!

They had fun going back and forth between the water

and the sand

while the moms watched, took pictures, and got to chat

And on Thursday we had a little easter egg hunt.  Shane was very interested in the eggs when we were trying to fill them outside, but not so much when it was time to actually hunt them!

He was a big fan of the treats afterward though!

Thanks for a fun week friends!

Win-Win

Lately, Shane wants to be doing whatever I am doing.  So I decided the other day to try sitting him up on the counter next to me while I washed dishes.  I gave him a dish brush and he went to town. 

I got the dishes done, and Shane was entertained.  I think this may be the start of something beautiful!

A Very Dominican Birthday

And you know what?  I think it may have been one of my best ones yet.  It started out with Josh bringing me french toast in bed, then I spent the morning with this cute little dude.

Doesn't get much better than that does it?

The water was shut off for some reason until 9:30, so we just played until it came back on.  When I first turned it on, it looked like this (so of course I had to run and grab my camera to document it).  It got semi-normal when I got in a few minutes later.  Hey, it was a mud bath, right?

We headed up to play group and got caught in a downpour but had a great time there.  I met Josh and our friends Jack and Heather for lunch at Rituals and got a delicious chicken quesadilla.

Shane gave me a great present by being happy sitting still at lunch for more than 2 minutes

And Heather brought me my favorite, funfetti cake!

And I was glad to know that my son wasn't the cake-hating freak we had once thought.

We walked with Josh up to the annex for his test, filled the bottles up with some (clean) water, and came home. Shane napped and I got to talk to my family.  Josh came home after his test and watched Shane while I went to get a pedicure with Heather!  Yes, they do have salons in Dominica.  They just look like this:

And are pretty small.  But Carvel did a really good job and was actually really fun to talk to.  I think I will definitely go back.

Heather and I got a kick out of some of the services offered.  Can you guess which one in particular?

Afterwards Josh had a surprise planned for me for dinner.  He LOVES surprising me, but I can be a little difficult to surprise sometimes.  In fact I told him I was sure he couldn't surprise me because I already know everywhere there is to go here.  Well he pulled it off, he told me he'd drop Shane off with Liz, meet me outside the main gate of campus when I was done, and we'd go to dinner.  As we started walking into campus I thought great, he's going to take me to that mediocre restaurant at PBH.  But he walked me up to one of the rooms on campus he'd reserved, and had a romantic dinner for just the two of us all ready.  He made his homemade lasagna, which we wooed me with when he were just barely dating, so it was a little sentimental and very thoughtful.  Especially because he couldn't even eat it!  (His is in that styrofoam container).      

It was so nice to just be able to have a quiet dinner with just the two of us and I was impressed with how much thought he'd put into it, down to sending me out to get the pedicure so he could frantically make it while I was gone.  The restaurants here aren't very great either, so I was very happy to have this instead!  I tell ya, Dominica brings out the creativity in everyone here, and I love that.  The little things mean a lot more, and I know I will always look at this birthday with fondness.

A Wannabe Reader

For the past few weeks I have been dabbling simultaneously in all of these books

    I am a teacher at heart, so this is awful for me to admit, but I have been struggling with reading lately!  I love the idea of it- I see a book that I really want to read and can't wait to get started into it.  But then I start it and, partway into it, I start to get distracted and turn to other books, never finishing anything! (well, I finally finished the one on top last week after starting it in January)  In fact, I have three other books not even pictured that I've snagged up and am waiting to read sometime who knows when.  I think the heart of the matter is the fact that I seem to have a potent ability to fall asleep without warning.  It used to only apply to watching TV, but now I start reading a few pages and find myself nodding off.  I feel like my grandpa!  Alright- here's to finishing one of these books in April!

        "Mom, you're taking pictures?  And they're not of me?!  What's a pile of books got that I don't!" 

    

A Good Weekend Indeed

  Yesterday morning the 5th semester students who are leaving the island soon had their sale on campus at 8 am.  I decided to go check it out, and thought if I was gonna get there that early I would at least make a morning of it.  And that we did! First we stopped at the beach to play.  Every time this week we've walked in view of the ocean (which is a lot!) Shane has lit up and started shouting "dah, dah!" (apparently ocean?)  I don't take him to the beach as often as I should because the pool is just easier, so he was pretty excited when we got there.

I realized that I need to take him more often because he was a little timid and scared of walking in the sand and water 

Then Matix came and the beach definitely became more fun!

We headed to the pool after to play and rinse off.  The shower seems to be the highlight of the pool for all the island babes.

After spending all morning basking in the sun, we headed back to campus to see if anybody was selling anything else, and snagged some good deals.  Sadly, these are relatively exciting purchases here!

We made it home just in time to watch general conference, a semiannual broadcast for our church where our prophet and apostles speak.  The first session was from 12-2 and the timing worked out perfect because Shane and I ate lunch while we listened online and then I put him down for his nap and got to listen to almost the whole thing uninterrupted!  The 4-6 session was a little trickier but Shane managed to let me listen to most all of it.  The men had a special session that night from 8-10, so the girls had a great excuse for a girls night out! 

Today's sessions were at the same times, so we had a leisurely morning and went on our Sunday walk, then came home and made a delicious brunch to enjoy while watching it.  The sausage links were a pretty big deal for us here!

We didn't really do anything eastery, except the Easter bunny (Liz!) did bring Shane an Easter treat

It was a little sour for his taste!  I was secretly happy, because I got to eat it!

But I can't think of a better way we could have spent our Easter than to listen to Christ's living prophets and apostles bear witness of him.  I was impressed by how many of the talks mentioned how important it is to make sure we are teaching our children about Christ and sharing the Gospel in our home.  We feel such a responsibility to teach Shane and raise him up right, and yet more than anything, such joy!