Underwater Camera

Here are a couple of the underwater pictures we took on the trip.

It seems as if it was all a dream now.

To see more pictures and read a far better description of our 

underwater adventures

go HERE!

To The Rescue

Recently Brinley's teacher was throwing away hundreds, 

perhaps thousands, 

of site words. 

Apparently when Brinley discovered what was taking place she 

rescued the words and brought them home to live with us.

 I arrived home from my trip late at night, opened the door to kiss my babies in their sleep and

busted up laughing when I discovered her room adorned with them.

 

The entire front of her bedroom door is also plastered in site words. 

These funny moments help make parenting fun!

She also displays her "Super Star Student" awards with pride!

So my next concern is when to have her remove the delightful decorations. 

You see, if I let anything hang up on the wall for too long the girls become completely 

attached and go through withdrawals when the item is no longer displayed.

I have a feeling it will be a very painful withdrawal when the time comes.

The great news is that Brinley still has this entire bag full of words to use as she desires!

Our Valentines Day

 
Our Valentines breakfast.

Red and pink as in years past.

Cookie decorating as in years past

2010

2009 

2008 

Except  one slightly major change. This year we did it with just our little family.

Our simple cookie decorating celebration can be explained by the picture below  

of my 

luscious Valentines Day lips.

Yep, this is the sun "kiss" I received in Aruba. 

After the sun blisters began to retreat my lips were graced by several painful cold sores.
They began to grow on our last day in Puerto Rico and

 have taken nearly two weeks to completely heal...well they are mostly healed.

Very few bodily events come close to the pain associated with childbirth, 

however, the 24 hour period of time that my unstoppable sores were developing came extremely close!

Above notice the delightful Valentines boxes the girls created to bring to school.
Can you guess who's is who's?

During my days of cold sore hibernation 
(except for teaching classes which was just a pitiful experience with the sores) 
we also made some pink GAK.

Cornstarch, borax and water is cheap,
fun and effective entertainment for little ones.

Bonaire, Aruba, San Juan

Bonaire was the best place to snorkel!

We found a beautiful beach with a dock that deposited us alongside a long reef.

The fish were magnificent and we observed a wide variety!

( Yep it's still true folks...little miss Leah fair skin will still NEVER tan.)

Then Mom rented a motorcycle and toured the island while

I continued snorkeling and relaxing in the warmth.

Aruba brought more pristine beaches and snorkeling.

We made our way to the beach in Aruba via boat. 

I was pulled by tube and Mom was situated inside as the photographer!

SO FUN!

This island also blessed my body with a severe sun burn despite 100 SPF

and an even more delightful kiss from 

the sun on my lips in the form of cold sores.

Aruba was our last port of call. 

That night we headed off into the sunset back to San Juan.

After saying good-bye to our beloved Princess ship we stayed in Old San Juan for a night 

and spent our time walking around the old cobblestone streets, 

visiting historical sites and making friends with the pigeons.

A special thanks to my Mother dear who made this trip happen

and to my darling husband who took an entire week of his precious vacation time

to become a stay-at-home father, 

which afforded this Mommy the opportunity to leave and bask in this incredible experience!

PS- Every picture shown in these posts were taken by either my Mom or myself!

Grenada

 Similar to Dominica, Grenada invites less cruise boat traffic than many other Caribbean

islands, thus maintaining it's unique culture and natural beauty.

We took a 45min. drive up the hills on small curvy roads fora wet and wild river tubing excursion!

It was our understanding that this experience would include a very calm and relaxing float 

down the river, so we in for a surprise when it turned out to be a rocky and rapid filled ride.

Our numerous tour guides, in green and yellow,
  apparently were under the impression that all 30+ of us tubing thoroughly 

enjoyed being soaked by their continual splashing in our faces.

Thankfully by they end we had come to find their humor and entertainment quite endearing.

What I found less endearing was being yelled at by women who were selling goods 

(at the open air market pictured above) after I snapped the picture. Apparently I had to buy something to take that picture and they were not about to let me get away with it. 

After we bought some small spice packets the women magically turned from angry
people to kind people.

After the market smack down I was ready to retire to our floating American culture.

Our boat was larger than any other cruise ship we saw during the trip.

Mom on the other hand was completely comfortable 

with people strongly encouraging  

(begging)

her to buy something from their stand

as she meandered through the market, so she returned to the ship a bit later.

Domincia

We docked on this lush rain forest like island the second day and spent the entire day exploring.

After getting off  the boat Mom found Glen, who became our  

tour guide and taxi driver for the day.

Being a native to the island Glen knew all there was to know about the lifestyle, 

agriculture and the very best sights to see. As we drove from sight to sight he was continually educating 

us about his beautiful 3rd world country.

While in route we spotted "snake man." 

Apparently he walks up and down various roads waiting for touristists to hop 

out of a vehicle and take pictures for payment.

Mom was thrilled to hold the boa.

I was thrilled to just be the photographer.

One of our stops was to this gorgeous waterfall.

There were actually two waterfalls side by side.
I hiked up a mountain of slippery boulders to reach the base of this one.

Then we stopped at a road side fruit vendor and experienced a "young" coconut,
meaning the coconut is picked before it's fully matured and hardened.

The pulp is a slimy, gummy texture and really quite yummy.
We sipped coconut milk and listened to the vendor swear that his diet consisting of mostly coconut
and fruit was the secret to his youthful and healthy appearance.

Go HERE to find out how you can have a healthy diet!

 (Glen is in the upper right corner, vendor in the middle and sulfur tub lower left)

Then Glen insisted we go sit in warm sulfur springs, which we of course happily agreed to do.
He was certain it would help my Mom's back. There we soaked overlooking a beautiful flowing river and I felt like I never wanted to leave...but there was still so much more to see!

Other cool things we did that day include:

*Taking a tram ride and hike through the rain forest.

*Visiting an active volcano site.

*Driving through their version of a "botanical garden" and seeing the bus, below, that was  

smashed in a storm by an enormous tree and just left there, in the middle of the botanical garden, which was more of a town park.

Then we retired to a 5 star formal dinner and top notch live entertainment.

Oh what a day!

St. Thomas

Last week Grandma Ginger treated me to a slice of paradise for a week
on the cruise ship Caribbean Princess!

Our first port of call was St. Thomas.

Mom and I experienced a first together

underwater scooters!

You can see them in the bottom left picture of the collage.

It was so neat, and somewhat weird, to be underwater with our heads dry under these astronaut like head compartments. We propelled through the water with other cruisers watching fish swim by and

we even saw 2 sea turtles on the ocean floor!

We also enjoyed snorkeling in the water pictured above before our scooter tour.

Then it was back to the ship for a delicious and relaxing crab meat dinner.

We were in heaven with scrumptious cuisine the entire trip! 

The best part about the food was that we did not have to prepare or clean up ANY of it.

Been Busy....

enjoying the Caribbean with my Mom for the last 8 days!

Arrived home late last night, loved on my wee ones and 

taught class this morning,

more later!