Mom and Marlena's Visit Cont...

During my mom's visit we tried to see as much of the island as we could. One day we decided to drive over to Arecibo and see the radio there. It is pretty cool. I totally remembered it from the movie Contact and James Bond. Afterwards we stopped at the outlet mall for some shopping. They had a cool playground for the kids that was a lot of fun. Cole loved going down the slide with Ashlee waiting for him.

Another trip we took was too Culebras. It is truly an amazing beach. It was fun to get to have my mom and Marlena see the incredible blue waters and white sand beach. The kids had a ball playing in the water and building sand castles with neighbors.

Banka's First day!

We finally had our first official "houseguests." My mother and sister came for a visit last week. The time they were here is a big blur of activities, driving, fun times, and food. The first day my mother arrived we decided to just go for a drive to see the island. We ended up at a little beach that overlooks the famous El Morro. While we were there Ashlee and Hyrum decided to add to their collections. Hyrum liked the pieces of coral and Ashlee was looking for shells. My mom and I got such a kick out of their different methods of display. Ashlee's are the neat rows and Hyrums is the mound in the back.

Ashlee's is 7

Ashlee just had her 7th birthday. I can not believe how quickly the time goes. I can still remember her as a little baby and how scared I was to have something depend on me so fully. Ashlee is a really special girl. Ashlee is so kindhearted and is always trying to make sure everything is fair. She works hard to help me with the other kids and is such a good little mommy. In fact she often says she can't wait until she is old enough to watch the other kids so Jed and I can go out. For her birthday this year she wanted to just spend the day with family. We hit Krispy Kreme for breakfast and then went to see Beauty and the Beast in the theater. We ended the day swimming and I am shocked to say that it was WAY to cold to swim. We ended up only staying a few minutes before we had to leave. We came home and had cake and icecream. Of course Ashlee had to have the princesses on her cake, but this time there were little gifts for each of us that she put on the cake. Such a sweet little girl!! Happy b-day Ash...

Day at Culebras

Okay so here in Puerto Rico there are many beaches...I can hear you all saying, well duh Valerie!! Anyway there are lots of beaches. They are great and lots of fun. However just a short boat ride away is the island of Culebras. On the island is Flamenco beach which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The sand is so fine and white that walking barefoot is like getting a spa treatment. The water is an amazing blue and the beach is very secluded. As it is a boat ride away there aren't many people on the island. We went on a Monday and it was pretty empty. We rode the fairy over then hopped in a taxi over to the beach. We got there and the kids just played and played. The beach also houses an old tank that was used for target practice for the military a long time ago. It is now painted and you can climb on it and get up close and personal. We had such a wonderful time there and got to relax for the day. The trip home was incredible as it was sunset. The kids loved being on the boat and had a ball. It was such an amazing trip.

Carnival

Thanksgiving weekend was a fun time here. We had a couple over from our ward and they brought their folks too. It was a great time and we had a great thanksgiving. Certain foods are scarce so I had to make my stuffing from scratch and I couldn't find pecans for the pie. But we made do. The day after we took the kids to the big mall here to watch a movie. While there we saw a carnival and so Jed decided to take the kids there on Saturday. It was a fun little carnival. The kids enjoyed themselves and had a blast on the rides. Ashlee is our little daredevil and wanted to ride all of the big scary rides while Hyrum kept to the smaller rides. Cole just went along for the ride of course but he had a fun time. Here are a few pictures from our adventure!!

Our drive home...

So part of our new life here in Puerto Rico is a daily drive to pick up Ashlee from her little private school. Her school is in the town but on our little drive home we have the prettiest drive with fun suprises at time. I have included some pics of the funny sights from today. This is a pic of our neighborhood rooster. He is out and about almost everyday. this pic isn't the best but it started raining so he ran for cover. We look for him everyday.

This is a waterfall that is just at the corner. It is absolutly beautiful and Hyrum loves to stop and look at it. I am so used to droughts causing water features to stop so this is always a surpise. I can't tell if it is all natural or not.

There is a small herd of bulls that must live near us as almost every other day there are a few bulls out and about sitting and relaxing. This is a large bull that was just staring at us while we stopped to look. Of course he bent down when I snapped the pic, but you get the idea.This is the driveway into our development. It is just beautiful to see the mountains when I come around the corner. We are surrounded by mountains with essentially a rain forest on them. It was a stormy day today so things didn't come out that well.

Halloween Puerto Rican Style....

Halloween here in Puerto Rico was a very new experience for our little ones. The kiddos have had a fun few days with activities at school for Ashlee and a ward party on Saturday night. For the first time I was asked to help with the ward party and I have to say I have an entirely new appreciation for all of the wonderful woman who have been planning these events. Wow a lot of work and a lot of stress!! We had a great turn out as most of the wards here do not have parties so we had a lot of visitors from other wards. The kids got to play games and do the typical trunk-or-treat. With our little ward here the kids came home with buckets of candy from that night. I actually let them go around the parking lot twice. It was so fun to see them so excited. With where we live my kids don't get to see a lot of the church friends except at church. We live about 30 - 40 min from them, without traffic. So tonight was actually Halloween. Jed and I had asked around and were told that yes the kids can trick or treat. We decided to stay in our little neighborhood to let them have some fun. Well....I made them eat dinner and daddy actually came home slightly early to be able to take them out. So at 6 I started to get them dressed. We noticed there weren't any trick or treaters. We waited until 6:30 and then headed out. There was not a soul on the streets. We went to our neighbors and they were nice to our kids, but were a little odd when they rang the door bell. We headed up to a neighbor that had decorations and were basicly told we were a bit early. With major negotiating we head back to the house to wait it out. Finally at about 7:30 kids started heading out...crazy!!!! We headed out and met another neighbor. She was super nice and had a little girl Ashlee's age. We ended up forming a little group with a bunch of neighbors and proceeded down the street...at the first house I figured out why we were so odd. Three of the boys walked up to the door and started dancing and singing...I don't know the exact words but the basic jest is " happy halloween give me treats, or money, but please no peanuts" Ashlee and Hyrum were a bit amazed by this ritual. The funniest thing is a little later Ashlee and Hyrum went up to a house by themselves they just kind of stood there. The guy came out and said just a minute. He ran inside and came out with a dollar!!!! He said he didn't have any candy so he had to give them money..toooo funny!!!

I took Cole back and Jed took the other two out. Then he came back with Hyrum but Ashlee stayed with the neighbor girl and her mom. All the sudden I heard thunder and lightening. A huge rainstorm hit. All of the trick or treaters ran for cover. I drove around looking for Ashlee and all I saw were people hiding in garages, under the mailboxes, in the alcoves. It didn't last long and Ash made it home fine. They both had a terrific time and I think really enjoyed there first Halloween here.