Mon 2/16 - Sun 2/22

Monday no one had school because of Carnival. I'm not really sure why there is such a celebration but they party, drink and dance. We saw and heard a trailer with HUGE speakers drive past our place last week in preparation for Carnival. We went with friends to Emerald Pool. It was quite a long drive! The walk to the pool was nice with a few look out points along the way. The water was cold and not very deep with a pretty waterfall. I feel that any picture I ever take truly does not do justice to what I see here with my eyes!!!

As we were driving back home we had to slow down for people out in the streets dancing.

 

This truck has HUGE speakers all over! Not a great picture. I was in the van. I tried. 

I love this picture because I stuck my arm out the window, aimed my phone backward and took a picture without looking!! HA! Not too shabby. It helps that the man happened to look our direction.

Behind the security man to the right is a man dressed up in a fluffy white costume! We also saw someone in a fluffy blue costume. This was the most I saw of Carnival stuff. The kids walked in a little parade thing last week but whined that it was boring and hot. 

Thursday Lexi started piano lessons from a gal in our ward. After school they went to the CAC building where there is an electric piano. Isaac wants to observe next week to see if he'd be interested in taking lessons too. They had started taking lessons in Idaho every few weeks and it would be great to continue.

Friday evening we again ordered pizzas from IGA and went over to Cami's house to eat and hang out.

Saturday we went on a trip with the RSO (Ross Spouse Organization) to Mero beach. When we got there I was pretty unhappy to learn that my cell phone no longer wants to take pictures!!! I don't know if I'd mentioned before but our small waterproof Nikon camera we brought is also out of commission! It went snorkeling a couple times and didn't survive the last time I guess...   The pictures below are from that day and trip but I didn't take them. I hope I can figure out what's wrong with the cell phone. GRRR!

It was Emma's first time WALKING on the beach! (SO glad our friends brought their nice camera and didn't mind taking pictures of my kiddos)

There was a little incline down to the water and she sat down with her feet uphill then tipped backwards and rolled resulting in half of her face being covered in sand (and no tears).

 I love that her little pockets are filled with sand. She was so happy!!

 Because of the incline she quickly found her way to the water. She was surprised the first time the water touched her. I enjoyed following her and watching as she explored and experienced the beach.

Isaac had a great time running into the water over and over again! There are a ton of these pictures. These ones are my favorites.

Last night (Sat) I was up late washing cloth diapers and making bread. We've been expecting the gas tank on our stove to go out soon and it finally ran out while the bread was baking. The oven is not efficient and lets out so much heat that we hang a towel in front of it whenever it's in use. Last night we put one over the top too and luckily the bread was able to cook thoroughly before it lost all the heat. We were even more grateful to have that bread to eat since now we wouldn't have gas to cook anything on Sunday. We made due just fine.

This morning Mark had to be to the church early for a meeting. Right as I thought we were finally ready to walk out the door and might be able to catch the scheduled transport's second pass Emma needed a diaper change and I saw Kari was no longer dressed and ready. She apparently didn't feel pretty enough in the dress she was wearing and wanted to trade but needed help. The dress she really wanted was in the dirty clothes which was the end of the world. Mark called to see how we were doing and I had started crying because I'm supposed to be there to play the piano and we couldn't even get out the door!! Finally we made it outside and started walking while looking for a transport. No buses drove by before we needed to turn off the main road. At this point church has already started. Thankfully my loving hubby jumped in to cover for me on the piano. As we turned the corner to get back onto the main road a local lady pointed toward the mountain and said something about rain and cover the baby. Right then it started raining and I pulled out my umbrella. Then it started pouring!! I gathered the kids under the one large umbrella but now we could no longer walk. There was a lady under a shelter who hollered at us to come over there too. We hung out on the steps of Woody's pizza until the rain let up a bit. I fought with myself to choose to find all of this silly and fun rather then frustrating, irritating and embarrassing. With sacrament meeting halfway over we walked in, thankfully during a song, and sat down. It's all good. No worries. :)

(I'm not sure how or why but my phone that was freaking out let me take these pictures)

Waiting for the rain to stop...

Mon 2/9 - Sun 2/15

Monday I got to go to the gym for the first time. A friend watched the girls and Mark was even able to go with me. We hope to be able to go together every Monday!! I'm pretty excited about it. She's also going to watch them on Wednesdays and Fridays for me.

Tuesday after school was the Beach Bash. I guess it's something they do every semester. Mark was able to be there with us. There was a bouncy house that the kids enjoyed. There were free shirts, juice and food. The food was NOT worth the hour wait in line though. I found it sad, ridiculous and extremely irritating how many students were cutting in line!!! That's all I'll say on that! Grr! I was anxious to go for my first actual swim in the ocean once I got the kids set up with their food. It was so refreshing to just swim and float around all on my own for a few minutes.

I was so excited to see this person out on the water doing this water jet thing. I don't even know what it's called but I saw it on TV once a few months ago and thought it was insane! Not that I even want to do it. It was just fun to see it in real life! :)

 They also had face painting and the girls looked lovely! Isaac was having too much fun in the bouncy house to bother with face paint. 

Thursday my friend's son Caleb was baptized at coconut beach. It was very simple. It was nice to see where they went and how things went to have an idea what we could expect in a few weeks. 

The kids worked on their very own Valentine's to take to school for their party. 

Lexi did a couple special ones for teachers.

These are obviously Kari's... I love that she made them by herself!

Isaac's Valentines

Alexis' Valentines

Friday the 13th Mark gave me the Valentines gift alone time! I locked myself in my room, lay cozy on my bed and watched a show with headphones while he hung out with the kiddos. Perfect!

Saturday was Valentine's Day. We don't really care about Valentine's Day but that morning Mark made me french toast. He even ground fresh cinnamon for it. He had to hurry out the door the second it was done. It was yummy. The kids and I went on a trip to Screw Spa. They are naturally heated pools. There are a handful of pools each at different temperatures. It was a fun place.

This little waterfall was my favorite! You could walk right through it. 

Our friend Kasey was so nice to take Emma from me so I could swim around and enjoy the pools. I was surprised she was happy to hang out with him for so long. She hasn't liked being passed off to other people lately. She's becoming quite the mama's girl. 

As we were getting ready to leave there was a platter of fruit we could nibble on. It had pineapple, coconut, oranges and bananas. We then saw these turtles. The kids thought they were pretty cool. 

Tonight (Sunday) Isaac lost ANOTHER tooth tonight. That's 3 since we've been here. On the subject of teeth... Mark found that Emma has yet ANOTHER tooth poking through! She now has 8!!