Mon 2/2 - Sun 2/8

Monday through Wednesday were fairly uneventful. On Wednesday, I was playing card games with a few ladies in the family lounge waiting for the kids to be done with school and I asked them about upcoming trips. That led to my friend signing me up to go with her on a trip the next day.

Thursday at 9am we loaded up a bus with 11 ladies and headed off to Freshwater Lake. The temperature was a bit cooler up there which was quite nice. It looked foggy but I guess we were right up in the clouds. A breeze would blow them in and out quickly. It had recently rained so our path was muddy and slippery. I had Emma strapped and snuggled to the front of me so I took extra caution as I climbed not to slip. I had a few close calls but caught my balance. It was fairly steep at times and coming down was much harder then going up. It was beautiful! Around every corner I wanted to take pictures. At one point it poured down rain. I found it pretty exciting. Luckily, for Emma's sake I brought a little umbrella. She was such a trooper! She even napped a bit on the hike. Our hike took us all the way around the lake. When we were done and back to where we started we ate some food and dipped our feet in the lake. There we little fish in the water that would eat the dead skin off your feet!! I've heard of people paying big bucks for that kind of treatment in Japan or something. It felt so weird. I would have stayed forever but Emma was not pleased that I handed her off to someone else and her treats were gone.

This is a huge water pipe made out of wood.

This was a view on the drive of Tralfalger Valley.

Emma is now 9 months old!!! Earlier this week she took one step on 3 different occasions. She's CrAzY close to walking!!! We all completely adore her and think everything she does is SO cute! 

(These ones were taken the week before while she was playing on the balcony.)

Friday there was a trip to Bense pool!!!! This was one place I knew I wanted to go to before we even got to Dominica. It has a natural water fall you can slide down and a cliff to jump off of! How cool is that?

Our driver/guide Serge showing us a cinnamon tree. It smelled so good.

I just went down the slide.

Serge was up at the top of the cliff and told me to have no fear only faith and jump. AHHHH!!! 

 My hiking buddy! Serge is in the background trying to break into a coconut.

Emma was less then pleased to have someone else hold her while I went to jump and slide. 

Serge helped us all jump over the water at one point on the hike.

 I will definitely bring Mark here sometime. He would love it.

On Friday Isaac reported to me that he got 100% on his spelling test. He's suddenly felt very motivated to read and tonight sat and read through the first 10 Articles of Faith with very little help. I was WAY impressed. I was feeling guilty the other day that I haven't been reading with the kids or doing school work. The kids seem to be doing really well with school and I'm guessing when we go back to the states Kari and Isaac will both be a grade above where they would be otherwise. Kari is in the Kindergarten class her and she won't be 5 until November so in the states she wouldn't even start Kindergarten until fall of 2016...   The class Isaac is in here is 1st- 3rd grade but in the states he had just started Kindergarten because of his birthday being after the cut off date... We'll see.

Friday evening we ordered pizza and went to a friend's house to eat it, hang out and watch Tangled.

Early Saturday morning I went with some gals to the market for my second time. I took some pictures along the way. There was a man yelling "Hallelujah" and such into a microphone while music was playing. 

Holli was getting fish. I asked if she would help me if I bought some too. I bought 2 pounds of Mahi Mahi. This was quite the experience. When there is fresh fish someone blows into a big shell to announce it. It was pretty cool. I was too slow to get a picture of it though. 

Here he is using wood to hit his machete to cut through the bone.

This is where I call home. Ground level is Tina's grocery store and I live on the second level on the left. We go behind the building and up some stairs. 

 Here is what I bought at the market besides my fish. 

Sunday we walked to church. Church was great today. I can always feel the spirit through the comments of the local people. They are so humble and so grateful to have the gospel in their lives. We talked about faith. It was sure a leap of faith for me to come to Dominica!! It's amazing how I know that this is where the Lord wants us to be though. I don't know for sure what's around the corner but I know he's guiding us along the path he wants us to be on.

 I thought this was an interesting plant.

 Our church building is there on the right.

 If you give an Emma a cookie...

 She'll need a bath to go with it. 

After church I went over to Holli's to watch her prepare her fish. I've never cooked fish in any way (except fish sticks!). I was feeling pretty nervous about it but I wanted to be adventurous. I went home and here's how it turned out.

 The stuff on the plate is also Mahi Mahi. That way was preferred.

Sunday evening Emma took 4 steps, then 7, and at one point she did 10 in a row!!!

Click this link to see Emma Walking!! :)

Mon 1/26 - Sun 2/1

Monday was a big day here for first semester students. It was their first "mini" as they call it or test. After minis students tend to take the rest of the day off. I arranged for a friend to watch Kari and Emma so Mark and I could go on a date for lunch. We went to La Flambou which is close to campus. It's right on the water at PBH (Which I have learned stands for Portsmouth Beach Hotel. There are little cabin type places that are right by La Flambou that is the hotel I guess. That general area is just referred to as PBH.) As we were walking there Mark said, "I like medical school." He said he wanted to say that before he got his score back. :)

Our view as we ate.

We shared this delicious chicken quesadilla. (We weren't too hungry.)

A friend recommended their (virgin) pina coladas.

YUM!!! I will now recommend them too! 

Not great lighting even with the flash on my phone but I like us! :)

We turned around the other way so we would not have the back lighting. This one is much better of us but not so much for the background...

After lunch Mark changed and went snorkeling there. He is a big fan of snorkeling. His newest dream is to get a spear gun thing and catch some dinner. 

While he went snorkeling I decided to kick my feet up and relax for a few minutes before going back to get the kids.

And of course some selfies. 

After I got the kids from school we walked back to Mark on the beach. We watched a bird dive into the water to catch fish.  

 We stopped by IGA on the way home and bought 6 Liters of Caramel Toffee ice cream. It's definitely not normal American ice cream but it was a treat.

A side note for the day is there was a tiny little lizard inside our apartment! It was actually pretty cute. We were on our way out and didn't deal with it but never saw it again.

Tuesday I got onto Pinterest and found a recipe that claimed you could make bread in an hour. It looked good to me so I tried it. I found it to be successful. 

Wednesday wasn't very eventful. Which isn't a bad thing...

Alexis and Isaac go to the pool on campus every Thursday with their school. Because Kari only goes to school for half of the day she misses out on the pool. So this week Emma, Kari and I went along with them.

The ocean is off to the left not terribly far away. Isaac wanted the picture to show water coming out of the torpedo...

This guy came right up by the pool to visit! It was our first iguana siting! I was pretty excited about it!

Friday I saw an ant in our apartment for the first time. I knew they would find us. It was just a matter of time. They are little tiny ants that scurry around fast.

There is a gal here whose husband just started his last semester here. She gathered some stuff she wanted to get rid of and had a little sale at her apartment. I went and checked it out. She has 2 little girls. I got a few kid books and some swim suits and things for Emma to grow into. I also got a fun little YBike Pewi. I'd never seen one before but it's good to help little ones learn to walk and a fun toy as they're a little older too. I thought it might be too fast for her right now but she actually did a really good job walking with it.  It's crazy to look at my friend's little girl who was the same age as my Emma when they first got here. Time is going to fly and Emma is going to change so much!

Saturday I went over to a friend's house to learn how she makes bread. I didn't go over last week because Kari had been sick. Mark kept all the kids at home. Emma napped and Lexi was in charge so he could study. She chose to work on dishes while the other two watched a movie. She wants to have more responsibilities. It's so hard to teach them and let them do things when it is a million times faster and more effective for me to just do it. I know I better take advantage of her desire to learn though.

We arrived to the island on December 31st and it is now January 31st. We have been here an entire month!!!! It's so crazy to me! Not long ago I was having a hard time imagining myself here at all. We expect to be here for 16 months so assuming that holds true we are 1/16 of the way through. Haha! I'm not starting a countdown quite yet but I do miss America.


Sunday is here again and it is now February! Carnival is the 16th and 17th of this month but apparently they celebrate most of the month. I don't know that it will get very crazy around us though. It sounds like they gather in the capitol city of Roseau.
As we were leaving for church this morning a little bird flew into our apartment! It was a bit exciting. Mark successfully guided it back out the door. We had a Stake Conference broadcast at church. Elder Holland and Elder Packer were two of the speakers. We didn't have a very good internet connection to stream it properly though. It was hard to piece together what we heard with all the pausing and skipping. I was sad. Mostly because there were more local people in attendance that came to hear the broadcast.  Maybe it can be downloaded and watched later. I don't know.