He's home!!!

spring break

So it is spring break here. We opted to stay around here and work on house projects. So I thought I'd post some pictures of our recent trip to the Dominican Republic. Or heaven on earth, as I like to call it.

This is what we are experiencing now with the kids.



The view at Las Galeras beach

Our first meal on the beach. i loved how they served the fish whole--it reminded me of Portugal.

Watching them make queso fresco. The cheese was delicious, I just had to not think about the rough conditions it was made in and then I was fine.

The closest church was in Nagua, an hour and 50 minutes away. We didn't have the address of the church so we just headed to Nagua and hoped we could find it. Once we got there we had no idea where to go, so when we saw a guy in a white shirt and tie riding a motorcycle we asked where a mormon church was. "I'm Mormon," he said, "I'll take you there." And with that miracle we followed him through the winding streets straight to the chapel. And we were so glad we did. It was one of the highlights of the trip, hearing the testimonies of the members there and realizing once again how blessed we are to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives, and how it is the same all over the world.

Sunday must be laundry day in the Dominican. The people are lucky if they have a small washing machine and no one has dryers, so this view was everywhere as we drove to and from church.

I plan to frame my "laundry" pictures and put them in my laundry room. Then when I feel like complaining about all of the laundry I do, I'll remember to count my blessings. Because really my washing machine and dryer do most of the work.

This is the view from the condo. You can't really see but i am sitting on a chair reading a book, enjoying the beautiful ocean. Such peace and beauty. I've really got to live by an ocean someday.

This was an area where they do cliff diving. Tyler thinks since he has good life insurance that he can dive off of 500 foot cliffs into crashing waves below and I should be okay with it. Lucky for me the water was too rough the day we visited or he would have dived. Yikes!

This is the view looking down on the "stairs" to the water below

Tyler on the diving cliff. I am taking the picture from an open-air restaurant built on the edge of the neighboring cliff. A family from Holland built the restaurant and live and work in the dominican now. We were seriously considering options of how we could stay and live there too.
We came back to the restaurant later and had dinner. You can't see the view, but it was breathtaking. When we were getting ready to leave the owner hung a hammock in the restaurant so he could tuck his son in for bed. What a sweet life!

Walking along the rocks by the condo

I love the boats on the beach. I think the fishermen are really brave to go out in the ocean in these little boats. Notice the huge cruise ship in the background.

It is a sure sign of a dangerous animal if they have to saw the horns off. Beware of cow.

Coco, our friend and worker at the Condo. I wish you could see that he has a machete on his lap as he rides his motorcycle. The machete goes everyone with him.

This is a cave Coco took us to explore. It is behind his house on the hillside. His father-in-law has prayer meetings here, hence the need for the benches.

The inside of the cave was amazing. It was really dark, but the flash on the camera lit up the whole place. The only downside was the bats that were swooping around. I had a bad image in my mind of a bat swooping down and getting caught in my hair. Luckily we escaped with no bat attacks. Whew!

Us in the cave

These were some of the houses on Coco's property. i don't know how many families lived on this piece of land. When we went to visit there must have been 15 people there, some playing baseball, others cleaning, cooking and sweeping the dirt walkways and taking care of the kids running around. The Dominican is a land of contrast. People would live in the rudest of shelters, with no running water or indoor plumbing but have a TV and cable.

This was a really nice motorcycle. Most of them are pretty basic and run down looking, so I guess that is why this one got a fancy garage to park in.

Playa Madama. This beach was snorkel-heaven. The coral was so colorful and the fish were everywhere. Brightly colored electric blue fish, striped yellow, even a flat fish that blended into the ocean floor and swam like a sting-ray. We could have stayed all day at this beach. It was a rocky drive up to it, and then a 1/2 hour hike to get there, but well worth it.

This was on the hike out from Playa Madama. Do you like Tyler's pink camoflauge backpack? Cute. (Okay, it's really mine, but he carried it for me. What a gentleman). Actually the hike through the underbrush was a bit scary at times and I found myself thinking through emergency scenarios in my mind as I hiked. What if Tyler fell and broke his leg? How would I get him out of the forest and back to the car? And where would I go for medical treatment from there? Do you ever do that? I think when I'm nervous I try to think through every possible bad situation so I can be prepared so i won't be as scared. The best plan I came up with was to use our towels and a few fallen branches and lash together a stretcher and drag him out. When I told Tyler about my plan later he said I should just leave him there, go get help and come back. I thought about that, but knew with my sense of direction if I left him there I'd never find him again. And since I created the perfect plan nothing happened. Whew!

The condo

Tyler with Coco. Coco is such a great person and saved us a few times. When we first arrived at the condo at 2am, we discovered that we brought the wrong key and couldn't get in. Once again I was planning what I would do (sleep on the beach, etc.), when Tyler called Coco to see if he could come and let us in. Tyler's phone died 5 seconds after he got Coco on the line. Luckily it was enough for Coco to hear "keys don't work" and he and his girlfriend arrived on his motorcycle 10 minutes later and saved the day.

It was such a fantastic trip--a huge thank you to my mom for coming out to watch the kids and to my in-laws for sharing their condo.

ANOTHER birthday boy!

Ty's 10!!! Hard to believe...


His breakfast in bed--orange rolls and bacon

Ty's lemon cake

Nice shirt, Grandma!

Ty is celebrating with a friend party at the end of the month, so we get a little break to our "birthday season" to catch our breath and prepare.

Ty is such a great oldest son, so quick to help out and set a great example for his younger siblings to follow. Happy Birthday, Ty!

(And happy birthday to McKay, Devan and Dr. Seuss who all share the same birthday :)

Birthday Boy Garrett!!!

February 24th was Garrett's 6th birthday. He started off his day with crepes in bed.

He was out cold when we walked in--usually the birthday person is anxiously awaiting our arrival. Look at that tired face :)

Presents!

After presents we celebrated by playing basketball at the church. Parents vs. kids. Miya just chased us back and forth on the court kicking her volleyball and laughing. It was awesome! Until she got tired of that and wanted me to carry her. Then I wasn't much help to my team. I thought the parents won, but the kids thought they won...hmmm...

Nilla wafer banana pudding cake.

Friday night Garrett had a friend party-10 wrestling boys running around the house. Two hours seemed more like four but Garrett had a great time :)

Garrett is really into Legos

My basketball pinata was too wimpy or the boys were too strong. They didn't want to be blindfolded, so they were really wailing on it. The second boy broke it, so the rest of them just got to hit the remains of the pinata hanging there. Luckily they seemed just as happy to hit the broken pinata as the full one.

The whole crew--HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GARRETT!!

On a side note we just had parent teacher conferences and G's teacher said what a great kid he is. He is a friend to all, great listener and participator and always does his best. We feel the same way about our Garrett and are so glad to have him!

soapbox

Thursday night we got a phone call at 10:03, just as we were drifting off to sleep. It was an automated call from the school district telling us that school would be canceled due to a lack of teachers and not enough substitutes to cover for them. Are you kidding me?!

The teachers were striking (or calling in sick) because of a bill the Wisconsin state government is trying to pass which will require teachers to actually contribute to their pension plans, and that they pay 12.6% of their health care benefits. Currently they pay nothing into their pension plans and receive their health care for free--no monthly contribution. Even after this bill passes, they will still pay only about half what the average american pays for their monthly health benefits. This bill will save the state approximately 300 million over the next 2 years and will help as our new governor and legislators try to balance the budget which is 3.6 billion in debt. Pres. Obama has criticized the Wisconsin State government, even shipping in protestors to Madison to show his disdain. Obama said, "And I think it's very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors, they're our friends. I think everybody's got to make some adjustments, but I think it's also important to recognize that public employees make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens." Governor Scott Walker has responded to the criticism, "I think we're focused on balancing our budget. It would be wise for the president and others in Washington to focus on balancing their budget, which they're a long ways from doing." I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read that. Hooray for Gov. Walker!!! Way to stand up to the President.

So, what have the Democratic legislators done to show their disapproval of the bill? They ran away. They crossed the border into Illinois and are hiding in Chicago so that a vote can't take place. Does this sound a bit cowardly to you? Governor Walker isn't a coward. He has sent the State Troopers after these representatives to bring them back. That is why they crossed the state line. So comforting to know the kind of people who are making decisions for us.

Now, don't get me wrong. My degree is in teaching, and I have much respect for teachers and the teaching profession. It is one of the hardest jobs out there, with countless hours spent preparing lessons, grading and going the extra mile. It is a job that could never be 8-5, as a teacher is always working on his/her curriculum and thinking about how to best teach it to his/her students and get them excited about it. Teachers should be appreciated and respected and paid to reflect their performance. But since they are government employees and the government budget is over-stretched, they have to make sacrifices just like the rest of us. I don't know anyone who works for a private company who gets free healthcare and a free pension/401K. They are required to contribute their portion to both and that seems logical. Shouldn't the government employees be required to do the same?

So far we haven't heard anything about if school is cancelled tomorrow or not. It is President's Day and Tyler has the day off, but for some reason the school kids don't. As we are in the middle of a winter storm (supposed to get 12 inches or so) maybe we'll have a snow day tomorrow and make everyone happy.

So I'll get down off of my soapbox now. I just had to vent, and I hope I haven't offended anyone. It has been exciting seeing teachers out picketing and hearing how passionate people are about this issue, one way or the other. Tyler and I went out to eat last night and halfway through our meal some people came in with signs supporting Gov. Walker. I think one of the signs read, "Your pension=my money" It sure adds some excitement to our quiet town, and I'm excited to see what tomorrow will bring.

I'm a mormon!!!

I finally made my profile on mormon.org



Check it out here! http://www.mormon.org/me/2P5Y/#



They are doing all kinds of radio and TV commercials here in the Twin Cities. i think we are one of the test areas. It is wonderful to hear "I'm A Mormon" commercials on the radio as I'm driving around during the day. Now I've got my own mini-commercial.

Shayla's baptism day

Shayla was baptized on Sat., February 12th by her dad.

It was a special occasion and we were so glad my mom could be here to share it with us, and felt all of our family here in spirit.

I made Shayla's dress for her. She loved it and looked so cute in it. I was fully prepared to go out and buy her a dress if it didn't turn out (most of my sewing projects never see the light of day) so I was happy with the results!

Shayla celebrating with a few of her friends after the baptism. She was just beaming and so happy. She said she was so nervous before the baptism she thought she would throw up, but after she came out of the water she felt so happy. I am proud of the decision she made to be baptized and feel that she is truly taking it to heart.