April 01, 2008
Happy April Fools Day! Yeah, I’m not so much into this holiday,
but whatever. Anyway, This is going to be a loooooooong post, so I might break it up into a couple different ones. We’ll separate it into stories: Cruise, Wildlife, Crazy, Ella. That should be good :)
Cruise: I just got back from a weeklong cruise through the Caribbean with my family. It was super fun, but weird because Tom couldn’t come. He had to stay in school so it was just me and Ella with my family. Angela couldn’t go either because she was in New York. Anyway, we went to five different islands with the first island being St. Maarten! Yay! It was nice because that was on Easter Sunday, so I got to spend Easter with my whole family AND Tom! Yay!! We ate Easter lunch at this fancy restaurant in Philipsburg called Fusions, then hung out at the beach. It was pretty uneventful, but nice just the same. The second island was Dominica. I really liked that island. It was very rainforest-ish and reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. We went on this rugged 4 x 4 bus thingie all over the island and went up to this little stream coming out of this canyon. We jumped in the stream, swam through the canyons (it kind of looked like the Narrows, just with lava rock) and at the very end was this big waterfall! It was super cool!! We could just off the rocks into the water and everything. The water was crystal clear and SUPER cold! It was way neat.
The next island we went to was Grenada (I might be getting this out of order, sorry.) where we took a FOREVER long bus tour. Wow…it was long. Grenada is the Spice Island of the Caribbean so they took us to this little spice place and showed us where spices come from: cinnamon, cocoa, nutmeg, mace, etc. It was very interesting. Then we went up to this Fort which was pretty cool, then up to the top of this mountain to look over the island. The island was neat, but the tour was way long.
The next day was Bon Aire. We all went snorkeling on this big catamaran. It was pretty neat. We saw sea turtles and everything. My dad watched Ella while we all went in, and I guess she had a FIT! She didn’t like the boat very much.
Last of all was Aruba. I’ve decided that after all the islands we went to, I’m definitely GRATEFUL to live on St. Maarten, but Aruba wouldn’t be bad. Aruba was pretty Americanized. St. Maarten is just modernized. The other islands are neither. My family all went scuba diving on Aruba, but Daniel, Barbara, me and Ella went on a semi-submersible boat ride that was pretty awesome. We went over a shipwreck and some coral reefs. It was neat :)
The cruise itself was pretty fun, too. Ella did REMARKABLY well for being as young as she is. We even dressed her up for the formal nights J It was sooooo cute! I also participated in the cruise Talent Show and got a free t-shirt. Woowoo, huh? It was funny, though, because the last performer was this girl singing a broadway song, but it was REALLY bad. Ella was SOUND asleep until this girl hit this high note WAAAAAY off and Ella woke up and started screaming! Haha! Then she settled down and fell asleep again, until the girl hit the same wrong note! Then she woke up and started fussing again! Haha! My daughter has perfect pitch! Woo hoo!! There was also an acapella group on board called On Point and whenever they sang, she was absolutely silent and just watched them. It was pretty funny.
Wildlife: This story is probably better told by Tom, since it happened to him, but we’ll see if I can do it justice. So Tom kind of had a hard week while I was gone. Our apartment is safe and everything, but outside is really dark and pretty scary at night and that’s NOT being a lone. Well, for a couple weeks we have heard some rustling in our apartment, but we couldn’t ever figure out if it was the upstairs apartment, or one of our neighbors, so we just ignored it. Well, last Wednesday, Tom was studying at the table and heard the sound in our kitchen! So he looks over the counter and sees something jump from the top of the fridge to the top of the dryer! (Yes, the dryer/washer are next to the fridge in the kitchen). So Tom kind of freaks out, which I would do too, and it trying to look around to see what it was and all of a sudden this little head pokes out from behind the dryer! He thought it was a little mouse…nope, A BIG RAT! EEEWWW!!!! Well, it was too late to go to any stores to get traps or anything, so when he went to bed he shut the bedroom door and put a towel around the bottom so nothing could get in.
The next day he went to Ace and got a bunch of rat traps and everything. When he came home from Lab, he was all in his scrubs, so he put on his jeans over his scrubs, some long socks with the pants tucked into them, his big leather shoes, a sweatshirt and big leather gloves. He looked all around the washer/dryer and fridge and found rat poop everywhere! He also discovered where the rat was coming in and out…the dryer vent! Ew!! So he cleaned everything up, went back to Ace, bought some duct tape, and taped the whole up real good. He also set a bunch of traps and everything to catch this rat. Well, that was a couple days ago, and we haven’t heard anything since. It was quite the eventful week. Poor Tom. This place is scary enough as it is without anything in your house! Even just a rat!!
Crazy: Well, at church on Sunday we had an exciting Sacrament Meeting. Jill Cluff was up giving the closing talk and this black guy stands up from the back of the room, walks across the front of the room, and down the back aisle saying “Oh, children…children….oh children…” with his hand on his chest. Everyone was like, “well, that was kind of weird, but okay.” Well, then the guy does it again…and again…and when he was on his third or fourth run around the room, Elder Platt stands up and kind of escorts him out into the hallway because it is totally disrupting our meeting. So he kind of ushers him into the hallway and shuts the door. Poor Jill is still trying to give her talk, mind you. Well, I guess Elder Platt tried to reach around him and pat his back, and the guy freaked out and started yelling at him like, “DON’T HIT ME!!” Okay, Elder Platt is about 70 years old and kind of feeble. I can’t imagine he would hit anyone! Ha! Well, at this point the missionaries get up and are trying to help. So there’s all sorts of yelling coming from the hallway and everything. Then these two black members get up and go out there, too, and call the cops. The scary black guy is out there yelling “Satan is here! I want my mommy!” (yeah…totally crazy). Well, I guess he got violent and hit Elder Johnston and pushed Elder Platt. Finally I think he saw that he was outnumbered by a lot and left. Talk about scary, though!! Elder Johnston said he was probably high and that they actually come across that a lot while they are walking around town. Wow…St. Maarten is turning into quite the place J Poor Jill finished her talk and held her composure pretty good considering what was going on just outside the chapel! There are windows on the doors, too, so you can see what is going on!!
Ella: I cannot believe how big this girl is getting! She is still pretty small for her age, but getting big in my eyes! :) She is just a tiny bit over five months old, but still fits in some of her three month clothes. Silly baby :) She is now the Scooting Queen and will soon be the Crawling Queen. She can get on her knees and hands and rock back and forth, but if she really wants something that is just out of reach, she lays on her tummy and flails her arms and legs. It’s pretty funny J She is very noisy aaaaaallllll the time and likes to fuss if you aren’t holding her. She is turning into quite the spoiled princess :) I think she is starting to teethe because she is getting pretty cranky and can’t sleep for long periods of time. Last night, however, we discovered the little pill thingies that Karey gave me for teething babies. Talk about a miracle drug! Wow! Just put two of those things under Ella’s tongue and she is one happy camper! Poor thing must be hurting, though. She also has a little bit of a cold right now, just the sniffles, but I think that is irritating her, too. She is still the cutest little button in the world though!! :) Overall she is a pretty happy baby and loves to give big smiles to people we meet around town. I also painted her toenails (people kept thinking she was a boy!) and they are oh-so-feminine :) haha!
Happy April Fools Day! Yeah, I’m not so much into this holiday,
but whatever. Anyway, This is going to be a loooooooong post, so I might break it up into a couple different ones. We’ll separate it into stories: Cruise, Wildlife, Crazy, Ella. That should be good :)Cruise: I just got back from a weeklong cruise through the Caribbean with my family. It was super fun, but weird because Tom couldn’t come. He had to stay in school so it was just me and Ella with my family. Angela couldn’t go either because she was in New York. Anyway, we went to five different islands with the first island being St. Maarten! Yay! It was nice because that was on Easter Sunday, so I got to spend Easter with my whole family AND Tom! Yay!! We ate Easter lunch at this fancy restaurant in Philipsburg called Fusions, then hung out at the beach. It was pretty uneventful, but nice just the same. The second island was Dominica. I really liked that island. It was very rainforest-ish and reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. We went on this rugged 4 x 4 bus thingie all over the island and went up to this little stream coming out of this canyon. We jumped in the stream, swam through the canyons (it kind of looked like the Narrows, just with lava rock) and at the very end was this big waterfall! It was super cool!! We could just off the rocks into the water and everything. The water was crystal clear and SUPER cold! It was way neat.
The next island we went to was Grenada (I might be getting this out of order, sorry.) where we took a FOREVER long bus tour. Wow…it was long. Grenada is the Spice Island of the Caribbean so they took us to this little spice place and showed us where spices come from: cinnamon, cocoa, nutmeg, mace, etc. It was very interesting. Then we went up to this Fort which was pretty cool, then up to the top of this mountain to look over the island. The island was neat, but the tour was way long.
The next day was Bon Aire. We all went snorkeling on this big catamaran. It was pretty neat. We saw sea turtles and everything. My dad watched Ella while we all went in, and I guess she had a FIT! She didn’t like the boat very much.
Last of all was Aruba. I’ve decided that after all the islands we went to, I’m definitely GRATEFUL to live on St. Maarten, but Aruba wouldn’t be bad. Aruba was pretty Americanized. St. Maarten is just modernized. The other islands are neither. My family all went scuba diving on Aruba, but Daniel, Barbara, me and Ella went on a semi-submersible boat ride that was pretty awesome. We went over a shipwreck and some coral reefs. It was neat :)
The cruise itself was pretty fun, too. Ella did REMARKABLY well for being as young as she is. We even dressed her up for the formal nights J It was sooooo cute! I also participated in the cruise Talent Show and got a free t-shirt. Woowoo, huh? It was funny, though, because the last performer was this girl singing a broadway song, but it was REALLY bad. Ella was SOUND asleep until this girl hit this high note WAAAAAY off and Ella woke up and started screaming! Haha! Then she settled down and fell asleep again, until the girl hit the same wrong note! Then she woke up and started fussing again! Haha! My daughter has perfect pitch! Woo hoo!! There was also an acapella group on board called On Point and whenever they sang, she was absolutely silent and just watched them. It was pretty funny.
Wildlife: This story is probably better told by Tom, since it happened to him, but we’ll see if I can do it justice. So Tom kind of had a hard week while I was gone. Our apartment is safe and everything, but outside is really dark and pretty scary at night and that’s NOT being a lone. Well, for a couple weeks we have heard some rustling in our apartment, but we couldn’t ever figure out if it was the upstairs apartment, or one of our neighbors, so we just ignored it. Well, last Wednesday, Tom was studying at the table and heard the sound in our kitchen! So he looks over the counter and sees something jump from the top of the fridge to the top of the dryer! (Yes, the dryer/washer are next to the fridge in the kitchen). So Tom kind of freaks out, which I would do too, and it trying to look around to see what it was and all of a sudden this little head pokes out from behind the dryer! He thought it was a little mouse…nope, A BIG RAT! EEEWWW!!!! Well, it was too late to go to any stores to get traps or anything, so when he went to bed he shut the bedroom door and put a towel around the bottom so nothing could get in.
The next day he went to Ace and got a bunch of rat traps and everything. When he came home from Lab, he was all in his scrubs, so he put on his jeans over his scrubs, some long socks with the pants tucked into them, his big leather shoes, a sweatshirt and big leather gloves. He looked all around the washer/dryer and fridge and found rat poop everywhere! He also discovered where the rat was coming in and out…the dryer vent! Ew!! So he cleaned everything up, went back to Ace, bought some duct tape, and taped the whole up real good. He also set a bunch of traps and everything to catch this rat. Well, that was a couple days ago, and we haven’t heard anything since. It was quite the eventful week. Poor Tom. This place is scary enough as it is without anything in your house! Even just a rat!!
Crazy: Well, at church on Sunday we had an exciting Sacrament Meeting. Jill Cluff was up giving the closing talk and this black guy stands up from the back of the room, walks across the front of the room, and down the back aisle saying “Oh, children…children….oh children…” with his hand on his chest. Everyone was like, “well, that was kind of weird, but okay.” Well, then the guy does it again…and again…and when he was on his third or fourth run around the room, Elder Platt stands up and kind of escorts him out into the hallway because it is totally disrupting our meeting. So he kind of ushers him into the hallway and shuts the door. Poor Jill is still trying to give her talk, mind you. Well, I guess Elder Platt tried to reach around him and pat his back, and the guy freaked out and started yelling at him like, “DON’T HIT ME!!” Okay, Elder Platt is about 70 years old and kind of feeble. I can’t imagine he would hit anyone! Ha! Well, at this point the missionaries get up and are trying to help. So there’s all sorts of yelling coming from the hallway and everything. Then these two black members get up and go out there, too, and call the cops. The scary black guy is out there yelling “Satan is here! I want my mommy!” (yeah…totally crazy). Well, I guess he got violent and hit Elder Johnston and pushed Elder Platt. Finally I think he saw that he was outnumbered by a lot and left. Talk about scary, though!! Elder Johnston said he was probably high and that they actually come across that a lot while they are walking around town. Wow…St. Maarten is turning into quite the place J Poor Jill finished her talk and held her composure pretty good considering what was going on just outside the chapel! There are windows on the doors, too, so you can see what is going on!!
Ella: I cannot believe how big this girl is getting! She is still pretty small for her age, but getting big in my eyes! :) She is just a tiny bit over five months old, but still fits in some of her three month clothes. Silly baby :) She is now the Scooting Queen and will soon be the Crawling Queen. She can get on her knees and hands and rock back and forth, but if she really wants something that is just out of reach, she lays on her tummy and flails her arms and legs. It’s pretty funny J She is very noisy aaaaaallllll the time and likes to fuss if you aren’t holding her. She is turning into quite the spoiled princess :) I think she is starting to teethe because she is getting pretty cranky and can’t sleep for long periods of time. Last night, however, we discovered the little pill thingies that Karey gave me for teething babies. Talk about a miracle drug! Wow! Just put two of those things under Ella’s tongue and she is one happy camper! Poor thing must be hurting, though. She also has a little bit of a cold right now, just the sniffles, but I think that is irritating her, too. She is still the cutest little button in the world though!! :) Overall she is a pretty happy baby and loves to give big smiles to people we meet around town. I also painted her toenails (people kept thinking she was a boy!) and they are oh-so-feminine :) haha!
