One of Bryn's friends has been taking horse back riding lessons while on Dominica and asked us if we would like to go one day and just ride a horse during the lesson.  The kids were so excited about it and couldn't wait to go.  When we got there, Bryn was a little unsure until Kyler went first and then she was all about going.  The kids had a great time and enjoyed the evening.  The lady who owns the horses will do guided tours on the beach, or up in the mountains.  This is what she does for a living and then she does the lessons on the side as well.  It was a really fun day.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had an amazing Thanksgiving yesterday.  We were reminded of how thankful we are for family and being together, but for the circumstances, we had a great day.  Erick and the kids had school that day, so in the morning I was getting things ready for our FIRST feast!  The day school where the kids attend school had a thanksgiving lunch at the school.  It was every nice with everything you would expect at thanksgiving.  Which was amazing to me since they don't celebrate the holiday here!  After lunch I got busy again preparing things for the SECOND feast of the day!  Ralna and Craig had a Thanksgiving at their home and it was awesome.  There were at least 100 people.  And so much food you could not believe it.  It started at 6:30 and by the time I helped finish up the cleaning and putting away it was well after midnight!  It was a wonderful day.  We missed our families a lot, but it helped to be able to spend the day with our "family" here.  

At the day school!

Ralna's House

Table #1

Table #2

Table #3

The dessert table

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

"I wanna be like you dad..."

Kyler is always wanting to be just like Erick.  On Sunday Erick was getting him dressed.  Erick already had his tie on and was helping Kyler put his pants on and Kyler grabbed his tie and said, "I want one of these like you." of course we didn't bring any of his ties down.  In fact it is like pulling teeth to get him to wear a polo shirt with a collar let alone a tie.  He kept telling Erick he wanted one and we all knew it was going to be a fight the whole day if he didn't have one.  So Erick took one of his ties and cut the end off and make a tie for Kyler.  The best part is we were in a hurry to get on our way so Erick stapled the ends of the tie to keep it from fraying!!  

Snorkeling

I have been snorkeling almost every Thursday since we got to Dominica.  There is a group of us that go every week.  There have been times that I was not able to go, but just about every week I have been.  If we are not able to go on Thursday, we will try for another day that week.  While we have been snorkeling, we have made friends with a sea turtle.  He is the coolest thing ever. We have swam with him for hours before.  He is really hard to find because he blends in with the coral, but once we find him, we can swim right along with him for a while.  It has been amazing. Something to really look forward to.  Well I have some bad news.....  This week Ralna and I decided to go snorkeling on Tuesday.  We hadn't been last week because Kyler had Hand Foot and Mouth, so we decided to try for a couple times this week to make up for last week. We had a great time, we found lots of sand dollars, a few really neat shells, and tons of fish, we saw two sting rays and the biggest puffer fish we have ever seen.  As we were getting out of the water to go pick up the kids, I saw something floating in the water that looked like a broken plastic chair, so I swam over to it and still wasn't sure what it was.  As soon as I got close enough to get a good look, I looked up to find Ralna and she was already on her way over, we both started screaming, I think mostly because we couldn't believe what we were seeing.  Our friend who we had named Crush was gone.  

  

We took the shell back to the school and asked Mr. Theo who is a teacher at the school, what could have happened to him, and he said that the clean cut on the spine, the knife marks in the flesh and the clean cuts on the edges means that someone killed him to eat.  If a shark had gotten him, there would have been teeth marks on the shell.  I didn't even know people ate turtles.  Especially not Crush!!  So apparently, it is illegal to kill the turtles and so to have a shell would mean that we had killed the turtle ourselves, so we took some pics and then put it back in the ocean.

eeney meeney miney moe!

eeney meeney miney moe catch a tiger by the toe if he hollers let him go, my mommy says that you are not it.....

This is what I heard Bryn saying over and over and over a couple of nights ago, so I went out to investigate what she was deciding between.  She had the movies open and was picking between Parent Trap and Nancy Drew!  TOUGH CHOICE!  The funny thing was, it was very obvious that she wanted Parent Trap, because she kept landing on Nancy Drew, so she would start over.  I watcher her for about 5 minutes with out her knowing and it just kept going.  She was determined to have the chant pick the movie and it just wasn't working.  After about 5 minutes, she decided to add in a ...my mommy says that you are not EVER it.... and with the added word it worked!  She immediately turned and yelled MOM, can I watch a movie?  She was very surprised to see me standing there watching her!

It brought back so many memories to hear her saying it, but also to see her trying to MAKE it land on the RIGHT one.  I remember doing this as a kid, but had forgotten.  I love that about having kids, they help you remember the simple things in life!

Crazy kids....

A couple of days ago we were walking to school, just me and the kids.  When we got across the main road and was walking on the sidewalk we met up with some friends.  Kyler immediately began holding hands with the little boy his age who is in his class.  Bryn caught up with a couple other kids closer to her age.  I was in the back with Kyler and his friend, the other two moms were in the front and Bryn and the other two kids were in the middle.  When we got a little closer to school Kyler's friend's mom turned back, and said, "Oh, are you holding your friends hand?" to her son.  He shook his head and said yes, and Kyler said, "Yea, mine's white and his is black!"  He said it so matter of fact and innocent, but I held my breath hoping to have not offending anyone.  Luckily both moms just laughed and said, "your right."

On Sunday at church, our sweet little Bryn decided to show us a different side!!!

Church was over and we were waiting for Erick to take care of his stuff.  While we were waiting Bryn's teacher told me that they were in class and it was almost the end and she had something for them to color, but they were being a little noisy and wild, so she said to them, "Come on guys, we just have to be quite for 5 more minutes and then you can color."  Bryn took the opportunity at that point to say, "so we have to sit here and listen to you talk and read that SILLY OLD BIBLE for 5 more minutes?"  Her teacher said the whole class started laughing and then try to kids a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds to be quiet!  Not sure where that came from. 

Halloween celebration!

Halloween on the island is not celebrated by the locals.  However, we still had a great halloween.  On thursday the 30th all the kids were able to get dressed up after lunch and go trick or treating to the different classrooms and offices of campus.  The kids had so much fun and got tonz of candy!  Ethan who LOVES Bryn, told her that he wished he was the boy on high school musical [thank goodness he was a pirate!! :)].  Then on Friday night the spouses organization had a great carnival with the whole cake walk, fishing pond, face painting, and relay races.  The kids had a great halloween and we now have way too much candy!

Best Buddies

Kyler Loves John Walker, and they are constantly together.  One day Erick saw the class walk by and Kyler was holding hands with John Walker and we has talking constantly to him as they walked by!  Wouldn't it be interesting to hear that conversation?  We are going to be sad in December we they head off to 5th semester.  We hope we see them again at some point along the way, and if not- when we are all done maybe!:)

Creole Dress

For the month of October, every Friday the locals dress up in their Creole attire.  As they prepare for their independence day which is November 3rd.  The first Friday in October, Bryn came out at lunch and told me Miss Fredrick said we had to make a creole dress.  I about died, not only have I NEVER seen a material store here, I don't have a sewing machine, a pattern, or my mom!  So I asked her for more details and she didn't know any.  Well she forgot about it as did I until the next Friday, when she came out again at lunch telling me I needed to make her a creole dress.  After some investigating, I figured out what the tradition of wearing the clothing on Friday was, and that you can buy the dresses at the local shops.  So we finally got the dress, and she was able to wear it for 2 of the 5 Fridays in October.  She was very excited about the dress.  After I told her we can just buy them, everywhere we went she would be saying behind my back, "ask them where to buy a dress."  Here she is in all her Creole Glory!

WE LOVE PLAYDATES

My kids love play-dates, I guess all kids do, but I don't think a day goes by that Bryn doesn't ask is someone can come over to play.  It really doesn't matter to her who it is as long as someone comes over.  The other night we had William, Sophia, and John Walker come over.  They played so well together and had a great time.  This is all of then playing My Little Pony!  Thanks guys for coming over!

Happy Halloween!

8 FUN THINGS

Tagged by Jodie

8 TV shows I love to watch....

1.  King of Queens

2.  Everybody loves Raymond

3.  Reba

4.  American Idol

5.  Food network (all the shows)

6.  Good things Utah

7.  Oprah

8.  Extreme makeover home edition

8 Favorite Restaurants

1.  PF Changs

2.  Cafe Rio

3.  Red Robin

4.  Mimi's Cafe

5.  Chipotle

6.  Training Table

7.  Tepanyakis

8.  Sizzler

8 Things that Happened Yesterday

1.  went to the market

2.  went to the swimming pool

3.  Made a HUGE batch of flour tortillas (my best yet)

4.  Made a batch of soft pretzels - yummy!!! 

5.  Made dinner

6.  Played Uno FOREVER.  (the kids new favorite game right now)

7.  Play school with Bryn while Kyler had a nap

8.  Worked on my team project for school

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1.  Christmas

2.  Bahamas

3.  Normal Grocery store

4.  Target, Wal-Mart, a Mall (Just to look )

5.  An income

6.  Finishing my degree

7.  Visiting all 4 Grand Slam tennis tournaments (Due to a promise from Erick after his LOVE for Tennis came about)

8.  Twilight movie

8 Things on My Wish List

1.  Tell/see the future

2.  More patience

3.  How-to book on PERFECT parenting

4.  To see the whole world 

5.  More hours in the day

6.  Tide laundry soap and Downy fabric softener

7.  Play tennis PERFECTLY (I don't like the learning stage, I want to just be good at it.  It would be more fun)

8.  play the piano

8 People I Tag

1. Sherin

2. Staci

3. Joni

4. Rindi

5. Marlyce

6. Adreann

7. Laura

8. Tennille 

Hurricane Omar

Hurricane Omar went through the caribbean this week.  It was not a threat to the United States because it was heading the opposite way than they usually go, however it managed to bring quite the storm to Dominica.  The rain and winds were incredible. Of course it turned our water to chocolate milk Mmmmmm!  School was cancelled for the day, they closed the whole campus by orders of the Prime Minister.  The ocean was going crazy, it was unreal to see the waves and the damage that water can do.  All of the fishing boats were washed up on the road, there was a huge mess to clean up after it was all over.  The dock that is right by the school was completely destroyed, and the restaurant right there had about an inch of sand and water on the floor along with tree branched and rocks and all sorts of other things that were washed up.  In portsmouth they had some bobcats scraping the parking lots and roads to get them clear for the traffic.  I guess they do that instead of pushing snow!

Here are some pictures we got.  It was still storming when we took them, so they are not the best...

This is what is left of the dock!

Clearing the parking lot.

We are moving!!!

Well if you haven't heard yet, you have now.  WE ARE MOVING!!

So here is how it works:  Medical school is broken in to 4 semesters of basic science classes, then they add a 5th semester of Advanced Introduction to Clinical Medicine (AICM).  After 5th you have two years of rotations and then on to residency.  For us we have spent 2 semesters in Dominica to equal our first year of medical school.  We will be going home for christmas and then in January we are heading to FREEPORT, GRAND BAHAMAS.  There we will do 2 semesters as well to finish our 2nd year of medical school.  At that point we are not sure where life/medical school will take us.  We hope Michigan, but that is still an unknown.  The choices for AICM are Dominica, Miami, Florida or Michigan.  For now, all we know is we will be saying goodbye to Dominica in December for good.  We will miss the island and all our wonderful friends we have made so far.  Hopefully we will run into some of them again!

On to the move: we are so excited.  We don't have a lot of details yet, other than we know we are going.  So we will keep you all posted as this next chapter unfolds for our family.  We know it will be a great adventure to add to the ones we already have had, and the school for Erick will be a great opportunity

. 

 

What do you shave before peach fuzz??? Your nose!!

Erick was shaving the other day and Kyler decided that he too needed to shave.  So I took the blade off my razor and we got him some shave cream and let him have at it.  This is what we did....

I remember when we were little, well I can't say for the boys, but I remember "shaving" with my dad.  I would get the razor with out a blade and some shave cream and try to do it just like my dad.  Back in the green bathroom!! oh memories:)  However, my dad's razor back then was better than mine now.  It still had a section on the end as long as the blade, so I could get a good section of shaving in one swipe, what Kyler got was a little trickier, maybe that is why he decided to go for the nose, it just fit better!  Oh well it made him happy and kept him busy for a couple of minutes.

BOYS HARD @ WORK!!!!

On saturday, Erick came home for lunch, and he and Kyler spend the whole time fixing the car.  The tire was making a weird sound, there was something hitting or falling against something else(ALL GUY TALK). Anyway since Erick was out there working of course Kyler was right there with him.  They got it fixed and came in to get cleaned up and have lunch.  After that Kyler fell fast asleep watching a game with Erick.  He loves his dad and loves to do EVERYTHING he does!  

Baptism in the Ocean

We had our first baptism since we have been in the branch, and it was so fun to be a part of.  The baptism was done in the ocean on a sunday afternoon.  The missionaries had asked Erick to pick him up, so when we got there to get him he was all ready and very excited.  We also went and picked up one of his friends who is a member of the branch and she rode with us as well.  It was a really neat experience.

Our sleeping arrangements

A couple of nights ago, Erick got home pretty late, and he went in to check on the kids before coming to bed.  Kyler was completely on top of Bryn and they were both sound asleep.  He came and got me and I grabbed the camera.  Erick used is head light to shine on then so the picture would turn out.  It was so funny to see.  I have no idea how Bryn sleep with this boy!  When Bryn sleeps she doesn't move at all.  She is in the same place when she wakes up as she was when she went to sleep.  And then Kyler is ALL OVER THE PLACE.  I think he must turn complete circles in the bed.  I am sure they will both be happy when they get their own beds again.

What funny kids!

Mini #1

Wow, I can't believe it is here already.  Erick's first big test for the semester is tomorrow.  He has been studying so hard, and spending so much time to prepare.  I know it will go great for him, but please keep him in your thoughts tomorrow!  Good Luck Honey!

As for the kids, Bryn has gotten 100% on every spelling test so far this year!  She is always so excited when she comes out for lunch and has done so well!  It is amazing to me how much she is learning and doing!

Kyler has become my little kitchen helper.  It started because it was the only thing I could distract him with when Erick would leave.  He is so funny, when Erick is getting ready to leave, Kyler runs for his shoes and says he is going too.  Most of the time he is just in his underwear and I try to tell him he is not dressed, so he runs to get some pants and says he will put them on when they get to the school!  Anyway, so Erick leaves and he is of course upset, so I started to have him come help me cook to calm him down and it's amazing how well it works.  His job is the light the fire- I guess that there is why it works:)  He "flicks the bic" and I turn the knob and together we get the stove on!  

We have had a lot of rain lately especially in the afternoons, so we haven't been out doing much these days.  Hopefully it will start to clear up and we will be back at the pool and beach soon!

a little quirky...I guess!

I have been tagged by Jodie!

Let's see just how Quirky I am.....

tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours:

Quirk #1:  I pop my gum.  I do it all the time, but when I am nervous, in a hurry or really concentrating on something it gets a lot louder and a lot more popping!

Quirk #2:  I make a list for everything.  It doesn't matter what the list is for, I make one.  I have them all over the house, in my purse and in the car.  I guess I do it because it makes me feel more organized.  I do it so much that now if I don't have a list for it, I forget!

Quirk #3:  I will only trim mine and the kids fingernails out side on the porch.  I hate to have the clippings flying all over the house and if I try to aim for the garbage, I will usually only hit it once in ten fingers and ten toes.  It's much easier to go to the porch.

Quirk #4:  I have a hard time being away from my kids.  I know so many people who love to drop off their kids and leave them all day.  I do love "my" time, but I prefer to have the kids with me.  When Erick and I would go to the Temple, and leave the kids with someone, I couldn't get home fast enough.  Erick would always want to stop and get a drink or something to eat after and I just wanted to go pick up the kids and then go get a drink or something to eat!

Quirk #5:  I pop my knuckles.  I know- I have heard it since I was a kid, my knuckles are going to get huge, but I can't stop and believe me I have tried.

Quirk #6:  I hate to loose ANYTHING!  If I loose it, I can't rest until I have found it.  This is the case with things like my keys, my cell phone, the camera, and it carries on to a list I made 2 months ago to game pieces, and even the kids toys.  When they get a new toy, I make sure I know what all the parts are and how many there are so that I can do a random check and make sure we still have all the pieces.  I makes me crazy, but I can't stop.  The worse things I have found so far is, Bryn loves the My Little Pony Ponyville, and there and shoes that you can get and  some that come with some of the ponies.  Well for a pony that makes 4 shoes.  I go crazy when I play with her if I can't find all four shoes to all the sets we have.  It is so bad, and I will spend most of the time we are playing, secretly looking for the lost shoes.  I will play like I am going shopping and then dig through the toys looking for the shoes!  Needless to say, my ponies LOVE to shop!!!

Quirk #7:  One extra, I brush my teeth every time I leave the house.  If we are going to leave just to go eat, I brush my teeth!  Erick doesn't understand it, but I feel like I am forgetting something if I don't brush right before I leave.  I have the kids do the same thing, so I guess they too are doomed to be quirky too!

Okay- I guess the conclusion is I AM QUIRKY!

now I tag: Laura, Jandi, McKel, Rindi and Tiffany!

A loose screw

One of my biggest fears became a reality tonight.  I say one of, because when it comes to my children, I have a lot of fears.  I guess you could call me paranoid, among other things!

Tonight, well actually last night, our fan broke.  It just fell over and broke out of the stand.  So tonight I went and bought a new fan.  And no, no one stuck their finger in it, which is another fear!!  But anyway, Erick was changing the plug on it.  It comes with a 220 plug, but the wrong type for our outlets, so Erick was going to re-wire it with the right plug.  And of course Kyler wanted to help.  We were all in the kitchen, I was talking with a really good friend, and her kids were all over playing with Bryn.  As they were leaving, Kyler was sticking his finger up his nose and making a blowing sound.  Immediately I knew what had happened!  We go through all the questions, what did you stick in your nose?  Show us what it looked like? etc. We finally figure out it is a screw.  The problem is, he was sticking his finger up there to get it out and pushed it up even further.  Erick tried to see it with his light, and he could see it, but it was way too far for him to do anything.  Of course the clinic is closed by this time, so I call the EMT's who cover any medical issues after the clinic is closed.  I explained what happened, and they told me where to meet them.  This whole time Kyler is screaming.  We get to the school, and luckily I was able to get Kyler calmed down on the way.  The first couple of EMT's don't even want to try to get it out, so they call in a doctor to come help.  When he gets there, they are trying to decide what they are going to use and what all they need.  The whole time Kyler is silent, they get what they need, still not a peep from Kyler, they go in there and after a little digging, they pull out this huge screw.  I say huge, because even the doctor said, "Wow, that's bigger than I was expecting."  Then they all go on and on about how good and quiet and still Kyler was!  It was amazing, first of all I can't believe that it fit in his nose, and then I couldn't believe that he was so still and let them do what they needed to do.  When I was putting Kyler in bed, he said, "I promise not to put anything in my nose again mom, I promise, Okay?"  

Emerald pool Trip

I can't believe I forgot to post pictures from this trip.  

During the break, we went with some friends to a place called Emerald Pool.  To get there you take the road that would take you to the airport.  This road is anything but appealing for the weak stomach, but well worth the ride to see the sights.

We left early that morning with Renn who we hired as our driver for the day.  All the kids were piled in the back and having a blast.  Along the way there were some great views of the ocean.  Which is the Atlantic Ocean on that side of the island.

This is a cocoa pod.  They grow on the trees, then you cut open the pod to find the cocoa.  The tower in the middle is the actual cocoa.  People like to suck on the individual beans and get the white off.  It is sweet and pretty good.  However, if you bite into the bean it is so bitter and you can't get rid of the taste all day.  (word of warning)
This is a picture of nut meg.  The also grow on trees.  They smell amazing when you open it.  The red stuff on the outside can be used, but the nut underneath is the nut meg we are used to.
Kyler got tried on the long trip, I thought it was so cute that he could actual be asleep like that. 

Sophia and Bryn

Along the road there was this guy making bread which I can't remember the name of the bread, but it is made from a plants root that has been ground.  In the picture above Renn is "pretending" to grind the root.  He steps on the board on the bottom and pumps is like a piano pedal.  The pumping makes the wheel turn and then you hold the root to the wheel and it grinds it.  The flour is then collected and dried and made into bread.  It was pretty tasty!
Bryn Jumping into Emerald Pool.  I couldn't get a shot of her in the air, she was too fast.  By the way the water is freezing!!!!

Erick and Kyler Jumping in

The pool from the hike in.  It is so beautiful and peaceful.

The hike in

This is a flower they call a wax flower.  It looks and feels fake, like wax.