Brent's Birthday!

Today is Brent's birthday! He was so excited that he woke up at 4:30 to celebrate!...jk...we had to get up that early to take my parents to the airport. They left today after being here for 10 days. We had so much fun and did so many things! Here are some pictures of our trip to Ponce and Guavate with my parents. We celebrated Brent's birthday last night. I made him a pink cake and got him a new drill! How exciting! Have a great week!


He we are at the Ponce Plaza ( best one in PR)


This is an old fire station in Ponce

In front of a Don Q's manision ( Don Q rum ??)

My parents are in the tower at Ponce's board walk

Mom and her coco frio ( cold coconut!)

Kelly and I in Guavate

Doesn't Brent look happy about his pink cake?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Brent and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving together. We have lots to be thankful for this year! It is really hard being so far away during holidays. It was very nice to have my parents here though. We had a good day. Mom and I got up early this morning to put the turkey in the oven. My mom showed me how to stuff the turkey, along with some other recipes ( does Stovetop stuffing count?) We had a few other teachers and our neighbors join us for dinner. Tonight we are going to one of the teacher's bars to watch the Bronco/Chiefs game. ( Kelly and Courtney are from Kansas and of course, Brent is a Bronco's fan...should be interesting!) We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving back home! Miss you..

Katie and Brent


Watch dog is guarding the food!


Kelly and Courtney with us before dinner

Outside eating

After Thanksgiving dinner!!

Trip to Vieques

On Monday morning we got up early and drove to Fajardo to catch the ferry to take us to a small island 7 miles from Puerto Rico called Vieques. We got a rental jeep and went to two beaches. It rained off and on throughout the day. We even saw a funnel cloud while eating lunch at an open air restaurant. No one seemed too concerned and people started taking pictures. At night we went on island adventure that turned out to be really amazing. About 40 people went on the trip. It started with a bus trip through trees on a dirt road. We then got on a boat and rode to a biolumienscent bay. There are many tiny little organisms in the water that glow at night when something moves them. There are only 5 bays like this in the entire world and this one and one in Jamaica are said to be the best ones. The best part was that we got to jump in the ocean and swim with these creatures. Everyone was glowing as they were swimming. ( our pictures don't really show much of the glowing) We enjoyed watching the little kids get thrown in the water by the tour guides. When they hit the water it really lit up. The tour guides' educational lecture made the experience even better. This was definetly a high light of our trip!!
On Tuesday morning we headed to another beach at the far end of the island. I decided to go to this beach because Brent read in the tour book that sometimes you can find large seashells. I thought that would be neat...and it was!! Brent enjoyed snorkeling and found a couple really nice seashells. My dad also found some while walking along the beach. Even though we were in a very isolated area of the island our friend and co-worker ran into us. Her family is down here visiting too!
We were excited to get home to see Benny and Lola who stayed with the Marshes! Fun times!

Parents are here!!

We had such a busy week...oh my!! On Thursday we had the big Puerto Rico Discovery Day celebration. My class did a traditional dance and dressed up. One of the other teachers brought outfits for Kelly and I to were too. She also told us the day before the dance that when our students were singing the bomba, she was going to come to us to have us sing a part. We practiced so much the night before, and on Thursday we both were able to recite our parts! It was a big suprise to everyone! I don't have pics yet, someone else took some of our class. But we did video show. After school on Thursday Brent and I drove to San Juan to pick up my parents. It was easy to find them in the airport and we got back to our house around 10. My parents came to the school on Friday and got to meet our classes. The principal inivited them to the staff lunch, where they sampled many traditional foods from Puerto Rico. Friday we toured Guayama, and then we went to this awesome restuarant, Tranqulidad, with the Marshes. The restaurant was right on the ocean and we watched the sunset, while drinking pina coladas. It was a nice time.

On Saturday we went to Old San Juan. We went through two forts, San Cristobal and El Morro. They were both built in the 1500's and are in pretty good shape still. Lots of history. After the forts we ate lunch and the Hard Rock Cafe and then went shopping at the vendors. My mom and I found some really neat jewelry made from sea glass.


Today we went to El Yunque, the rainforest. It was such a nice day..no rain at all! We hiked to a waterfall and my mom and I got in and swam. We ate lunch at the cafe on the top of the mountain, Great Burgers!


We have been having so much fun the past couple of days. Tomorrow we are off to Vieques, a small island near PR. We have to leave early in the morning and take a ferry boat to the island. We will have more pictures soon!

Thanksgiving is almost here!


We didn't do much this week, we are getting ready for my parents to visit. They will be here on Thursday!! We have a very busy week. Thursday is Puerto Rico Discovery Day, each class does something for the celebration. My class will be dancing the Plena ( a popular puerto rican dance). We will be busy practicing and getting ready. Friday is the Turkey Races and then the kids get dismissed at 11:30 for Thanksgiving break. Brent and I were in charge of the big bulletin board for November. We had our classes write what they were thankful for on the feathers. Not many pics this week. I will hopefully have some neat pictures of Puerto Rican Day!! Have a super week!!
Katie and Brent

Trip to Gilligan's Island

Hello again! I can't believe that it is already November! WOW! Well we had a good Halloween down here. The kids were crazy all day long at school, kinda expected though. We do not have Halloween parties at our school because many students do not celebrate the day. A lot of students made little bags with candie and things to hand out to the other students. I ended up with quite a bit of candy too! We didn't have many trick or treaters..about 6 or so. On Friday we headed to a town called, Guanica, about an hour and a half away. One of the high school teacher's father owns some condos that he rents out. So Brent and I, along with 6 others, decided to stay there for the weekend. The condo is near the ocean, right across from Gilligan's Island. We got up Saturday morning and took the ferry boat to the island. It was beautiful!! We went swimming though mangroves. The water was very clear and shallow. We were able to see all sorts of fish and we even saw a sting ray. Brent even went kayaking! It was such a relaxing day. The dogs had fun too. They got to play with their friend, Choco the pug! Everyone had a good time!
Have a good week!



View from the dock...you could see the house from here

View from our the condo! That's Gilligan's Island

The boys hanging out in the shade

The girls ( notice my great tan!!! NOPE!)

Heading to the beach!!

Benny and his best friend, Choco

Brent climbed up on the red rock

I decided to climb up too!