Let's Go Camping!!!

We had another busy week!! On Monday night we went to a baseball game that one of our friend's son plays in. He is 3 years old and plays with 5 and 6 year olds. We were suprised that those little kids don't play tee ball, but instead get pitched to. Baseball is so important down here.
Here is Justin batting!! He is so cute!














On Tuesday we had a " combo night" with our neighbors! We have combo nights quite often, when we cook meals together. This time we made pinchos...that is a popular food down here. They are like chiscabobs!














( can you tell we ate too much??)

When Friday came around we were ready for a break. It has been so long since we have actually had a full week of school!! After school we started packing up the car to head up to the mountains to go camping. One of the teachers lives up there and owns a few acres of land. He invited all the teachers to camp out at his place and have a bonfire and everything. Kelly and I went shopping and the boys headed up to set up the tents. Miller, Winston, Benny, and Lola also got to experience their first camping trip.
We had a blast!! We cooked hotdogs over the fire. Brent and Courtney had to make fun of Kelly and my shopping. See we bought 50 hotdogs/sausages and only 10 buns! They didn't understand that. We said that we didnt really care about the hotdogs, we just wanted to smores!! We came home yesterday afternoon and we were just exhausted!


here are the beach dogs turned camping dogs!

the boys are working hard building a fire

and of course Kelly and I are working hard too

Happy Birthday Clate!

On Friday night we had another party at Casa Benny. We had a good time hanging out with other teachers. A few weeks ago, Brent and I met guy at the mall who was from California, but him and his girlfriend moved down to Guayama for work. We invited them over to our party. They seem like nice people!

Here is Clate with the birthday cake Kelly and I made for him!! We decided all three of us should cut the cake together ( not sure why though?!!) Here are some pictures of us having fun. The rest of the week was spent not doing much. We wanted a laid back weekend. We went to a movie last night. And yesterday Brent and I did a little shopping to get my Coach bag from my sister-in-law!! That's it!!

Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend enjoying beaches, caves, ice cream, and friends!!

We made it back to PR a week ago and it seems we have been just going, going, going. School started on Wednesday. I got a new student, which makes 22. The kids were pretty good, we just need to get back in the routine again. It was nice to have just a 3 day week and then a 3 day weekend! We decided to take a road trip to the north west part of the island. We had only been up that way one other time. So six of us left early Saturday morning. The first stop we made was to this big hole in the ground near the ocean. It was said that long time ago a man named Jaciento lost his cows in the big waves. You are supposed to stand near the edge and yell dame la vaca ( give me the cow) if water comes up through the hole and splashed you, that means you have good luck. Well we had good luck, right after I said that, Brent and I got splashed and drenched by a huge wave!!

We went to a few other nice spots on the ocean and found a nice beach to swim at. We stayed the night in a nice hotel, actually the biggest one on the island.


On Sunday we woke up and went to the Camuy Caves. A trolley takes you down to the bottem and then a tour guide shows you around. It was a huge cave. Inside their was a natural spring that Puerto Ricans call their " fountain of youth" so of course we all drank from it.




After going through the cave we ate lunch. We ate a typical puerto rico meal. Okay I got brave and I tried blood sausage!! ( and I won't ever eat another one) Mendez then took us to this ice cream shop that had tons of icecream flavors. They even had flavors like rice and beans, carrot, and beer!! We sampled those flavors but couldnt eat a whole dish of that. Brent got coconut and I got chees and strawberry. Our last stop of the trip was to Arecibo to see the largest radio telescope in the world. It was huge!!


My class is going on a field trip there in a few weeks, so it was nice to see this place first. To get there, you have to climb 500 stairs! I can already hear 60 kids complaining about that!!! But is should be a good learning experience!! We didnt have time to make it to the Bacardi factory, so we will have to save that for another day! Have a great week!!
Brent and Katie

Happy New Year!!

Well we are coming up on our last days of our vacation. We will leave Sunday to head back to PR! We have had a very fun time visiting our families. Mother Nature did cause a few changes in our travel plans. We left PR on Dec. 20th and were planning on going to Chicago and then to Denver. When we got off the plane at Chicago we saw that our flight to Denver had been canceled. They told us we would not be able to get to Denver until the 25th, and we would have to stay in Chicago. We didn't like that at all, having the two puppies and everything. I asked if they could send us to Dallas, that worked out. So we ended up staying in Dallas for a week. Brent did not have is luggage for the entire week. His bag got sent to India!! He spent many hours on the phone trying to locate his bag. He finally got it the last day in Texas.We spent time with my sisters, brothers-in-law, nephew, and parents. My brother did not make it down to Dallas for Christmas, so unfortunetly we didnt get to see my nieces and nephews. Benny and Lola had so much fun spending time with their cousins!!
The next week we went to Denver. We lucky made it the morning before the big storm came. Wow, there was a lot of snow. One day we had to stay inside because of the storm, Brent's mom taught be how to sew and knit!! ( that should suprise many of you!) We have been spending time with the parents, sister, and nephew. We even went to a Nuggets game on New Year's Eve, and then stayed at a hotel in Denver. Brent and I stayed up til midnight to ring in the New Year. Here are some pics of our vacation!!

Brent and nephew, Braedon

Sara and Daniel cuddling with Benny

Picture from Dill's deck

What is this stuff??

Benny and Lola in their outfits

Playing outside with Gramps

Us at the Nuggets game!! ( too bad we lost to Dallas)