Our Favorite Thing to do......

This weekend we had another party ( I am sure you are suprised). These people down here love to party. It was Clate and Fuentes' birthdays, so we did have reason. But it seems like no matter what the celebration is, we usually do the same things: dominoes, salsa dance, talk, laugh, and drink rum!! I was sitting there thinking about how much I will miss our little gatherings and all of these amazing people. We always have so much fun!
Yesterday we went with the Marshes to a the move, 27 Dresses and today we have just been cleaning to get ready for Jodi and Niki who will be here in a week and a half. I am getting so excited!!

Kelly and I went to the store and ordered this cake. I think we did pretty good except when I thought I asked " Can you write on it" I realized after that I said " I wrote on it" ( oh well...he understood: )

Hanging around at Papi's house

us with the birthday girl

this was so funny taking these pictures :)

Lisa, Tori, and Papi

the best salsa dancers

Clate disappeared when it was time to blow out the candles

so he just got one big one!!

Brent and Hector having a good time

Caving in Utuado

This weekend we took a road trip to the west side of the island to explore new territory. Kelly and Courtney were the tour guides since they had been there before. The rest of us ( me, Brent, Tori, Tom, and Sarah) were all excited to see this beautiful place that Kelly and Courtney had told us about.
This place is not well know since it is pretty secluded and the only way to find it is from a local. We parked the car and began hiking up toward the cave. To walk through the cave you needed flashlights. The only scary part about the cave were the bats. So many bats and bat poo!! After being in the dark for a while you could see light and then the most beautiful view ever!! After taking pictures and admiring the scene, we headed back through the cave.
We then went to a lake ( yes, Puerto Rico has lakes too) and decided to take a boat ride to the other side to have dinner at a restaurant. The food took along time, but we had fun just sitting on the deck talking. It was a very fun road trip! Today we will watch football and maybe take the dogs to the beach. Tomorrow is a Puerto Rican holiday, so guess what...no school!! We really do work people!!

Brent and the tequila plant

Brent and Kelly walking

We see the light....

getting closer....

wow!!

Tarzan and Jane ( Tom and Tori)

the lake

cute little restaurant

we loved these poinsetta flowers



we waited so long that Brent and Tom had to take a little nap: )

Christmas 2007!!!

I woke up this morning, went outside in my shorts and t-shirt, felt heat from the sun, and thought....it's nice to be back in Puerto Rico, after spending the last two and a half weeks back in the States and cold weather!We have become wimps in the cold weather!! It was so nice to see family and friends though. We were busy the entire time...here is how we spent the wonderful holidays!!

Colorado...

Making gingerbread houses is a tradition that we do every year!

Cathy, Tracy, Jaron, Brent, and I drove to Denver to the zoo to see the chrismas lights. That night it was very comfortable walking around ( 45 degrees). The lights were beautiful!

Tracy and Jaron riding the train

Cathy and Jaron on the carisol

We had a really good Christmas...here is our wedding quilt that Cathy made us. It was so fun reading the little squares that many of you wrote. I can't wait to have that in our house!

The rest of the week in CO was spent playing games, eating, visiting, and being sick: ( The day that we were supposed to go to the Nuggets game ( I look forward to this every year) Cathy and I woke up really sick. I think we got the 24 hr flu. YUCK!! I couldn't keep anything down and was very miserable..atleast it didn't last long.

Everyone else enjoyed the Nugget's game!

South Dakota!!
We drove up to South Dakota, making a stop in Spearfish to see college friend, Sheila and her boyfriend, Mike. We enjoyed talking and playing games.

Here we are with the infamous blue cups!!


We were so happy to be in South Dakota, but man, was it cold. On New Year's Eve my brother decided we should all go to a little ski resort and go tubing. IT just happened to be the coldest day of the year... 2 degrees....burr or booo, as my mom would say! haha

here is the crazy crew getting ready for the extreme cold.

let's go tubing!!! Once we got to the top of the slope....we got talked into tying all of our tubes together. All of the weight made us fly down the hill and we hit the net at the bottom pretty hard. Everyone in line was cheering for us!!

I had to take this picture because my students wanted to see the snow!

After the tubing...we went to a light show then came home and played Apples to Apples. None of us were tired..so we rang in the new year with fake champagne!

We headed back to Pierre and stopped to see Grandma Lois for New Year's Day. My mom decided to buy a danish ring...it turned out to be a funny joke.

Brent and I feeding the geese by the capitol

We have to do this every year!!

Oh such a fun time!! Hope you all had a great Christmas!! Happy New Year!