Happenings

Exciting things are happening: 1) New cedar siding was put in to replace some of the older, splintered boards. We will then get them painted, new roof, and then solar panels. 2) I am currently jostling for 1st place in our walking challenge. I am averaging 18,000 steps per day and am quite tired. Only 20 more days to go. haha. 3) Christian's 6th grade fundraiser was a success and they had a ton of fun! He sold 13 out of his 18 origami roses for $4 each and said he had the best time. I get to keep the rest and make a bouquet, which I am excited about. 4) Our first porcupine spotting in North Richland last night in our neighbor's tree. He/she was very adept at climbing, and was eagerly nibbling on the greens. I guess porcupines don't shoot their quills contrary to popular belief, it's just that if you touch the porcupine you could get quilled. 5) Thumb progress - Dae clipped off the hanging piece so now it's just growing back slowly.

Ev and Didi visit + Succulents

Ev and Didi visited for a Friday night to early Sunday morning visit and we packed in: Spudnut shop, Olin's soccer game, Candy Mountain hike (me and Ev), Microneedling, kombucha tutorial, and an unexplained simultaneous stomachache for me and nausea for Ev. hahaha. Minus the GI issues it was great! + I went to a succulents class with my mom friends from school and had a nice time and made a cute succulent pot.

Most Handsome I've Ever Been

Kids dressed in their finest for school photos today and in the car today I said "you guys both look very handsome" and Christian goes "Thanks. This is the most handsome I've ever been." hahaha.

Weekend Update

We got our new EGO electric lawn mower and it is phenomenal. ha! I haven't mowed a lawn in 30+ years and the differences between the heavy, gas-powered mowers that you had to yank that thing to start vs. this mower (light, self-propelled, push button start, quiet) are night and day. It measured 70 dB on the Apple Watch which is pretty decent. It was a real pleasure to mow! And I mulched the grass (new term, just learned) so I didn't even have to bag or rake the clippings. I was embarrassingly proud of myself for 1) figuring out how to turn it on thanks to a quick YouTube tutorial and 2) actually mowing the lawn decently. + Christian told me to come look at Olin asleep because he "looked like a ballerina". + Olin had his first weekend of Spring Soccer and it was fun. A team that they lost to twice last season, and big losses like 12-0, they lost to just 3-1 today. Olin has settled comfortably in to right fullback, which coincidentally was my position all throughout my 'career'. + Christian finished his LEGO grand piano! He said it was a slight bit easier than Bugatti but cool to see how the piano pieces come together + I can't decide on paint colors therefore am just sticking with our old color. I'm not good enough at figuring out what looks good to make any kind of dramatic change and our current color is actually kind of nice. + About killed myself at Orange Theory today but it felt really good. You're supposed to keep your heart rate in the orange or red zone for at least 12 minutes and I got 47 today.

Caribbean Wrap - Up

+ I cannot capture the stunning view that we kept seeing over Magens Bay from the road, but I tried + We SNUBA'd 20 feet below the surface and had a great time at the Coral World Aquatic Park. The hardest part was acclimating to the ear pressure (by blowing out your nose with your nose plugged) and figuring out how many weights each of us needed to stay down. We loved it! + Old Stone Farmhouse very fancy dinner. It was decent + Petit Pump House for lunch (funniest and strangest name ever). It got great reviews and recommended by a few locals and we had a great time. The kids enjoyed watching the water aircraft take off and land + Tried a local dessert called Soursop pie - it's a type of fruit. It was good!

Caribbean Camera dump - Days 2 - 5

+ Kalaloo soup is a Caribbean soup made of vegetables and whatever meat they have. This one was delicious with veggies and smoked turkey + The streets here are so windy, so mountainous, so narrow. There is barely a flat street in sight besides in the main town Charlotte Amalie! There is really no walking along most of the streets here - the shoulders are so narrow + Beautiful pics from high of Magens' Bay out Dae's window + We ferried to St. John island and visited Trunk Bay - beautiful beach. + Hilarious photo of Spike that puops took + We took the car ferry to St. John. You have to back up in to line and then back up on to the boat so it takes a long time to load. They pack in the people. + We ate lunch at the city of Cruz Bay in St. John and the kids got a Virgin Island Root Beer and Ting (Jamaican sparkly grapefruit drink). Olin really enjoyed his Ting + A pic of our Jeep + Huge Iguana here that just walk slowly around the islands + Christian has flat feet "Like babz" but they are now officially my size which is really convenient for shoe sharing. Olin's feet are more arched with high insteps like mine + The GPS photo is to show the streets with their mostly Danish names from the Danish occupation for a couple hundred years from 1600s to 1800s I think. Maybe 1900s. + We took this seriously fun snorkel cruise yesterday. We snorkeled two spots, picked up Pizza Pi from this pizza boat in the bay and then had a full-on dance party for the last hour. It wasn't even sunny out but was still so fun. It was called Ocean Surfari.