Sunday, July 18, 2010

Goodbye Dominica!

This man says hello to me at least 4 times a day- he is ALWAYS in a little shack by the port and he is ALWAYS playing dominioes- this was the first time that I had ever seen him away for his dominioes- no matter what the time of day. He ALWAYS managed to brighten my day and I have to say that life is a little sadder without his adoring daily hellos.
Saying goodbye to our crab friends for the last time. wa!
Our last Dominican family picture- I wish I were cuter- but it had to be included.
Saying goodbye to Bruno (the best driver on the island)
Enjoying the humidity and river for the last time.
the airport

The little puddle jumper we flew to St. Maarten on- LOVED it!
We are in the first row- and yes, that is the back of the plane- BUT this was the smothest flight.
Emmy is an angel traveller (on the planes especially) she was awake for maybe an hour total of the airplane rides.
She was not quite so amazing in the airport- she decided that she loved to fake fall, yell "oh no!" and then army crawl everywhere- not the ideal time for that discovery.
Oh, this is the pilot flying the puddle jumper (yes- I turned the flash off to not distract him) Capt. O'Brien did a great job and before we took off he turned around and yelled "ok! everybody buckled and ready? Well, ready or not~ here we go!"
Emmy's favorite thing is the horrible HUGE snake- it thankfully lives at Booky and Papa's but every time that we skyped them she had to say hello and it was literally the FIRST thing that she asked for when she walked in the house- then she had to sleep like this- for real?!

and THIS was my breakfast the next morning- again- Dominican friends I'm sorry.

and play we did...

When we got home, we overlapped with the St. George Borchardt's for 1.5 days~ and they were glorious! We ate popsicles in the tent,
read books with Booky and played,
went to the beach,
took pictures,
loved each other,
took girl pictures (here are all of the girls in our family so far!)
we took wagon rides and had a fishing contest- Josh won.
and even got down to the dock to feed the catfish.
The morning that they left we went to a wakeboarding park- sadly I couldn't do it because of Sugarbean ;)
Stari cut my hair (it's VERY cute!)
We played in the wakeboarding shop while Dan wakeboarded- we were all very impressed with his crazy jumps and I can WAIT for J to get here so he can do it too!
Emmy is going to be a great little wakeboarder.

Oh the places you'll go- YUM!

OUTBACK! (Jenkins family and Bryce- this is for you :)
Emmy loved the food- but was exhausted by the end.

Look at the glimmer in her eye here at our favorite hibachi place- oh the delishishness.
To my Dominican friends- I'm sorry.
Note* there are no pictures of me- I am taking them and then eating as fast as I can ;)

Gatorland with no gator pictures?! what!

We went to Gatorland~
and fed the birds!
Emmy was VERY brave and loved them- she kept trying to grab them and they didn't love that.
This was my first time feeding the birds as well and I have to say, I LOVED it.
Emmy cooled down in the misters and I decided that Dominica needs to line Ross Campus with these beauties and life would be a lot cooler there :)
Then Ems and Josh played in the splash pad and playground and life was complete!