Royal Mt. Carmel Falls

Last week was David's midterm and always after tests David has a little extra time to play with us. We went snorkeling Friday night and then Saturday we headed up to Mt. Carmel falls. It was about a 45 minute drive, and we luckily found the little sign on the side of the road that pointed us in the right direction. As we started on the little hike, the natives said that we needed to be prepared to get wet, a storm was coming in. We got about 25 feet into the trail and there was a covering of banana leaves and it started to down pour, so we took shelter underneath the trees for about 10 minutes. We got a little wet, but it did a pretty good job at keep us from getting drenched. I truly felt like I was in the jungle shelting my family with banana leaves and trees,, what a memory.

As you can imagine, the trail was quite muddy from the recent down pour but we literally trudged through the trail. It was only about a 15 minute walk and the kids did great. Eliza was wearing a little skirt and flip flops and she was walking in the mud right with us.

We got to the falls and had a little snack and let the kids play in the shallow water. It was such a unique place and beautiful atmosphere. What a fun day.

kids growing up

Fenton is growing up right before our eyes. He is so silly.

The kids have been waking up at 5:30 every morning, like an alarm clock. I told Eliza that it isn't time to wake up yet, and then she said "but the cock a doodle dooed and said good morning". I just laughed.

I don't know why but Eliza is really worried about getting baptized. She is worried about going all the way under and she talks to me everyday how she isn't going to be baptized. But then she said "I will be ok, I will just bring my goggles". She is so silly.

the beach

My life so far on the island consists of the pool and the beach. There are several beaches within 5 minutes of our house. The water is clear and warm and quite mild, and the sand is soft and clean. The waves are so mild that the kids get in and just float and swim. They love it.
The island is beautiful. It is green and mountainous. It has a bunch of water falls that we need to go explore and some snorkling that we need to do. Here are just a few pictures so to entice few to come visit.

4th of July

Though the 4th of July is not celebrated here, we got together with a few couples and had our own BBQ on Campus. Ashley made some cake and had an American quiz for us. I made some potato salad, because that is as American as you can get. I hope you all had a great 4th of July and God Bless America.

Living on our Island

David was accepted to the Keith B. Taylors Scholars program when we was accepted to St. George's medical university. This allowed us to live in Newcastle-upon-tyne for a year and then move to Grenada, West Indies for a year. So the day after Blake's wedding we moved to Grenada. The kids did well on the flights and we were excited to finally get to the island. The transition was sooooo much smoother than moving to England. We had 2 girls come pick us up at the airport, take us to our house we already had prepared, pick up our car, take us grocery shopping and our Internet was already hooked up. We are excited to start the second half of this adventure and that means we are one step closer for going back to America and David is one year closer to finishing medical school.
Here are a couple of maps to see where we have been and where we are now.

Blake's Wedding

Blake got married!!!!! YEAH!!!!! We are so excited for him and we love his new bride, Estee. They were married June 26 in the Denver Colorado temple. It was such a celebration and great day of family, fun, dancing, weddings, pictures, dresses, suits, and flowers.

The room that Blake got at the wedding generally sits 30-35, well we crammed 72 people into that room to witness these two getting married. It was so special.

After, they had a nice luncheon and then we all rested for the big party that night. Eliza got dressed up and wore her wedding shoes, Fenton had a new tux and pink tie and we were ready to party. It truly was a great night. Eliza played with her cousins and danced all night long. Fenton just wanted to sit and watch the horses but he got up and danced too.

We were so excited to be apart of this wedding. Congrats Blake and Estee.

These are just the pics at the temple but I can't wait to see the pictures from the reception.

Martin's Cove

My brother Blake was getting married in Denver, CO so we decided to make a trip of getting there, so Clint and his family, my family and my parents spent a day in Martin's cove. For those of you who are not familiar with the Mormon historical site, it is where the Martin hand cart company got caught in a bad winter and many died. It is a very sacred place where many of the faith died and many survived. It was a great experience. David and I had been here before with our parents ward when we were dating. This is the place that I fell in love with David. He has such a great testimony and is such a survivor. It was great to see him in a place that our faith could be tested and also strengthened.
This trip was a bit different, of course with 2 kids, but they were great. We hiked the trail with 2 hand carts and the kids rode in it most of the time. We had lunch and then headed into the actual cove of which you can't bring the hand carts so we carried the kids. We saw rabbits and antelopes. It was a great experience.

As we were watching other wards and families enjoy this same experience the words to "Come come ye saints" came to mind. The line "though hard to you this journey may appear." It is amazing that the journey may appear hard, but I knew what the end was. I knew that there was a promised land so it isn't so hard to walk that far when you know something is better out there that you are trying to achieve. That is how I feel right now in my life. I may not be walking across America but I am on my own journey as I try to support David in medschool, and though this isn't the easiest path, I have faith that the journey is worth it and there is a better place for me after this. I love the gospel that I can learn something about my life from the pioneers a hundred years ago and have greater faith. Isn't that how Heavenly Father works though, with all of the scriptures...

Anyway it was a great day, not too hot and we all made it with no injuries. After we made the 5 mile hike we went to Independence rock and David and I hiked to the top of it.

Utah with the Carter's

We spent about a week and a half with the Carter's in Bountiful and had a great time. We were preparing for my brother's wedding. We threw a bridal shower, bought presents, and got our nails done. We were very excited for this celebration.
We played a lot of tennis, swam, worked out, played the Wii, had a little camp fire, and went to the park. David was such a great dad as he stayed home while I ran around with my sister and my mom to shop for me and getting ready to go to Grenada. I wish I had pictures of playing in Bountiful, but sadly I do not.
We had a great time being with all of the cousins.

David's brother

While we were in Twin Falls we weren't able to visit with Jason, David's brother because he was in China, so we went down and spent a couple of days with him and is family. It was nice to play some games and have the cousins play some more together. We decided to hike the Y. I hiked the Y when I was in college and in way better shape than I am right now, but I still remember that the hike was pretty tough. It was pretty steep and we each had a child on our back. Fortunately the weather was quite cool and it rained on us, so that helped the hike seem a little less daunting. Here are a few pics of Eliza and Fenton at the top of the Y at ages 3 1/2 years and 22 months.

Moab

Coming back from Grand Junction, CO we were only 30 minutes away from Moab. I have lived in Utah for 3 years and I had never been to Moab and David had never been so we made a quick trip to see some arches and some beautiful dessert. We didn't stay more than 2 or 3 hours but we weren't prepared for the hikes and the heat. The kids were pretty wasted from camping, but we did get to see some of the National Park.

Camping with the Osorios in Colorado

After we left the Hirschi's in Twin falls, we headed south to Grand Junction Colorado where our good friends the Osorio's are doing his residency. They have 2 kids the same age as ours and we have told Eliza that she is going to marry Ethan. They hit it off so well. We drove to the San Juan mountains and found a great camping site right near the river in a beautiful ravine. We camped for 3 nights and ate some great food, went 4-wheeling up to a waterfall, hiked, went to the near by touristy town and rode the gondola, played settlers fixed a flat tire, and ate s'mores.

We had such a great time with our friends and we were glad that we could see them again before we were off again for another year.