Ryker's Birthday Dinner

We had the awesome oppurtunity to eat and spend Ryker's birthday (we will be doing stuff together a lot this weekend as well) with a group from Alabama. 

Some Pictures From Beautiful Antigua!

Serving Children With Cerebral Palsy

This morning there was a small earthquake! We chose to serve in a orphanage where almost every child has cerebral palsy. It was amazing to see the way that so may children live. I am so very thankful that I get to live a life so wonderful compared to these beautiful children. We helped bottle feed the children, play with them and pray. A few were older than Ryker but look as though they were only 5 years old. Oh yes it is Ryker's birthday today, what an amazing experience on your birthday! I am sorry, but we weren't able to to take pictures so we sadly don't have any. We are excited to eat dinner with a group from Alabama that were volunteering also. Kayla and Lauren, both 11, are the two that I espically spend time with. We will also be having dinner with them tonight as well! I am missing you all so much!

Caye Caulker

Wow I love Caye Caulker! We have had so much fun finding numerous conch shells, going snorkeling, swimming with stingrays (that I was too scared to do), opening coconuts with our new friend Keith, and so much more. I have seen I think only 5 or 6 cars and the rest are all golf carts, it's pretty cool! This morning we headed to a coffee shop that serves Starbucks. I never thought there would be one down here! I am getting pumped for my dad to arrive tomorrow... Yay! I took a picture from where I am sitting upstairs at the hotel by the beach...and look what there is! There are so many of these iguanas around. There is seriously only one kind of hot sauce in the restaurants in Central America.  

Our Bus Experience

Here we are with our bus buddies!… And a few more pictures. 

A Little More Detailed ~

Some of he highlights of our 5 days at the Jones' farm were:

~helping out with homeschooling the daughters, Laura (7) and Josephine

(4) in math and writing

~collecting the cashew fruit and nut pod and roasting the pod to crack open the fresh roasted cashews which are surprisingly healthier than the raw ones due to the poison of the shell

~drinking coconut milk right out of the green coconuts on the sandy beach

~preparing mom to visit the minnonite community for 3 days while Ryker and I stayed put at the Jones

~planting hundreds of pineapple plants in the fire ant infested ground

~hearing the intriguing howl of the howler monkeys and venturing out to spot them on the edge of the jungle 

~living a lifestyle that was so different in the ways we woke up around 5:30 every morning with the sun and the rooster crowing

~working in he kitchen with Cenaida, the mother

~every morning (we did not go with him this early because he went at like 4:30 am) and night going to check the net that was set on the river

~Ryker and I doing a fake little debate with Andy, the father about the Challenge B Barbara Barrett case (Andy just did not understand the rules I informed him on)

~showing the children how to cut snowflakes out of paper (which they hung up although it was not winter and they don't ever have snow)

~finding 16 new baby ducklings and bringing them to the safety of their coop

~using his homemade straight honey from the honeycomb on all the baked biscuits we ate

~last of all...Ryker getting stung by a scorpion, and I'm not joking!

We will never forget this experience as we move on to explore more!

A Wonderful Time in the Jungle

Today we just got back from spending a few days in the jungle with a homeschool family of two parents and three kids. Laura, Josephine and Elijah. We spent a wonderful time with them learning more about the way some live. Our first night we experienced a completely natural way to roast and open cashews. We planted hundreds of pineapple in the hot sun while being bitten so many times by fire ants. The whole experience was so amazing! Sorry, but I'm not in the mood for blogging now...