Good-bye Dominica!

I meant to write this post right after we left the island. It has now been 2 weeks (That's it? Wow! It feels like a whole lot longer than that!) so all I can really say now is that we enjoyed our time on the island. We enjoyed meeting people, seeing different things, learning to deal with lots of things, and just being together. My memories are going to be very different from anyone else's memories because we are all different and have different perspectives on life. I will take mine as my own and cherish the memories I have from my time on the island. So here is how my kids spent their last night in the home:

Here's our dear friend, Rosie. He drove us to the airport at 4 a.m. I am sorry that my son puked in the van on the way - I cleaned it up the best I could and he was very kind.

This is my little family in our little plane. One seat on each side of the plane, with a very short ceiling.

Last view of the airport, which actually looks like a real airport now. They've been doing a lot of work on it since we arrived 16 months ago.



Last view of the island.



Can you see the rainbow at the tip of the wing?

Here's the little plane that brought us to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My family with our luggage at baggage claim, ready to go find where we need to be to check in for our next and final flight.

So, we made it. Our bags made it. No one got sick or got lost. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Subway and made our next flight. It was a straight flight to Boston so it was a bit long but we all survived. No movie and no real food but we had snacks (Thanks Kristy!) and a bathroom that came in handy a lot. Most everyone took a nap and we were all happy when we made it to Boston with all our bags!

Seeing as how this is the end of the island adventure... we will be moving on to the Michigan Roys so visit us there to see what we are up to!

Thanks to all our friends who helped us enjoy the wonderful things of island living. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

Last few days.

I had grand plans for our last days on the island. Monday - the beach, to snorkel one last time before we packed away the gear in the barrel. Tuesday - pool, we love that place. Wednesday - river, a great water play place. Thursday - cleaning and final packing.


It all sounded great, until I came down with a cold that took me out Sunday night and I spent the rest of the week recovering. So, instead of doing lots of island stuff, we just did what we did a lot of the time - hung around the house. We did make it up to the river once to play at Will's place. The three older kids hung out with Will several times our last week, so I wouldn't have to worry about them so much - Thanks WILL! We also had a few visitors so it was nice to see them before we left.


All in all, it ended up just fine, even though it wasn't exactly how I wanted. Fortunately, the barrels got packed and shipped out, our luggage got packed and we welcomed the family who is living in our home now.

The kids at Will's pool, watching his new invention/creation.



My kids walking with David (or if you asked Kemiah he was Dabid).



Kemiah enjoying playing in the basket with the toys.

My kids dancing and playing instruments while I listened to Christmas music.

Curvin, sporting a blue sheet of fabric to support the blue political party. It was election time so people were willing to show who they supported.

Lisa and Will with four of our kids and one of our friends.



The Byington family and our family.



The kids set up chairs by the kitchen so they could listen to Christmas music while I did something in the kitchen. They were being very cute.



Will stopped by one last time Thursday night to say goodbye. We will miss all our friends, and the island.



The Cook family. Enjoy the house and the island! I'm so glad we were able to meet!

Tina! The best place to shop.

We really didn't have much choice but it sure was nice walking into her grocery store. I'd say, "Hello Miss Tina." She'd call back with, "Hello darling. How are you? How are the kids? Wonderful." She's the lady who saved me eggs last year when there was an egg shortage. She was a delight to talk with and we will miss her.

It's raining cows!

This time it was a calf. I figure it was about 2 days old. For some reason the mother took it to the hill behind our house. It must have gotten too close to the edge and slide down the hill. It wasn't hurt but it wanted it's mother. And she wanted her calf. I knew the mooing would go on and on until they were reunited but I didn't want her in my yard. After taking pictures I went out and chased it around the house a couple times. It ended up at the front, near the gate but rammed the fence instead of going out the large opening. Eventually Brittany and I got it out the gate and I chased it to it's mother. She eventually moved off the hill but lost it again a couple days later when she left it in our neighbors yard while it napped. So when it woke up it wasn't sure where to go. I chased it again and it found her.

It knew where it had come from... it just wasn't sure how to get back.

What a cute little calf.

Surprise! Surprise!

So, Marissa had two loose teeth and I kept telling her I could pull them and we tried once but she didn't like it so she just kept playing with them. I just didn't like to see them so loose but I couldn't do anything. Then, while we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on Monday night for Family Home Evening, she came up to me and handed me one of her teeth. She had pulled it out all on her own. Way to go! I kept telling her that she needed to loose the other one before we left the island, and I wasn't sure if she would. On one of the last days, as we were running errands, she called to me and said, "Mom, I pulled my other tooth!" Sure enough, she was holding her other tooth. So, my two oldest both lost their bottom teeth on the island.

So, here's the before picture:

Here's the look with one missing tooth:

Here's the look with the second missing tooth:

Water anyone?

We had to wait a while for it - it was running slow out of the "Fountain of Shame", which is normally the "Fountain of Justice". I had about 2 cups of drinkable water in the house one Sunday, and since Kevin was still not home from Church, I decided I would have to take my kids and get water myself. We got to the normal water source and when I turned it on I knew we'd be there a while. Because it has happened before Ben said, "I know what to do." He grabbed a couple of the smaller bottles and ran to a drinking fountain nearby that had a faster flow. He, and Emily and Xiomara, filled up 6 small bottles and 1 big bottle in the time that I filled up three big bottles. Marissa and Kemiah had some fun while we waited. It was a nice little trip.

As we came to the main gate of campus, the kids thought they'd roll down a little hill. It really wasn't much of a hill but they had fun anyway. I'm just glad they picked a hill that the cows do not frequent so I didn't have anything to worry about - except the bugs they may have brought home. They all survived, and had a good time too!

Random shots that I thought you'd like...

Pretty sight, with the woods, blue sky, and moon.


Pretty sight, depending on who you are - small gathering of cows on the side of our road.

Tiny little crab that we found in our house. I froze thinking it was a big spider. Thankful it wasn't because I'd hate to squish it. The kids played with the crab for a while and then let it go some where near our ditch. It is on a 12 inch tile so you can see how tiny it is.

These two pillars are located in the front entry/dining room area. Ben tried climbing one of them a while back. Then it became a challenge for everyone and a fun little game. Fortunately, no one fell off while they were up high. The girls made it to the top and thought that was pretty cool.

I love that my kids love to read - especially when they are willing to read to each other. They borrowed a book from a friend and so they were all interested in reading it. That's the best way to share.

Headed out on a walk they decided to check out the water and gunk in the neighbors gutter. I think someone tossed a rock just before I took the picture so some people are turning away because of the splash.

This is a real garage door, with an automatic garage door opener. They had a bit of trouble installing it. I'm still not sure if they ever got it to work right.

Pretty flower. It's nice to walk around and see some kind of flower blooming, no matter what time of year it is.

Snake anyone?

Our second security guard was a younger man (boy of 13 years) and one night he brought a baby snake with him. All the kids got to hold it (I'm pretty sure Emily did as well, even though she isn't pictured). They all thought it was great that it just sat there. Ben was even excited that it didn't stink - due to a previous experience where a snake released stinky stuff to save itself he thought all snakes would do that. I was surprised when both Kemiah and Xiomara wanted to hold it.