Cuba Part 2

Jeff came up a couple people behind me. He loved the climb!
This hike would be a liability nightmare in Canada!!

And we did it!

As I sit here typing in sweater and long pants, it's hard to believe that less than a week ago I was wearing shorts, tank top and was hot!

Back toward the beach through a beautiful gorge. The temperature dropped at least 5 degrees in there.

The trees were incredible. 20 feet up in there air, haning on to the side of the cliff with advantageous roots hanging down (roots take up moisture and nutrients from the air)

One last 15' drop to the bottom of the gorge (this time there was at least a ladder)

And out to the beach are we hike.

We did not have the typical whilte sand beach like the north shore of Cuba (Veradero, Cayo Coco), but we had amazing variety and number of beautiful fish only 10 feet into the water. Snorkling was awesome!!!

In the early evening we enjoyed playing Carcasonne. Very cool game, and easy to pack.

Evening walk along the shore. A little precarious in birks, but it was fun. Reminded me of mountain hikes in the Swiss alps as a child.

Walk to the Village

Our resort was at the end of the road, but one day we cut across the mountain to the closest village.

Up the gorge and then through pastures.

Brown landscape is much more beautiful when the temperature it 30 degrees rather than 3!

Local transportation :)

Huge "holy" tree in the gorge. Jeff and another arborist we met were almost drooling just thinking about climbing it!

Yup, I was sporting a two piece the whole week. Working on being comfortable in my skin, as it is. And it's Cuba so who cares?!?

Small but beautiful beach. It was a fairly small resort so it didn't really feel crowded.

Catamaran Excursion

On Monday we went for a paid catamaran trip to Santiago de Cuba. It was awesome!

We got picked up at the beach, then went up the shore to go snorkling (not as good as right in our own bay though).

Ready for the sun!

Our resort from the water.

We were able to hang out on the net up front. It was fun getting spashed by the bigger waves.

After snorkling we went down along the coast to Santiago de Cuba, about 3 hours on fairly rough water. No problem with sea sickness though.

Approaching the Santiago Bay with the Moro Castle at the right hand side.

The view from the restaurant in the Santiago Harbor where we had a yummy lunch.

Back to the Resort

Another picture of our room. We didn't mind the 2 single beds, and loved the walls made of natural rock.

Date night

Dinner at the A la carte restaurant. i enjoyed getting dressed up a bit.

Local wild life: iguanas. they were out almost every evening, after the heat of the day warmed up the rocks. They were quite tame and seemed to pose for the tourists.

View of the beach as you exit the canyon.

Snack bar at the beach. Great french fries!! You could also order lobster dinner ($15) or Shrimp dinner ($6). If we come back here I would definitely try them. They looked great but we didn't eat at the beach until the last day.

And home we go

ready to head to the air port. Enjoying one last sunrise

Last day I figured I better take some pictures of the facilities. This obviously was the dinning area with buffet meals.

Outside the dinning hall.

The pool bar and snack bar. The stage for nightly entertaiment in the back.

At the air port. Walked on with a full water bottle in my back pack. I guess security isn't the same in all places.;)

We had a wonderful vacation, but were ready to come back home and see our girls.

They did awesome by the way for the grandparents and everyone involved thought we could definitely do this again sometime.

What's "normal" at our house

UNCLE MARC
We love having uncle Marc visit us every week and as the girls get older, they are enjoying their super uncle more and more. He makes the best jungle gym and is a great horsie.
Lots of fun was had by all.

My brother was keeping the girls out of trouble as I was finishing up supper. I think Marc definitely earned his meal.

Down Katie goes, laughing all the way...

... and back up she goes. Thank you Marc for being such a special uncle to them.

TEA PARTY Katie and Maya both love having tea parties with this mini!!!! teaset Katie got for Christmas. My parents came to our house to practice the alphorns with me so I sequestered (sp??) the girls to their room

Maya was trying to be the host

Good thing they only served water, as the cup was tipped as much as the pot.

Of course we can't have my parents over without a coffee time!! Those of you who know my family know how true that is! As you might guess from the perspective, Katie was the photographer. She loves using the camera and often goes on totally unpredictable photo scavenger hunts in the house.

While we were still having coffee, Maya was trying out the alphorns and Katie caught her in the act.

NORMAL MORNING This morning the girls played together quite nicely. Hey set up their house under the table and spent a good hour reading books and playing with their dolls and whatever toys they dragged under there.

Then Katie went off with the camera again. I think she did a great job taking Maya's pic

Katie's view of our fishtank with one lonely surviver (we started out with 5)

Posing for the budding photographer as I'm busy cleaning up the kitchen.

Things that capture a 4 year olds attention!?!

Well I don't know if I'll get another post in before we head for Cuba!!!! I'll be sure to post some pics when we get back.

And for those of you who are wondering, I'm sure I'll miss the girls but I am so excited to have some time with just Jeff, sleep whenever - without interruption, read without feeling guilty and just soaking up the sun!!

Swamp skating

We still don't have any snow worth talking about, but the last few days have been cold and ablsolutely gorgoeous to be outside. We have a couple of skating ponds that Jeff and a couple from our missionary training program (they are at the Liebenzell Center for some time away from the city) have cleared for the group that was here this weekend. After they were done they ventured further into our flooded swamp (I guess there's one good thing about all the rain we got in the fall and beginning of the winter). It turned out that they could skate through the swamp a long way, dodging trees, little islands and lots of downed branches along the way. So both on Saturday and Sunday afternoon the whole family got bundled up and we went swamp skating. It is sooo much fun!! Check out the pics to get a bit of an idea.
Jeff is doing donuts with Maya.

Katie and Maya were just out there in their boots, but still had lots of fun.

Doing piruetts (spelling??) and doing a great job staying upright. Better than I would do I'm sure.

Maya also did a great job wandering about, though she spent most of the time in the little sled being pulled along. We tried, but the girls only tolerated the double load long enough to take a picture, barely.

I didn't put on my skates for most of the afternoon but had tons of fun (and exercise) clearing paths through the tangled mess of branches for the skaters to whip through. Maya was quite content to just sit there and getting pulled sloooowly as I worked.

My wonderful (and handsome!!) hubby getting ready for some ice time.

you can get a bit of a picture of what the swamp looks like. It would be perfect to play tag with all the little trails, paths and occasional larger areas.

Jeff and Maya exploring uncharted territory.

Maya loved leaning back in the sled and looking at the trees and the beautiful blue sky. Both days we were out on the ice for a good 2 hours and both girls did awesome the entire time. No fussing, no whining, just enjoying the outdoors.

The girls examining something. I couldn't make out what they were looking at. some stick or rock or something??

Rosy cheeks and big smile. She was like that the entire time.

Katie didn't want to pose for me so I asked her to show me a big smile for cousing Nate. So Nate, here you go!

Trying to break the "tree". I think in the end the tree won!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tour of of our swamp skating. We hope the weather will hold. (and I'm thinking it would be even more fun if there's a couple of feet of snow on either side of the little trails. It would give me the workout for a lifetime I'm sure. Probably won't have as many trails, but it might be worth the effort. Anyway... we first need snow!!

I wish you all a wonderful week!