God Bless America, But Mostly Just Bakersfield

Sweet, sweet American soil! I was madly craving every fast food restaurant, fountain drinks, shopping malls, and all the other tiny American luxuries. And they did not disappoint...turns out Chipotle still tastes good even with the risk of dying of E-Coli. Tastes like liberty.

I went to California while Austin took his finals. I vowed to never leave Austin for finals week again because I missed him so much, and I was constantly stressing that he wasn't eating or showering because he was studying 24/7 (But I got over it and just bought tickets to come home in May one week early lol). It was so good to hang out with family and the cats, of course ;) Austin would be so embarrassed if he knew that I just said that. Pais and Kendo, my nieces, are just the cutest and most entertaining little girls. Paislee and I made up an infinite amount of dance routines...all including the crab move. The crab is done by raising both arms, bent at the elbow and shuffling your feet across the floor. Its a real hit. Paislee would ask, "Hey Aunt Sam you wanna crab around?" Ha! She's the funniest. I had a lot of time on my hands after Steph and Trev went back to Utah because my parents had to work during the day but luckily Ive had a solid five months of training myself to self entertain. I always love looking at old pictures when I'm home, and I found a few gems. I also decided it be a good time to take advantage of American Healthcare and went to a billion doctors and dentist appointments...thank you to Blue Cross and to my parents for perma-insurance coverage. And for the first time ever, I am pleased to announce that I am in the no cavity club! WOOOHOOO! I always always always have cavities, like double digits amount of cavities. I blame my father because he passed down his bad teeth, otherwise I have great oral hygiene...Dr. Rimmer even told me I was the floss boss. But last time I went to the dentist in Utah and the dentist told me I get cavities from soda so I should just drink it with a straw and stick the straw way back in my mouth so that no soda touches my teeth...works like a charm.

Heres some pics, including a few throwbacks:

Larry <3

Christmas town in Bakersfield, there was fake snow and everything.

Kendo

Mom helped me make a new blankey

Dad is so skinny mini! 

Pretending to love ballet

My personal favorite. Meg is a fairy, I'm a little baby pumpkin, and Steph is Ronald McDonald.

Love my babies!

Mom and Johnny Go Grenadine

It was so fun to have my parents in town for the week of American Thanksgiving. We felt so spoiled while they were here. Mom cooked and cleaned and took such good care of us while Johnny fixed all the screens so now we don't have any mosquitoes inside! The best! He also fixed a couple parts on our car and ended up saving us tons of moneys. He did lose in a battle with the lug nut wrench and almost had to get should have gotten stitches. You win some, you lose some....but in Grenada we lose a lot. Johnny's second loss was to Lambie, the meat of a conch shell. Johnny gets gout or has gout..whatever, and Lambie just slapped that man's poor big toe all around. As good as it tasted, he decided its better left in the conch shell.

Mom got to experience Young Womens in Grenada

Leo on the daily...Johnny really loves starfruit.

"I'll just get the hot dog because I'm not that hungry"

Dinner at Timbers

Dr. Grooms Beach

Seven Sisters

Seven Sisters

Conch shell graveyard

Dinner at Cloud 9

Seven Sisters

Brigy Bo goes Grenadine

Brigitte came to visit us this past month! She stayed with us for three weeks while her poor little finger healed. It was so much fun to have her here with us. If I had to choose anyone to be stuck on an island with, besides Ausboss, I pick Brigitte. Who wouldn't, right? I didn't realize how much fun it was to have someone just to think out loud to even when we were just chilling at home on a rainy day...now that she's gone I almost go to say something and then I'm like "Oh..." and realize I'm alone. Now I'm even more excited to go home for the holidays...I just miss all my family so much! This post is basically just pictures-Enjoy!

This day started out sunny but right as we got to the pool it started pouring and continued pouring the entire day...talk about buzzkill.

Swallowing my pride and posting this because I hate slash LOVE this picture. Its safe to say that after all our swimming excursions-whether it be at the beach or the hotel pool (goggles included...duh)- and the endless Dubsmash videos we made, I have no more shame in front of Brig.

Looking for starfish...fail.

Story of my Caribbean life

The fun zone

It rained all week! This is one of the many times we got caught in a down poor. Like we were only in the rain for about two minutes.

We got Austin to go to the beach but unfortunately not the fun zone. Were still

Walking along the bluff to get to the black sand beach in Lanse Aux Epines. After I totally layed out because the rocks are so slippery but before we scraped up our bums trying not to fall on a poisonous black sea urchin.

Ha! I just think this picture is hilarious. I don't remember why Brig is holding up her hands like that.

<3

Livin' off the land

Brigitte came to visit us on the island so of course we had to find some adventures to go on. You know like trying to sneak into luxurious resorts, exploring different beaches, getting stranded in the rainforest...yes, STRANDED.

We decided to hike Concord Falls the other day with Kylie and little Eleanor. It was pretty gloomy when we got up to the trailhead, but we decided to hike it anyways because:
1. we drove all the way up there
2. The security guard was telling us that we couldn't hike it with a baby so obviously we had to prove him wrong
3. FOMO

Turns out when they say hike they really mean nature walk. We had to cross a few creeks on the way up and it was kind of tricky to skip across the mossy walks so most of the time we ended up just walking right through the water. It was still fun to chat though, and the scenery was fantastic! The rainforests might be my favorite part of Grenada. We walked past all kinds of cool stuff; banana trees, cocoa trees, a creepo farmer, a goat...where in Grenada do you not see a goat?

 

Bananas

Cocoa Bean

   

Lil' goat didn't even see what could have been coming to him.

Right as we arrived at the base of the falls and were settling in to the spectacular view it started just down pouring. It poured so hard that we were instantly drenched. We decided to head back so we could get under the tree canopies and out of the rain, but then it started to thunder and lightning (Like loud and close together) so we were rushing as fast as we could to get back to the car. I didn't think I was scared at the time but my actions said otherwise. When we were scrambling across one of the creeks my feet slipped off either side of a rock and my ankle got smashed between two rocks in the water. When Brigitte asked if I was okay I just said "Yep!" and ran the rest of the way across the creek. It actually hurt real bad- like cuss word worthy kind of pain- but lightning and water are not a good mix people. The trail had turned into a stream of ankle deep water by this time. We made good progress until we reached the third creek that we had crossed on our way in. It had quadrupled in size and had a strong current. Against our better judgement we decided to do a little hot potato action with Eleanor which led to Kylie being dragged down the river right as her babe was pulled to safety. After a quick recoup we hurried along the path until we got to the next creek. The monsoon had already transformed the little creek into rushing rapids of muddy water....NOT EXAGGERATING. We said a prayer (duh) and tried to test the waters but the current was too strong and the mud blocked our view of the rocks underneath so we knew we wouldn't be able to cross safely without any kind of aid. Our next attempt included two walking sticks for extra support...fail. As soon as I stuck the stick in the water, it was taken away by the current. Next we panicked for like five minutes. Then we prayed again..obvi. After that we came up with a whole slew of genius ides. Brigitte and I tried to throw rocks in the river to make a path...epic fail, we tried to make a beaver dam to stop the water...no luck, I halfway tried to ride a tree trunk across the river...nope, and we even thought of forcing the goat across in front of us so we would know where to step. We didn't end up trying the goat idea, but I still have faith in him. Hey, no idea is a bad idea when you are stuck in a rainforest during a hurricane (basically). So we moved to higher ground-because the river was flooding us out- and accepted the fact that we were marooned and would have to wait who knows how long for our families to come rescue us.

This is the creek when we crossed it on our way up.

The creek on the way back (same spot)

After an hour of living off the land two farmers, David and Dwight, found us as they were heading home. They asked "Ya stuck?" Then they laughed and led us up the side of the mountain while chopping a path with their machetes. It didn't seem like that was the first time that they rescued people from the rainforest. Brigitte and Kylie both gave them hugs when we made it to the car but I decided to stick to my better judgement on this one and just hugged Fran (the car). I might have told them that I loved them though...

David and Dwight

Franny-June <3

We made it home safe and sound and learned our lesson to never hike in the rainforest during a storm ever again. Here are some more pictures of our hike:

The trail

Concord Falls