September and October has come and gone...

Life here has been crazy...in a tearing you down, struggle and trail, refining sort of way. We feel stronger and joyful because of these pass two months-and things are just getting started.
So Nick is going to school for this masters at the U. This relationship is a love hate one, dysfunctional in most ways, but this is a wonderful gift of an opportunity that helps him take another step closer to his goal (Professor/Dean/President) we'll see where ambition takes us. He loves learning and this is been wonderful!
We celebrated our fourth year of marriage-and as a tradition I try on my wedding dress in an attempt to relive such a beautiful and scared day...and to make sure it fits...both were accomplished. I love Nick so very much and we celebrated our eternal unit with our favorite things; technology (we each got new cell phones-which also will be used as birthday presents), Food (we went to a fun Mediterranean restaurant and stuffed ourselves), Movies (Prince of Persia-loved it) and we of course we danced!
I am still working at my beloved Saint Sophia School, were right now I have a wonderful little class of ten and in the afternoons I have a friend/aid that helps me out. We just finished OXI night and it was even better than ever-it drained me pretty well, and I feel like I am just recovering-but it was a success. On to the Christmas program.
I also teach violin and cello lessons on the weekend, plus I work for the Hale by teaching acting classes. It is really fun and a perfect creative outlet for me. Plus the students are awesome and amazing which makes teaching even better!
We are loving our condo, and are still in it. We have had wonderful fall colors, rudely interrupted by a overly prompt snow. Thank goodness this was short lived...knock on wood. So there is a perfect surface up-date...oh and now I am 27...one year older and wiser too I am sure. That is our life, and life is good!

I love the mountains

So I finally felt it. I am finally understanding what others mean! I finally love the mountains. It has taken me such a long time to fully see them...to not feel trapped by them...and to realize their beauty. When Nick and I were driving we saw the sun rise...and not just in a "driving-glance-too-busy" look, but I really saw them. As I looked at the pinks, oranges, yellows and blues swirling and bursting against clouds and...silhouetted by these mountains...huge and magnificent plate created land forms that were wondrous and making me wish I had these as a view from my condo. I fell in love this morning. It was that simple and that fast. We are surrounded by them...and for the first time I feel lucky about it. Sure it traps in pollution that will affect me in some way in the future...but they are mountains-ROCKY MOUNTAINS! I can't wait to go camping in them this weekend-I feel like hiking and singing! In any case, I love the mountains and count them as a blessing. I still miss my beautiful Midwestern up-bring-but this desert mountain terrain I can get use to.

The end of Aruba

So here is the end of Aruba. It was a month ago now and it has taken me a month to finish blogging our travels! The last two days of the trip was the most relaxing. We ate tons of ice cream, fish and hit the beach into the late nights and during the early mornings. The pictures above are the views that closed Arubian journey. One photo that we didn't take was our final snorkeling at our beach, eagle beach. Here is the "funny" story. So we were swimming and enjoying the water...happy for the fact that we have made it so far without any cancer causing burns!!! We came white and as Jilly noted, "Came back as white as ever". Well...we did get burned-here is the story. Nick is far out in the water and sudden he yells, "Where is it? Oh no...I lost it. Jenn I lost my wedding ring!" Panic! I have to say I was a bit upset...wedding ring, I bought him his ring and now it is in the ocean! So I run out of the water full speed to get our snorkeling gear back at the hotel. As I am coming back I look at the horizon and out of no where this horrid looking brown bird is circling where Nick is standing. He comes out to meet me and to put the snorkeling gear on. Then we see this horrible brown pelican dive into the water...right where Nick was standing...he comes out with something bright...WHAT!!! The only time we see a bird during the whole week on this beach, this bird is a thief of wedding symbols! I then progress towards anger at this point and all of it was directed towards the bird-which Nick was thankful for. But he was not convinced that the bird eat and run bird actually made off with his ring in his mouth...so we spent hours snorkeling, looking for this ring. No luck, all we got in return is a sunburned back. So for the rest of the trip, as far as anyone could tell I was a married women on a trip to Aruba with my boyfriend...That was a low of the trip. A high of the trip happen at the end. We left Aruba, arrived in Miami and had to sleep there-NOT FUN-we decided to stay up and make a late night-all night-party with tons of junk food and cards. We really couldn't sleep even if we had wanted to because the announcements of "Welcome to Miami-Blah, Blah, Blah" and "Make sure to keep your luggage with you at all time" would come on EVERY 15 minutes-no matter the hour. We get this awesome txt from Jill, "we want to make you dinner" This was the best news! And by the time she and Stanley picked us up the next day, our sleep deprived junk food sick bodies were in need of some wholesome food. They were angels, with shrimp pasta, fruit salad and veggies, it was honestly the perfect ending of a great trip. I think I'll go on more trips if I knew they would end this way!

Our dear friend Bernardo!









So here we come to the fun few days left of our international trip. I want to sum up the last couple of days of the trip because I think that it is about time. We start of the day with a bus ride into town and then a connection to the southern most tip of the island-baby beach. We asked the bus driver if there was a bus that went there-No, he could just take us to San Nicholas and we would have to walk the rest of the way. Then we gave us an odd look-while suggesting we not try to walk there, but stay in the city and enjoy Charley's bar. His comment only increased our determination to not only break the stereotype of the weak drunken tourist, but to challenge ourselves on this several mile journey. Baby Beach or Bust! With snorkeling gear in hand we climbed on the bus to San Nicholas-we could quickly tell we were the only non-native Arubains attempting to do so. We are dropped off after a great half an hour of country side viewing in the middle of NO WHERE. The bus driver did us a favor and passed San Nicholas, dropping us off in the middle of an outside city closer to the beach. He didn't tell us where, but gave some general directions and a wish of good luck. Great...so we headed off in high hopes and humid heat. We walked about 15 minutes when a women came out of her house and seeing we didn't belong, asked if she could help-she was shocked we were going to walk so far...but gave us more detailed directions which was very needed. So we follow them the best we could...but we got lost. After about an hour of walking we thought to ask directions for the third time. Our hopes not as high and the humid heat even higher. We learned we were walking the completely wrong way. We needed to head back to the beginning and start all over! So off we went. As we went back we passed this old man working on cars...we was shocked to see us out and in spanish asked, "Isn't it a hot day" we replied YES! So after a half an hour of more walking we see this car pull up next to us-it was that same man that asked us the question, Bernardo. He told us that if we were heading to baby beach, he would give us a ride-for FREE (rare offer in Aruba). We jumped end. He was such a delightful man, telling us about the area, and what the word bible stood for (basic information before leaving earth). He said to enjoy the beach, name the time we wanted him to pick us up and he would drive us to the bus station. WOW! Talk about the biggest blessing ever! He was good to his word and better. We loved the beach! Another highlight for Nick with awesome snorkeling. Then we were driven to San Nicholas...right when the bus pulled out of the station. The race began...Bernardo raced through the town trying to cut off the bus so that we wouldn't miss it-what a rush! We made it, all because of him and we headed back into town-so very thankful for our new friend. We ate more ice cream and great food. The next night we hung out at the tourist mall, where there was a fun water light show and more food and ice cream. Everywhere we went the world cup was watched-behind the water show was no different. We had a blast and the natural water falls, and man made fountain, not to mention the food was amazing- we are food people for sure! We had a blast!

Aruba- DAY 5

Me dancing...followed by the dancers and our adventures in the capital Orangstad










So we hit the capital of Aruba-the whole day. Which according to the book we had purchased about Aruba, we would just about fit everything in. Well this book was wrong on two accounts; one, the museums (all three of them)were not actually free-which we were planning on, two, because they were not free we didn't end up seeing them so we were done with the whole city by 3. We had an evening dance performance at 7 in the city so we were stuck there...waiting. Let me describe the town...beautiful dutch buildings everywhere...and the buildings were filled with either three things-clothing,restaurants or jewelry. The most common was jewelry...I have never seen so many jewelry stores in all my life!!!Row after row, street after street-and they were filled. We popped into one to see if it was like china where the jewelry was a bit cheaper than the USA, but that was not the case. We must be so out of place here...I didn't connect Aruba and dropping 10k-I really don't connect anything with that amount of money, but the other tourist seemed to. So we went to make our own adventure. We went to every statue and historical marking in the city, plus the port and beach...it was a beautiful city, right in the beach. So we hung-out and walked in the highest degree weather Aruba has had all year. Nick found a friend in the city-a man that spoke his favorite language-Portuguese. The man was from Portugal, and they talked for a while as we ducked out of a sudden down pour(rare and random-but at least it cooled things off a bit) As they talked I was reintroduced to the best ice-cream...Italian! Love it!!! I think after that first one, we had one or two a night the rest of the trip-I was hooked!!! So then came the dancing-what a blast! We had two great groups of dancers and a wonderful band-the worst part was the singers...I won't go into it but they were worst then drunken karaoke singer that might be considered deaf. They were half the show and there went half the audience as well...but we stuck it through to the end...carnival dancing!! I was brought up on stage and dance the rest of the night. Reminded me of Ecuador where I never slept at night but hit the dance clubs until morn! It was a perfect ending to a fun-though long-day!! I love dancing with my husband to a Latin beat!! This was one of my highlights of the whole trip.