Weekend in Wayland

Hola--

The Komodo Belt

Teresa and Kara and prickly ball

The weekends get away from me somehow, so I'm determined to at least get a quick post in before it gets too late.

KOMODO.  I haven't posted any photos of Komodo lately.  Frank took him out and he was all wrapped around his middle.  Komodo is probably 5 feet long by now.

HEDGEHOG.  Our friend got a hedgehog, and the girls were dying to go see it!  They are funny creatures.  This one was "cranky" -- rolled up in a ball and hissed and chirped to let us know he was irritated with us being there!  But they are interesting creatures.

ANGELA. I haven't mentioned Angela, but it has been so neat to get to know her, and associating with her has been a great experience for our family.  She is a senior with David at Wayland High School.  Her extended family is from Taiwan, and her parents have lived here in Wayland for over 20 years.

She visited her aunt in Taiwan I think it was last summer, and met the missionaries for the first time over there.  She returned home and the Taiwan missionaries sent a referral to the missionaries here. They contacted her, and over the next few months she learned more. Her family is Buddhist.



So the first time we met her was when the missionaries asked us to give her a ride to church.  "She goes to school with David and Teresa, and lives just a few miles from you."  It turns out that David and Teresa both knew her, and did not know she was learning about the church.  We arranged to pick her up, and then when we took her home, David and I went inside to introduce ourselves to her mom.

Angela is such a smart girl.  Very sweet, and also a character so she always has people laughing.  Over the last few months we have had her over to our house for different things, and we've been there as she's participated in youth and church activities, and learned more about the gospel.

Yesterday she got baptized.  Her mom and sister came, which was huge.  They are supportive even if it's such a big change from what they are used to.  She asked Frank to baptize her (she calls him "Papa Whitesell," her church dad), and it was such a good day!  Her enthusiasm is contagious and people just like to be around her.  There must have been 50 people there to support her, including a group of school friends...she asked 6 of her senior girlfriends from high school to come.  They came, just because if it was important to Angela, it was also important to them.  It was really neat.

So, that was a weekend highlight for me.  Here are some pictures of Angela.  She has one older sister so she's the youngest, and after she graduates high school her parents are moving back to Taiwan this summer.  She has applied to BYU and wants continue her education here (U.S.)...all kinds of "leaps of faith" this girl is taking!  It has been so inspiring to watch.  We are so blessed to know her.

That's our weekend in a nutshell!  Tomorrow we have Martin Luther King Day off.  Then the high schoolers take midterms.  Good Luck, David and Teresa and Angela. :)

Kari

Happy New Year!

Well if you can believe it, we are into a new year: 2013!

December was as usual a whirlwind.  I am a little sad to see the "Christmas month" end, but at the same time excited for what the coming year may hold.

I do love December!  Thanks to Kara our youngest (a teenager in less than 3 months), we had a beautifully decorated house.  She reminds us to decorate, to cook yummy food and take it to the neighbors and teachers, and to draw names amongst each other for Secret Santa.  I honestly don't know if all that would have happened without her enthusiasm!

This year our family Christmas present was a cruise.  We'll take any excuse for a vacation, I suppose, but this really is the last Christmas David will be living with us full-time.  So away we went!

Frank's pretty good with the underwater camera

WARM TEMPS for MOM.  My request for any trip is always "warm."  New England has much harsher winters than I anticipated, and each year I become more of a wimp.  I'll admit it.  I like to be comfortable, and this includes warm temperatures.  The cruise left from Puerto Rico and stopped at 5 Caribbean islands.  We were in the high 70's and 80's every day.

NEVER DULL.  Thanks to Frank, our vacations are as active as possible.  We/he always looks for fun and different things to do.  I'll just highlight some of the excursions.

ST. THOMAS.  Our first stop was St. Thomas, of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and we told the kids they could try scuba diving this time.  Everybody donned tanks and flippers, took the quick "intro" course and got into the waist-deep water.  Frank and I took it too, even though we're already certified.  We hung around in our tanks and gear and watched a few minutes, then wandered off some to explore a little.

Local fruits

The kids liked being in the water.  Learning to equalize came easily to Kara and David, and it was more challenging/uncomfortable for Teresa.  She didn't equalize very well this time, at all.

Eeeewwww...

CHRISTMAS DAY.  Christmas Day was a day at sea!  We brought scriptures and some illustrations of the birth of our Savior.  We read the Christmas story and sang hymns.

BARBADOS.  We got to visit some cool caves.  Then we had a tasting experience to try the local fruits and other foods.  Next was visiting a banana plantation to see how bananas actually grow.  They grow upside-down in bunches on the tree.  Finish the afternoon snorkeling with sea turtles

Smooth skin afterwards :)

Puerto Rico fort in San Juan

Monstrous trees to hike through

Cleaning off in the oh-so-warm hot springs!

Caves in Barbados

Hot bread with cheese in the middle...heavenly!

ST. LUCIA.  Drive to a volcano, and Frank and Kara and I spread lava-mud on ourselves to exfoliate!  Use the hot springs to wash off the mud.  Our skin was so soft when it was finished!  We ended the tour with hot fresh bread and cheese.  Mmmm.

Mudbaths, St. Lucia

ST. KITTS.  Monkeys, monkeys, and hike the volcano.  It was a lengthy hike, but the view from the top was pretty cool.

ST. MAARTIN.  Shopping of course, and shell collecting on the beach.  St. Maartin is not that big of an island, split between the Netherlands and France.

blue bags over bananas

Night kayaking to see bioluminescent organisms

Everybody, looking touristy :)

Putting on the scuba gear, St. Thomas

Teresa & Kara in their kayak

Hiking in the rainforest, Puerto Rico

snail on tree in rainforest

Teresa is a pretty good photographer

PUERTO RICO.  After the cruise we spent an additional day in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We toured the fort there, and went on a night kayaking trip to see some cool luminescent organisms that lit up in the water when you moved your paddle or hand through it.

RAINFOREST. Teresa took a great spider photo, plus we saw beautiful fern trees, snails, waterfalls, and huge leaves.  Really pretty, and obviously it rains often there.  We just had a soft, warm rainfall for about 20 minutes of our hike.

Now we're back, and my head is still swimming, trying to get into the swing of reality.  It's taken me a week to even download the photos and get it on the blog!  Everybody is back on the hamster wheel, with school, church, seminary, and normal activities.  It was a refreshing change of scenery, though! And a chance for us to do some different things, all together.