Lots to catch up

Well where to start?  We were gone, out of the country in Curacao, from Tuesday to Sunday.  It went by so fast.  It was really great to get to see my parents.  They brought a million (this might not be an exaggeration) things, including gifts, peanut butter and many other things.  Overall it was a great trip.  We got lots of time in the pool, some time on the beach, a couple of bike rides and even a couple of little date times.

Noah enthralled in his first OSU game in over a year

Loving the pool time, without any funky parasites in the water

Honestly though it was really hard to come back to Venezuela.  For me at least.  When you go from consistent power, water, good food, etc, it's just really difficult to come back to a place that is so inconsistent.  Even yesterday we didn't have the internet for the entire afternoon and it decided to go out while I was in the middle of a Skype conversation.  That just feels really hard sometimes, especially when it feels like our only connection to many people that we love is only through the internet.

Enjoying time with Grandma and Grandpa!

I'm working through it.  I don't really want to.  I want to eat like 8 pounds of peanut butter and chocolate and just fall away into a food coma.  But the reality is that I will only feel worse if I do those things.  Luckily it was somewhat easy for Bart to come back.  It seems we just like to play the role reversals on these return trips.  I guess the Lord works out those details to our benefit!

We loved watching the crabs that were washed up on the rocks

It was a really great trip though.  We enjoyed the time with my parents.  The kids loved being around Grandma and Grandpa.  Leah even on the last day there knocked on their door gently right when she woke up.  See we had connected rooms, what a blessing!  And I had told her that she had to knock gently to see if they were awake.  So she was doing exactly that!  But sadly they had left earlier that morning.  Broke my heart.  But they really did love getting to see Grandma and Grandpa!

Our last dinner with Grandma and Grandpa

And they loved the pool.  Noah has improved leaps and bounds after our time in the pool.  He now successfully will go under the water on his own.  There was even a part of the pool where he could put his head partially underwater to go under a bridge.  We're really proud of him!  It's been pretty scary for him to put his mouth and nose in the water, let alone his entire head!

On the floating bridge in Willemstad

That's all for now.  We'll try to update more in the next few days.  For now, we're trying to get caught up on school, laundry and preparing for the team to arrive on Saturday!  And then the real chaos begins!

Sunset from the beach