A Visit From the States

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that some of my family was going to be coming to Roatan on their cruise and immedietly took a personal day to make sure that I could meet up with them for some crazy Honduras adventures.

Even though they didn't come until Wednesday, Owen and I decided to fly out on Tuesday and stay the night in West Bay so we could make sure to meet up and not have anything (aka rain) spoil our plans.  We ended up staying at Fosters and had a great time.  I was able to rent Sky Cabin 3 and everyone was super nice because I was a woman traveling alone with my baby.  Holla!  Owen and had a great dinner and they even made my margarita to go.

We woke up the next morning and drove to the dock and met up with Uncle Ralph, Aunt Lace, Scott, Michael, Lauren and Brett and headed off to adventure.

We ended up booking a zip lining tour because they allowed 6 months old to go.  Being the mother of the year (cough cough) I was very excited for Owen to head on this adventure with me.  All of us had a great time until it started pouring rain on us for the last half of the tour.  Owen handled it like a champ and by the end of the tour, we all looked like wet rats.  :)

After that we went to lunch at Gio's so they could all get a taste of the giant seafood platter they have to offer!

We ended the day with some light shopping in West End and I was pretty sad to say goodbye. 

Overall, it was a great trip and awesome to see them!

Tis the Season

Luke and I are both obsessed with Christmas and as soon as we returned from Roatan made it a point to decorate the house and blast Christmas music.  Well, the stockings are hung, the tree is up and the lights are on and we couldn't be happier.

Here are a couple shots of Owen by the tree as we are trying to capture this kids first Christmas!

Don't worry - we haven't forgotten about our other babies.

Halloween Ceibeño Style

Sorry this is out of order but I realized I didn't post about Owen's first Halloween!

Halloween isn't really celebrated here in Honduras but that didn't stop me from going all out for my kiddos.  Some of our fun projects included making some awesome pumpkins and hand puppets.  We had a really fun day of Halloween themed activities and the third grade teacher and I played games like mummy wrap with the kids and 4 corners.  All of them had fun and we wrapped it up with the Halloween parade for the whole school.

When we were searching for Owen's costume, we didn't have a huge selection to go through and found a cute one that we settled on.

He is the best little pumpkin.  :)

Owen made his appearance at school and was not put down by any of the students.  Overall, it was a great day.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving dinner on the beach in Roatan

Another year in Hondo and another happy happy Thanksgiving.  This year, we decided rather than staying in Ceiba we would head to Roatan and enjoy some tropical paradise while we still could.

The trip started out rough when we arrived at the airport to find out that our flight had been cancelled.  Granted, they didn't cancel it until we were going to board - but apparently if the runway is wet, the plane cannot pick up enough speed to take off or land so it was a no go.  We all (we traveled with some friends from school) jumped back in the car and sped towards the ferry to see if we could get some last minute tickets.  We arrived in plenty of time and were able to get on the ferry but - talk about some rough waters.  Owen and Luke napped the whole time and I distracted myself with the on board movie 'The Decent II'.

When we arrived it was much later but we were extremely excited to get on the island and head to our house.

We ended up renting the same house we stayed in with Nonny and Poppy (The Purple Palace).  It was great, we had our amazing infinity pool and were able to stay comfortable with Owen for the long weekend.

 Not a bad view on Thanksgiving morning

On Thanksgiving, we ended up not cooking because we didn't have time to make a turkey, so we went down to the beach and had a Thanksgiving buffet while watching football.  Not too shaby for Owen's first real holiday.

 The boys walking to dinner

Other than that, it was a lot of relaxing by the pool and reading.  Owen tried the pool a couple times but thought it was a little too cold so we played on the deck a lot.

On the flight back - we all piled into one of the smallest planes ever and Owen and I were asked to sit in the front seat since we were the smallest.  Sadly, one of the propellers did not start, so we moved to a different plant (oh darn).  But it was still a pretty interesting experience.  :)

Owen as a co-pilot

It was a great weekend and we were very sad to leave but excited to get back to our puppies and set up for Christmas as the season has officially begun!

 Unpacking the tree

Cancer Walk in Ceiba

 
Around my birthday every year in Oregon is the Komen Race for the Cure.  When I was in the States, I would ask people to run with me versus get me gifts because I really like helping support breast cancer research.

Well, since living abroad, I never really have the opportunity to do the run and it bums me out but I get over it.  However, this year in Ceiba, the city decided to do a fund raising walk for cancer research and Luke and I jumped on board.  So this Saturday, Luke, Baby O and I all put on our shirts and went to Central Park to join in the walk.

You could tell Ceiba was new at this because they organized the walk for a Saturday at 2:00 pm...  Lots of cars and in the heat of the day, it didn't stop us though.

We had a lot of fun, most of Luke's students were there and they had a ball with Baby O (who promptly fell asleep due to the heat).  We walked towards the beach and then up the road for sometime before arriving at a tent on the beach with games and a show. 

It was a really fun time and I hope that Ceiba continues to do fundraisers like this!

Field Trip Adventures!

 The Tiger Butterfly

 

This year, we have been focusing a lot on butterflies and their life cycles.  I decided that I wanted to take the kids on a field trip to a butterfly farm that is in Pico Bonito National Park.  All though it was a lot of work to plan and organize - we packed up all 30 kids and chaperones and headed to the farm on Tuesday.

The trip was great.  I was nervous about getting rained out but someone was on our side because the sun came out as soon as we arrived at the farm and all of the butterflies began to fly around for the kiddos.

Two of my kiddos in the farm

 

In the farm, there are at least 18 different kinds of butterflies.  The kids had a great time looking at all of the different ones but their favorite had to be the giant blue one.  I don't blame them because it was really pretty.

Kiddos checking out a caterpillar

 

We not only checked out the butterfly farm, but then went to the serpent house that was full of different snakes (all poisonous of course).  I really enjoyed that but some of the kids were a little scared.  Next to the snakes is an iguana house which was also really fun to see.  There is a huge male who is in there and makes all the other ones look like nothing.

Group A outside of the serpent house

All of the kids had different parts that they liked the best and I had a great time listening to them talk about it all the way home.  The next day, they got to write about their favorite part.  Perhaps my favorite one was one of my students who I think drew an incredible picture of me.  It totally pays to be a 1st grade teacher when you can look like this all the time.  :)

One of my favorite depiction of my student and I

 

I am looking foward to the spring when we can go on another trip and hopefully they will be just as excited about the next one as they were for this one.

Happy 5 Months Baby O

Baby O has made it to the 5 month mark.  He is a very healthy baby boy (so says our doctor).  He is 65 cm long, 16 pound and 12 ounces and has a head that is 44 cm around.  We keep getting told how tall he is but that he should eat more.  Oh well.

He is continuing to goo and interact.  He has also learned to roll over (mostly when he is sleeping) which means Luke and I can't just set him down anymore and go off to take care of things.

He is enjoying his bouncy chair that we bought him and loves to grab and drop things.  Oh - and shove things in his mouth but that is pretty normal.

Can't wait to see what month 6 has in store for us!

Here is a video of O rolling over for your enjoyment.

Owen's First Bite

Baby O is not too pleased with this new development

Well - with the 5 month mark, we were given the go ahead to start feeding Baby O some real food.  Well, as real as baby food gets.  I maybe got overly excited and went to the store and picked up some banana, pear, apple and mango.

Today was the first day we tried it and Owen was not too pleased.  We started with banana since we work for Dole.  He was not a fan at all.  After the first bite he made some of the funniest faces I have ever seen him make.

Banana was not a huge hit but tomorrow we will try pear.  Happy eating!

Never Bet on Canadian Soccer

Being Canadian has lots of perks, and Luke is very proud to call himself Canadian... until it came to the Honduras vs. Canada World Cup qualifying match.  Some of Luke's students thought it would be fun to bet Mr. Martin that if Honduras won, he would have to shave his head.  I am not sure what the other side of the bet was, but Luke, being the optimist that he is, gladly took the bet with his students.

He wasn't too optimistic when he learned that in the first half Honduras had score almost 5 goals and Canada had nil...  that's right, nil!  Luckily, Canada scored at least 1 goal but it didn't matter.  They were creamed with a final score of 8-1 and Luke took the razor and lived up to his end of the bargain.

Owen was very confused as he watched his father shave his head but decided he was more interested in the dogs.

The entire school had a good laugh the next day including all of my elementary school kids who somehow found out about the bet overnight.  Luke became a Mazapan Twitter phenomenon! 

Rio Zagate

Luke and I have tried to make it a point to go out on the weekends and make sure we experience Honduras as this is our last year here.  One of our favorite past times has been going to all the amazing rivers here and swimming in the nice cool water.

A couple weekends ago, one of our teacher friends posted some photos of her and her family going on a hike that I had not heard of and was very intrigued.  We inquired about it and she told us the hike was great but it can be tricky to find as you have to drive through a Dole pinapple field, find a house and then get to the trail head.  Well, the other weekend Luke and I were feeling lucky and decided to strap Owen in his backpack and try to find this awesome hike.

We drove around for a little while before we decided to stop and ask some workers on the road if they knew which unmarked road we should drive down to find this 'house'.  Well, we were lucky to find that they were working on the road that we were supposed to turn on!  We headed down past millions of pinapple plants and finally made it to the house.

We paid 5 dollars and proceeded to drive into the park.  We parked and strapped Owen in and set off on a hike to find a waterfall on this river with no water or camera aside from our phones.  Maybe not the smartest but oh well.

We hiked for about an hour and a half on really well maintained trails (for Honduras).  It was so pretty and we heard lots of birds and saw lots of fun frogs and lizards.  Luke reminded me that I couldn't chase after them like I normally do because I did have Owen strapped to my back.  Oh well.

We ended at a fantastic waterfall that was really breathtaking.  We, of course, were the only ones there and hopped in for a swim (taking turns of course so Owen wouldn't be left alone).  He also really enjoyed himself as he laid on the rocks and felt the cool water mist his face.  We stayed there for probably 30 or 40 minutes before deciding we shouldn't press our luck with O and head back.

When we got to the bottom we checked out the other waterfall and swimming hole.  Owen had fallen asleep and we were able to bring the car seat with him in it and swim at the same time.  We still managed to be the only people at this amazing spot and quickly plotted coming back with food, friends and most importatantly, water.

Overall it was a great day and we can't wait to go back!

Fun in First Grade

Well it is crazy to believe that we are almost done with the first quarter of school here in Honduras.  I have loved my class this year and feel that I have grown so much as a teacher.  My goal this year, was to make sure I spend more time on projects and making sure that I FINISH them!  All of you teachers know that when you start a project at school - it is crazy hard to finish it or to make sure you actually spend the time that should be spent on something.  Sadly, we are pushed to stretch our students and I have made it a point this year to make sure that they really understand the material instead of being able to squeak by.

 1st graders making a habitat for our 3rd grade buddies tadpoles!

Another thing that I have been adding to our routine is author studies.  Each month we are reading books from one author and creating different projects to mimic them.  Last month we looked at Baby Owen's favorite books by Richard Hargreaves aka the Mr. and Mrs. Books.  This kids loved these and really enjoyed making their own Mr. Men.  We have moved to Eric Carle and so far have made a 'mixed-up chameleon'.  The kids had a great time making these and also loved reading the story.

We also celebrated PEACE Day here at Mazapan and the new third grade teacher (Mr. Segall) and I decided to work together to make a bomb dot com photo collage of the song Imagine.  It was really great and the kids had a great time working with their 3rd grade buddies.

We also celebrated my 28th birthday.  It is still hard to believe that I am 28 but so far I am loving my life.  Sadly, the day after my birthday, Luke traveled with some kids to Nicaragua for a leadership conference for 5 days leaving me by my lonesome with baby O for 5 days.  When he came back he surprised me with Flor de Cana rum pajamas and a bar mat.  We promptly put the mat and pajamas to use and I couldn't be happier. 

We have a 4 month old!

Happy 4 months little O!  I know I say this all the time, but how do we have a 4 month old!  Owen continues to grow and become more OSMM (awesome) everyday we know him.  At four months he is getting better at standing and following movements with his eyes.  I think he is starting to hear better as well and can follow sounds more.  He has started to kick which is fun but hurts!  He kicks when he is excited, he kicks when he is sad, he kicks when he is hungry and well - you get point.

We took him to the doctor for his 4 month shots and his monthly check up.  He weighs 15 pounds and 2 ounces.  He is 27 inches long and has a head circumference of 42 cm.  He is pretty low in weight, and surprisingly, his head is also on the small side - but the kid is long!  Tall and skinny is what I say.

We are also enjoying the start of football and Owen has been loving watching the games.  Even Luke has finally started watching them with me and it is fun to make them a family affair.