ARRR...

I've been telling myself (and pretty much anyone else who would listen) over the past few weeks that 'my next purchase is going to be a boat'.  I live on a tropical island and I drive past the bay every day where lots of yahters and sailers park their boats while visiting this beautiful place and each time I get that twinge in my stomach that I'm missing something by NOT being on the water around here.  So...I want a boat.  But, as I'm discovering, not just any boat.  The other day I looked through my photos on my camera pre-download and discovered that I have pictures of about 7 different 'pirate ships'.  I have apparently become OBSESSED with pirate ships.  I just think that they are ABSOLUTELY beautiful and fun and look like where I'd like to hang out.  So...rather than dream in a more realistic sense about what boat I'm going to get (because in reality it MAY happen, but it'll probably be some little sea-ray looking thing), I'm dreaming of the pirate ship that will be the NEXT love of my life :).  Do you think I could train my dogs to live on a boat?

        

To the USA and back again

Over the holidays, we packed our bags and sent the doggies to the kennel and went to the states to celebrate in style.  It was a GREAT excuse to eat LOTS of food and see LOTS of friends and family.  t was WONDERFUL seeing everyone we could, and I'm sorry I could not see ALL of you, but there is always space for you to visit here!  (Plus, we'll be back again before you know it.)  I have now returned to the island and am getting reaquainted with 80 degrees and sun (okay, that's not completely accurate, its actually been raining a lot here, but you get the idea :)).  I just wanted to share a few pictures from the break and a few since we've returned that show how much Pagua's grown.   One of my resolutions this year is to capture life more (I'm not doing so well, its already halfway through January and I'm posting for the first time, but I do have a whole year to achieve this resolution).  I'm not sure if that means capturing on film or in my mind, but none-the-less, hopefully there'll  be more captured moments here in the near future!  

Merry Christmas from the island!

AMAZING sunset seen from the plane.

Christmas craps with the family :)

Kent Andrew Slania

Winter Wonderland

As snowpocalypse 2010 is hitting the midwest and much of our family and friends are digging out of the rediculousness that is this snowstorm, we thought we would share just a bit of what December looks like in Dominica.  It has been filled with plenty of frustration on our part as well (due to a very excited new puppy, bacterial arm rash, car troubles, and just the day-to-day life of Dominica), but all-in-all we know we have it pretty good and are enjoying our life on a tropical island.  Please know that we would LOVE visitors and are welcome at fairly short notice...so if you happen to make it through the storm of the century and NEED something else to see for awhile, come on down :) We do look forward to seeing all this snow in about a week, however, and can't wait to build snowforts with many of you!  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Merry Christmas

Cuddle Buddies :)

Our new trusty steed:  Team Turzo!

When it gets 'cold' in Dominica, a Wisco snuggie is a helpful addition!

family christmas card:  someone is always misbehaving ;)

Introducing Pagua

We first met Pagua a few weeks ago when we went to the restaurant Pagua Bay and went tubing down the Pagua river.  One of the restaurant's dog, Foxy (who looks like a red fox) had puppies and at the time they were looking for homes for them.  Mike really wanted one, but I told him that I could not be a 'puppy mommy' on my own during January-February while he is in the states (he plans to come back down here, but not until the end of February).  They were adorable, however, and I pointed out the 'one' that I would want if we were going to get a puppy.  That was about two weeks ago...This weekend Ross University held its annual arts and crafts and food fair where Mike was an exhibitor showing his phenominal HDR photography (lizardworksdesign.com for more info), and who should show up, but the owners of Pagua Bay Rick and Alicia.  Two of the puppies were still homeless and the 'one' was in the box.  Again Mike asked if we could get a dog and under the assurement that I would get help from Rick and Alicia taking care of her while Mike was away, I agreed to taking the little dumpling home.  After short consideration, we decided to name her Pagua after her roots.  Next comes potty training (currently going okay), bringing the sisters together (Cocoa seems okay with her although she's not entirely thrilled that there's a mini-bighting machine around), and enjoying time at home as a family!

Fun-Filled Weekend

"rental car, de champ party, sulfur springs, bwa nef waterfall, bense pool, dinner at cabrits, roseau, screw spa, rain storm, attack of the killer cockroaches, banana split = delightful weekend!!!"

This weekend was filled with adventure after adventure.  Actually starting on Thursday with a dinner out at Red Rock (a beautiful little restaurant/lodge right on the atlantic ocean with amazing views and even better food), the weekend began with a party and ended with killer cockroaches.  

Friday morning I rented a car for our fun-filled weekend of whatever we could find to entertain ourselves.  After celebrating the 2 year anniversary of De Champ after a full day of work (Mike was resting up for the weekend goodness), I collapsed into bed to wake up on Saturday ready to set out and see the world.  We headed up the nearest mountain we could find and found some AMAZING views from the top (the road drives through a volcano and you can stop to see the sulfur springs that are still active).  A short hike to the sulfur springs and sufficiently filled with sulfurness, we were off to see more views and the next adventure.  We next came across a sign for 'bwa nef waterfall' at a bend in the road, grabbed the camera and headed up the gorge to see what this was all about.  About a twenty-minute rock-river-steep embankment climb later, we found ourselves face-to-face with about a 50ft face spraying cool, crisp, mountain spring water upon us.  It was beautiful and delightfully refreshing.  The road-trip completed itself with a visit to bense pool (another mountain-river that has a large pool with nature-made waterslides).  This walk was longer then the other two combined and really wore us out, but it completed a day full of hiking and seeing the nature that Dominica has to offer.  Saturday night was the 4th semester banquet, so we guissied up and celebrated the success of some of Ross University's finest. 

Sunday we both woke up rather sore and unsure if we could do 3 hikes again, so we decided a bit more of an urban adventure may be in order.  We, therefore, set out to Roseau knowing full-well that on Sundays the city may well be completely closed-up (nobody works in Dominica on Sundays).  We got 'lucky', however, and there was a cruise-ship in port.  The experience of being a true tourist in the cruise-ship port is rather annoying...everyone asking you if you wanted to buy something, so we left rather quickly, but not before gazing at the gaudy souvenirs and walking through the Dominica Museum (it was actually pretty cool).  Instead of hiking around freshwater lake (the original plan) we decided that an extended rest at screw spa was in order.  Screw spa is a sulfur spa built right over some hot sulfur springs to harness the healing powers of volcanic springs.  Having pools ranging from 'virtually boiling' to 'old bath water' we wandered from pool to pool until we were sufficiently pruney and refreshed.

We thought our weekend was full-enough, but a bit more adventure waited for us at home.  Upon opening the kitchen drawers, we discovered that a family of cockroaches had made their home there...'killer cockroaches'.  We sprayed and sprayed insecticides and slowly they began trying to escape their death...which meant that Cocoa was going crazy watching them scurry across the floor (rather slowly), and we were grabbing shoes and papertowels to crush the creatures before they took over the house.  An hour or two creepi-crawli-ness (including one appearing over my head by the light fixture in the kitchen) later, and we decided that the only way to complete the weekend was with banana splits....and so we did :o).

Overall, a delighful and fun-filled adventure-ridden weekend!     

View from Red Rock

Portsmouth and surrounding area from 'the mouth of a volcano'

Guadeloupe

'our trusty steed': the car we rented for the weekend

yam fields

smelly, but beautiful cold sulfur springs

hiking to bwa nef waterfal

the artist at work

all dressed up for the 4th semester banquet

Mike played dual-date: both mine and Kristjan's

Screw Spa!!!

just what the dr. ordered on our tired and sore muscles