Our Fun Group

We had a couple formal nights, one on Sunday evening, and one on Thursday. It was fun to get all dressed up (although my dress was NOT fancy in any way!). These were the fun friends/family we went with. We had such a great time together! We all got along so well and had so many funny moments.

Castries, St. Lucia (Day 5)

Once again, sorry if this is too much information, but remember I gave a disclaimer...this is more for me than any of you (:

On Wednesday the 23rd (Day 5) we went to Castries, St. Lucia. This was our least favorite place. It was way beautiful, but we drove way too much. We spent about 90% of the day in the car with a grumpy old tour guide (tough to beat Mison or our guide in St. Thomas). It was obvious we drove him nuts. We had a lot of questions for him, and he wasn’t too obliged to answer them. This island was so lush and green. It was a rain forest jungle. The roads were much more narrow and windy here than in St. Maarten, so we were very grateful to have a local drive us around! We wondered how many cars and lost control, or lost their brakes on these steep hills, never to be heard or seen again. The forest is so thick; you’d never know a car had driven off. That was one question we asked him (Do a lot of people crash, or loose their brakes) I don’t remember getting an answer. We saw a local on our drive with a gigantic snake wrapped around his neck. It freaked me out. He wouldn't let us take a picture without a "donation" but I was able to sneak one in. It looks like he may have noticed...isn't he scary?






We stopped at a lookout point of the famous Pitons. They were incredible. They are about 2,000 feet high. We asked if people climb them, and we were told that a lot of people climb them. They look like they are next to each other, but we were told they are a few miles apart.






We also went to a waterfall, and the beach of course to do more body surfing. We were looking for huge waves, so we asked our driver to take us to a beach with big waves. The waves were disappointing, but we still had a great time and got a little more sun.







These pictures I took just to remember how 3rd world these places are. You can see a woman doing laundry in a river in the picture above. As we drove to the Pitons, we went through a little village that was incredibly poor and run down. It's amazing how small some of these shacks are. We were told (not by our guide) that parts of Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed on this island. I wish our guide could have pointed out a few spots where shots were filmed.

St. John's Antigua

I don't have many pictures of this day. We went snorkeling and kayaking, so all of our pictures are on a waterproof camera. It was such a fun day though. We hopped on a tour bus with our driver "Mison." He was 70+ years old, and just like a cute little grandpa. He had 11 children. He said in his time they didn't have a TV, so he spent half his life with his pants down. He had this cute little hat on, and Julie asked "that's a cool hat Mison, where did you get it?" He said "The store." He drove a small bus and had a microphone and would tell us about the island as we drove to our kayaking trip. It was funny though, some of the time he’d forget to use the microphone, or else he was too busy steering/shifting to do all three so he’d be talking and talking, and then use the microphone once a hand was free to finish his last thought and would say something like “seven.” Matt and I were like, “what the heck is he talking about?” Good thing Eddy was in the passenger seat next to Mison, so we got all the info needed. He was a great guide, and told us all about the people, the island, the hospitals, the government, etc. It was fun.

Our kayaking trip was so awesome. I wish it would have been longer. Matt and I were reminded of our days guiding The Snake River. We kayaked around several little islands and then took a boat ride to a small island for more beautiful scenery and a brief history lesson. We went snorkeling here. There wasn’t much to see. I saw a lot of corral and a few fish. Nothing too exciting. I was proud of myself not getting sea sick. Our last snorkeling experience I was throwing up like crazy. The fish loved it, so that made Matt love it too because the fish swarmed us. Anyway, the boat ride back was fun. Our boat driver was a maniac and we drove so fast! It was a blast though. I think he thought our group was all wasted, because we were yelling and shouting and laughing out of control the whole ride. He would look at us and just shake his head. We made it back to our tour guides house and were welcomed with juice, bread, and towels to dry off. They were so generous, and so fun to be acquainted with for the day. They had this parrot that was very friendly and posed for a few pictures.

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Day 3, St. Maarten. We started out the day eating way too much (we had to get stuffed so it'd last through out the day...). We woke up early so that we could get off the boat and to the nearest beach. We rented a car this day, which was so fun, and so cheap! Matt and I soon realized we didn't bring enough cash. The first two days we had spent most of it on taxi's and tour guides, so renting a car was awesome. It was $20 a couple, so I was pumped. Matt was the driver. I think all of us (except Matt) aged a little bit that day. He drove like a mad man. The roads are so narrow and hilly. He'd be driving so dang fast around blind corners or sharp turns. It was way scarier than any of the cab driving experiences. We went to three difference beaches that day. Each were beautiful. One of beaches we went to was totally private. So private in fact, that on a little stroll down the beach Matt, Aaron and Eddy found a couple sun bathing in the nude. What fun.

As we were leaving the last beach, we all piled in the mini van and Matt started to back up (way too quickly I might add). I look out my side view mirror and saw another car and yelled "MATT!" At that same moment, there was the loudest "CRUNCH" sound. He had hit the car behind us. I was so freaked out. Here I was so pumped about saving a few bucks on our own transportation, and here we just wrecked two cars. I was way ticked off, and I didn't want to see the damage. To everyone surprise, the car we hit wasn't damaged at all! Not even a scratch! Our car had only a little tiny dent in the bumper.



What a relief. Thanks to Mike's strong muscles, he was able to push the dent out, and the car was returned good as new.

We stopped to take one last look at the beautiful island and snap some photos. A dog ran up to our car and lifted it's leg (you can't see it really well from this picture).




Way funny! What a day this has been! We loved it all. The beaches were really so much fun, great waves! We got tossed around in the ocean like crazy. I still have sand in my ears!

Southern Caribbean Cruise

I'm warning you now, this post is more of a journal for me, so it will be lengthy. Matt and I just got back from a cruise in the Southern Caribbean. It was so dang fun! We had such a blast. It was our first time "crusin." We went with Jill & Eddy, Jill's sister Julie & Mike, and Matt's brother Aaron and his girlfriend Fitriah. What a fun bunch! We seriously had such a great time together. It was a seven day cruse. We left from Puerto Rico, and from there went to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antiga, St. Lucia and then Barbados. What a fun way to explore several beautiful places in one trip. Matt and I enjoyed every island. Each one we'd love to go back and spend a good week exploring. It was so much fun!

Matt and I flew to San Juan on Friday the 18th. We stayed the night and spent the next day exploring Old San Juan. It was a beautiful city. Matt took some awesome photos, but they're on his camera so these aren't it.






I loved the architecture there. I'll have to load up some of Matt's photos later. He really captured more of the beauty there. We met up with Aaron & Fitriah earlier that morning. They took a red eye Friday night and arrived Saturday morning. We got on the ship later that afternoon and then set sail to St. Thomas.

I didn't get any pictures in St. Thomas. I was too busy trying on diamond rings. I guess St. Thomas is known for diamonds. We spent the first couple hours walking up and down the shopping corridor, and I swear every other store was a diamond store. Fitriah and I loved shopping! I found 3 rings I'm regretting not buying. It's better for our pocket book though. They would have cost about $10,000 for the 3, but in the states they would have easily been $25,000 or more. It was so tempting. I'd buy a new ring every anniversary if we could afford it! Anyway, we had a great time seeing the city. We got a tour guide that was so dang fun. He took us around the city, and to a fun beach. It rained a lot that day, but we still had a great time. At one of the beaches, a local band was playing "rasta" music. I could have listened to it all day.

There are a lot of crazy folks out there. One guy in particular was 70 years old (it appeared anyway, he could have been younger). The picture below explains it best. He had a donkey he was hauling around in an attempt to get photos for money. He'd approach people and say "hey, do you want to sit on my ass?" The poor little mule looked like it was on it's last leg. I got up for a photo, and it may have been the last for him. This guy had painted his hooves, and put these ridiculous sunglasses on him. Here's a picture.




We went on and on to Jill, Eddy, Julie and Mike about this crazy guy and his donkey and his dreads. When we finally showed them a picture of him, Eddy said "why didn't we talk about his shirt before?" It made me laugh so hard. Here we went on and on about this guy, but forgot to mention how crazy his outfit was.

Well, I'll have to post more later. This takes so much time! How does anyone have enough time to keep theirs up to date, and read others? I'm so behind on all of your blogs. Sorry!

Do I Love My Husband or What!

I have the coolest hubby in the world. We have this ridiculous driveway that is steep. EVERY time it snows, we battle getting up the driveway in my stupid jetta. I would love you all to come test drive the dang car in the snow and see for your self...IT SUCKS! It drives horribly in the snow. We have burnt tire marks on our driveway for all of our several attempts to get up the driveway (most unsuccessful, even with only a trace amount of snow on the driveway). I'm sure all the neighbors know when the Deming's are home due to the revving of the engine and screeching of the tires as we floor it to make it up the slope. Ok, so back to the point. Matt has been a champ at shoveling all winter. We don't have a snow blower, so it's quite the task. This morning, I'm talking to my cute mother-in-law, and I look out to see this site:



It takes a real man to be comfortable in moon boots and his wife's bathrobe to shovel the snow. He said he felt real cool as cars drove by, and as the neighbor's were out and about.



So great, isn't it?! I love it! Anyway, on a different note, we took a fun little neighborhood field trip to see the Holiday Fire Station. At events like this, I'm realizing Amber is so shy. She wouldn't let go of my hand and didn't want to participate until it was time to get in the fire truck. That was by far her favorite part. I told her early in the morning we were going, so needless to say it was a long morning filled with excitement until 12:30 rolled around. She was way pumped. Parker loved it too. He was the opposite of Amber. He wanted right in the action and was walking around exploring.

Good way to start out the year

Parker decided to bring in the new year with a bang. Earlier this morning while I was getting ready for the day, Parker knocked out his front tooth on our coffee table. Not chipped, not cracked...OUT! He has a big gaping hole where a tooth used to be. Can you think of anything worse? I was putting on mascara when I heard a big crash followed by screaming. I ran in to the living room and saw Amber hugging Parker and saying "it's ok." I immediately saw a mouth full of blood so I assumed he bit his tongue or cheek. There was so much blood I couldn't see anything. I quickly took him to the bathroom to rinse out his mouth. I got a washcloth and was dabbing everywhere when I all the sudden saw the gap. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was seriously in shock. So many things were running through my head, but mostly "is this for real?" "how can we fix this?!" We took him to a pediatric dentist, and unfortunately nothing can be done. He'll have this gigantic gap for years to come. To make matters worse, it kind of "stunts" the growth of the permanent tooth, so we're looking at a good 7-9 years before his permanent tooth grows in. I was hoping with technology these days some sort of artificial tooth could be put in, but the dentist said it'd just fall out. I was so convinced we'd get this fixed I took these "before" photos thinking he'd be toothless for just a few hours. As I was snapping them, I'm thinking "this is so crappy now, but we'll laugh at it in years to come." I'm pretty devastated. Mostly upset because of the "what if" or "if only" and especially because kids are so mean. I don't want kids making fun of him. It makes me so sad to even think about it. One more blow, is we haven't taken his one year picture yet! It's sad we didn't at least capture that before today. Parker didn't cry long though. He must be brave. As soon as I picked him up he stopped crying, and it seems it hasn't bothered him at all since. The only thing I noticed is it took him a lot longer to eat a piece of bread. SAD!