Bringing Home the Bacon!

The fishing pole purchase and endless hours of 6am fishing is starting to payoff...kinda.

Our first fresh meal. Rachel and Kevin came over to feast on Christian's first edible catch. Stingray for dinner. Surprisingly, it tasted really good.

Christian told me he caught these. He later admitted that some guys (that caught a dozen fish right next to him) felt so sorry for him because he didn't catch anything that they gave him a couple fish. Last night's delicacy! Conch...Christian found it while snorkeling!After hours of hammering he finally got the muscle out of the shell. I opted for a veggie burger.

Beginner's Luck

We played BINGO last night with our co-managers Rachel and Kevin. We had no idea what we were doing or what the prize was. Nevertheless, Christian happened to win the "grand prize". It wasn't until he turned in his card that he realized we were walking home with an extra $300....money in the bag. We celebrated by treating everyone to McFlurrys:)

Sunken Treasures

Testing out the chair...my legs were covered in algae after I sat on it!

We had to drive with all our windows down because the smell was so bad!

We spent hours snorkeling and searching for a plane crash just off the coast of Maho Beach. We never found the plane, but Christian found some old patio furniture at the bottom of the ocean. We thought it would be a great idea to take it back home and give it to our neighbors because we thought they didn't have patio furniture. It proved much more difficult than we anticipated... "We" (meaning Christian) somehow managed to swim and drag the incredibly heavy chair about a 100 yards back to shore. The chair was covered in algae and had the most horrendous fish stench. Not wanting all of our efforts to be in vain...we put the slimy chair in our car and took it home. Unfortunately, our friends already had furniture and it's now sitting on our doorstep. Maybe we'll go put it back where we found it!

I Married a Fisherman

Hoping for some beginners luckThe first catch! No...that's not the bait:)
While he pulled out the stingray we saw a

fairly large shark in the water.

Holding down the stinger to get the hook out.

Ever since we got to the island Christian has been dying to find a fishing pole (I didn't even know he liked to fish). After stopping at many dive shops we finally found a fishing store. While purchasing two new poles, he promised that with all the fish he'd catch we would have a positive return on our investment...I'm still waiting for my fresh fish dinner.

Hurricane Trouble

Many have asked how all the hurricanes have affected our tiny little island. Although there's been some rain, it has only impacted us when we are watching TV. We've become all too familiar with the picture above. It seems to appear on our TV screen only at the most inopportune times.

Fate?

Scouting out potential "fishing spots" near our house. While looking for a bite to eat we found Anse Marcel Beach Watch out London 2012 USA synchronized swimming team The replacement shorts...the hole is where his arm is. Ferry ride out to Pinel Island. The cute little boy that took this picture worked on the boat. We saw him and his sister trying to hitchhike as they walked home so we gave them a ride! They were 9 and 12 years old!! crazy We see the beach all day long, but we had our first couple days off this weekend and were actually able to go to the beach. On Monday we went to a tiny island off the coast of Orient Beach called Pinel Island. It wasn't until we went to put on our snorkel gear (after the 30 min car drive and ferry ride) that Christian realized he forgot his swim suit. As fate may have it (and after swimming in his skivvies for a couple hours) we were walking around the island and he found an old swim suit lying in bushes. It had an enormous hole, but I guess a sneak peak is better than the full show:)

La Casa

Here are some pictures of our new pad. I was expecting a cockroach infested hole in the ground. Ironically, the only bugs we've seen thus far came out of a bag of beans we bought from this nasty supermarket by our house.

Color Change and Tassels

Pictures to prove it...It's going on the resume

Finally arrived...after 2 layovers and 18 hours of traveling

Our new ride and new friends greeted us at the airport!

After graduating from Del Sol's own Pederson Worldwide University (yes, we really had a graduation ceremony) we had a couple free days in Utah while we waited for our work visas. The timing couldn't have been better as we got to attend Education week at BYU and Christian's grandfather's 80th birthday bash in SLC. We took off last Sunday for the island and have had an intense last week of training and trying to learn how the whole business operates down here. We had the weekend off and finally got to explore the island!

As Seen on You Tube

We joined Ashley and Luke for their work party in Utah (we are in training right now for our new jobs), and had chance to ride the "human slingshot". Supposedly, this same slingshot is a popular video on You Tube. Also, rumour has it that Jay Leno is planning take a ride on the slingshot for his show.

SF Marathon: Check

Done and done

Refuel time!
Chinatown!
We traveled up to SF last weekend. I ran the first half of the SF Marathon and we got to spend some time with the Hansens before our big move. Christian's parent's got us an amazing hotel in the City the night before the race, which became even more appreciated since I still had to wake up at 530AM to go run. The weather was perfect and the course was unbelievable...the Golden Gate Bridge was even closed and made part of the course for the 20,000 marathon runners!

MOVING!

We just got an offer to go work in St. Maarten and manage a retail store for a company named Del Sol. We have been frantically packing to get ready for the big move. We leave for island living on August 20th!!

Goodbye Encino Royale

Never judge an apartment complex by its name. Unless, of course, you consider royale to mean... A stove with a broken knob that doesn't tell you what temperature it is and is almost impossible to turn off (we often need to turn off the gas all together) Cockroaches ...including one ENORMOUS one that I discovered crawling in my hair while I was in the kitchen the other day. (Christian tried to kill it with his crutch, but instead only hit my leg leaving a huge bruise...roach disappeared ..yeah) A leaky roof. Although it was finally fixed, we dealt with this sick, nasty, and leaky roof for a month.

I feel that I've paid my dues in sub-par housing. I could not be happier to be leaving these "Royale" accommodations!

Viva Las Vegas

Here's a couple pictures from our trip to

Vegas a couple weekends ago.

Our hotel gave us some free money to go gambling...

Christian trying to "sense" where he's gonna win BIG

About to lose everthing

The day's winnings!!
I was ahead $1.40 so I took my loot and bought a Diet Coke!

One of these does not look like the other one...

My gift to Christian for his birthday last month:

Tickets to Mystere for our trip to Vegas last weekend
Some new shirts from Urban.

Christian's gift to me for my birthday last week:

A box of my "favorite" (new to me) cereal Tootie Fruities

A box of Hot Tamales.

If it's any consolation...he did get a great deal on these snazzy gifts (as he informed me) since they were purchased at the Dollar Store. However, due to my unethusiastic response, I don't think it'll save money in the long run (i.e. my online shopping the following day and his necessity to make up for this on future birthdays)!!

Friends and Fireworks

Christian's version of "low impact" as prescribed by his Dr.

Face-plant Going, going...gone!
We watched the fireworks sitting on the boat!

Greg provided the musical entertainment:

I had four days off so we took full advantage of the holiday! The Wheatleys invited us up to Tahoe to stay in their amazing cabin and enjoy a weekend on the lake. In the words of Greg, "we could have one hand in the fridge and still have a toe in the lake"! Greg and Madeleine & Mike and Mary were also invited. It really made us miss living near friends. We also got to spend two days in Los Altos before heading back to the daily grind of work!!

Wedding Bells in Idaho

The long awaited Cafe Rio trip with Russ and Jen!

The Galley (cafeteria) was closed...Christian was not happy!

Note to self: Must start saving for trampoline purchase (and maybe a backyard to put it)!

We went to Rexburg, ID this past weekend for Ashley's wedding. It was so refreshing to see open space...a rare sight in LA. Mitzi joined us for our drive to ID. Christian was so excited to visit his old stomping grounds from when he attended Ricks. After the wedding Christian gave us the deluxe campus tour, which included much personal commentary of his doings as an 18yr old boy away from home for the first time:) One story included putting notes on their trays before sending them through to get washed while eating at the school caf. (Note the picture).

Since we flew into SLC, we got to see lots of family and friends. We started our trip visiting Russ and Jen and before flying back to LA we also got to visit Missy, Grandpa and Grandma Hansen, and the Easton family (which also included a delicious home cooked meal (thanks Camille) before heading to the airport.

Victory Before the Finish Line

Words will never be able to describe my excitement when after the 1st hour of last night’s Bachelorette…there was a 2nd hour!! Christian and I have been loyal fans since episode 1, when we each picked one man who we thought would take Deanna to the altar. Looks like I’m one step closer to victory after Christian’s pick (Jeremy) got sent home last night and my pick (Jason) walked away with another rose. Favorite quote of the night came from Chris. In response to Grahams "I was trying to make a statement" comment he responded, "I’ve been married a long time…that’s not the time to make a statement".P.S.-Graham…we still miss the eye-candy (I use "we" loosely)!