The Marsh Family

The Marsh Family

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Reunions, anniversary, and floods...

Lots of things happened this past week. It didn't seem possible to us but this weekend was our 10 year High School reunion, 5 year College reunion, and Friday marked our 5th Anniversary! We like to do things all at once! We decided to take a trip, just the 2 of us, for our Anniversary so we left on Thursday to go to beautiful Isabela, Puerto Rico. We slept in Thursday morning and then drove up there. We checked into our hotel and then relaxed for a while before heading to our first adventure. Here's a picture of a rock at the turn to go to Isabella and the view from the balcony of our hotel room. It was amazing!











We then left to go horseback riding on the beach and through a forest area...very interesting. It started out nice and then we realized we had the guide from hell! First of all - my horse, Peanut, is apparently scared of the water. Once we go to the beach when the waves would come near Peanut would bolt. Then of course the guide thought it was amusing and started letting his horse run. Mind you we were all beginners to intermediate horseback riders, didn't know how to sit on the saddle correctly to run, etc. Not the funnest thing we could have done. Then he starts letting the f word fly and just turned weird. We got off the horses to walk on the beach where we did learn some interesting things. We were on the beach (Survivor Beach) just below what used to be Ramey Air Force Base. They don't use the base anymore but for an airport now - the same place we went to the airshow several weeks ago. They still send out planes and helicopters to search the waters for Domincans trying to come to PR. They also find packages that Domincans have sent floating in the ocean. I thought that was interesting. We did see several planes flying over while we were on our trip. After walking on the beach for a while we mounted the horses and took off for home. It was, of course, pouring down rain by this time so we were soaked. He didn't make us ride on the beach too long before letting us go on trails through the forest. I was perfectly happy with that because there were no more waves! The problem was now that our guide was hitting on the girl in front of me. Trying to get her number, trying to get her to kiss him, etc. It was pretty uncomfortable! When we got closer to the stables he stopped us all to tell us not to tell the owner that we went running on the horses because he could get fired for it...very interesting ride! Here are some pictures of Courtney on Spirit, me on Peanut, and some pictures the jerk guide took while we were on the beach.



After the horseback ride we went to our hotel and took hot showers because we were cold and soaked. Then we went to dinner at the bar/grill at our hotel. It was really good. By this time the rain had stopped so we hung out there for a while and then went to bed early. We both ended up losing our sunglasses on the horseback trip so we had to get up the next morning to go buy some new sunnies. We drove all over looking for a place to buy them. We ended up finding a place called "Bye Bye Brasil" where they had all sorts of neat things. We got our glasses and talked to the owner for a while who was really nice. Then we decided to just take it easy for the day at the beach. On our way to the first beach, Shacks, we got a message from Courtney's step-mom saying their basement had flooded - and I mean FLOODED - and all of our stuff that was there is gone. Happy Anniversary! We feel so bad for them. The water came all the way up to the floor boards of the top floor and was rushing out the back door. We were keeping our washer & dryer there, Courtney's memorabilia, his drill & saw, etc. It can all be replaced, right? We hung out and snorkeled at Shacks for a while and saw some really cool fish and a coral reef. Then we went to eat at "Happy Belly". After lunch we drove to a beach called Posa Clara, we think. It was so neat! There's a huge rock that blocks off the waves and ocean from this shallow pool. Perfect place to take kids! We even enjoyed the shallow pool! We were excited because we think it will be a great beach to take Marilyn & Cole when they come in July. Here's some pictures from Posa Clara.

Aside from some unfortunate happenings we had a great Anniversary! We can't believe we've been married for 5 years already. I know, I know, for people who have been married for much longer it doesn't seem like much but it was a big deal to us. Courtney gave me a lovely watch and I gave him a clock that has engraving on it. We're going with a time theme for our marriage - I gave him a watch on our wedding day so I had to get him something else for the Anniversary. I also made him a DVD of our time together. I'll bring it home this summer if anyone wants to see it! One of Katie's friends from South Dakota came here last night so we'll probably be doing some fun things with her this week. Today, however, is reserved for laundry which I almost done with! I hope everyone has a great week and you may now start counting down the days until you see us...just kidding...unless that is you really want to!

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