Year of Love

We are pleased to announce that we have arrived at the one year anniversary of our blissful marriage. We really couldn't be more thrilled or grateful for the blessing this year has been. In our first year of marriage we have:

Started the Love Family Piano Studio


Raised enough funds to volunteer at the DREAM Project as teachers


Completed three more semesters at BYU-Idaho (David)


Finished a great first year of teaching 4th grade (Denae...and David)


Gone to temples: Portland, Santo Domingo, & Rexburg


Run a 5K


Made many new friends at Cambridge Court


Learned what happens when washing machines are not installed correctly


Become fans of Dave Ramsey


Kept a budget (Thanks, Dave)


Learned to ride a bike (Denae)


Learned to play the guitar



Composed several pieces of music (David)


Learned a Chopin Waltz (Denae)


Battled cockroaches (RIP family of 11)

Cockroaches not pictured because they are not welcome on our blog.

Made many snow cones and waffles...not necessarily together


Become BFF with Redbox


Enjoyed time with family near and far



Laminated...a lot


Kept a blog


Learned to Salsa dance


Been to concerts: Mindy Gledhill, David Archuleta, MoTab, Jon Schmidt/Steven Sharp


Kept Costa Vida in business


Lost and found a wedding ring buried in the sand at the beach three days later!


Traveled to Flaming Gorge, Yellowstone, Utah, Oregon, and the Dominican Republic


and...

Grown to love each other even more than the day we sealed the deal.


For our anniversary this year, we found a steal of a deal at a resort nearby and went to enjoy a little bit of air conditioning, warm showers, pool time and yummy food. It was a great weekend.

Waterfalls

Week two of camp was another adventure. We got a lot more done and got to know the kids and teachers better. A few of the groups of kids were supposed to go on field trips Monday and Tuesday, but the country decided to go on a transportation strike to protest the high prices of gasoline...thus, no field trips and extra classes to put together. It is interesting to watch life unfold here sometimes. Apparently the strike was much more serious in Santo Domingo and became a very scary situation for some. Luckily here on the north coast it wasn't a big deal. Just no field trip. :(

We were excited to watch the kids make progress this week and to see the teachers start practicing better management skills! It has been rewarding to see people change for the better, even if just a little tiny bit.

This weekend, we went to the 27 charcos (pools) of Damajagua about an hour and a half southwest of Cabarete. http://www.27charcos.com/index.php It was AMAZING! I was really scared to go because everyone kept warning us to be careful and be prepared for the high cliff jumps. I have to admit that I was still very nervous some of the time, but nothing that would hold me back from doing it again. It was so much fun! It took us about four hours to climb up all of the falls and then jump, slide and swim down them. It reminded me a lot of the seven sacred pools in Maui...but there were 27! This was one of the coolest experiences we have had here so far. I would definitely suggest it! We will try to get our pictures soon. We only had 2 cameras for our group of 20 since EVERYTHING got wet.



After our waterfall wonders, we hit the Cabarete beach with Ashlie and Santos and are currently making empanadas and eating chips and salsa...a special treat here. :)

DREAM Camp

We survived! The first week of camp was quite the experience. I don't think either one of us knew what to expect. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work! We ended the week with a bang, parading 300 kids and 100 volunteers through the streets and beachfront of Cabarete. Each day presented a new challenge and new friends. We are grateful to be able to have this little adventure.

After camp was over on Friday, we packed our bags and hit the road to catch a bus down to the capital, Santo Domingo. We were so excited to stay in the air-conditioned hostel on temple square and attend the temple. It was very beautiful. We were surprised by how much they were struggling to have temple workers. We were grateful to be able to attend a session in the afternoon.

Things keep moving along and we are learning so much. We are so thankful to be able to do something so out of the ordinary within our first year of marriage. David's favorite part of the trip so far has been having the experience of interacting with kids and learning to be a leader among children. He says it is something he used to be afraid of and he feels that he is overcoming that fear. He is glad to be able to expose these kids to music they have never heard before.

Denae's favorite part so far has been watching her sweet husband run around making friends and killing bugs and carrying his guitar everywhere he goes. She has really enjoyed the challenge of being pushed to do uncomfortable things and feeling personal growth. Her favorite person to meet so far was six-year-old Luigi who had all the answers to life. She hasn't laughed as much as when she was with this little guy.

My Hero

Summer Camp starts tomorrow! We are excited to see all of the work that we have been doing put to action! The kids come tomorrow and we start actually teaching and training. David has done such a good job preparing his class! It's too bad that being a school teacher in the US wouldn't really cut it financially for the size of family we want to have. He is impressing me everyday with the way he maps out his curriculum and finds creative ways to tie in the weekly themes. I knew I married a creative genius, but I didn't know to what extent. He wrote a cute camp song this week to teach the kids, too. I am excited to see how it goes.

I taught another workshop this week and attended a lot of others. I am really excited to put everything into practice, here and in my 5th grade classroom in the fall. I am especially animated about some new games and drama activities that I have learned about!

David continues to be my hero, killing bugs, providing frequent doses of pineapple and saving me from myself. I am learning to cope with my perfectionism here. I let other teachers hang up the poster I painted for our reading class. Who knew what a strong opinion I had about the right way to tape things to the wall! I sure have a long way to go. David on the other hand has never been so handsome or so much fun! I love the adventures we are having together. :)