Camp Love

Camp is winding down. We had one of our final hurrahs tonight at the local Catholic church. We invited the community to come see the kids show off what they have been learning at camp. Despite less than perfect acoustics and a few technical difficulties, it was a great night. It was exciting to see all of the kiddos dressed up and eager to see their counselors and professors in clothes other than the standard blue T-shirt. David led two of the night's acts, one song and one dance. Denae directed an army style alphabet march. It was the bee's knees.

We have really come to love some of these kids. They sure are cuties!

This week, Survivor winner, Parvati Shallows came to the DREAM Project as part of her CBS web special, Around the World For Free. She filmed around our school and the cool monkey jungle we went to a few weeks ago. You can find me in the video twice! :)

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. :)