Growing up Gilbert

One of my favorite things about Grenada is all of the fruit! Most fruits are pretty high up on my list of favorite foods (Right under 1. Flaming Hot Cheetoes and 2. Bacon). Our new home has a ton of fruit trees right in the backyard. Arya and I go out often to pick fruit to snack on or to cut up and eat with dinner. When we went out today, I decided to take a few pictures and give you guys a taste of what we get to enjoy. The closest tree to our house is a tiny little lime tree. It's right outside the front door, and last night we popped out to pick some for our lime cilantro rice. Ari has one of the tiny little limes in her hand.   This is some kind of citrus. It's not quite ready yet, so we're not sure which one.  Arya succeeded in picking what I believe is an orange (they're commonly eaten while green here).  This is Arya trying to pick something called a sugar apple. It's called a corrazon in Puerto Rico.  These are starfruit,...

It's been a wonderful thing to be able to stay at home with Arya these years. Soon though, she'll be starting real school (how the heck did my kid get so old?!), so we figured it was time to give her a little taste of what real school would be like. There's a small group  of moms here that do a rotating Co-Op. Kids between the pre-school and kindergarten ages get together and learn basics (like ABCs, Shapes, Numbers, etc...). Arya has always been great with that kind of stuff, so the real plus for us was for her to get some time in a "school like" setting with other kids her age. She's loved it! This was her show and tell day. She showed her beloved lady bug pen. Her first day of school. Literature circle. Crazy time! Otherwise known as song time ;)

(If you're looking at this thinking- " tl;dr ", no worries, just skip to the paragraph that starts "Long story short". The long explanation is mainly for interested family members (:  ) We were so excited to come back to Grenada and live in our brand new home. Last term we were squashed up in an apartment on the second floor, right above the "vacationers". That meant that we spent a lot of nights listening to people partying and a lot of days trying to keep Arya's noise level down so we didn't have to endure the neighbors "broom on the ceiling" method of complaining. We couldn't have been more excited to move into our new place. But, once we did, it wasn't quite what we needed. The perils of having a med student as a husband sometimes seem endless. They're so busy that they can't take part in things like finding new places to live. I'm never really sure how to explain the amount of work that our Students do as ...

Sorry guys! Life caught up with us and I got incredibly behind on updating our blog for all of the friends and family at home. Let's get started! I'll start with the last few things we were able to do while we were in the States. We spent a ton of time with friends and family in Georgia. It was a blast! Arya had a great time getting to see Gavin and catch up on their lost playtime. </ a> After that, we took a trip to see my mom and catch up with her. We had a blast, and had an awesome tour of Dallas. Arya's favorite part was the Zoo, for sure.  Once we were back in Georgia, Emma came for a visit and we all finally got to meet baby Boston! Emily and I caught up on some much needed sister time. I love Grenada, but I hate missing my family.  Arya also got plenty of TLC from our friends back home.  All in all, it was a fantastic visit and we already miss you guys!

Since I'm no longer on Facebook, I'll do my best to update family and friends via our blog. It's summer break! We're home (I've learned that's a very relative term) in Douglas. Sort of. We've been here since late May and we'll be here until August 2nd. We're making the most of our time here, eating tons of flaming hot cheetos, Zaxbys, and Rancheros. And of course, finding time to hang out with family in between all the eating. Right now, we're spending the week in Seaside, Florida. It's an incredible little town, perfectly picturesque and quiet. The most interesting part about it is that it's where the Truman Show was filmed. Ryan says I'm a dork for thinking this, but it's pretty cool that Jim Carrey walked these streets! I can tell we've been spoiled, though. Even in this beautiful place I find myself missing the beautiful waters of Grenada. We're happy to be home and hope we see you all!

Arya and I are turning into such beach bums. For those of you who know me, this has to be a surprise. It's no secret that I've never been a fan of beaches. All that nasty sand, super hot sun and crazy underwater animals nipping at your toes. And of course, there's always Jaws lurking around somewhere out there. Living in Georgia meant the majority of our summer (and spring and winter) vacations were spent at the beach. At least once a year we'd head down to Daytona and spend a week in what others called Paradise. I called it the 7th ring of Hell. I'd spend the entire week curled up with a million books in our condo or hotel room. When reading got old I'd spend countless hours catching up on Spongebob and finishing off 3 family sized bags of Flaming Hot Cheetos. The beach just wasn't for me. So, when we decided to move to Grenada I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of being surrounded by beaches on every side. I tried my hardest to convince Ryan to move ...

We made it to Grenada! Which is a surprise- I can't believe I survived a 20 hour day traveling alone with Arya. It was a challenge! But we're here in paradise, finally! It's definitely different, I've never lived outside of Douglas (except for living a bit in Valdosta) so it's a big change. But it's a fantastic life experience and I can definitely get used to being this close to the beach. Now, if I could only get the grocery stores to promise fully stocked shelves of Flaming Hot Cheetoes... The transportation here is interesting, to say the least. We don't have a car (which I don't mind one bit) so we walk or take busses everywhere. They drive on the left side of the road here. It takes a lot of getting used to, but I'm starting to adjust to the feeling. However, there are no road rules here! No speed limits, no car seats, no pedestrian right of way rules. It's a free for all! Honking is the language of the road here. People honk to say ...