Saturday, February 21, 2009

trucker man

garrett grew a lot of facial hair.

garrett shaved his facial hair.

garrett will be a barber.

or a trucker.

the end.

Monday, February 16, 2009

climb and conquer

february 15, 2009- the day we conquered "Mount Isabel de Torres"

there is this, well, mountain behind the mak house and we decided to hike it after church one sunday. february 15th- perfect day. there were just about ZERO clouds in the sky (which = a HOT hike but a perfect view from the top). garrett dropped us near the base and UP we went.

up. up. UP.

there are no cut-backs so it is basically a straight climb uphill for 2.5 hours straight. whew! the hike itself was fun. good. hard.

it felt SO GOOD when we finally got to the top. good in that "man, this will hurt for days/ i am about to collapse/ look at that view!" kinda way. we could see so far along the north coast which is just beautiful. oh yes, Jesus is also at the top. there is a cool/scary/unstable feeling cable car that we went down on. you can also ride up on it.. you know, if you don't want to be all hardcore-like.

yeah we conquered that mountain. sucka.

and from here, ladies and gentlemen, you can see the north coast. the pier, sosua, cabarete..

fix your eyes on Jesus..

if the cable would have snapped, this would have been katy and kendall's last photo of terror. don't worry. we made it.

the other cable car coming up

you ready for us again, Mount Isabel de Torres??

Sunday, February 15, 2009

jessi & ariel <3

"what did you do for valentine's day this year, ashley? hang out with your girls? eat chocolate? watch sappy love movies?"
"well, no.. actually.."

we had the honor to attend and be a part of jessi and ariel's wedding. cara, robin, and i got there ("there" being the beautiful sea horse ranch) early in the morning (7:30-8ish) and set up the entire wedding site. from hanging flowers, to setting up the podium, to deciding and arranging what the chairs would look like, to tying all bows on the chairs.. we got it set up. after doing a 20 minute shower/get ready in the outside bathroom, we met the guests and chatted for awhile.. waiting for robin to drive the bride up :)

the wedding was beautiful and jessi of course looked absolutely stunning. the weather was perfect and the ocean background definitely didn't hurt the beauty of the wedding.. after the ceremony, we rode over to where the reception was to be held, set up all the tables, and awaited the bride and groom!

the reception was so fun. we ate together, had a few mini photo shoots, and hung out. it was a beautiful full day. it is really such a blessing to know jessi and ariel and to be a part of their lives. here is a little about what the day looked like:

ceremony site from afar

guest sign in

the happy couple being married by amoury

bride and groom..

the cake (you know, in case you couldn't tell..)

jessi throwing flowers to all the single ladies

just one peek at the gringa photo shoot.. :)

happy valentine's day.. and CONGRATULATIONS JESSI AND ARIEL!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

stuck in a cloud

for days..
weeks..
months..

(ok. maybe not months but it felt like it gosh darn it)

it RAINED.

we were definitely breakin' out the jackets because it is cold.. by "cold" i mean like 70's. that calls for a fleece, right? (ok, we are wimps.) when it rains we can't hang our laundry outside so that means we either 1. just keep wearing our dirty clothes over and over or 2. hang our clothes inside and smell like mildew. either way i guess we smell.. oh and less children come to school because they either can't cross the high river, road is too muddy, or they don't want to go out in the rain (this one is NOT a valid excuse says profe ashley).

anyway, point is that we were here in a gigantic raincloud. there is a rainy season in like december-january (ish) i hear but this was apparently pretty unusual. cool weather though.

playing with bernito at school

can you see the lady sweeping off her roof? (hint- rainbow umbrella)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

sparkle toes

event: anne's birthday
when: saturday afternoon.. on jan 31st of course
where: boon's living room
why: um. DUH. anne is 29 now!

for anne's birthday we made her take the day off and i went over to their apartment in the afternoon so we could hang out.. this is a bit of our agenda:

1. look through presents from anne's mom and fun friends.. including silly string, apple crumble mix, a journal.. she got SO many fun toys we got to play with..

2. drink coffee. look through magazines. cut out all things wonderful in the magazines.. and put them all together. happy collages.

3. paint toes with purple sparkle nail polish from michelle. pretty toes.. the kind you watch when you walk. yes.

4. start playing with fun presents again.

anne, could you be any more foxy? gold teeth, purple toe nails.. that garrett is a lucky man!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, anne!
loveth you.