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??

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!

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)

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.

what do you REALLY know..?

jessi and ariel are getting MARRIED!!

you know what this means..
no? c'mon..

the girl needs a bridal shower!! yeah!
we threw her a surprise shower to celebrate. she and candace had just gone to dinner and candace made up some shpeel about how she needed to go to robin and cara's apartment. we ate a ton of snacks, jessi opened her presents, and played some games.. one of my favorites:

we'd asked ariel questions about himself.. and about jessi.. wrote them all down..
THEN made her answer ALL of the questions in front of all of us.. funn.

three whole years

happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday los tweeeeems
happy birthday to YOU!

our two favorite little twinkies and roommates turned THREE! big day :)

sharla invited their nana and papa (jim and teresa) to their birthday party which was super exciting! they came from santiago and we all sang, jakob and isaak blew out the candles, and got to eat CAKE! they LOOOVED the cake and couldn't get enough.



man, i can't wait to see two of my favorite little dudes in 3 more years. they get cooler by the day.

i love you boys. happy birthday!!

discipline and salsa

anne registered our staff to attend a "positive discipline" workshop at doulos discovery school in jarabacoa. the doulos school is incredible and really inspiring. chad and krista wallace, the founders of the school, are amazing people and the work God is doing through them is absolutely brilliant. i really can't speak highly enough about them and their school; their professional work and personal selves are very respectable. their house is the one we stayed in last fall for a weekend when we did the awesome swing thing, rode horses (and a donkey), hiked, etc.. and they let us stay there w/o even knowing us first and w/o even being there the first night! it is an honor to know them and it is really neat for us that anne connected us to a little part of what they are doing.

the workshop was really informative and interesting. i actually really LOVE to learn about all of that kind of stuff and the workshop gave our staff new ideas to impliment in our classrooms and school. there are so many new ways we can make learning interactive and have the students participate in classroom decisions.

and how about this? instead of "HEY.. QUIT RUNNING AROUND THE ROOM! GO STAND ON THE WALL!!" i will try "ok you have 2 options. you can sit in your chair and participate or we can go outside and talk to robin." yeah, skills.

bonus- we rented this sweet van and mama anne drove us all:

on the way to jarabacoa we stayed at the white's one night (santiago was about the midway point between puerto plata and jarabacoa) and went out to dinner.

we. ate. mexican food.
at a mexican food restaurant.
salsa. burritos. fajitas.

these are things we just don't ever get to eat around montellano or puerto plata. i was maybe too excited..