Dragons, Monkeys and Kids!

These are some old videos from last summer. The neighbors kids were over playing while the Mom's were having a meeting. We are going to miss our sweet neighbors and their kids! -Mayla

Spring!! I love it. We biked to Bern today. This time both of us went. The wind blew against us on the way there so the ride home was smooth. We went to the same school I went to last time, but this time there were no kids around to scare. So, I (May) played on the Merry-go-Round which I have been wanting to do for some time. Overall it was a successful ride. On the way home, Byron had an epic race with a horse.

Byron's words: While we were heading home I saw three horses racing across a pasture towards us. I slowed down for a few seconds and pointed them out to Mayla. They splashed right through a pond and ran up alongside us, just fifteen feet away on the other side of a fence. Before we knew it, the horses were running full-tilt, racing past, as if to prove they were faster than us. So I leaned on my pedals, blew past Jemayla, and chased after them. The lead horse was young and rust-colored, and it was flanked by two white horses. I never thought I would catch them, but they slowed down as they reached a T in the road where their pasture ended. Somehow, they seemed to know we weren't taking the turn that would keep us near them.

I had the song "Rendevous" playing on my MP3 player, so I was feeling pretty competitive. Instead of riding straight, like I was supposed to, I veered to the right, switched gears, and pedaled furiously. The lead horse hesitated for a split-second, then kicked its back legs high into the air, pounded them on the ground, and took off like a shot with the two white horses galloping behind. The three horses immediately pulled ahead of me. I leaned forward and pedaled faster than I've ever pedaled before. To my amazement, I was gaining on them. Granted, the wind was at my back, and I was on a very slight downhill slope on a paved road, while the horses plowed through grass and uneven dirt, but I was racing with horses! The distance closed between us, and my visible success made me push even harder. I pulled even with the horses with a quarter of the pasture left, and barely pulled ahead just before they started to slow down. They stopped at the corner of the pasture, staring after me as I slumped over my handlebars in exhaustion. I coasted to a stop, and slowly pedaled back to where Jemayla was petting them on the noses.

We spent a few minutes letting the horses nose at us and nibble our shirts. I cursed myself for having already eaten my apple--I couldn't very well offer them my crushed, leftover salami and cheese sandwich. Finally we climbed back onto our bikes and started the long ride back. The horses didn't follow us this time.

Yay for spring!

Saturday was a dangerously deceiving day. I felt like summer break should be starting the following week! I had my first long bike ride in a long time. 13 miles to a neighboring town called Bern. It took me an hour and a half. One thing I like about our area is that there are old schools all over the place. Here are some pictures from my ride. It's getting to be green! -Mayla

Monkeys, Mafia and Moustaches

I know we're a little too old for this, but it was still fun.

To: Caylin

With love: George, Honch Heado and Ova Cason

Byron's Black Hair

During a school fundraiser for African children, I promised my 3rd hour class that I would allow them to dye/shave my hair if they raised $100 dollars. They ended up raising $98.22, so I thought I was off the hook.

Unfortunately for me, the teacher who counts all the money knew about the bet, and added the last few dollars, just so she laugh about what the students did to me.

We ended up dying my hair black during class, and then I let them rinse it out by throwing buckets of water at me during lunch. I forgot to get pictures of the actual process, but I know my students took plenty.

Better Together

Tomorrow, I get to be with my husband again, but no more sad departures for us!!! I Get to go home!! I am so grateful for the experiences that I have had here and the people that I have come to know. Sometimes I feel like I am on a second mission, the first being California, but I think this mission is more selfish...:). I love you my husband and I am coming home!!!

Valentine Vegas Vacation

For Valentine's Day Jemayla and I decided to go out of town. She wanted to go someplace warm and I wanted to go somewhere with food . . . lots and lots of food. So we went to Las Vegas. As far as I'm concerned there's no better place for eating.

This is the ceiling of the Bellagio. We decided that the Bellagio was the classiest place in Vegas, but that might just be because of Ocean's 11.

And what trip would be complete without a visit to a fake bridge?

I learned to play a song on the ukulele for Mayla's Valentine's Day present. She really enjoyed it, even though it wasn't very good yet. I've decided that the uke is more my style instrument than the guitar.

For her part, Jemayla gave me a poster with a life-sized Jemayla traced on it to keep me company while she's away. Unfortunately the poster doesn't seem to like me much. It never laughs at my jokes, and when I tried to kiss it goodnight it gave me a paper cut.

This is chocolate fountain next to a candy shop. Jemayla stood staring at it for a long, long time. She was finally asked to leave after the janitor arrived for the third time to mop up her drool puddle (it was becoming quite the slipping hazard). Now she keeps dropping hints about what she wants for her birthday.

There was a curious lack of drinking fountains (as well as an abundance of alcohol) in the casinos. Consequently, Jemayla got a little bit too excited when she saw this waterfall/restaurant sign, and started drinking. Security was not pleased. I told them that they could just give Jemayla a picture of the chocolate fountain and the waterfall would be refilled in no time, but they didn't believe me. The janitor would have backed me up, but he was still wringing out his mop.

Not long after this we found a shopping center (Jemayla bought some shoes and I bought a rather tiny but very expensive bottle of a Gatorade), and of course we were immediately attracted to the silliest things we could find.

I remember Chad owning some glasses like these.

I still have nightmares about the 80's.

In the mall we got $20 dollars for watching a screener for some new makeover show (foolishly named "Making Over America with Trinny and Susannah"). We also got to see the Stone Man, a really cool street performer(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJrB8KxIvzA), and people giving out free hugs.

Of course, like any trip we had our disasters. At a gas station in the Nevada desert a guy pointed out that you could see the wires shining through our tires. Sure enough, the tires were all worn waaaaay down. Montpelier is so muddy I rarely see the tire tread, so I had no idea that we were one little bump away from spending Valentine's Day dehydrating in the desert. Luckily there was a garage nearby where we could get some new tires, and we were happily on our way.