Poco Poco 2010

Friday, March 5th

This spring break we were able to take the most awesome vacation ever! Everything was amazing. Zack was not able to go because of his ice skating injury to his finger :( :( We missed him so much. We had such a great times. I am about to make the longest post ever, because I didn't want to miss anything.


We left Santa Clara at about 7:30 pm and drove to Las Vegas to catch the red eye!!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?

We arrived on the island of Curacao on Saturday, March 6th at 3:30 pm.

We stopped and got groceries. As we were all walking in about four of the store employees came chasing after us saying something in Papiamento. (the language spoken there) We had no idea what they were saying. We finally figured out that you had to have shirts on. Haden and Chase did not have theirs on. They had to go sit out in the van. It is kind of weird being somewhere that you cannot communicate with most of the people.

This was quite the fun van! Somehow I was always in the very back and there are speed bumps everywhere. Kyle was usually the driver and every turn we would go around the wheels would squeal.

The Sea Aquarium is on the property of the resort that we stayed in. We all loved going to see the dolphin and sea lion shows.

March 7th

We just hung out at the resort and relaxed.



Monday, March 8, 2010
Our first day of diving.

Everybody earns a dive name.

THIS IS SCUBA DOO

THE ASIAN PERSUASION !!

POCO POCO
Translation from Papiamento to English
Relax! Relax!

SCUBA STEEEEEEVE!

THE BIG KAHUNA

SLAMMIN

SCUBA HAY

We met Chris and Rosie our dive instructors at Caracubbaai. This was our first dive so they wanted to see how we reacted in the water. We all did great! No problems. After that we drove up to Punti'i Piku (Barracuda Point). We did another beach entry dive and ended up at Tugboat. This was our favorite dive. It was a wall that we had to go by to get to tugboat. We all loved the wall. You could just move up or down to check out all of the sea life. We ended up at the sunken tugboat. This is where I earned my dive name. I was doing fine with buoyancy and all of a sudden I shot up to the surface feet first ! What the heck?? Chris followed me up. He thought that probably the boots I was wearing were to big and thick. (He was right). I was really frustrated and mad that I had surfaced. Chris said, "Lisa you just need to relax, relax, and be lazy. Be a lazy diver don't fight anything. Poco Poco. (relax relax) Well his advice worked. I wish that his advice would work in the United States ;)

After diving all of Shelbee and Jerry's friends came over to their condo for Family Home Evening. This was very cool. Four languages were spoken tonight. English, Spanish, Dutch and Curacao's language Papiamento. Papiamento is a combination of the four languages. The amazing thing about tonight was that whatever language was spoken you could feel in your heart through the Holy Ghost what they were trying to communicate. Quite comforting to a mother who is about to send her son to a country with a very difficult language. It was great for Chase to feel this.

Tuesday March 9, 2010

This was a great day. Everybody Porto Marie. We did our first dive and came to the beach for lunch. While we ate Chris taught Hayley and Ammon to scuba dive. Then Haden went with Chris and he learned. It was awesome! The rest of the vacation we heard Haden telling his Scuba stories and at the end you would always hear, " I'M SCUBA STEEEEEVE!".

Scuba Steve getting a quick lesson from Scuba Chris!

Tuesday evening we went to Willemstad and had dinner. The restaurant was this cool place where you sat on a deck about thirty feet above the water. It was great. I think it took us about three hours to get dinner. The people in Curacao are to POCOED.

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Another day in Paradise!
Today we drove to the very north part of the island called Playa Kalki. Ammon was such a pro at diving that he was able to dive with us. After diving we drove the the north point of the island. It was all lava and blow holes. The islanders say that this is where Curacao takes her breath.

Making fry sauce.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

This morning I stayed at the resort with Haden. Hayley and Ammon went with the gang to dive. Haden and I did the Sea Aquarium again. We couldn't get enough of the dolphins, sea lions and the hands on with the sea creatures. Everyone came back for lunch. We then drove to Zandsi bar. This was going to be a scouting dive because at sunset we were going NIGHT DIVING :0 !!

While everyone was on their first dive I had wrote messages all over my hands. My boys kept doing things that were making me mad during the dives. Hunter would leave his dive buddy. Not saying names, but some people would get close to the coral :( Kyle ran out of air on the morning dive so he was getting harassed about that.) Everyone was calling him a goff because he sucked down all of his air. So on one hand with the hang loose sign it said" GO BACK TO YOUR DIVE BUDDY!". The other hand said "DON'T TOUCH THE BOTTOM"! One palm said, "GOFF". The other palm said, "AWESOME!". Well we get on our dive and I had flashed my signs a few times. I was a little deeper than everyone. I looked down at my instrument gauge and my air was almost out! I gave Chris the sign and we turned back! I had to buddy breath all the way back :(

Ok, I have to admit I was a little anxious to night dive. Me, Shelbee and Trudi all wanted to be Chris's dive partner. Every time I moved my flash light I thought a sea creature was going to be looking at me. It turned out that it wasn't that bad. It actually was one of my favorite dives.

On Friday we just hung out at the resort and relaxed.

For some reason these words keep going through my head?

"May Day!"
"Scuba Steeeeeeeeeve!"
Seba
Poco Poco
Haden's squeal when a brother teases him.
"Zack would love this."
"I miss Zack."
The sound of the van tires squealing.
"I'm starving!" (diving makes you hungry)