Sending out the year with one crazy weekend

The weekend began with a bang! For the first time since we moved to Barbados, Jen and I had a chance to go diving. It's been a long time since we've dove together -- basically since we moved from East Timor. While living in Korea, I had the chance to dive once in Thailand, but Jen was pregnant, so wan't able to.

Anyway, we got a sitter and headed down to DivePro where a friend of ours works as a Divemaster. Our first dive was at a site called Asta Reef. The first highlight was a sea turtle swimming by as we descended into the water. Shortly after, we saw a couple more turtles. We spent the next 25 minutes swimming along a reef looking at the coral and the fish (and getting reacclamated to breathing through a tube) when we came upon a really cool shipwreck. I don't know what happened to this ship, but I swear it was ripped into at least three major pieces. It was sweet! The coolest thing I saw an 18-inch, colorful eel. The thing was just dancing in and out of cracks of the wreck.

Back on the surface, all the waves started to get to Jennifer. She's never been seasick in her life, but I guess there's a first time for everything. From the moment we came up, Jen was two steps away from losing breakfast over the side of the boat. So the boat took her back into shore before we began our second dive at a place called The Boot. All around, the Boot had a better reef than Asta, but no wreck.

While boating back in, I was wondering whether or not Jen went home or if she was waiting for me at the shore. As the boat went around the bend into the cove, not only was Jen there, but my two little girls were playing on the beach, as well. It was a very pleasant surprise. By this point, Jen was over her seasickness and envious of our second dive. So we're already signed up for the coming Saturday.

Sunday was a tough day. Emily decided to be a difficult three-year old, and I decided to be a tough dad who wasn't taking any from her. Result: we clashed all day long. Luckily, by late afternoon we had both calmed down and were ready to love each other again. To cap the day off, she went to bed like a pro. My personal highlight that day was watching both my daughters dance to the closing hymn, First Noel, at church. They were both adorable.

Ringing in the New Year was anti-climatic. I hosted a late youth fireside at church (which actually went really well) and got home to my sleeping wife at 11:30. We chit-chated in bed until midnight and then promptly fell asleep. I woke up at 3:00 AM with Emily in our bed and realized I was still wearing my dress shirt.

Monday was awesome!!! We spent a great morning at the beach just enjoying being at the beach. Jen turned to me and said, "we make more liesure time here than we did in Seoul." She's right and I love it. Living a ten-minute drive from the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen makes it easy. Going to the beach can be just an hour affair. We once stopped on a whim on the way home from somewhere.

Once we were home, Monday proved to be one of my most productive days in a long time. I did some yard and patio cleanup, took down Christmas lights, re-wired our entertainment system, played with my kids and dog, cleaned poop out of the kids bath, read to Emily and put her to bed, did dishes, exercised, and updated this blog. I felt tough by the end of the day.

Here are pictures from the beach today. I hope everyone had a happy new year holiday!