End of summer

The military band "Touch N Go" played at the Praia Fest, but like everything else, they didn't perform until midnight.  So a couple of girls and myself went to the midnight performance.  We got home around 2am.  If it was a weekend, Denver would have gone, but it was a Tuesday night and he had to work the next morning so he went to bed instead.   They are a really good band.  They have amazing talent.  They are stationed in Germany.

Cindy Brown and Aida Bone.

Sterling wanted to see his "tornado" so I took apicture of it so he could see it.

Garrett is the number one cleaner in our house.  They all have chores, but Garrett does them the fastest and the best.

Sterling folding his clothes.

Deacon hates his swing because he's on his back.  He likes his tummy.  He finally fell asleep in it after crying for a while.

We went down to the Praia Fest on Friday to buy the kids special Portuguese candy for the movie we were going to watch. On the way home, we took the scenic route. 
A speed boat zooming through the water.

Praia (decorated for Praia Fest) from the Mary statue.

A bunch of tents people set up for the Praia Fest.  They live in these tents for 2 weeks while the Praia Fest is going on.

The very crowded beach.

The sun was a bit bright :)

On Saturday we took the visiting dentist to see the volcano.  He's here from New Mexico to help out because one dentist PCSed (moved) and the other one is in Germany for a month for health reasons.  So the AF sent this one to help out for a month so Denver wouldn't be the only dentist.

The boys finding bugs.

Algar Do Carvao

Denver and Mark Lewis.  He went to dental school with one of the residents we knew in Illinois.

We got to the volcano at 1:30 but it didn't open until 2 so we took a hike up the side of the mountain.  You could see another island from the top (technically not the top, but from up high)

Going inside the tunnel to get to the volcano.  The only one open to the public.  There is another volcano in Indonesia, but it is in danger of collapse.

I love this dome.  We tried to get a family picture in front of it, but our camera didn't work well.  Mark Lewis took one on his camera that worked better I think and he will email us it, hopefully.

There is water in the bottom of the volcano.  The deepest it's gotten is 25meters, which is like 75 feet!  It covered the stairs quite high when it was that deep about 2 years ago.

 

Love this.  I took a picture of it last time we went to the volcano and couldn't help taking another.  'You are here,' just in case you didn't know sign.

Then we took Mark Lewis up to Serra Do Cume.

These cows are on the hillside.  It's a steep hill too!

This picture might  be the best one to show the steepness of the hill.

I really like these yellow flowers/honeysuckles.  They grow all over the island.

We saw these bulls on the side and had to get a quick picture.  I was a little scared because they can jump these small fences. 

Living on a small island, we get the food flown to us.  Last week the store was out of beef and produce because there was an 'air freight delay'. 

Saturday was the last day of the Praia Fest and the bull fight on the beach.  This is the only way Denver would be caught this close to a bull.  It's actually Air Force rules that the Americans cannot participate in the bull fights except to watch.

Some crazy people.

There was a person in the garbage can and the bull ended up breaking it.  The person wasn't hurt, but I'm sure he was scared.

There were tons of people there.

Maelie's friend Jessica and her little sister Abby.

More and more people.  To me this is a lot.  I'm not used to the crowds anymore or to traffic so moving away from here and dealing with traffic will be a shock.

People watching the bull fights safely from their boats.

Deacon's first bull fight.

An airplane flew overhead.

Letting Abby hold Deacon.

We tried this pork kebab sandwich.  so good.

This pizza calzone thing I didn't like at all.  I think it was just the cheese I didn't like. 

This was a sweet bread with coconut and sugar on top.  It was very tasty.

These 4 boys, glued to the TV :)

I thought it was so funny. 

On Sunday, the power went out on the whole island.  We didn't have  power from 12:30 until ae bout 7:30.  So after church (which only had 24 people, including kids, and 6 priesthood holders, including the Elders because of people on vacation and the small #'s we have now after PCS season) we went for a scenic drive.

Dragon's foot rock.

One of the Spirit Houses.  There are about 70 or so on the island and we plan to take a few Saturdays to find them all and take pictures of them. They are all different colored.

Deacon asleep in his car seat.

When we moved him to the chair, he was still asleep.   He was tired.

Before the power came on, the kids and I played Mother, May I outside.  It was kind of nice to be without power.  It forced us and our neighbors to be with family.  No computers, I couldn't bake or cook, just spend time with the kids.