The Palmer Family: Janelle Beukers! A visitor!

While Denver was in Peru, my niece Janelle came and stayed with me. She is now serving her mission in the Tallahassee Florida mission. I took her to a few restaurants so she could try the island food.

Here she had swordfish and I had goat. She tried the goat too.

She's not a seafood eater so this was a big step for her.

Outside the restaurant

We went for lots of walks.

We visited our first home. We had taken out 5 aloe vera plants and replaced them with these bushes, which had grown considerably since we moved almost one year from this time.

Janelle loves the ocean and is thinking she might want to be a marine biologist. This was a good place for her to come visit.

Boats in the water.

In the distance, you can see one of the other islands.

Airplane flying overhead, ready to land.

Hiking, kind of.

A band playing on the drive home.

Maelie's birthday happened while Janelle was here and Denver was gone. Janelle helped me make the cake.

Her birthday was on a Tuesday and at school, Tuesday was 'tie tuesday' so she was wearing her dad's tie.

10 years old!

If you look closely on the light, you'll see what looks like a stick. It was a stick bug.

Our beautiful view! I sure miss that view now writing this post 7 months later :(

By morning, the stick bug was still there!

Walking along the boardwalk of Porto Martins

The boat house. A house shaped like a boat.

Washed up jelly fish all over the place in Porto Martins

Looks like he's posing as "The Little Mermaid" :).

We went on an Outdoor Rec tour. We didn't go with these cows on the Quinta Dos Acores tour because I could take Janelle on my own there. We went on the Faith, Fish, Cheese tour.

First we went to the pottery place.

This (below) is a hot dog cooker. You put the hotdog on top and something else (maybe beer or oil?) on the bottom and then cook it? How sad that I'm already forgetting. I should've written this post back when it happened.

See the cups hanging around the water barrell? I love this!

This room is where they cook the pottery.

That room was in this hut.

Storage area. They use this red sand to make the pots.

Back in the van.

2 of the islands! I had never seen the islands this clearly or close up before. It was neat.

The island covered with clouds.

Next to the cheese place.

We got to sample all kinds of cheeses and each got to take cheese home. It was delicious!

This bay area was where they used to bring whales into after they caught them. They no longer catch whales.

Now for the faith part of the tour. We toured this old church.

Now for the fish part of the tour. This man is real. He sat like that the whole time.

These big long boats are what they used to use when catching whales.

See, same postition.

We're holding elephant bones or tusks.

Pictures on the wall of capturing the whales

Time to eat, not that of course!

We tried these clam things.

Not my favorite. I ordered the squid. Kind of rubbery.

And Janelle ordered the octopus. We each tried each others. I think she was way grossed out :)

My favorite drink-Kima Maracuja (Kima is the brand-maracuja is passion fruit)

And my favorite butter. Mmmmm

My friend Cami holding the lobster

This thing was HUGE!!! And when it clipped it's clippers, and flipped it's tail, it was really hard to hold. It was heavy too.

Take it away!

Here's a picture of it flipping it's tail. Powerful!

Our restaurant

Then we had ice cream at Quinta Dos Acores (and samples of their yogurt) I love this ice cream!

Janelle and me with our tour guide back on base. She also sat with us and ate lunch with us at the restaurant. She was so much fun!

The cookie jar I bought

I was so glad there was a bull fight near the base while Janelle was here. They're the best ones because they're safe! We've never been to any other one.

We bought sticky popcorn. And they sold my favorite ice cream things!

You had better run!

I thought this shirt was funny.

This boy was Sterling's friend from preschool. There is a language barrier so...

...this is how they communicate :).

Bull fights on base were always a blast. They sold burgers and chips and soda and we had a great time as an American community

Wild child!

I took Janelle to Furnas do Exonfre for some more hiking. It was a nice sunshiney day. I also took her inside the volcano.

And to duck lake. Maelie and Garrett were still in school. Summer break didn't start until the 14th or so.

We drove by some spirit houses.

Janelle's favorite place was Raminho. One of mine too.

The boys gotta go. And when you gotta go, you gotta go.

More spirit houses

Garrett made a volcano in school.

He brought it home and we made it erupt.

Maelie had an award ceremony i was able to go to without kids because Janelle was here!

I liked this wall. If I could've I would have gotten a family picture here, but it was on a busy street so that wouldn't have worked.

On the boardwalk by Praia they have all these machines you can use. Some work really well, others, not so much.

Garrett had awards too. His teacher made a video for the class to take home. Garrett is featured here.

Garrett and his teacher Ms. Sorrell. Last day of school!

He got a lot of awards. My favorite was only given to him for being kind to others. The kids in his class called him Gary :). I learned that when I went to the awards. Not his teacher, just the classmates. Funny :)

Maelie and her teacher Mr. Morris. Last day of school!

Sterling fell off the wall and landed on the pavement. Ouch!

Sterling had a preschool program (and Colson too). Sterling was a knight.

Sterling and his teacher Ms. Rosa.

Colson was Santa Maria (one of the 9 islands). He said "Eu sou Santa Maria" and then tried to repeat his teacher for the rest of his part in Portuguese.

Colson and his teacher Ms. Mena

Sterling died or something during the program. It was all in Portuguese.

Colson's class. 5 out of the 11 kids were American. His teacher didn't speak English. At all.

Janelle and I went on a boat ride to split rock on a Saturday while she was here. This is me and the Captain.

The Captain let me drive the boat. I just wanted a picture, but I was really controlling the boat.

Yikes, I better pay attention!

It was sunny here, but the other side of the island (where we were going) was cold and windy and rough waters.

Lots of cliffs on Terceira

Very different view from the water.

Split rock and Mount Brasil

If you look at the bottom of the rock, you'll see what looks like a profile of a face. The forehead, nose and mouth.

The waters were really rough, but on calm days, they take the boat to the caves in split rock.

The gap between the 2 rocks (that's why it's called split rock)

They used to keep sheep on the green pasture of the rock.

the cave

Tons of seagulls perched on split rock

Captain Dino caught a fish

An opening in the rock.

The wind was in our favor on the way back so the sail went up.

Pictures inside the boat. I had to use the restroom while we were boating and it was soooo hard! First of all you feel really sick because of the constant motion and no fresh air down there and then you're moving around like crazy. It was an experience.