One Last Party!

Another weekend, another party!

 

Instead of a 'welcome home', this one was a ‘see you soon’.  A 'see you soon' for us.  It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two years since we first landed on this tiny little speck of land… the island of Lost, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  The ladies sent me off with a great Pinterest-inspired gift… wine glasses dipped in chalk board paint.  All you need is chalk and no-one ever forgets which glass is theirs again. 

 

We all spent the night talking, eating, and just enjoying, what was for some of us, our last chance to be together. At least in this place.

 

We couldn’t have asked for better friends to share our time here with.  We will miss you all… until ‘see you soon’ becomes ‘so good to see you again’.

Welcome Home Friends

The last week has been an exciting one for our group of friends.  Last weekend, two of our temporarily single ladies were reunited with their husbands after seven long months apart.  The wives hosted a welcome home party for their husbands this weekend.  It felt so good to have everyone back in the same place again. 

We enjoyed a potluck cookout, played bean bags until it too dark to see,

then ended the night with an awesome card game for terrible people.  Try out ‘Cards Against Humanity’ if you’re ever in need of a new adult-only game… seriously, adults ONLY.

It was nice to see our old friends mix so well with our new friends.  It makes us feel good to know that we are leaving our friends with the support they will need to make it through the next year or more on the island.

It also makes me think about how hard it is going to be to leave these people and this place, even if there is so much to look forward to in Texas.

Moving Day Two

Yesterday morning, in under an hour, the last of our belongings were packed into three small crates.  We still have what will fit in two suitcases each, but that’s all we’ll have access to for the next six weeks (hopefully not more).  We also turned in our internet and cable boxes yesterday.  Not that we could watch much cable without a TV, but the internet is going to be hard to live without until we leave.  Good thing we have neighbors that are willing to let us tap into their wireless on occasion.  You know, to do important things like update the blog.

So, here’s to camping out in our own house.  At least we still have a mattress to sleep on… if you can really call that box of springs upstairs a mattress.

Rappelling

With our time on our lovely little island quickly coming to a close, Chris and I are anxious to squeeze every last bit of adventure we can out of this place.  To that end, we joined our neighbors for an afternoon of rappelling yesterday.

With the help of our guide from Rope Adventures, we rappelled down three drops in a narrow canyon.

 Despite my initial case of nerves, it was a lot of fun and something I think both of us would like to do again.  Check out the rest of our pictures in the pictures tab.

Festas da Praia 2012

Despite the island’s best efforts both Chris and I survived Praia Fest 2012.  If you weren’t a regular reader a year ago, or you’ve just forgotten exactly what Praia Fest entails, check out last year’s post.  I was really excited to share this unique island experience with Chris since he was deployed for the party last year.  We started first weekend with a very late night out.  We ate delicious junk food for dinner, then enjoyed my favorite Praia Fest drink – Caipirinas. 

We spent the rest of the night enjoying time with our friends. 

Saturday night, we joined our friends for dinner at one of the many sit-down restaurants before attempting to enjoy the parade for the night.  I say attempting because we decided to call it a night just after midnight and the parade hadn’t quite started yet.

We took a couple nights off to recover but went out again Tuesday night for a performance by the Air Force band ‘Touch ‘n Go.’  We were having a great time until it started to rain.

 Friday night was designated as dress up night.  The girls have fun pulling their party dresses out of the backs of their closets.  We stayed out way too late, but it was worth it! 

We took it easy on Saturday; enjoying an evening bull fight on the beach and grabbing another junk food dinner before calling it an early night.

After nine days of crazy partying, I remember why this only happens once a year!  Don't forget to check out all the pictures of the week's festivities in the pictures tab.

Pack-out

Every time we move, we go through something called “pack-out”.  This just means the moving company packs up all our stuff and moves it out of our house.  Monday and Tuesday of this week was our pack-out from Lajes. 

As I mentioned before, I spent all of last week deciding what we can and can’t live without for two months.  All the goodies we didn’t want packed were stored in a closet in the garage and in a room upstairs. 

If you don’t hide what you want to keep, it WILL get packed.  Everyone has a story about moving a full trash can of garbage or the last of the baby diapers because they didn’t hide them from the packers.

For about six hours on Monday and three hours on Tuesday, the movers packed up all our worldly possessions and loaded them into eight shipping crates. 

Chris and I supervised while trying not go crazy.  Watching people pack your things is REALLY boring, but you have to be there so no one runs off with your boxes.  The pups thought it was pretty boring too, especially because they were banished to the back yard both days.   

Hard to believe in a month we will be boarding a plane bound for the good old US of A.  Better get out there and enjoy the island while we still can!