I 'heart' fake politicians

So we have a new addiction at our house. Maybe it is because real life politics is so aggrevating and drawn out. Maybe it is because the current real president can't pronounce nuclear without crashing his bike. This show has become the preferred show to watch when watching shows. (I totally used show 3 times in one sentence.)

There is something comforting about seeing major political issues solved in 40 minutes. If it is REALLY BIG it is over in 80 minutes (2 episodes). Another great thing is that everyone is able to wax eloquent off the cuff. Everyone knows exactly what to say that motivates and inspires everyone to see the glory and divine revelation that formed their opinion. I need a writer to follow me around.

I know that there are going to be a few people that think I am retarded, but I don't care what Sarah thinks. How can you not be obsessed with a president that can hide the fact that he has MS but still gets elected president. Those are some major skills at getting the public to look the other way.

If you haven't seen the series, then you are in the dark. Repent and check it out.

Goldilocks

I would like to introduce our last effort at keeping a fish alive. This is Goldilocks. We bought a rather robust gold fish with the idea that a bigger fish will have a better chance of surviving our tendency of killing fish. "Goldi" seems content for now and is much more active than the other fish was. We will see how long this one lasts. With any luck this will be over soon and we can move past this phase of life.

Dead Fish

Well......It only took 2 days. We managed to kill a perfectly healthy male BETA fish in just 2 days. We flushed the little guy down the toilet and, thanks to the talk about fish dying, Caitlyn thought that it was pretty funny that the fish swims in the toilet now. I think we will give a regular goldfish a shot and if that dies, you will seee a tank for sale here shortly.

One Fish Two Fish

Monday night was the night that the O'Loughlin's bacame pet owners. Chad is very against anything that has furr, and Emily has the opposite opinion. Caitlyn desparately wants a pet, and so the compromise is a fish. We went to Petsmart and told Caitlyn the news and she ran towards the fish.
She saw all the tanks full of goldfish and was very excited to pick out the fish that she wanted.
Nathan was just excited to see fish.
At the end of the trip, we ended up with a purple fish with pink fins. His name is "heart". Caitlyn came up with the name on her own. Heart has already watched Caitlyn do her homework next to him. He was even given a movie to watch on the travel DVD player. This little fish has quite the life.
We also had to have the discussion about fish dying. Caitlyn seems to be OK with the idea that Heart will be dead someday. I guess that we will see when that time actually comes.

The Much-Requested St. Croix Photos

Okay - so here are the much-anticipated photos from our trip. I blame blogger - which has been very tempermental for me - and my three tests due this week for the delay. Anyway - enjoy... we sure did!

Traveling... with much anticipation:

We would like to give Sarah a big thank you for lending us the first season of West Wing for our travels. We totally missed that bandwagon when it was on t.v. and now we are incredibly hooked.

Because we used frequent flyer miles Chad and I ended up leaving a day earlier than the rest of the group.

Okay so what do you get when you flight gets in too late to charter a flight? You end up spending a night in the Puerto Rican airport. We knew it was going to be an adventure that night - so we expected it - but by 3 a.m. and zero sleep I was almost in tears.

This is how we spent most of the night. Chad watched movies and I read my People Magazine sporatically mixing in school books because I felt guilty that I wasnt using the time wisely.

Seriously - mini weiner dogs in the vending machine. Can you think of anything more disgusting. Not even at 5 a.m. when we were getting hungry from our night guarding our belongings did this even begin to look appetizing. Imagine eating these and then seeing your charter plane the next morning:

Yeah - tiny plane = very scary. On the up side - every seat was a window seat. We saw great views of Puerto Rico and St. Croix as the sun came up.

Eating Out: It is really amazing that we dont weigh 700 lbs. after going on this trip. We ate an ate and ate. The food was awesome! (Thanks to Loni who didnt let us go astray when it came to restaurants)

One day the girls had the chance to have lunch alone while the boys were scuba diving. It was a lot of fun.

We found a really good ice cream shop that we ended up visiting twice on the trip

Most Eastern Point of the U.S. Territories:

James and LaRee

Chad and Emily(we visited here twice. This is a pic of our first)

Ben and Sarah

fun group shot

The Lobster Hunt:

Heading out full of hopes of catching lobster. They had one spear gun and gloves. Lonnie said that would be all they would need. It was some pretty rocky water but they were successful. Somewhat. Chad caught one - but just grabbing it before it got away(nice job!) and Lonnie - our seasoned professional - caught the rest, but he wanted the glory to go the boys.

The Drinking Pig - that's right - I said drinking pig:

No worries mom - the pig only drinks non-alcholic beer

F.Y.I - LaRee knows how to hold her liquor.

Okay - this pig is large. He was about 7 feet tall on his hindlegs. Really freaky. I ended up just chucking it into his mouth. That's what you do. Dont open it - just put it right in. The pig drinks and spits out the can. Here is video of it (it isnt us in the video - but you'll get the idea) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBwdzv0TKA

These pigs (there were three of them - but this one was the most active) love their beer. They were so excited. I was excited to keep my distance for their snapping jaws.

One of the funniest pictures of the trip. The pig is actually smiling. James and the pig had a great relationship.

The girls snokeling:

Sarah, LaRee and I all agree that this is our favorite picture of the trip

Heading back from Buck Island after a long snokeling excursion. It was a lot of fun.

This is a parrot fish that we saw at Buck Island. We also saw a turtle, squid, baracuda, and the "Dori" fish from Finding Nemo - among others. It was really incredible. I am usually afraid of fish - but oddly enough I wasnt this time. I think I was preoccupied with trying not to bash into coral.

See - my eyes are the size of golf balls. Blame it on the coral.

The Guys Scuba diving:

If you ask any of the guys this was their favorite part of the trip. Since this was all of their first times they went down to 45 feet. They loved it so much they signed up again for the next day. They have all vowed to get certified within the next year.

More photos... are you bored yet? Melissa requested that I put some scenic pictures up so here are a few. I didnt mention this before - but we would like to thank Lonnie for letting us come and get in his way! Our trip would have only been a tenth of the time we had if he wasnt there to be our personal tour guide. Thanks so much!

The Dutch were some of the first to habitate the island and they built windmills all around the island. You would think that they would be protected by the government, but they are actually privtely owned. This one is about 5 feet from the water on the downtown boardwalk and a few years ago it was the honeymoon suite for the hotel just outside the picture. We are all in full support of Lonnie trying to get this as his office. That would be awesome.

The view taken from one of Lonnie's properties.

This was an entrance for water to come into a baptismal font that was carved out of coral in the 18th century. This was a short walk to the beach from the sugar plantation (imagine it turned)

This is the baptismal font. It was was pretty big - and this picture doesnt show it, but there are steps carved out of the coral as well for access to the water

Typical beach of St. Croix. We had amazing views like this a lot because the roads took us up mountains often.

The dark parts in the water are coral. The islan is almost entirely surrounded by reef. It is beautiful - but you just have to be careful when swimming. Great for snorkling and scuba diving!

Typical street on the island - in fact I think this was a "highway".

This shot required a very scary drive up a mountain - but it was worth it because the view was incredible.

Another shot from the same mountain overlooking another part of the island

Yes, we were there. This is the beach that you first snorkle off of at Buck Island (this island is not occupied. You have to boat out to it. It is currenty under protection by the park service

A turtle we saw when we were snorkling off of Buck Island - the only underwater national monument.

James running the risk of getting his finger bit off by the turtle

Sugar Plantion Mill circa:18th century:

A sugar plantation mill from the 18th century. It was really amazing to see. The caretaker came out to talk to us about it and all of the work that he had done to clear the over-growth.

Here is your history lesson of the day: When they built these buildings they used whatever materials were available. On the island that was coral. They also used the balast stone from the incoming ships. The ships would leave their stone and replace the weight on their ships with merchandice and sugar.

This was a tree on the outside of the plantation

These archways are amazing especially when you think about the tools that they had to make them.

We never missed a photo opportunity