Homemade Pies - Karen

On Christmas day, Terri and I made pumpkin pie and apple pie from scratch.  And I mean from scratch.  We boiled the pumpkin and grounded the nutmeg seed and rolled out the flour and butter pastry.  (well, we did add condensed milk from a can for pumpkin pie…but the carmel sauce for the top of the apple pie was even boiled from scratch.)  It was great.  Not only the taste, but the time with Terri was a treat in itself. I forgot to take a picture prior to the first round of consumption, but it was even better the second day… 

Blog Posts - Easton

Blogposts are written a lot. People use blogposts to give information. The people put blogposts on Facebook or something like that. For example this is a  blogpost. If you want to look at more blogposts look on Facebook, Or something like that.

When life hands you lemons... Karen

Yes, I know it is cheesy, but you make lemonade.  The boys and I today made lemonade from scratch.  

There is rather a large lemon tree on the property where we are staying.  I would have sworn it was a lime tree as the fruit was huge, but still bright green.  Joe corrected me that it was indeed a lemon tree.  So, the boys went and climbed the tree and got me a bunch of lemons. Then we took turns squeezing out the juice on 9 lemons.  The sugar here is a light brown, so the sugar/water mixture looked a bit more like sun tea than sugar water.  

However, once mixed with the pure lemon juice and water, it is a cool light yellow color.  We did a first taste and it was surprisingly not bad.  It's chilling in the refrigerator now, but we are looking forward to having lemonade with our dinner tonight!

Bats & Mosquitos - Creighton

I like some animals and I don’t like some. I can name a list of them but I will only talk about two. The one I like is the bat and the one I don’t like is the mosquito. Not vampire bats brown bats, also known as the Fijian Flying Fox or "Beka" in fijian. (That's for you Bob Shelby).  Actually, Bats in Fiji are becoming endangered.  Read this article: http://traveltips.usatoday.com/endangered-animals-fiji-63009.html

I like bats because they are interesting. I like to look for them around 6:00 PM each night. I once saw 10 bats!!! I might have been 5, but that is still a lot of bats at 6:00 PM. I really like watching bats.

I don’t like mosquitos because they bite you like crazy. I got ten mosquito bites on one leg!!! I had five in less than three inches. 

That is amazing. If that has happened to you, put on bug spray. If it hasn’t, keep up the good work. I don’t like mosquitos at all.

Now you now I like bats and not mosquitos.

Beards... Another "Catch 22" - Jay

As identified before, the weather in Fiji is hot. On a daily basis it has been between about 79 and 85 degrees. Yes, it rains each day, but only for a short (1-5 minutes) period of time. The humidity has been consistently stable at around 90%. So yes, hot and muggy.

That is an important note because, as one who lives in California, I don't have a lot of experience in that type of weather.  This brings me to my point.

On vacation, I typically do not shave. I don't shave because I tend to be a bit lazy with my days. The water is different than at home. There is a different pressure coming out of the faucet. And other than my wife, I don't feel the need to impress anyone.

So I dont. I go scruffy. Gray a bit, but certainly scruffy.

However, what I am finding is that this humidity is causing me to be very itchy on my face. So I scratch. Now it hurts. So I scratch.

To shave or not to shave...

5 O'clock Somewhere - Jay

OK, so we are invoking a sort of backward "it's 5'oclock somewhere" logic...

First. We are in Fiji, so that means drink, right?
Second. We are now in the in the southern Hemisphere, so Drink.
Third. We are looking after kids, so (Dont) Drink.
Fourth. Its only 2pm here so DONT Drink.
Fifth. That means its 5pm in California, so Drink!!1

3-2 Drink!

Weather in Fiji - Easton

The weather in Fiji is pretty nice. It's pretty sunny all over Fiji. It rains every once in a while, but it is pretty nice. When you are outside taking a long walk, you should sit down. There is shade and a bench. Also, when it rains, it is not that heavy and it only goes on for about 5 minutes. That is what the weather looks like in Suva, Fiji.

Easton