GONE SO LONG

Oh, hi guys.

You probably don't remember me.  My name is Caeli and this is my blog.

I know... it's been awhile.  404 days to be exact.  And I've missed you.

A lot has happened in 404 days.

For one, we went back in time...

...and shot the breeze with some pilgrims, some Wampanoag native Americans, and some roguish sailors...

Photo courtesy of the Plimouth Plantation website

Plymouth Plantation is a re-creation of the original settlement and is staffed by actors and historians that will not break character.  (Seriously, go ahead and show them a cell phone and see what happens.)

When my mom spoke to one of the sailors on the Mayflower, he accused her of 'spending a lot of time with sailors' because women shouldn't know so much about sailing.  

When she explained that her father had a boat, he responded, "So you be a sea captain's daughter! Arrrr!"  

(Ok, he didn't say the arrrr part, but that's what he shoulda said.) 

You spend the day visiting the pilgrims in their homes where they might be cooking...

Oh man, I almost grabbed their food and ran, it smelled so good.

... or gardening...

... or tending the livestock...

I spent a lot of the day chasing this little guy around.  I could just eat him up.
Well...I could, actually.

You can also visit the Wampanoag settlement outside the Plymouth Plantation walls:

Or the Mayflower:

These hired ants on the flatbread wouldn't break character either.

It was inspiring--not only cause we learned where popcorn came from--but because of the way the original settlers of our country lived, how resourceful they were, and how different we are now.

We also went to Purgatory Chasm, a 70-foot-deep chasm of granite bedrock, abrupt precipices, and boulder caves with names like The Coffin, Lovers' Leap, and Fat Man's Misery.

We captured footage of ferocious wildlife...

How many froggies do you see? (Hint: There are more than two and fewer than four.)

 ...and some spawning alien life forms...

We also spent a few days at Walden Pond...

Yes, the one where Thoreau went to write his book Walden.

I couldn't believe how many people were swimming across the very large lake so late in the season (holla to the thick and hardy skin of New Englanders)....so we tried getting in the water.  Can I get a brrrr, please??  I had to photoshop my lips un-blue.

We also moved out of corporate housing and into our own place...

Rainbows naturally gravitate towards our home.  It's cool.

We spent as much time as we could at Grammy and Papa's in Mattapoisett...

High Tide

Low Tide

And for Christmas we visited them at their winter home in Florida...

Just to clarify...this is not my plate, this is my grandfathers.  I'm not that brave.

...where we had one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

And, yes, it involved manatees...

My cheapo underwater camera turned out 24 blurry pictures of my snorkel and some gray blobs, so these are off the internet.  

The water really was this clear, and there really were that many manatees...I would guess around 100 or more.  After renting a motor boat and wet suits and snorkels, we went to the Three Sisters part of Crystal River.  It was a little scary at first because of how huge the manatees are.  Since they have no natural predators, they are not afraid of you at all and will come up right to you and you can touch them.

One baby manatee kept coming very close to us and so Tyler and I would scratch its belly.  It kept circling back as if it liked it and the highlight of the whole trip was when it reached for and 'held' my hand with its two fins.  I think I heard my heart scream underwater.

And then we came home...

Not that Tyler minded.  He finally felt at home.

I don't know why he is mowing the lawn with all that snow.
Must be an Idaho thing.

In April we spent our anniversary in Vermont...first in Sharon, at the Joseph Smith birthplace, then in Waterbury at the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, then in Burlington to visit the Burton Snowboard Factory and enjoy Lake Champlain:

But most importantly of all, the thing we are so grateful and humbled by, is that we were finally blessed with an addition to our family.  

Hope's little sister came two weeks early, healthy, and happy in June.  

Here is our little Oakley J:

Life has changed drastically, and for the better.  

I didn't know my heart could feel this way again.

Here's to writing a lot more in the next 404 days...

Love, C