Monthly Archives: November 2018

Thank-Full

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. So many changes have occurred. This time last year we were just getting the electricity working again after two months without! Things were starting to come back to life, but the shock waves were still pulsing.

Walking on a “beach” this time last year (2017)

Beach sunset with Baby Aeden this year

In the year that followed we continued to clean up from the mess of the hurricane and then I became pregnant for the first time ever after many years of trying! It was a wonderful gift but also very taxing on me, and Britton. He had to take care of the whole property and also help me. During this time, Britton’s father became sick and died and that was very hard on us because we are so far from the rest of the family. Additionally we started the flower business and continued to push forward.

My sweet baby!

When Baby Aeden was born right around the anniversary of Hurricane Maria, we experienced a sigh of relief that was short lived. Only 5 days after he was born I became very sick and was hospitalized for nearly 2 weeks out of the first 3 of his life. In a very short period of time I came to understand how precious and yet fragile life really is. I am so grateful to still be here in this realm with these two loves: Britton and Aeden.

Britton and Aeden at the beach

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Missy and Ben and their family as well as other great friends who have helped us through this very tough year. We are so grateful to them. I don’t know how we could have managed that without them.

Thanksgiving dinner

Delicious food on fancy china!

Baby’s got to eat too!

A visit to a neighbor’s tortoise

So beautiful!

Climbing palm trees!

Baby hanging with the big kids

I love Thanksgiving because it gives us the opportunity to step back and reflect on what we are truly thankful for in our lives: our family, our friends, and our beautiful, precious and fleeting lives. Our life is full of thanks!

PS: Baby Aeden is now over 2 months old and doing great!

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RIP Cindie Rice of Calypso

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On our very first trip to Puerto Rico on our honeymoon we serendipitously found Calypso just down from the lighthouse in Rincon. Calypso seemed straight out of a Jimmy Buffet song. Neon lights, pink and teal paint, ocean waves right beyond, and a no-shirt, no-shoes, no problem attitude. They had good drinks (especially their rum punches) and pretty decent eats too. It was one of the places that made us fall in love with Rincon. We felt we could fold right into the fabric of life in this little corner of the island.

Just another day in paradise…at Calypso

We met the owner of Calypso, Cindie Rice, on one of our trips to Puerto Rio. She was just enjoying her time at Calypso hanging out in one of the chairs out front by the gift shop. She was an interesting character who believed in ghosts, UFOs and lots of conspiracies. As a great surfer, businesswoman, animal lover and a legend, especially amongst the gringo community, most everyone in town knew her name. She was the one to tell us about the previous owner of our property (and how she had been found dead in the house). Cindie was a staple in the community. She supported local music and we are grateful to Cindie for having us play music when we were in the band. She was the sort of person it just seemed would always be a part of Rincon.

When we played a show at Calypso with our band

So it was sad to read that Cindie Rice had died after some difficult times in her life such as being diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Cindie and Me

This season there seems to be a lot of people moving out of Rincon or otherwise leaving the island. Exiting the stage so to speak. It has been a time of transition with new characters arriving and some of the greats, like Cindie, leaving.

Calyspo Sunset at Cindie’s celebration of life

We celebrated her life the way I think Cindie would like for Rincon to: with a big party at Calypso. We watched the sunset over the water, listened to music and ordered up a rum punch in her name. Rest in Peace Cindie. May there be forever fun music, good waves, happy dogs and strong drinks on the other side!

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Out and About with Baby

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Out to a Mexican Restaurant in Aguada…he is not so sure of the whole thing!

Life with baby can be somewhat exhausting. He’s a good boy, but he still needs to eat every 2-4 hours even in the middle of the night which leaves us pretty worn out. We are starting to get the hang of it, though and have started to take him out and about with us around town. We are getting much better. We’ve had a few diaper blow-outs and had to find strange places to breastfeed, but overall, he is just sort of our tag-along and it has been fun to have a new sidekick in our adventures.

With friends Frank and Rosa at our first time back to Art Walk