Week 2 in Saipan

Our second week on the island has been a rainy one! I keep reminding the boys, "better rain than snow!" Their first week at their new school Whispering Palms has been exciting. Both boys moved up a grade and are now in mixed age classrooms. Kaden is one of five boys in a 4th/5th room with 16 kids and Kierik is in a 6th/7th/8th grade room. Their teachers are wonderful, the curriculum challenging, and the kids all seem great. I feel more confident then ever that this is an amazing experience and opportunity for our sons.
The rain has not kept us completely off the beach or out of the ocean but we spent much more time exploring the city and our new backyard. The boys found a huge Gecko that was Kaden's pet for a while. They spent hours learning about and harvesting the fruit that grows around our house. Lessons learned:

• the papayas and mangoes are NOT ripe yet, even if we really really want them to be


• coconuts are really really hard to get open even with a brand new machete


• bananas come in two forms, the eating kind and the cooking kinds and there can be no mistaking the two


• oranges on the island are actually green


• if you eat more than 5 star fruit it is highly likely that you will get a belly ache


• banana leaves make great umbrellas


• we may have a lemon tree or it may be a lime tree so for now we have a citrus tree