Saturday, February 24, 2007

Sally's Birthday






Yesterday was Sally's 6th birthday and what a day we had. We went with some friends from the base here in Madang to a very small island about 10 minutes by boat from here. We packed a lunch and sunscreen and spent a great day on the beach. We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and the bugs were still having breakfast, on us, of course. So we sprayed on a little bug spray and headed for the water. The water is crystal clear which begged some snorkeling. Richard and Dave Wall, the chairman of the Madang region, along with 2 of Dave's kids headed out to do some diving. They went right off the island to a spot where there is a downed B-25 from WWII. The local resorts have it marked with a buoy, as they bring folks out there to dive as well. The story is that there was only 1 survivor from the American bomber and he came out here several years ago to find the plane where he lost 3 of his buddies. Richard said the plane was largely in tact and very interesting. I'll have him write some about his dive.


We stayed on the island and did lots of snorkeling. All four girls tried it and it went like this:


Betty "Take me back to the shore, I'm too scared."

Bonnie "Take me back to the shore, I'm scared...well, it is kind of neat...ok, just don't go too far out."

Mary "I don't want to go back to the shore. Teach me how to dive to the bottom and blow the water out of my snorkel like Dad so I can see the fish closer."

Sally "This is fun!"

Can't you just hear them? We saw Nemo and all his buddies including lots of big blue starfish and a huge sea cucumber!


We explored the island a little and have some good pictures from that. We had lunch of peanut butter and honey along with some Twisties (PNG Cheetos) and bananas. The bugs were done eating so it just got better. We did more water stuff while the divers did one more dive to a sunken fishing boat.


We headed home to nurse our sunburn and get cleaned up. We had such a relaxing afternoon followed by a dinner of fresh Mackerel caught last Sunday. We are so grateful for the folks out here for taking us out there. Sally had a great birthday and even lost a tooth out there. She was putting the snorkel in her mouth and knocked the already loose tooth out. She was coming to show it to me when she dropped it in the shells. We told her to write a note to the tooth fairy that she lost her tooth in the Baltic Sea. Now that's a story!


Tracie

2 comments:

Mom said...

The pictures are beautiful. I'm happy that Sally had a good birthday. Glad to hear that things are going well. When will you see the Beall family? Are you going to their island? BBQ was last weekend. Gary Martin won the "chicken" division. Rodeo starts tomorrow. I'm going to a client's suite on Thursday (Reba). Sally is riding in Grand Entry almost every night! Bill,Connie& Davis-arrive Feb 15. We are all going to Directors Club for my B'Day. I wish we could talk on your computer. Still a "no go"? Please pray for Nell. Love, Mom

grandma/grandpa said...

We love you all and are praying for you. so glad you got to go snorkeling!!!Looks like you are having fun

Love Grandpa and grandma