Oliver's 3rd Birthday

Almost a month late but here are some photos from Oliver's 3rd birthday (From Sept 19th)!  We had a wonderful time celebrating with some dear friends!

The Moms

The Dads

(this photo almost looks staged! The clothing was not planned! At least that the mom's know of.)

This is the first homemade cake I have made for Oliver...always a rewarding experience.

Big brother!

Yes...Carson blew out the candles the first time...but Oliver wasn't upset.  

We just re-lit the candles for Oliver to blow out.

It took Oliver a few tries but he eventually got the wind to blow in the right direction!

Wild Weather

You read in my last post about the crazy westerly winds hitting us.  It was predicted that this week would be better although monsoon rains were supposed to be in the area.  Well they got the monsoon rains right but yesterday the winds took a turn for the worse.  It came out of nowhere and ended up stranding almost 900 workers who come from a neighboring island (Ebeye).  The lagoon was so rough and the wind so high that ferries could not run people back and forth safely.  Ebeye workers stayed on island in a couple of public places and some stayed in our homes.  Here are the pictures from yesterday and a couple clean up photos of today.

Large waves coming over the retaining wall!

These gray boats are the ferries that make runs between Kwaj and Ebeye.  

As you can see there were waves crashing over the pier as well.

Some people here own their own private sail boats.  As far as I know they have no other place to moor their boats other than in the lagoon.  These private boats should look as they do in the following picture. Boats that are owned by Kwaj and rented out are always moved out of the water along with docks when the lagoon gets too rough.  

If you look beyond the sail boats you can see a container ship.  That ship has been anchored in the lagoon for a week because the water has been too rough for it to dock at the pier.  That ship has our dairy, groceries, other local supplies, and mail.  All out there staring at us while our supplies dwindle here on the island (but don't worry we are not so low that we are starving or anything!). 

All 3 sail boats moorings were snapped during the rough waters.  I think there were a couple others that came loose as well. Here is the 1st sail boat up against the rock retaining wall.

A 2nd boat 

A 3rd joins the 2nd pictured above

 Sadly one sank 

And another was lifted up onto land

As I sit writing this it is pouring rain outside but clean up is happened in between these bursts of rain.

 Trying to get the sailboat back out into the water away from the rocks.

 

Weather

You would think living on an isolated island would mean that the weather would be monotonous.  Maybe some rain, maybe sun, with a little wind here and there.  I guess that is how the weather is supposed to be here on Kwaj but with this being an El Niño year, the weather has been anything but monotonous. Take a look at our collection of weather photos since we arrived on island. 

When we first arrived, most of our day was filled by sunshine although it always rained at least once a day.  But the rain would come and go and you would be left with this beautiful view.

Sometimes when it rains it pours.  And I guess we have yet to see it really pour here as we haven't seen the roads flooded but by our to-date standards, there have been a couple of good down pours.

Lightning and thunder is very rare here on the island.  But we have read that if there is to be any lightning storms, September is the most likely month for this to happen.  Sure enough we had at least a half a dozen lightning storms during the month of September. 

Sometimes cloudiness produces the most brilliant sunsets! 

Sometimes after storms we get these beautiful full sky rainbows.

Since we arrived on island the winds have blown almost predominately west.  Everyone calls them the westerlies.  Apparently westerly winds are not normal here.  According to the meteorologist on island, the last time westerly winds dominated for such a long time was 1997.  Right now the winds are at the highest they have been since we arrived on Kwaj.  I have been amazed by how much palm trees can bend and how they don't snap off in half with such a heavy top.  So far I haven't seen any trees break but palm fronds and coconuts like to fall down so you have to be careful walking under trees in the high winds.  

We ventured over to the lagoon side of the island this evening to check out the waves battering the west side of the island.  The lagoon was very choppy with waves crashing over the side of the rock wall.  This wave came up and over the rocks drenching Oliver and I as I was snapping some pictures.