January 26, 2025 - Sunday




We met Chelsea and Frank at El Yunque National Rainforest this morning. The drive wasn't very long, but it was a tough one! At one point, the WHOLE ROAD was collapsed about a foot down! It was wild. When we got to the spot where we were meeting them, the side of the road was SUPER muddy. I tried to park and started to get stuck. That's when we got our first inkling that this might be a little tough. I mean, it is a rainforest, so we expected it to be wet, but apparently there was another heavy rain shower last night so it was MUCH muddier than usual. We basically slid down the side of the mountain to the waterfall. It was scary and messy and we all had our moments of 'should we be doing this???', but we made it down! Normally, Chels would have led us further down to other falls and pools, but it was just too muddy, so we couldn't go any further. 

We hung out at the pool and waterfall for a couple of hours, just exploring the rocks and getting wet and making rock towers. Ollie got very hangry at one point, so I gave her a bag of chips and let her go to town. :) It seemed to help her mood considerably! Chels got out her drone for a while and took some beautiful footage. It was a good time, despite being held back by the conditions a bit. 

We went back to the condo for a few hours in the afternoon and took the kids to the pool for a really long time, then got dressed and went to Chelsea and Frank's house for dinner. Frank made the MOST AMAZING Italian food I've ever had. Or at least some of the best, at least. He made this deep dish pizza that was to die for, then some buttered noodles, the likes of which I could never hope to make for the girls. It was just so dang good! He made blush sauce from scratch for the adults with shrimp. The shrimp was so deliciously, perfectly cooked and seasoned. Oh, my gosh. Literally drooling at the memory of it. I wish I could eat it all over. I wish I could hire him as our personal chef! So good. So, so good. Their three doggos were especially excited to have company. After being scratched and knocked around a little, the kids and dogs all acclimated to one another. Chelsea and I played a long, but fun game of cornhole with Ruby and Clem and had lots and lots of laughs. Ben, Frank, and Jonas watched the Eagles game and they're headed to the Superbowl! 

Ben and I had a long and very emotional talk this morning. I'm so grateful to God that he softened my heart enough to listen. I have been harboring this resentment and anger towards him for so long and I've become so tired of him that I rarely treat him with kindness. He can feel that I'm barely tolerating his presence and it's so painful to him. His negative attitude and complaining and anger and anxiety have worn me down. But I also kind of stopped trying and that's on me, no matter what Ben's behavior has been. I kind of feel like we've reached a turning point? I hope so. 

(I know the waterfall doesn't look super impressive in these pictures, but it was VERY impressive!)




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