Our house

Here is our house as seen from the beach.

The owner of the house, Danny, lives on the top left floor. Our school room is directly underneath his room. The room to the right is the kids bedroom. Our bedroom is directly underneath theirs. The main living area with the kitchen, family room, laundry room, and pool, is to the left of the kids room.

School room

We use every available space.

Someone had asked me for pictures of our school room/playroom/guest room. Each child has their own table to work at. We have a computer in the room, a bunch of maps, a microscope, a ton of books, and a bunch of other stuff. I have discovered suction cup binder clips to use on the sliding glass door. We have a pocket chart on the bathroom wall for reading and the kids use the bed a lot to read on. So far it has worked out wonderfully!

A dog's day out

We decided not to go to the beach today. We were there all day yesterday for a birthday party. Instead the kids dressed up the dog in Walker's clothes. After that craziness we decided to walk to the beach that we can see from our house. There is a cleared trail to get there just down the road from our house. We took the dog that is afraid of water with us. As you can see she is no longer afraid of the water. She had a great time running through the waves and rolling in the sand.

Fun with Paw Paw

Paw Paw visited with us this week. We took him to Drunk Bay, Salt Pond, Annanberg Plantation, Annanberg School House and of course Maho Bay. The kids also play play played with him. Quinn was up "at the crack of dawn" every monring. By Thursday it began to take its toll on him. He is exhausted, too exhausted to even eat. Walker at least slept in a bit (7am). She is tired too, but not too tried to read at night. Both kids will be sad when he leaves but we all had fun together!

A Day at the Beach

What did you expect, a seagull?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! We have had a very busy weekend! We spent Friday afternoon at the beach so I could rub sand on my rash! The salt water helped like you would not believe. Saturday we got up early, as usual, and headed to Lamashur Beach to have an Easter egg hunt with all of our friends from our Wednesday playtime. It was fun having an egg hunt on the beach. The kids hunted through the sand, tress and grass to find the egss. We had lunch on the beach then stayed and played until 3. Once we got home Jay (who was in Atlanta) thought it would be fun to go to the St.John Blues Festival in Coral Bay. Just so you know in order to get to Lamashur Bay you drive right past the concert sight. Anyway, Jay got home from Atl at 6:50. In the car we went and off we went to the Blue Festival. Our good friends were there and we had a great time. We got home around 11. The kids fell asleep on the way home. Up they got at 6:50 (they slept in an extra 10 minutes) to see if the Easter Bunny had come. Of course he did! Off we went to Church, it was packed. After Church we went across the stree to Paradise Cafe for breakfast. Jay and I go there while the kids are in Sunday school but since they did not have school...we all went together. The kids had toasted english muffins and frozen lemondae. Jay and I had are usual, egg sandwiches. Having breakfast after church is one of the regular things we do. Quinn loves to flirt with the woman that works there and she loves him! I hope eveyone had a wonderful weekend! PawPaw comes tomorrow, time to play play play!

Egg Hunt on the Beach

Getting ready to go to Lamashur Beach for an Easter Egg Hunt with our friends.

Look what I found!

Is that an egg?

All done!

Checking out our loot on the beach. It was one of the best egg hunts ever!

Dying Easter Eggs

Getting ready to dye the eggs

All done and ready for the hunt tomorrow.

Happy Easter!

My Brother Made Me Do It

I wasn't going to post this on our blog but my brother made me...or at least convinced me. This is a warning to all of you out there...stay out of Christmas Bushes or your arms and legs will look like mine! I have this lovely rash all over my arms and legs. How do you ask? Well I was the only one willing to go and get Quinn's soccer ball from the bush which turned out to be a Posion Ash bush (also know as a Christmas bush) which I am highly allergic too! Itchy, scratchy and UGLY! Its's not all fun and games here on the island!

Easter Box

It is a bit early for Easter but a box came yesterday filled with goodies from Aunt Suz. Easter stuff is hard to come by here on the island, what isn't hard to come by! The kids opened their gifts, after I had hidden the"bunny" stuff. Both kids then proceeded to put on their clothes. Walker walked around reading the books while Quinn played soccer in his new "tennis shirt". The candy Suz sent was for dessert. Jay and I almost finished off one of the bags of jelly beans! Quinn was up at 6:10 this morning and what do I hear through the monitor, "I'm getting dressed". When I come upstairs there is Quinn in another one of his new outfits. Walker has been wearing her hat and her purse is already filled with lip gloss.

I wonder if anything will make it till Easter?!

Thanks Aunt Suz!!!!!!!

A.M.

It is 8:30 am and so far my children have had 2 breakfasts, gone swimming (7:20am) and played soccer in full soccer gear. Now they are changing into their bathingsuits to go swimming again! Most of this happened before their mother had her first cup of coffee. How is this possible you wonder! Well, when you get up with the sun at 6:20 anything is possible!

Pets

If this isn't doggie heaven, I don't know what is!

Meet the newest members of our family. Frenchie and Anna the fish. Frenchie is named after an Atlanta Braves baseball player and Anna after Walker & Quinn's cousin. Frenchie is the orange one and Anna is orange and black.

What we have been doing

Things have started to become normal around here. Or as normal as things can be living by the beach. Walker made her first confession last weekend at church. We attend Our Lady of Mt Carmel Catholic Church. We have become regularls on Sundays. We all go to mass together then the kids go to Sunday School. While the kids are ins Snunday School Jay and I go across the street and have breakfast. It is a nice way to start a Sunday. Back to the first confession. Walker was very nervous but of course she raised her hand to go first! She is going to have her first communion sometime in May. That usually happens in 2nd or 3rd grade but they do it when ever they can here!

Today we went snorkeling at Trunk Bay. Trunk Bay has an underwater snorkel trail for you to follow with signs telling you what everything is and what is nearby. The kids took their underwater cameras and took some pictures. Quinn and I saw a turtle and Jay and Walker saw tons of fish. It was pretty easy snorkeling considering we were pulling two kids along. Both kids take noodles with them to make the swimming easier.

Jay is working hard each day. We are lucky that he gets to come home for lunch. The kids are enjoying their schooling. Yes there are some tears each day, Walker, but we are getting into a groove. Each week we try to squeeze in a hike or trip to the beach. On Wednesday afternoons we head to Coral Bay to play with other kids on a local field.

As you can tell, it is a rough life here but we manage!

A challenge

Every year there is a road race here called the 8 Tuff Miles. The race goes from Cruz Bay to Coral Bay. For those of you who have never been here that is straight across the island. You start at sea level, go up about 1000 feet, and then end at sea level. There are lots of ups and downs along the way. Anyway, I am going to run/walk it next year. I would love for you to join me. Plan your vacation around it! I would love to be able to do it with friends and family. When you come I will throw a big party for you! This year they had over 800 runners. I will be one of them next year, come join me!

Lameshur Bay Trail

Sleeping and snoring Billy Jack

Early on the hike before the hills!
Two tired girls at the top.

Off we went today to hike the Lameshur Bay Trail to see the petroglyph's. It was a balmy 84 degrees with slight breeze. We went with our friends the Sutton's. The Sutton's have a 6yr old boy, a 5 yr old girl and a 2 year old boy. All 7 of us hiked the 2.1 miles to the petroglyph's and then 2.1 miles back. We started pretty close to sea level and climbed to 467 feet then down to sea level to see the petroglyph's. The pertoglyph's are rock carvings that "were created by the pre-Colombian inhabitants of St. John known as the Taino". The carvings line a freshwater pool surrounded by smooth rocks. Of course one of the children had to fall into the pool. I will not say which child! We had a snack on the rocks, did some mongoose spotting, then it was 2.1 miles back up 467 feet so we could descend down to the car. For walking 4.2 miles the kids did awesome! At one point the 2 year old fell asleep on his moms shoulders. She probably carried him 1/2 mile at least! After that hike we can do anything!