Easter Weekend

I think this has been one of the best weekends on the island. We started out with Thursday night getting a date in. Thanks to Stephanie Wride for watching Addison so that we could do it. We dropped Addison off and then Aaron and I went to see Zootopia at the movie theatre here on the island. If you haven't seen Zootopia yet, go see it. It's amazing. It may be a cartoon, but we loved it. It had a great story line and really kept us engaged. Aaron has been saying he just wants to go buy it as soon as he can.

Saturday I took Addison to the Easter Activity at the school. They had egg coloring...

She got to build a graham cracker house, or at least we started a graham cracker house...

She got to even go on an Easter Egg Hunt...

After the Easter activity at the school we went home and got Aaron (he was studying). We packed up our things and we went to Le Gallion Beach, Aaron hadn't been with us the week before and we wanted to do something fun with Addison. So we decided there would be the perfect place.

Addison got to play in the water with her daddy and also play in the sand which is one of her favorite things to do when we go to the beach. I really think I'll be finding sand in her hair for years to come no matter how much scrub. On our way home we stopped at McDonalds, Addison loves their french fries.

Sunday we went to church and had a great fast and testimony meeting. After we came home Addison was playing out on the front porch with the sea shells we have collected since being here. We left the door open so we could hear Addison through the screen door. We went to go change and then I heard someone say my name, so I went out to see who was at the door and it was one of our neighbors. She had Addison in her arms. I wondered why she'd picked her up considering Addison was just out on the porch playing with her sea shells. Then she told me Addison was out in the parking lot (which is right by our apartment) running around. We are so lucky she picked her up and knew she was ours and that she didn't get hit by a car or anything. Shes a quick one, and she loves to be able to just run around and play and just wander. I'm constantly chasing her around. We are so lucky that our neighbor brought her back to us!

I can't get her to smile for pictures these days. She must be sick of my taking her picture, she still is so cute though with her little scowl haha.

Sunday right before Dinner we got our Easter Baskets. Our Easter baskets were super Ghetto this year, we used the 1 Gallon ice cream buckets from the Blue Bunny Ice cream. This looks like we probably eat a lot of ice cream.

Easter was pretty humble this year. My friend Stephanie went back to Utah for a couple weeks so I asked her to pick up a lift the flap bible book so that Addison could have it in her Easter basket. I am hoping it becomes a good source of entertainment during Sacrament Meeting. I would have done more for her but money is tight as a med student and I wasn't sure what else to do for her since I didn't have tons of options to choose from here on the island. So she got the book and some candy. Aaron and I just got candy, which I think is all we needed.

Today we went to Little Divi Bay and attended the annual Underwater Easter Egg Hunt that the nature foundation put on. You pay $10 dollars to participate and they drop a ton of hard boiled Easter Eggs down at the bottom of the ocean in a closed off area. Just Aaron participated and I watched Addison, and Kate for Stephanie and Austin. Aaron found 6 eggs, but lost all but 1 after he found out that he had a hole in his bag. He said at some points when he was diving he dove about 14 feet. He hasn't felt to good since. He isn't used to diving that low. After you get the eggs you take the to the ticket tent and they give you a raffle ticket. We ended up with 3 tickets because they give you one for registering, and one for each egg, which Aaron and Addison found another one later on so we snagged up 3 tickets. We did get two "Sun Bum" hats that we decided was worth our 10 dollars since we didn't end up winning anything with the raffle. Aaron said he knows what to do next year so that we have way more eggs and better chances at winning a raffle. The raffle prizes are pretty big. Some of the prizes were valued at about $250+. They were for different fun things you could do around the island that were valued at that price. It was a bummer we didn't win anything but we had fun none the less.

Aaron had both Friday and Monday off of school so he was able to study all day Friday and then play a little Saturday, and today. It was a great Easter weekend, and I'm grateful that we were able to spend it together before Addison and I leave to go back to the states on Thursday.

I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful that because of Him I can start again, I can have a clean slate, and a new beginning. Because of Him I can be with my family forever.

Le Gallion Beach

The spouses Org, organized a fun weekend at Le Gallion Beach 2 Saturdays ago. It was Addison and I's first time being to Le Gallion. Its a really pretty beach, and its perfect for kids. It has no waves because its a cove. The waves come in but they come in so far out there that it makes the perfect gradual walk in beach for little Addison. They have a big blocked off lap "pool", and a few platforms you can use to jump off of.

The spouses org rented 2 paddle boards for us, as well as a peddle boat so that we could go out on and enjoy the water that way. Addison did not like the paddle board. She kept tell me "I done, I done". I think she likes her two feet planted on the ground. Then we road the peddle boat, she didn't like that either, she lasted a little longer on the peddle boat than she did on the paddle board though. I think she mainly did not like the life jacket though.

The closed off lap pool in the distance. 

One of the platforms

Playing in the sand 

She is pretty against pictures these days

Addison and Mommy

Peddle Boat 

Addison loves going to the beach and playing in the sand, she enjoys running into the water and running all around the beach making her mommy chase. She's very independent. One of her favorite things was jumping off the platform to me into the water.

Le Gallion is located on the French side, up some pretty big hills. Its a great beach to take Addison when we feel like making the drive.

We bought a car.

When we first talked about going to the island, we were not going to buy a car. We figured the island was small enough to walk places, I imagined we could walk to church. We were told we could shop a lot at the Asian Market that was really close to school. We had a beach near by. We were set. There was no need to buy a car.

Then we got here.

The island may be small, but its not small enough to walk the entire island. The church is way too far away to walk to every week. It could be done, we would just have to plan for 2 extra hours both ways. The Asian Market was great for a lot of things, but we needed more than what we could get from there. The beach near by was fine, but we live on a Caribbean island. How could we just stick to one beach (albeit a great beach).

We had a lot of great help, I will say that. Jillian and James Harding were willing to take us to church weekly. Jillian took me to a doctor appointment once.  Marcie Edwards and Amy Byrd took me to the store and too a few activities. So did Micki Hayden. The Wrides allowed us to borrow their car to go on a date a few times, plus a doctor appointment and Stephanie took me to almost all the activities and store. So could we have made it without getting a car? Probably. But asking other people to go out of their way to help you out all the time is really hard, (while also really humbling). So with all that we decided to buy a car.

Its a 2005 Hyundai Accent. Back in the states I have a 2011 Hyundai Accent that Aaron likes to call "the blow up 2000". So when we bought the 2005 Hyundai Accent Aaron joked that he had no idea he'd ever purchase another "blow up." We definitely paid way to much for the car and what it was worth. But it turns out most people do on the island.

We can only unlock the car on the driver side of the car. You can tell its been a few accidents. It did have 95K miles on it though ( that just goes to tell you how small this island is, 95K miles for a 2005 is really good - I think.) The trunk doesn't even pop open with the key. It looks cosmetically horrible. Its a car though, and it will get us from A-B. Which is what we needed/wanted.

Buying a car on the island is slightly different from buying in the states. You don't need a title to get the car. You just need a bill of sale. That turned into a bit of a hassle for us, the girl we were buying the car from was leaving the island the day we got the car. We had to make sure everything was correct before she left. Turns out it wasn't. But we made it work. Then you get insurance, and have to get your car inspected. They have several things on the car that have to be working in order for you to pass inspection. I'll be taking the car next week to get inspected so lets hope it passes. Every year you buy a new license plate. That is how they do road taxes here. Once I passed the hassle of trying to get the bill of sale correct, everything else went smoothly.

I told Aaron it was our first big purchase together since we both came into our marriage with cars. He reminded me that Med School was our first big purchase, only that has only his name not mine, and this car has both our names.

I guess you could say that is kind of exciting. Our first big purchase with both our names on it after 2 years of marriage.

If you look close enough you can see the rust above the wheel well

Our Sweet Car

My dad says all the junkers I drove growing up prepared me for this. 

Friars Bay, Sand Castle Contest, 3rd Block Exams and more.

Addison and I went to another beach a couple weeks back with a few other families. Its on the French side of the island, called Friars Bay. Its a little harder to find because its through a neighborhood. Most beaches are actually. If you have ever been to Hawaii, its not like Hawaii at all where you drive down the road and the beach is off to the side. Here on Saint Martin most beaches have to be found through driving through a neighbor hood or taking a quick turn up a little road. It allows a lot of beaches to be a little more secluded that are hard to find.

Friars Bay Beach was a pretty beach with alluring blue water. The beach wasn't very big, and most of it was taken up by beach chairs from a local beach restaurant. We found a great spot and spent much of our time there. Addison played in the sand, and got all sandy of course. That usually happens to her. I will probably find sand in her hair for at least 6 months after we move back to the states when we are all done here.

I actually hadn't seen any cows here, until we went to Friars Bay. Suddenly a ton of cows came just walking down by the beach. We were all quite surprised and took pictures because obviously, we'd never seen cows before (kidding). We all took pictures because it was just a random place to see a ton of cows.

Friars Bay Beach. 

Friars Bay 

Cows, Cows, Cows. 

Last week for play group we did a Sand Castle Contest. We all went to Kim Sha Beach in Simpson Bay. The beach was incredibly dirty as they had just had a concert their the weekend before as part of the Regatta festivities. There was also a ton of sea weed as well. We swept away the trash and moved the sea weed and got to work. There was so many creative ideas out there. One girl built a mermaid out of the sand. She used the Seaweed to out line the tail and add hair. Another one did a sand Fish that turned out awesome as well. The younger girls made a sea shell sand castle, while another family started on a Sand castle. It had four walls with a tower at all 4 corners and 3 towers in the middle. Then another family did a Sand Crab as well as a Hippo. My sand castle had 3 big towers in the shape of a triangle with one in the middle. I didn't get to finish it as Addison was getting to be pretty fussy. So I decided next time I go back to the beach I will rebuild it and finish it.

They had a tourist come judge the sand art. First place was the mermaid, 2nd place the fish, and 3rd was my sand castle. I'm not sure how I got 3rd place considering there was so many other great sand projects out there, but it I was happy to get 3rd place none the less.

Our sand castle (at least the start of it) 

The Mermaid (1st place) 

Addison and I's sand castle (kind of) We look great. (3rd place) 

The fish (2nd place)

Aaron passed his 3rd block of exams,(he passed the first two as well). He's always done really well on his tests but he did even better this time around. He's worked so hard to get good grades and I am so proud of all his hard work that he puts in.

Addison decided to lock herself in the bedroom last night. Somehow the door was already locked. We don't know how because neither one of us had locked it at all and Addison couldn't reach the lock. We did not have a key to the bedroom door unfortunately, and our house key did not work to open the door. So I ran to the front desk hoping they had a key for the locks. They didn't. I may have lost my cool for a second and said "I don't mean to be rude but why do you have locks on those doors if you don't have a key". They told me to calm down, haha. But how could I be calm. My baby was locked in a bedroom with no way in or out screaming. The front desk ladies grabbed a knife and a screw driver hoping to get in the door, it didn't work so they asked they security guy. He couldn't get in either. So they called the manager and she came. The door hinges were on the inside of the door with Addison so we couldn't do that. The Windows are different than American windows so you can't climb through the window, and were up way to high for one of us to jump up there and climb through. So the manager came to the rescue. She used the screw driver and the hammer and took the door knob off. We finally got Addison. He may have cried a little. I knew she was okay, but I think seeing how scared she was really affected me, and hey I'm her mom. I did not like that I couldn't get to her.

After we thanked the manager as she was leaving she told us that some of the students like to have extra security with the doors locked and that most students don't have a 1.5 year old running around either. I still thought it was silly because what happens if the student locks the door and shuts it accidentally and can't get into their bedroom. I just thought it was silly and that if they are going to have doors that lock, they at least need key to that door.

It was rather eventful trying to get our sweet little girl out there. But we got her, and we no longer have a door knob to our bedroom.

Mullet Bay Beach.

Mullet Bay is the beach closest to us here on the island. Its about a ten minute walk from our apartment in Cupecoy (pronounced cupa-coy) to the beach. The beach is on the other side of the only golf course on the island. One of the main roads runs right through it. Unfortunately there is no sidewalks down this road (you don't see many sidewalks here). The road is pretty narrow, and not safe to walk down with children. The best way to get to the beach is by crossing the golf course. Which the security guard and owners of the golf course don't exactly like. We've been caught before and told not to cross the golf course anymore, but until we get our car there is no way we can walk down the road to the golf course. So we have to "sneak" our way across and hope we don't get caught. Gives you a bit of an Adrenalin rush ;) The golf course is not as well maintained as ones you see in the states, but it is still a beautiful golf course and a beautiful drive to Cupecoy.

This is the beach that we usually do play groups at twice a month, and the beach that our family goes to when Aaron has some time off from school or studying (which isn't often). Its a beautiful beach, but I'm sure part of that is due to the fact that the golf course goes right up to it, as well as the beach just being lined with trees and rocks.

At times since being here the waves have been huge, they've reached at least 10 feet high from what I've seen. There are other times where there isn't a ripple in the water from what I've heard.

There used to be a beautiful resort on Mullet Bay, called Mullet Bay Hotel and Casino. It was another hotel wiped out by Hurricane Luis in September 1995.

Just to give you an idea as to how bad Hurricane Luis was; It was the worst natural disaster to hit the island in recent history. It almost completely wiped the island off a map. It left 9 dead, with nearly 70% of the island homeless. Winds were up to around 145 mph. Some towns on the island were with out power and water for 3 months. You can still see the result of Hurricane Luis today.

Among the damage is the hotel I wrote about in a past post, La Belle Creole, and then Mullet Bay Hotel and Casino.

Along Mullet Bay you can still see many of the ruins today. There are still stone structures up all around, especially on one side of the beach.

We got to visit Mullet Bay today, Aaron did not have an anatomy lab so we decided to take some time out of our day and go to the beach as a family. We just got Addison some more sand toys, so we thought we 'd take her and play in the sand and the water.

Sand Castles

Building Sand Castles

Playing in the sand 

Busted out the selfie stick for some family pics.

Another family picture :)