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.