We're Coming Home....

Can you imagine flying with 2 kids, 2 carseats, and 2 bags? Sounds like a nightmare right? Well it did to me too. So I asked my parents to help me get back to the Caribbean. Thank goodness too, because 2 bags (a carry on and a check on) turned into 4 bags (3 check on and 1 carry on). With all that luggage, kids, their luggage, and 2 car seats we still struggled a little bit. We started our journey back on May 28th at 12:45 am. We caught the red eye. Our flight consisted of 2 layovers. One in Charlotte N.C. for 3 or so hours, and another in Miami, Florida for 4.5 hours or so that turned into something like 6 because of a tire with low tread. They had to go find the tire and then change it out. We finally made it back to the Caribbean around 10:30 that night. It was an extremely long day of flying. 

Sunday we got up and took my parents to church. We liked being able to show them were we attended church. My mom was able to meet Vernice, a friend of my aunt Shawntels that lives on the island from when Shawntel and Vernice lived in Holland. Crazy how the world is so small that even people from complete other countries can know family and friends that you know. 

After church we took my parents to AUC so they could see where Aaron attends school. It was probably they're favorite place to visit because it is always so cold in that building. Its one of the only buildings on this island that I know of that actually has AC run through vents rather than through big bulky fans that are on the outside of the wall. 

Then we went to a beach I had never been to before, Long Beach. We just enjoyed the pristine water, and the sand. My dad loved it so much he decided to take a nap. 

Monday we went to go on an "Island Hopping" adventure. Aaron had school so he couldn't come. It was quiet the adventure trying to find these islands I am sure we drove all over the Dutch side of saint Martin tryin to find them. We made a wrong turn and ended up at the Westin Dawn Beach Club. There was a ton of Iguanas out there. They would come running up to the car and were not afraid of people whatsoever. My dad was getting out of the car to ask the security guard a question, and then jumped back in the car due to the Iguanas chasing him. They are all over this island. Anyway, we took a lot of pictures of iguanas and then took off again to the islands. The "island hopping adventure" is basically 3 different islands that you can walk to or wade too. When we got there though, it looked like it got pretty deep, plus there was sea urchins and we didn't have good shoes so we figured with kids and all we wouldn't walk to the islands. We decided to  walk around looking at the water and what was in it and we found a Sea Urchin in the water. My dad picked it up and an Islander saw us. He came down and grabbed another sea urchin out of the water, a sea star, a conk, and a sand dollar. Apparently he's gone out and found these things and uses them for a "show" when tourists come by and then asks for tips. He pulled each of these things out, and had their skeletons too. He told us information about each organism (I haven't been in biology for a while I think that is what you call them)

White Sea Urchin

The islander showed us the sea Urchins. Sea Urchins suck the food up inside and have big teeth that that use to eat their food. 

This poor little sea star lost a leg. There are star fish, and Sea Stars. This is a sea star. 

Holding the conk. They use that sharp point part to dig. Squid usually are the ones to eat Conk. They wrap their tentacles around the conk and suffocate it so the conk uses that pointy thing to break a hole to escape out and then the squid eats the conk. 

Wearing the Sea Star on my neck, with the sea urchins 

Addison holding a sea urchin. 

Mom holding the sea urchin. 

Sand Dollar (live)
After we looked at all the sea creatures we continued to walk around in the water and see if we could find more sea urchins or sea stars. We did find another sea star but it escaped into the water. There was plenty of sea urchins to find though. Because we had just held them we felt pretty confident picking them up and holding them. Well dad did anyway. So my dad decided to get brave and try and pick up a pretty big one and it got him pretty good. His finger was bleeding and you could see a little black in his finger. He decided he wasn't going to pick anymore up haha. My parents took a sea urchin skeleton home with some teeth to show my siblings that we found here.

After our little adventure we went to Cost U Less to get some food and show my parents where we did our regular shopping. Aaron had been living very humbly while I was gone. He mostly ate sandwiches, cheese crisps, and chicken sandwiches. We had a lot of fun on this little adventure. :)