St. Maarten Vacay Day 1

On Monday (the day Jaron and I celebrated 7 awesome years of marriage), we took our family to St. Maarten to experience the vacation side of the Caribbean.

St. Maarten is an island split in half by two nationalities - half is owned by the Dutch and half by the French.

After arriving and getting a rental car and finding our hotel, it was almost dusk before we set out to explore the Dutch side's capital, Philipsburg.

But we made it to the boardwalk beach that was familiar to us from the day we spent here when we first arrived in the Caribbean.

And sweet little Gracen.  How she loves the sand.  But oh how she loves to eat the sand and therefore can not be seen on it without a pacifier.

The boys went wild in the sand.  They ran and chased and splashed their hearts out for the few minutes we had before it started to get dark.

We actually decided we kind of liked the beach in the evening - no crowds or sun blazing down on us!

Good-bye Saba

I am choking up as I write this post!

I can't believe that our time on Saba has come to an end.  I know a lot of you are probably thinking that I should be glad to move on since this experience has brought us so many challenges.  But I have grown so much during our time here!  I will forever be grateful for the things that these last 16 months have taught me.  I am definitely a changed person for having lived here and for what I've learned while here!

We hit the airport Monday morning.  In no time, our plane arrived to whisk us off the island for perhaps forever.  The finality of that is so hard for me to accept!

Before I knew it, we were whirring down the world's shortest runway for the last time.

And just like that, Saba was gone!

But we're not back in the States yet...St. Maarten vacation, here we come!

Tide Pools at Sunset

On one of our last nights on Saba, we took the opportunity to hit the tidepools once more.  It is so much fun having Jaron around.  I forget how nice it is to not have to juggle the kids on my own.  It makes it much easier to go places and much more enjoyable to be at home.  We're sure going to miss him this coming semester!

This time the waves were bigger than the last few times we went and the tidepools were totally changed!

I stood on the edge of this cliff and was awed by the power of nature.  The waves were so strong crashing against the rocks!

I am heart-broken that the kids won't remember picnicking in such splendor!  What an amazing opportunity.  I love this picture because it shows you exactly what a tide pool is - water caught from the tide (or waves in this instance) that stays stagnant after the water recedes.  Often, they soon become teaming with sea life held inside.

As we got to the water's edge, the sun began to set.  The sky and clouds were beautiful.

But the setting sun did make it difficult to take pictures of the tidepools.  I was sad because I really wanted to get a good picture of this one!  It has some coral growing in it.  I bought Jaron an underwater camera so hopefully he gets some good pictures of his snorkeling adventures.  The ocean floor around Saba holds such incredible coral reefs!  I am so grateful I got the chance to go out a few times during our last weeks on Saba.  I got to see tons of coral, big sea urchins, fluorescent fish (I wonder what makes them glow?!), spotted fish, striped fish, and clouds of jellyfish.

The Pyramid House

Saturday was THE clearest day I've ever seen and I tried to get back to the Pyramid House to take pictures but we weren't allowed to come until Sunday which, of course, turned out to be another cloudy, hazy day.  But the Pyramid House is still fun.  It used to be owned by a Buddhist monk who recently passed away.  His yard is full of all kinds of interesting things that I'm not sure of the meaning or purpose of.  But it's fun to browse around and see the views!

That last picture is why they call it the pyramid house!

Alden is totally into mazes right now.  He would love to have this in his backyard!

I'm not sure what these gongs are for.   There's a few of them and they looked like they're the top half of an air tank.

This is the first view where I confirmed that I am terribly afraid of heights!

And at "Land's End," that fear of heights was re-confirmed!  It was neat to see the clouds blowing over the island.  You get out on the edge there and it is WINDY!!

We found all these little statues of what I presume are Buddha but I could be wrong.

And my favorite sign on the property:

Also, our friend Amanda not only took family photos for us (yet to come....), she loaded us up with sparklers.  Do you remember sparklers?  They have not crossed my mind in about a decade.  The power went off for a few minutes after dark last night and it was the perfect opportunity to light 'em up!  The kids LOVED them but poor little Eli has a bubble blister on his finger where he grabbed one.

P.S.  This morning we did the sulphur mine trail and I forgot my camera!!  I'm bummed - the trail is right to the cliff edge by the mines and it was amazing (and WINDY!!).