McCahan's in St. Kitts!!! :)

Buddy Cousins

Things have been a bit crazy the past few weeks and I apologize for not posting sooner, but today I am going to post pictures from when Steve, Ashley, Ella, and Lydia visited us earlier this month! We are so happy they decided to spend the time and money to come and visit us....not only do we love having visitors, but it was so fun to have the kids here and built in play buddies for Isaiah wherever we went! I really don't think kids would've cared if we never left the house....they could entertain themselves and play in the bedroom with toys or out on the porch for hours! It was so fun to see how much they love each other....it reminds me and Steve of us and the Barber kids (Adam and Kate) when we were growing up. I'm just hoping that maybe one day we can go on some McCahan-Henry adventures!!! We had a wonderful week, visiting various beaches, a few local restaurants, and even heading over on the ferry for a day in Nevis!!! I've been waiting to visit Nevis since we moved and had such a wonderful day there with Isaiah, Steve, Ash, and their girls!

The bartender was putting out bananas for this monkey when we were eating lunch at Reggae on Monday!

The kids behaved so well during lunch because they were being entertained!

Elle helping me eat the brownie batter from the bowl!

Pretty girl...even with brownie batter on her nose!

Best Friends

Lyddie on Zay's bike

Sister love

Kiddos playing ring around the rosie!

Right before Steve and Ashley got here, Isaiah was sick. He ended up having double ear infections, tonsilitis, and pharyngitis, but was all better when they arrived thanks to some antibiotics! Just over the weekend now though, Isaiah seems to have developed a runny nose and a bit of a cough again, so we're praying it's nothing major, but we'll see where it goes. Isaiah tends to end up with ear infections whenever he gets sick, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that we don't end up there again so quickly! I was also sick, but not until right after Steve and Ashley left, so we were lucky to all be healthy while they were here! I also got some antibiotics and am feeling much better finally as well!

Beach Baby

View from SpratNet

Sunset from SpratNet where we had my bday dinner while the McCahan's were visiting!

Steve, Lydia, Ella, Autum, Josh, and Isaiah at SpratNet

Damon and Lydia dancing to the music!

Damon and Ella

Ella Grace

Damon

Isaiah and Damon

All the kids loved this huge stump in the middle of the restaurant

(Beau, Lyddiebug, Isaiah, and Damon)

Lydia--she fell over from dancing too much!

Last week and this week have been a little crazy. Josh was gearing up for exams this week...one this morning and another on Friday. I'm sure he will do fine as always, but with getting closer to finishing his time here at Ross and very close to applying to UPenn for his clinical year, he is putting a lot of pressure on himself to do well. I know he wants to do well and get us to Penn for clinicals so we can all be closer to home, but I'm hoping he doesn't drive himself too crazy about it. I really feel like we will end up where God wants us to be and I keep trying to tell him to do his best and that is all he can do. Hopefully one of these days he will stop freaking out about grades so much!

Waiting for the ferry to take us to NEVIS!

Beach at Nisbett Plantation in Nevis

Kids at the beach

Cuties

A look at one of the houses on the grounds at Nisbett Plantation in Nevis

Isaiah relaxing

All the kiddos LOVED the hammocks on the beach

Beautiful views, gorgeous water, blue sky.....perfect day!

My smiley boy

We also had a happy announcement last week. Ross University was granted accreditation by the AVMA and is now accredited according to standards the same as all the U.S. vet schools. Not only does that help to credit Ross's reputation, it also means that Josh will not have to take the $1,000 PAVE exam, which is a foreign equivalency test. It is a very big deal anytime a new school and especially one out of the country gets accredited. Ross has been working towards accreditation for several years and they are the only Caribbean vet school to be awarded this honor. We are very proud of the education that Josh is receiving and I am hopeful that others will be too, especially now that Ross is accredited!

Nevis Port

Ella/beach babe (with our ferry in the background)

Charlestown, Nevis

A look over to St. Kitts from port at Nevis

Ella and Isaiah being goofy

Peek-a-boo!

Silly girl

Happy boy

View of St. Kitts from the beach at Nisbett

It has taken me a few weeks to get this blog actually posted and I apologize! Last week when I tried to do it we had a power outage at our house and I ran around like a nut most of the morning on Friday before work trying to figure out what we had to do to get our power back on before the weekend! This week so far has been a little stressful. My Dad, Steve, had major back surgery yesterday. The surgeon was very pleased and said that he was able to do everything he wanted to do and is confident that Dad will have relief almost immediately! That's the good news....the bad news is that they kept him intubated (tube in his throat) to protect his airway due to his sleep apnea and the fact that he was under anesthesia for over 7 hours yesterday for the surgery. Please be praying that they get the tube out today and that my Mom is able to talk with him. She is obviously really worried and I think she will feel very reassured once she can hear his voice and talk to him! Thanks for all the prayers for my Dad so far and we could use some more until he gets well on his way to recovery!

Our little Zucchini babies.....more pictures of our 'garden' to come.

Isaiah is HOT, HOT, HOT! :(

Smiley boy getting ready for pool day last Thursday

Ornery boy!

Sorry it has been almost 2 weeks since I updated the blog. My Fridays have been really messed up the last few weeks and I haven't gotten my normal time on campus to post and it's always a pain to do it at home with a much slower internet connection, but I'm going to try anyway!

Eating his noodles for lunch after his nap last Thursday

Concentrating with that tongue out...just like his Uncle Kevin!

Spaghetti face!

Ready to play on the porch

Sharing some of Mommy's water

Ready 'Cutie Pie the Giraffe' all by himself!

Both the boys doing some reading last Friday morning before school!

Last Friday, I went to work to help Harley organize things at the store because we were told our newest shipment (40,000 lbs) of dog/cat food had arrived on the island and would be delivered to the store for us to unload either Friday or Monday. That's why I didn't get to blog and a little later on Friday we learned that the shipment hadn't gotten to the island after all. It was lost somewhere on another Caribbean island! Finally though today, we got word that the shipment is officially here in St. Kitts and should be coming to the store on Tuesday for us to unload and organize. It's a good thing because we are completely out of food! And it will mean an extra day of work and a little extra cash this month to help us afford the things that we need!

Playing at home before we headed to the prep school for Saturday morning play time and gymnastics!

Excited we're about ready to leave!

Beau trying out the monkey bars with help from Mom (Jessie)

He was lovin' it!

Isaiah climbing down the ropes

Damon's turn!

Future Olympic Ring champion!

Playing in one of the many sandboxes at school

Happy to be back to the beach after almost 3 months of absence!

(We went to the Marriott beach Sunday afternoon with Jakki)

Everything else this week has mostly gone according to plan except for the fact that Isaiah woke up yesterday morning with a fever. His temp was around 101 and we started dosing Tylenol when necessary. He had been having a runny nose for a few days prior to that, but being in preschool, he seems to always have at least a runny nose, so we didn't think much of it! Yesterday about mid-morning he developed a cough, which has turned into a productive sounding wet cough last night and today. Today his fever has continued off and on, but not quite as bad as yesterday, so I hope that he's on the mend. I switched around my work schedule today, so I could keep Isaiah home from school and hopefully give him time to recover for Monday! He's been behaving really well overall....I can usually tell when his fever is climbing back up because he stops talking all the time and slows down, which is the only time I've ever really seen that happen! He's being a good sport and sometimes I think it's worse for me to watch my baby be sick! We got to spend some time in the pool yesterday afternoon to cool him down a little bit and when Josh arrived home and Isaiah was still in the pool, Josh asked, "How are you feeling buddy?" and Isaiah replied, "I feel Hot!" It was really cute! He loved some time in the pool and I think we were both glad to be outside of the apartment....even if it was just on the porch!

A picture of one of my favorite St. Kitts flowers (I think it's a type of plumeria maybe)

One of our neighbors upstairs is a Ross grad and professor who heads the Sea Turtle research program at Ross and has 2 tortoises who live in her yard that Isaiah likes to visit!

Isaiah used to be scared by them, but lately, he LOVES stopping by to see if the tortoises are out!

Riding his scooter (sans shorts) Tuesday afternoon

Cool Dude

Sick little boy laying in bed watching "Curi George" on his "Pooter"

Josh had an exciting week this week with a few of his labs. For anesthesia lab on Monday, they got to practice putting a real dog to sleep for about an hour while monitoring it and then waking it back up. And then yesterday for his D.I. lab (Diagnostic Imaging or radiology) they got to go to the clinic and practice ultrasound and echocardiographs on real dogs too! While 5th semester is really busy and we don't see Josh quite as much, I know he is really enjoying all the hands-on learning they are getting to do and I'm happy to see him really getting to learn things with lots of clinical applications for the future! He's doing great so far and if you think about it, say a prayer for him....he's got 2 more exams next week before mid-semester break and the arrival of our guests....Steve, Ashley, Ella, and Lydia! We can't wait for them to get here and to show them St. Kitts! :)

Isaiah likes to Move it Move it!

He sure loves those watering cans!

Silly boy

Cutie pie

Close up!

He is definitely up to something!