Fun with Friends!

Best buds

About a minute after washing off in the ocean, Isaiah fell and looked like this!

This may be my last blog post from St. Kitts......we'll see how crazy things get next week as I try to pack up 2 years of our lives to head back home. I got 2 suitcases of things packed yesterday, which made me feel like I got something accomplished. We are hosting a Mexican Fiesta party tomorrow evening as a sort of good-bye to our island family and all the people who have been so supportive of our lives here. It should be fun, but my hope for some of these "lasts" is just that I don't break down and cry and look like an idiot. While we are very excited to get home and spend some much needed time with our families, we have to first leave our second family here in St. Kitts which, I'm afraid will be no easy task. I feel like we will never make friends so quickly and closely as we have in our situation, because this is place is one of the only places that other students/spouses, etc. know exactly what you're feeling because they're miles and miles away from their families and homes and everything they've ever known too. We have been completely blessed in living here, by the people God has put in our lives and even though at times it was more difficult than we would've liked, I wouldn't have it any other way. So--St. Kitts family that may be reading this....know that we will always miss you and hope to see you again!!!

Eli, Isaiah, and Jen

Sailboat picture from Shipwreck

The boys driving the diggers and trucks on the sand road made by Jen!

Trying to catch some rain in his "scooper"

Last week, we went to Shipwreck beach with Jen and Eli and a few other VIP ladies. The boys had a great time and did really well playing together. It was actually a little relaxing to get to sit on the beach while the boys played and kept each other busy! We did a lot of swimming to the dock and also took a walk down the beach which the boys really enjoyed.

While I was checking my email, Isaiah hid himself in a shelf!

He put himself to sleep on my pillow....so sweet!

The next week (on Wed.) we woke up and I got Isaiah's lunch ready for school and when I sat down on the couch to cuddle a little bit, I realized that Isaiah had a fever. So....I didn't go to work and Isaiah didn't go to school that day. That is also the reason I didn't get to post last Friday....Isaiah had a fever for 6 days and was completely miserable for at least 3 or 4 of them. We took him to the doctor the very next day and got some meds, but it really took him a long time to kick it. He just went back to school on Wed. (2 days ago) and still has a little cough left, but is feeling much better for the most part. He also was kind enough to share his illness with his father and I. I've been feeling rotten since Monday and am starting to feel better except I woke up this morning and have one ear that is plugged up. The school nurse thinks it is just Swimmer's Ear, so hopefully with some drops that will mend itself soon!

Eli and Isaiah pretending in the Marriott golf cart

Cool rider

Yesterday, after our normal Thursday pool day with the other Moms and kids, Jen and Eli took us to lunch at the Marriott. They are leaving on Monday to head home to a vet conference and a camping trip and won't return to St. Kitts until Isaiah and I are gone, so Sunday will probably be our last chance to see them and it was very nice to get a little extra time to hang out! The boys behaved pretty well at lunch and then had a great time exploring all the fun things at the Marriott on our walk back to the cars and Isaiah took the best nap he's had in a few weeks!

Cheese by the fountain

Eli's turn

Last night, we were set to keep Beau while Jessie and Andrew went out for a work dinner and since the Johnsons (Jason, Jen, and Eli) are headed home soon and also have to move this weekend to a new apartment, I offered for them to bring Eli along and play with Isaiah and Beau. We had dinner for all the boys, some playtime, fun in the tub with some popsicles, and finished up the evening in our bedroom with bedtime stories and some Elmo and Backyardigans. They were all really well behaved and had such fun together. It made me happy to see Isaiah playing and having fun with his friends, but also upsets me that he will soon be moving on to life in PA without them. As much as I will miss my friends, Isaiah will be missing his little buddies too!

Tub time with popsicles!

Beau trying out a binky to be like Isaiah

So, that's about it for us. T minus 13 days and counting until Isaiah and I head to the states on our airplane. He gets very excited when we talk about the airplane ride, getting to see his grandparents, and maybe best of all, that he'll get to see Ella and Lydia very soon! We love you all--US families and our St. Kitts one too! We'll be glad to have some time at home to prepare for the next move, but will be missing our St. Kitts peeps!

Watching Backyardigans

Reading Curious George with Josh

Friends!

Sisters in St. Kitts! :)

Isaiah and Josh at the horse races at Beaumont Park, St. Kitts

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged and I apologize! Things have been a bit crazy around here. I have been doing some occupational therapy consulting work for the university, doing presentations on proper positioning and ways to prevent injuries, and also conducting some workstation evaluations and making recommendations to faculty, staff, and administrators on changes to make to keep employees more protected from injury. It's been fun, but has been taking up most of the free time I did have on Mondays and Wednesday mornings while Isaiah is at school. We also had a great time last week when my Mom and Aunt Karen came to St. Kitts for a visit. They are, sadly, our last set of visitors to St. Kitts and we were so thankful and excited they came! We had a great time while they were here and also managed to squeeze in some work too! We packed up 3 suitcases of our belongings and they so graciously took them home for us!

Probably the only picture I have of BOTH Isaiah and Beau looking and smiling at me!

The gates were moved into place for each race by the tractors...the boys loved watching the tractors as much as the horses!

Jessie, Beau, Josh, and Isaiah watching the horses get set for the race

Josh, Isaiah, Jessie, and Beau

If I was a bettin' woman, I would've bet on the horse with the orange socks for Uncle Lee!

It was a beautiful horse

Beaumont Park sign

Chelsea & Josh

Isaiah, Beau, and Josh checking out the horses before the race

Isaiah supporting the USA on the 4th of July in St. Kitts!

Things have been going well here, even if they have been busy. I'm starting to get anxious about getting everything sorted and packed. I know what I need to pack and what's going where (i.e.- coming home with us for good, going to school sales, or going with Josh to his new place) but the problem is that we're still using most of it in our day to day lives and so I'm getting nervous that it's going to be a lot of last minute packing!!! Oh well....as long as we get most of it home and we all make it in one piece, that will be the important thing!

Mimi and Isaiah in front of the fountain at Caribelle Batik

Mom and Karen soaking up some sun at Reggae beach on Saturday

Worn OUT!

Isaiah with Wilbert, the island pig!

There are some fun pictures for this blog post, starting with the ones from the Kittitian horse races at Beaumont Park a few weeks ago. We decided to go since it was the weekend after mid-terms and Josh didn't have to spend the entire weekend studying AND it was FREE admission, which is always great for a family on a tight budget! The skies looked pretty gray, but it hadn't been raining, so we headed out following Autum who supposedly knew the way! We only got lost a few times on the way there and managed to drive the entire way around the island which we hadn't done since we first arrived which was fun. It rained on us a few times on the drive, but we figured we were already on our way, so we might as well try it. We did get to see a few races and Isaiah LOVED seeing all the horses and being outside, so the day was well worth it, even if it poured almost the entire time we were there. We were soaked by the end, but so happy to have had the day together and to watch our son having a wonderful time!

Sunset from SpratNet where we had dinner Saturday night

Isaiah wanted his picture with the boats in the water...he loved the green one!

My sweet boy

Isaiah at Piranha Joe's at Port Zante

Mimi and her 'favorite grandson'

View down the peninsula from the Marriott beach

Isaiah doing some digging in the sand

Most of the other pictures are from Mom and Karen's visit. We didn't do too much touristy stuff and mostly stuck to hitting the beach and pool. We did visit Caribelle Batik for a few souvenirs and I even purchased a watercolor painting of a part of St. Kitts we have seen many times just over the hill from where we live to have as a reminder of the past 2 years and all the growing we've all done in St. Kitts! We also did a little shopping at Port Zante and made sure everyone got something to take home. We even found Isaiah a couple of adorable St. Kitts shirts to wear when we're home in August. We had a great time visiting and relaxing with Mom and Karen and were so blessed to have them with us for the week!

Isaiah standing on the excavator we found parked near Buddie's where we had dinner on Mom and Karen's last night in St. Kitts

The excavator was HUGE!

Isaiah and his Mimi

Sunset at Timothy Beach

Mimi and Zay checking out the boats in the ocean

I can't believe Isaiah and I will be leaving St. Kitts in 24 days. It is definitely bittersweet. We will of course be so happy to be back home with our families and the United States where Wal-mart and Target are never too far away! But we will definitely miss some of the parts of our Kittitian life. It is sad for me to be leaving a place where my baby boy did so much growing and changing and taking him from the only home he really knows. I know he will adjust and will be fine, but it's a little bit daunting to turn your child's world upside-down! We will also miss our wonderful friends and our church family here. They have been a huge blessing to our lives (and probably the only thing that's kept me sane for the past 2 years!). I know it is time for us to leave and I'm ready for whatever God has in store for us next, but that still doesn't make it easy to drastically change your life and the lives of your family. It feels a lot like it did when we left the U.S. 2 years ago. I wondered how everything would be, how we would live so far away from everything we always knew, but we trusted God and he provided for us beyond our greatest hope, so I am trusting in Him once more to get us through this transition. So--family/friends back home, know that we are excited to spend time with you that will last longer than a few weeks and can't wait for all the fun we'll have this fall! And to our St. Kitts family/friends, know that it has been an amazing 2 years that I would never trade for anything and will always hold close to my heart. We will never forget you.

After getting some ice cream at the Marriott's Pizza Shak, Isaiah found a golf cart to drive!

Karen, Mom, and Isaiah

The Henry's!

Mom and Aunt Karen in the Calypso Bay Pool before heading home...a great way to end their trip!

Cat trip and movie night with friends! :)

Being goofy before bed with his Bink and my sunglasses!

Proud that he made Dr. Elmo (the vet) with his blocks by himself!

Playing with the doggie that Mommy made.

Cutie pie

Isaiah and Josh relaxing on the couch watching a video together

Sorry that I missed blogging this past Friday, but I had a great excuse! The prep school puts out a calendar each year to sell that benefits the Sea Turtle Monitoring Network here in St. Kitts that is based out of Ross and the pictures on the calendar are chosen from students at the prep school who submit pictures of the island. We submitted a picture for Isaiah of a sunset when we were out to eat at Spratnet and any kids that submitted photos got to go on a Catamaran trip on Friday and I was able to go along with him. Jessie and Beau also went and Missy went along with her boys, Eli and Gabe. We ended up having a gorgeous day with a tiny 5 minute rain storm in the middle, but the boys were very well behaved, enjoyed swimming in the ocean, some beach time on the shores of our sister island, Nevis, and they all fell asleep for at least part of the 1+ hour trip back home.

Excited to be heading out on the catamaran! Isaiah loves boat rides just as much as his Momma apparently....he had a great day!

Missy and Gabe

Beau and Jessie

Isaiah, Beau, and Gabe

Isaiah and Beau

With his vest on and ready to swim!

Isaiah, Beau, and Gabe enjoying some fruit punch!

So tired from his day of boat rides and swimming!

This weekend was mid-semester break, which means that the students didn't have school on Monday and they are supposed to have some time to relax and hit the beach with their friends and family, but Josh has two mid-terms left (one tomorrow, one Friday) so he spent the entire weekend and his extra day busy studying. Of course, Isaiah and I are always bummed when Josh has to study, but we're hoping that maybe we can get in some good quality, family time this weekend to make up for it! Josh also starts his procedures on his animals he has been SOAPing all semester this week. After his exam on Friday, he has his sheep anesthesia and will be anesthetizing the sheep while 2 of his other classmates practice laceration repairs. Next week, he will get to have his turn doing his laceration repair and I think he's actually excited for that!

Brayden, Isaiah, Damon, and Gabe ready to walk up to campus for a BBQ last week

Isaiah requested a snack the other day and he said he wanted cheese, crackers and beans. When I asked what kind of beans, he said, "Umm...red beans. Yeah, I like the red beans!" Only our son would put cheese and beans together for a snack!

On Sunday evening, Isaiah and I went to the Heller's house where they hosted a Movie night for the kids! Everyone brought something for a potluck dinner and the kids watched Despicable Me, well....sort of. There were a lot of kids and I think that made them a little more distractible, so I think that Eli (who is 5) was the only one who watched the whole movie while the other kids played with toys and made a mess of Jessie and Andrew's apartment! Luckily, there were lots of kids to help clean up the mess too and we had all the toys put away within about 5 minutes!

Ava, Isaiah, Damon, & Beau (on couch)

Eli & Gabe (on floor)

for Movie night!

Monday, Isaiah 'helped' me run some errands. Once a year we have to pay a 'wheel tax' on our car and June is the month we have to do ours, so Monday morning Isaiah and I took the car to get inspected (which is apparently a relative term since the 'inspection' took all of 5 minutes!) and then we had to go downtown to the Inland Revenue Service office to pay our wheel tax and get a new sticker to put in our window. Isaiah was really well behaved and waited through everything, so I promised him a gift. He got to go to the store and we got him a little hand-made drum that will also double as a good St. Kitts keepsake for him!

Happy boy

He loves these big chairs at Rituals!

Enjoying his donut!

We took Josh to school early one Saturday morning, so after we dropped him off, we went to Rituals to get a donut and he was so happy!

Yesterday, we went to the pool at Silver Reef and met up with Kori & her daughter, Blaine, Diane & Mason, and Katie & Kaelyn. Isaiah really enjoyed the pool at Silver Reef....it is shallow enough that he can touch and walk on his tip toes, so he spent most of the day walking around and 'practicing' his swimming going from me to the steps and back several times, all without his swim vest on! I'm hoping we will start of build some confidence, so that he can start to practice some real swimming on his own soon! We've got 7 more weeks on this island and we're going to see how close we can get!

Being silly and wearing Daddy's glasses!

I've also been working with Isaiah the past few weeks with some pre-writing skills. He has trouble making shapes and letters on his own, but is doing great tracing letters and shapes when Josh and I make them for him. Last week and this week, we've been working on tracing on paper and mostly out on the sidewalk with the chalk (which Isaiah calls Chalk Walk instead of Sidewalk chalk!) and he's doing really great. He can tell you the letter in his name and yesterday was the 3rd time we had practiced tracing the letters and he did an amazing job and has improved so much just since last week. He is also getting to the point where he gets really proud when he knows he's done a good job, so I think that's helping provide some motivation for him to do his best. I know we're a ways off from him being able to write his own name, but I'm really proud of how well he is doing with the tracing so far!

Tracing his name

He traced my sun (mine is yellow, he did the green) and gave it some more rays!

He did a really good job tracing his A!

I can't believe that we're only 7 weeks away from leaving St. Kitts and for Isaiah and I it's for good this time. I'm definitely sad that we won't be here with Josh for his last semester and we will miss our friends, but I am also really looking forward to having so much time to spend with our family at home. Isaiah asked yesterday how we get to Ella's house and I told him we had to go on a plane. He said, "Okay. Let's go get on the plane now, so I can go to Ella's house and see her." He also has requested a sleepover with Ella when we get home. So....when I worry about Isaiah missing his Daddy too much, I remind myself that hopefully Ella and Lydia will help make up the difference a bit!!! Love you all...and see you soon! :)