Nana and Papa

We are getting ready to move in ONE week to St. Maarten! This will be the last post on St. Eustatius. We are going to miss our island. We made some great memories here and great friends.... It might take a few weeks before I post the next post depending on when our internet will be hooked up at our new place.... Our first visitors here were nana & papa Yamamoto. They came to visit us for 2 weeks. We'd been counting down for quit some time. So we were really looking forward to them coming. 4 months without seeing any family can be hard at times.

 While nana & papa were here we showed them everything we like to do on this small island. From hiking the Quill, White Wall, Botanical gardens, walking along the beach, swimming in the ocean, collecting sea shells, Crocks Castle, Zeelandia Beach, museum, visiting Benji the turtle, local bakery's, ruins, the Fort, playing at the park, swimming at the public pool, playing on the soccer field, drinking pina coladas and enjoying the slower pace of life.

Warning Picture over load for this post!

These are a collection of pictures I texted my mom and Byron each day as we counted down before their arrival. We were so excited to have our first visitors and show them what we now call home.

Lincoln and Lacey were both so excited that the day finally came to see nana & papa come on an airplane to Statia.

Their airplane they came on (left picture). You can see how excited nana was to see us after a long two days of flying :) (Far right picture)

Since there is not much selection for shopping here,  really there is none on this island. You can get the basic for food, but not much selection. You cant buy makeup here, nail polish, etc. You cant even buy sand toys here. So nana & papa brought us a suit case of Canadian goods, from toys for the kids, clothes, treats, etc. It was like Christmas in July! Thanks for everything you brought us, greatly appreciated.

We made sure we went to the beach everyday while nana & papa were here.

Breakfast at the local bakery, "Lynn's Bakery"

 Lincoln loves there doughnuts.

(Statia's version of Tim Hortons)

More beach pictures.

Cooling off! It's been pretty hot here lately.

Park Time! It's almost to hot these days to be playing at the park.

Lincoln spotted a airplane coming into Statia.

Our friend Benji the Turtle.

We hike the Quill (dormant volcano) with nana & papa. Lincoln made it all the way to the top (crater rim). He hiked all the way to the top by him self and 3/4 of the way down, then he stopped and said I'm tired so I carried him the rest of the way. We did the hike in 3.5 hours, which I thought was great considering Lincoln set the pace. I'm so proud of him, he makes a great hiker. ( and i know papa Stewart would be happy to know this too).

As soon as we made it home from our hike. Lincoln jumped into our Statia style tub to cool off on our porch, followed by a 2 hour nap. 

Josh has been spear fish with some other students here. He is loving it.

This is what he brought back from his fun in the water,  a caribbean lobster.

We enjoyed evening walks along the beach.

White Wall with the view of St. Kitts to the south of us.

We visited the only horse on the island.

Here are some of the old ruins we found.

St. Eustatius museum.

Eating out at Cool Corner.

A quick family photo before church. Nana & Papa got to experience what church is like here.

A banana spider we found when we went to the park.

These last 4 picture were some pictures we captured on Zeelandia, while playing on the beach.

Thanks so much for coming to visit nana & papa Yamamoto. We loved having you here. We were sad to say good bye, till your next visit in December.... After nana & papa got on the airplane to leave. We arrived home and not even an hour later Lincoln was already asking for nana & papa to come back.

11 Months

I cant believe in one months time my baby girl will be a whole 1 YEAR OLD! Crazy! She took her first steps at 10 months and started WALKING a lot at 10 1/2 months. She LOVES being able to follow Lincoln around and explore whats around her. Lacey has started TALKING too, she says mom, dad (in a deep voice), more, ya, ruff and moo. She is full of spunk, she's a little goof ball and loves to show off, she's always happy unless your not listening to what she wants, which brings me to the biggest difference between her and Lincoln, her short temper! haha. Although she is getting good at communicating what she wants these days... even if it is a shrill scream sometimes.

Lacey LOVES her mango's.

She also LOVES playing in the sand and rocks like her brother...

Zeelandia Beach

Swimming at the Statia swimming pool.

Island Tour!

When you drive down the street of St Eustatius it feels like you are 30 years behind the US and Canada. It really does! At times it feels like your in a 3rd world area. The roads and houses are falling apart, there are no street lights, street signs are bent over, pop and beer cans along the side of the road. It's crazy to see and experience life this way.  With no resort on the island you truly get to see how the locals live. We still love our Caribbean island.

Downtown Statia, still has some of the original roads built by slaves 150 years ago. The weird thing is that they are the smoothest roads on the island.

It amazing me how much history there is that is relatively undisturbed by tourists or anyone really.

Island houses. There are some scary shacks that I am even scared to WALK by let alone live in. House here seem to always be under construction. People will add a floor to their house, month to month, or some years have been years in progress. A lot of them will build suites for students to rent to pay for their own... too bad we are all leaving soon!

All the house here are built out of cinder blocks. The cement walls help keep the house cooler. Josh said its weird not seeing any wood on the houses except for the roof. 

Here are a couple panorama shots that Josh took with his iPhone from the top of a hill close to our house. It's the full 360˚, pretty neat! 

St Eustaius police station.

St Eustatius Public Library.

And anther beach compilation picture to end it off! 

Caribbean July

Summer fun in the Caribbean. Since we have arrived at the end of April, it has always been very warm but in the last few weeks it has really warmed up here. Welcome to summer!

Going to the beach is a daily occurrence here.

 It's the BEST way to keep cool form the Caribbean sun.

Building sand castles, playing in the sand. This boy almost always has sand in his hair. 

Doesn't seem to matter how much I wash his hair.

Playing at the beach with our friends. 

It's mango season right now and we are loving it. Our friends the Erickson's have three mango trees in their yard which produce a tone of fruit. They've given us bags of mangos as they cant keep up with eating them. Thank you guys!.... If Lacey sees a mango she has to eat it, she loves them.

St. Eustatius Musuem -  Our island has a lot of history here all the way back to the slave days.

Statia Balloon Kid Parade. The kids loved it!

This is what a Friday at the beach looks like for us.

 Playing with some fish that the local boys caught for supper.

Lincoln was in heaven.

Exploring the streets of Statia one evening.

We are LOVING our adventure!