Enjoy it no matter what!

Before we arrived here I told myself that I was going to enjoy it here no matter what. Twenty months isn't forever and if you have to be stuck anywhere on earth for twenty months a tropical island certainly isn't the worst place you could be!  ;)

These are some pictures I took while we were playing at the Terminal Park. 

Playing at the parks on the island = dirty kids. They end up looking like homeless children by the end of the fun at the park.

Lacey watching her brother, she wants to do everything he's doing.

The yellow slide is very steep, as you can tell by Lincoln's face expression.

Lacey LOVES the swing!

Giggles, squeals and laughs! We love this girl so much.

We've been on the island for almost  3 months now and while life is certainly not without its challenges we continue to love it here. There are good and bad things as there are anywhere and I thought I'd share a few of them with you - lest you think its all suntans and smiles for us these days.  ;)

the good: a small apartment sure makes cleaning go a lot quicker

the not so good: a little bit cramped

the good: admiring a load of clean laundry on the line blowing in the breeze

the not so good: when it rains on that laundry and it then takes another day to dry or when my clothes line breaks and all the clean laundry falls on the freshly cut grass.

the good: it's a lot warmer here than it is back home in Canada!

the not so good: today it is 41 degrees Celsius, 82 % Humidity and I am sweatin' (which is saying something for those who know me)

the good: trying new foods

the not so good: cooking is always a challenge. Trying to find ingredients for favorite recipes is much like a treasure hunt sometimes but today I found zucchinnis and made zucchini bread and it was just like home. Yay!.. Also trying to figure out what temperate to cook food at can be difficult. The propane stoves are way hotter then what we are use to back home... (Josh says the propane burns hotter then natural gas). The oven is also in Celsius, if you convert the temperate over it's still not the right temp. It's a guessing game.

the good: I'm so happy to have internet access. Being in touch with family and friends through email/facetime/facebook makes it feel like we aren't that far from home

the not so good: internet access is hit or miss at times... and speed is close to that of dial-up.

the good: going to the beach hasn't gotten old yet and I really don't think it will anytime soon.

the not so good: all the sand I sweep out of the bathtub and the whole house, shake out of my son's pockets and clean out of the babies diaper might get old a tiny bit quicker

To sum it up: Life isn't all good all the time but it sure comes pretty close!

We had to get a few family pictures of us as a family on Statia as we will be leaving the island soon.

Thanks to Hannah Farrell for the mini photoshoot.

We LOVE our Pictures!

Lacey: 10 months

I can't even tell you what a special part of our family this little sweetheart is! She's spunky, she's snuggly,  and is a bundle of joy and a delight in our lives! She reminds us so much of Lincoln at this age, with everything she does; her laugh, her cry and her boisterous attitude, she's just more girly.

 She makes me smile everyday and I'm so grateful for our little Lacey.

We are thinking this girl is going to be a daddy's girl. When daddy's home that all she wants.

She (at 9.5 months) started waving to dad as he leaves for school each morning, even though she is whining as he walks away. She smacks her lips... which Lincoln taught her (as well as her little rar). She can also make kissing sounds. She is now pointing at everything (with her pointer and thumb). She knows how to clap. She's a pro and walking along things.... She's starting to take some steps now, max we have seen is 7 so far. So it will not be long till she's on the move. This girl has a temper and sure knows how to scream when she wants something. She is usually happy and smilling. Lacey's the perfect beach baby, she loves the sandy beach, a little to much at times... she never stops trying to eat the sand, and she also loves swimming in the ocean.

(Randome side note)
-Watermelons-
You would think living in the caribbean means you can eat as much fresh fruit as you want, your wrong. Thats what I thought too. Fresh produce here is expensive and it's hit and miss with whats available as it all depends what comes in on the shipment.... Any who! Lets get to the point I'm trying to make. We gave in and bought a watermelon. We paid $19.00, for a basketball size one. Ya, I know we are crazy! We really wanted one. It was Lacey's first time trying watermelon. She fell in love with it. She sucks all the juice out of it and then she eats it. she gets so excited when she sees it and would not stop eating it. We are hoping St. Maarten has more fresh produce available and is not so expensive. I miss our Costco shoppin trips!

What we've been up to

White Wall -  A Limestone foundation to the south of the Quill is called White Wall. There's a great view of St. Kitts Island to the south of us. It's really neat to go see, but once you get there and look around for 10 minutes, there's not much else to do.

Botanical Gardens-  The gardens are gorgeous. You see a tone of butterflies, humming birds and beautiful flowers, plants and trees that are found on the island.

View of St. Kitts to the south of us.

"Girls were doing it... why not me?"

The Harbour - We found this area near the harbour that has shallow water with very little waves. Lincoln loves playing there. He also loves watching the boast come in. The last few times we went there has been a tractor on a boat moving things around. It doesn't get much better for Lincoln then swimming and watching tractors! 

Dutch Reformer Church/Grave Yard - We visited the Fort and went for a little walk to the old dutch reformer church. We love exploring and checking out the island.

Not sure how bad it is for him to be playing on these... but he thought it made a pretty awesome chair. :)

We are moving!

Here we go!!! St. Maarten in September. Island swap.

We are moving to St. Maarten, which is a 20 minute flight northwest from St Eustatius. Yes we did just move here 2 months ago and when we move to St. Maarten we will have only been on St Eustatius for 4 months. We love our island, we are going to miss it! St. Maarten is also a small island (bigger then St Eustatius) but with 2 different countries. We will be living on the dutch side (Kingdom of the Netherlands), the other side is French.

So you may be wondering why are we moving islands

It's because the University that Josh is attending, is moving. Yes the whole school is moving islands. Due to a lack of support from the Dutch government and the University it became more favourable for them to move to Sint Maarten, in order for the school to be properly accredited and retain its favourable clinical rotation status.

Can't have a blog post with out some pictures of the kids.

My beach baby!

My tired Lincoln after a busy day in the Caribbean sun. 

The heat makes the kids go to bed so easily at night. Majority of the time Lincoln will have little beads of sweat on his nose and eyebrows. It must be hot here.

The destruction monster! Lacey loves attacking what ever Lincoln is playing with and destroying it.

She is a great little sister with bugging her brother. When I say "LACEY", when she's bugging him, she knows she's not suppose to, and usually gives me a good puppy dog face.

Caribbean Rain falls =  Lincoln in heaven. 

Back home when it rained in canada most of the time it would be quit chilly after. Not here! When it rains here it feels hotter and muggier. Lincoln loves playing it the rain. He thinks he needs he's rain coat on, he really doesn't. It's like a warm shower.

Little miss Lacey is all ready for church!

Happy Canada Day!

Even though we are far from home, we were still able to celebrate Canada Day! Glad we did! Everyone brought amazing food.  We had a great time and all left happy and full. It was great to see everyone in there red and white. We even got to sing Canada’s national anthem at church. I’m glad I can call Canada my home, it’s a great place to be from. 

Big THANKS to the Sala Family for hosting the Canada Day BBQ at there house.Our family really enjoyed it.

My kid lets on Canada Day. 

Group Picture.

Group picture of all the med. students. How many people does it take to BBQ?...7 med students apparently.