St. John's 2011

We arrived in St. Johns after taking a Ferry ride over from St. Thomas. It was a beautiful site. Right where we got off the ferry there were local women giving out free samples of their local flavored rum. Everything is soo free and relaxed here.

We got to the house and this was our view out the balcony. It was gorgeous. We put Bronx in the tub and he complained that his stomach hurt so we got him out and I started rubbing his back and before I knew it he had fallen asleep on the bathroom floor. I guess he was exhausted from the trip over.

The first bay that we drove to was Maho bay. The water here is like bath water. Jared of course didn't get in for the longest time because he is a sissy when it comes to the cold. Bronx loved it. We put floaties on him and he could have stayed in the water the whole trip. There were no real waves and you could step out a good 10 feet. Well I couldn't since I am such a shorty but it was nice for the kids to be able to go out into the water and not have waves constantly knocking them down.

I forget the name of this resort but it was beautiful. We snorkeled around this little cove. We lost Brooke and had to snorkel around to see where she went. She went all the way over to another private beach.

Today we took a drive around the island which didn't take long. The roads on St. Johns were narrow, steep and the turns were ridiculous. Jared couldn't believe the grade of some of the turns and that they were paved. We stopped on our drive to this little cove where it was quiet with just a few other people there. It was really nice on St. John's vs. St. Thomas because the bays were not busy at all. Hardly any people.

One day the big kids took the Ferry over to St. Thomas for some shopping. It was one jewelry store after another. Each sales person was trying to lure you in with a free pendant. There were ABC type stores for souveniers. Lots of Rum and T-shirts.

The wind was soo crazy on St. John that the big boat trip over to the British Islands was cancelled so we took the kids over to St. Thomas and went to Coral World. Wasn't much sea life besides nurse and lemon sharks, sting rays, star fish and sea turtles. But the thing that the kids loved the most were these darn iguanas. They were everywhere. Crawling over your feet. Brooke decided to feed the iguanas and she got bit. The kids stayed at a good distance. Right before leaving the staff let you take the left over lettuce for that day and feed the iguanas. Bronx got really brave and once he started feeding them he couldn't stop. Jared kept saying how neat it would be to have a pet iguana. Never gonna happen...

This was such a memorable trip in more ways than one. On our last day there we spent all day at Maho Bay and played in the sand and water. We had driven back to the house and were getting ready to shower and pack so we could wake early and catch the 6am ferry over to St. Thomas. Well there was a power surge over half the island. The water pump was shut off. We all drove down to the local resort down the road and got in the pool and hot tub and rinsed off all the sand and smell from the ocean. We bought some candles and packed our bags. When we woke up our rental car had a flat tire. We had to call a taxi to come and get us. After all that stress we did catch our flight out of St. Thomas.
Upon arriving in Miami I got sick from the flight and being pregnant I had peed my pants while throwing up in the airport. The bad thing about this besides the embarassment was that we had checked our bags and I didn't have anything to change in to. Jared ran around the airport stores to try to find something for me to wear. Well I didn't have time to change into anything. I had a blanket wrapped around me and we were literally running through the airport trying to catch our next flight. I did change on the flight. The flight from Miami to LA was 5 hours. The kids did great considering the lack of entertainment options we had for them.
When we were in the LA airport waiting to board our last and final flight we were grabbing a bite to eat. I had gotten a baked potato with nacho cheese. Doesn't sound very good and it wasn't. Bentley was playing around and knocked the plate out of my lap onto my brand new pair of sweats. So, not only did I smell of throw up and urine, but nacho cheese was added to the list.
To top everything off, on the flight home to Salt Lake we had 30 minutes left before we would land and Bronx got sick and threw up. Sorry JoAnn because she was the one next to him and had the priveledge of cleaning him off. The people around us were gracious but I bet they couldn't wait to get off that flight.
All in all with everything that happened to us on the way home it was an experience that we were greatful to have and share these wonderful memories with the people that we love.