House Guests

From time to time we get house guest, but they aren't your average house guest....

Living in the Caribbean I have the privileged of playing host to endangered species. Two of our roommates work and volunteer for the St Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network. And because of their involvement I have the extreme honor to be witness to their efforts to help such an incredible species.
There is nothing more humbling then being in the presence of an endangered species.

Here are a few photos of  our house guests....

A Baby Leatherback 

A Baby Green 

A Juvenile Green 

Katfish and Billfish Came to St. Kitts

Well Katfish and Billfish made it to St. Kitts! They came to visit and we had such a wonderful time! Mom and Dad were here for about 10 days and we kept them busy every day! Between zip-lining, snorkeling, tanning, eating, fishing, island touring, and exploring. We took them to our favorite places! And our not so favorite places. It was imperative that they visited our not so favorite places….They were even able to experience "Only in St. Kitts" moments too! 

Oh and I almost forgot! Duke was in HEAVEN all week with Billfish. I don’t think Duke left his side. We actually surprised Duke by letting him outside to go “potty” but really it was to surprise him with Billfish! And boy was he surprised to see his best friend. By the way it was my idea to surprise Duke! Mom was really cute before we surprised Duke though the exchange went something like this:

Katfish: Do you think Duke will remember me? I’m worried he won’t.

Me: Well I can’t promise he will remember you but he will remember Dad!

Love you Katfish!

I won’t bore you with the details of their visit. Just know that Katfish loves zip-lining and Billfish loves snorkeling! He was snorkeling machine! Oh and Dad has done a lot of out the country fishing and he has always been successful. So might be angry for me to tell you that he was skunked here in St. Kitts. Not one people! The man caught nothing! So I guess that means he will just have to come back and try again!
We enjoyed them so much and hated to see them leave. We had home cooked meals and a few surprises from home! Most importantly we had our family here with us. And we exposed them to every good, bad, and Jumanji like quality of St. Kitts.

So instead of details enjoy our pictures.....

Old Sugar Mill

Katfish

Katfish 

The helmets are awful....

Hey! 

Katfish and Billfish

Racing to the finish 

Brimstone Steps

Still going...

Finally at the top! 

Heading down

Family picture  - notice how Duke gets all of the love

Posing for a cooking picture...

Duke is a wolfpack fan! 

"Box" Turtles (hahah....)

Getting a lesson on turtles 

Billfish Limin'

Me and Katfish 

This might be first time Dad sees this picture..but we caught you in the act! We know who you love the most! 

We had such an amazing week. 

Fall on the Rock

As summer comes to an end and we head into Fall there are some things that I would like to address. There are several things that I believe I will love about Fall down in the Caribbean and other things that I will desperately miss about Fall back home.

Let’s start with what things I will like about Fall on the Rock.

• Firstly, I will be able to wear white after Labor Day! Hooray! White pants, white jeans, white skirts, white shorts, white dresses, white shoes! If it’s white and I own it, you can count on me wearing until I fly home for Christmas! I might even wear all white just to express my sheer pleasure in being able to wear white after Labor Day!
• I will be able to tan in November, outside! I have grown pretty accustom to tanning now and enjoy it on a regular basis. Having the opportunity to lay out, oh say maybe on Thanksgiving will brings me lots of joy. You can’t particular do this in North Carolina without catching a chill….Oh and I can do this from a float in my pool. Yay!  
• My toes have also enjoyed wearing flip flops and Jack Rogers and I would hate to deprive them of that come late November. By being on the Island my little does will stay nicely polished for all to see in their flip flops.
• Hurricane season will end around November 3^rd. Oh speaking of November 3^rd…that’s my birthday! And I for one have never celebrated a birthday on a Caribbean Island. And I’m even luckier because I get to celebrate Andrew’s birthday in September. That will be 2 birthdays on a Caribbean Island!
• I will actually be able to take Duke out and not complain about being cold. Andrew will hopefully appreciate this is. But then again he will tell you that I am the only person who is currently cold in the Caribbean, so I might still complain about being cold just not when I take Duke out.
• My whale watching might peak towards the end of Fall (fingers crossed) The research I have done says that whales winter down in warmer waters to breed and calve. Bingo! I might get to see a whale this Fall, because we all know the only one I have seen has been the pool float!

Now for things I will miss about Fall back home.

• Food. Shocking! I know you can’t believe that the first thing I would say would be food. Crazy, huh? Yes y’all I will miss good ole’ Fall foods. Sweet Potato Pie! My oh My! I love Sweet Potato Pie! Oh and Thanksgiving food! You are probably thinking how does a vegetarian love Thanksgiving food? Simple, I don’t eat the turkey, just everything else people!
• Fall shopping and clothing. I know I said I love flip flops, but I do love a good boot-cut jean and a clog with a sweater! Or a pair of skinny jeans and some tall boots! LOVE! Like my Mom said the stores will wait with open doors for when I return.
• The changing of the leaves. When I think of Fall in North Carolina I think about how the leaves change color! Vibrant hues of orange, red, and yellow! Perhaps a weekend drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway or even heading west to a little town called Lexington…
• Football. There I said it y’all! I will miss football…well kinda. I will miss tailgating with friends and purchasing more than enough potato salad for our tailgate. Football I could take or leave but tailgating with friends I will without a doubt miss. Oh yes and I will miss wearing Red and White to the games. Go Pack!
• Horseback riding in the fall. This one will be tough too. There is nothing like a good ride on a cool crisp Fall morning. Sigh. I love nuzzling the horses when they start to get their winter coat too! Breaches and a light sweater! Another sigh…
• Pumpkin Picking and Carving. The NC Farmers Market will just have to save a few pumpkins for me. I love picking out pumpkins and deciding whether or not they will make for a good carving. Boo! Oh and I love picking a few special little ones for the inside of our house. Oh and you must not forget some must go by the front door too! Ohhhh and the Mums! I love Mums. Yellow Mums look really nice with a few pumpkins next to them!
• Fall decorations. Autumn leaves, pumpkins, wreaths, turkeys! I truly love an Autumn Fall wreath hanging on a front door; it’s so warm and inviting! All of my wreaths are in storage and will one day hang on our front door again! 

No matter where I am in the world I welcome Fall with open arms. There are many many things that I will miss about Fall at home in North Carolina, but the Caribbean has some nice things to look forward to as well. So for now I look forward to Fall on the Rock I currently call home. 

note: this is not St. Kitts 

News and Such

So a lot has actually happened in the last few weeks, but it would literally take weeks to tell you all about it. So I'll keep it short because clearly, who has weeks to read one blog post....

Yay! America! I got to go home to good ole North Carolina! It was pretty amazing. I drank a copious amount of sweet tea, enjoyed time with parents and brother, brushed and fed carrots to my horse and donkey, ate wonderful food, and spent time with good friends. OH and I literally went to Target 4 times in 4 day period. One day I went twice...Don't judge, I like things, especially things I can't find in St. Kitts. 

Aside from doing all things I love at home; I got to go shopping with my best friend, Justine, for bridesmaid dresses for her wedding next June.  The day was wonderful and I love, love, love my dress for the wedding.  Thank you so much to the Kinney's for such a fabulous day; it was so special.

Being home was so nice.  It’s always good and, at times, very necessary to just go home. I had such an incredible few days at home with family and friends and got to do many things I love.  Shopping and food, the way to my heart.  Thank you also to my in-laws and sibling-in-laws (is that the correct way to phrase it?) for coming to visit me! I felt so loved! Oh and yumm the macaroni salad helped too!

It was hard to leave Andrew and Duke, but of course they fared just fine without me.  Andrew took great care of Duke.  Duke even got my side of the bed the whole time! 

Duke got his stitches out.  He is one AMAZING dog! He swims like a normal 4 legged dog, jumps in and out of bed and the car, and still runs as fast as lightning strikes!  It warms my heart that he is doing soo well.  I mean in the water when he swims you can’t even tell he has 3 legs.  I mean obviously when he gets out you can…Mom even got him a pirate bandana to wear and around town!

Justine! She is awesome! She came to visit us last weekend and we had a fabulous time! Though the weather was kinda hurricane like for about a day, we still managed to have a good time!  We didn’t have enough time! I would have loved to show her more.  We did layout and work on our tans.  Boy, tanning is tough work, but don’t worry I’m really getting good at it. We took her around the island, took her out to eat at some local places, and even showed her the grocery stores.  Our visit together was really nice and I can’t wait until it happens again!

Andrew is heading into finals in a few weeks.  Study, Study, Study!  I take my final next week. Study, Study, Study!

I brought lots of food and many other things (clothing, cough cough) back to our little tiny rock to enjoy. I even managed to bring back salsa from Andrew’s favorite restaurant, Centro. He loved me for that!

I got my haircut here and it was uneven! GASP!  But I went back the next day and they fixed it! Thank goodness!

Oh yeah and they raised Andrew's tuition..big bummer! 

I still have yet to see a whale….

Me and Sealy 

Sissy girl 

Daddy and Will 

Justine! 

Photo Shoot

Limin' 

Bridesmaids Weekend 

Justine!

Happy Boy! 

Pirate Dog 

Duke clearly thinks he is too good for the rest of us...