That's the sound of sunshine comin' down on me

10 December

Dave and Mimi during one of Dave's study breaks. Dave thinks he's Bruce Lee. From Mia's view, he is.

[Yummy Brunch]

11 December

Saturday made us super aware that we are seriously leaving this month and we're not coming back after break. We got out early to head to the semester sales to sell more of our junk. Then our gooooood friends from Nevis were heading through the airport in St. Kitts for their break, and wanted to meet for brunch. It was so good to see them, and it made us remember just how far we've already come as we reminisced about Nevis and about how much we missed living by each other.

Michelle and Amr moved into the pink palace right after us. Since we only moved up the hill, we were close, and spent a lot of time together, even though it was only for a few months. They were one of the few reasons we tried to initially stay in Nevis after transferring schools. They are fun, good people that are the definition of hospitality.

[Trying to coerce the kids to fall back asleep]

12 December

Sunday I wanted to sleep in. Bad. The kids had other plans. Dave didn't help me out with my plan. He sided with the kids and took pictures instead.

[Mia playing "fix it"]

13 December

Since we gave about 90% of Mia’s toys away, we’ve gotten a little creative with how we spend our time around here. She can literally sit for hours and unlace my running shoes if I leave them out. After about 5 minutes, she’ll come to me and ask me to “Fix It!” (meaning…relace the shoes so she can do it all over again).

It’s a fun game. Sort of. Actually, it’s kind of annoying on my part. Who likes to lace up shoes the first time you buy them…let alone over and over again in the same hour? But, for Mia, it’s great because:

1. She thinks it's fun.

2. Hey, it’s free, man

3. It’s nice and quiet

4. She invented it…now that’s creativity!

5. It doesn’t involve the TV in any way.

Oh well. It makes her happy, and since the cleaning lady threw all of her wooden lacing beads away that Milo and Pearl gave her (sorry Abby), I guess this will have to do as far as working on her hand-eye-coordination.

(No, I’m not complaining that we have a cleaning lady. I’m taking advantage of the last few times someone besides me gets to be the maid around here because our contract includes this service as “compulsory.” Like the cleaning…still want my beads back)

[Mia and Dave taking a morning dip]

14 December

Tuesday I woke up to a very quiet house. Kainoa was still sleeping, and Dave and Mimi were no where to be found. I headed outside to see if the van was still here and heard splashing in the pool. Man does it feel good to go swimming in December!

[Mimi and Kainoa at Bedtime]

15 December

Mia decided that she was going to read to Kainoa Bear before bed tonight. There are about a million and one things I love about this picture and the cuteness that is in it.

Shake Your Fire Maker

[Lobster Dinner at the Shiggity Shack]

Dave surprised me last night with a date night...babysitter and all!!! The lovely Tamsin came and watched the kids...and was even brave enough to take Kainoa Bear so we could totally relax and enjoy the night. The food was delish, and the best part about it was that we took time out to really enjoy where we're at!

[Dancing on the Beach]

After dinner, the live band started, and so did the "fire dancer." He and his red pants came out and gave us a typical Caribbean show. Take a looksie...

Final Fever

[Daddy and Kainoa relaxing on the couch]

Dave's finals for this semester are in full swing. He spends his time either studying, or trying to relax on a break to gear up to study some more. It's soooooo much information for each test. I sometimes think his head might explode. It's pretty overwhelming.

Only a few more tests to take, lots of beach time for me (hopefully), and last minute fun with friends. All of our crap is either being given away or sold, I'm starting to pack for the long trip home, and we're officially running out of food. Which is good, but I gotta start getting really creative. Me, creative. Now that's hilarious.

It's really 12:01 am. What am I doing up?

Why can't church be later in the day??!!??

[Getting Ready For Church]

Even though we let her sleep in until 8:30, she was just a wee bit tired this morning. Dave's finals start tomorrow...which means I am officially on my own so to speak for a couple of weeks with the kids, so as you can tell, he's not the only one getting to bed late around here!

I like my kids. A lot.

[Admiring Kainoa Bear]

This picture is from last week. I'm too exhausted/lazy to go in the other room to get the camera to download pics from today...as it's almost midnight and I have no idea what I'm doing up. Maybe I'm so tired because I spent 6 hours working on a paper for school today. Maybe it took me 6 hours because I kept looking out the window daydreaming about swimming at the beach (what I'd MUCH rather be doing than writing a strategic case analysis for a business management class). And now this post is taking me way longer than it should because I'm sitting here trying to think of clever things to say that may (or may not) make the 2 people that read our blog think "Wow, that Becky is so witty."

Not.

Good night. (Hopefully...Kainoa)

When tres leches goes bad...eat it anyway

[Beth, Brigette, Tamsin, Angela, Sister Case, Me, and Baby Bear]

Perfect day for partying. Today was Beth's birthday, and we made sure to make it count! We had a girl's lunch at the Marriott golf club while all the kids (besides Baby Bear) were being babysat elsewhere. We instituted that rule recently because at the last girl's outing, the toddlers were being completely coo-koo including Mia pulling Damon's chair (with him on it) over on top of her. I think one of the girls that doesn't have kids went home and told her hubbie that she's fine not having kids for a while after that one.

Anywho...the day was beautiful...the weather was perfect...and this angel...

took Kainoa during the whole time, so I really got a break!!! Lunch was yummy, and Beth was the perfect birthday girl. She was happy and fun, and didn't even flash me a dirty look when my tres leches cake looked more like soup with chocolate glaze on it. It was good...but man did it look terrible. We'll have to do a part II post when I get pics of the rest of the day...because you KNOW it didn't stop there!!! :)

Hunting with Mimi!

[Morning walk]

Today we went rock collecting and caterpillar hunting. That's about as crazy and exciting as it got today in the Caribbean.