Aaron's Visit

Aaron and Erin were just up here in Washington visiting Erin's parents in Gig Harbor and we were able to get together with them and go to the Capitol Building. Our kids all get along so well and they all had a great time. Sophie is the only sister in her house so she loved being around my girls and Tyler, being the only boy, loves when his boy cousins come around. Going to the Capitol sure brought back some great memories. The kids ran around the garden and discovered the "warm bench". They thought that was great. We took a tour of the Capitol and Tyler skated on his heeles on the marble floors. Aaron tried to teach the kids about our state government, unfortunately I don't think my kids were really listening. We love it when people come to visity the great Northwest!

Statia Con't

Marshall and Hannah at the peak of the quill. You can see from here where we climb down into.

This picture was taken on the last day of school. That is why Emily is there with us. Notice the open windows. They often had lizards, iguanas, roaches and spiders in their classroom, and of course misquitoes! Tyler hated the daily spray of repelant all over his body. They also had a donkey that was tied up outside that they could hear moaning ever so often.

This is the view of the Caribbean beach from Slave Trail. The entire island was a mountain so coming up from the water is a trek if you don't have a car. Earlier in the island's history it was a slave trading island, where people would come to buy and sell slaves. So they had the slaves build a very steep path coming up from the water to the town. They carried goods to be sold. It was a good workout to go up and down the trail, but my kids could barley make it. What a gorgeous place!

Where I used to live...

Recently I have been thinking about a time when I didn't have anything going on, no scout camp, gymnastics, play dates, guitar and piano lessons, not even soccer practice to go to. Those days are long gone, but sometimes I long for those days. It has been almost a year to the day that I returned home with my family from the island of St. Eustatius (Statia). I still had four kids, just like now, but the island was so small and the activities so limited that me and the kids really spent some good quality time together. The one thing we did consistently was go to the beach. And boy did we go to the beach. The locals didn't go too often, other than on a few select holidays, so my kids and I typically had the entire beautiful Caribbean beach to ourselves. And when the waves were calm and the sun was out there was no place I would rather be.

My other favorite place on Statia was the Quill. The Quill is an inactive valcano that has a rainforest or jungle inside. Tyler and Hannah were able to hike with us up and down inside the valcano. Once inside there were vines to swing on, hermit crabs and lizards everywhere. It was a cooler place to be and I loved that since I was sweating pretty much the entire 16 months we lived there.

I will never forget the experience we had living in another part of the world. My two oldest kids will always remember being the only white kids in school and how that felt. They have learned to appreciate McDonalds and toy stores. I have learned to appreciate a washer and a dryer!!! I spent so many mornings and evenings hanging the clothes out on the line each morning only to take them down before bed, but always remembering to shake out each piece of clothing to get all of the spiders and bugs off. That didn't always work, but I am sure it helped.