Thursday Ramblings

So I was posting about our vacation to St. Maarten when I got a blogger error that I was out of my free 1 MB of storage.  Talk about a blog killer.  How can you write a blog post without pictures?  Okay, so maybe I go over board with the pictures...so I am going to have to find a work around for this little problem of mine.

In other news...

Dylan will be 11 months old...tomorrow!  How? When?  My "baby" is going to be 1 in a month?  What?  Invitations are underway and party/decoration planning is in the works.  Add in Christmas.  Spending time with my family, Danny's family, Christmas shopping, wrapping and baking.  The next month is going to fly by and I am pretty certain that Dylan's birthday is going to sneak up on me.  We are going to keep his party fairly small since it will be in our cozy home.  Close friends and family will be invited and we will celebrate 1 year of life for my sweet boy.

Invites and his birthday party outfit

Dylan is working on his two bottom teeth.  He hasn't been sleeping too well, so I'm sure it can be attributed to those little gums hurting.  He is pulling up on furniture and getting into everything.  He will be walking before I know it.

Marissa is changing so much.  She has a little case of the "terrible two's" and she has turned into a bossy little thing.  She's still a daddy's girl through and through.  She loves Dylan but still needs to work on sharing.

I still want one more child.  Our family just isn't quite complete yet.  I'll keep working on Danny...he's not convinced that we need another adorable little baby. ;)  *One Day*  A girl can dream, right?

 

Dylan's 1st Thanksgiving.  He enjoyed turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie.  He was smacking his lips after each bite of pie.  

We opened a bottle of Merlot from our wedding night for Thanksgiving.  I am truly thankful for the joy that day brought me.  While Danny may drive me crazy at times, and I him, he is the love of my life, my soul mate and my best friend.

St. Maarten ~ Day 7 & Home

Friday morning we were determined to get in as much as we could, as it was our last day on the Island of St. Maarten.  We got up early and packed our beach bags.  We drove around the island until we found a fairly secluded beach on the French side called Baio Rouge.  We rented an umbrella and chairs and relaxed on the beach.  The beach was pretty secluded.  There were some rock formations on one side with caves where some divers were snorkeling and on the other side were...the nudists!  Sitting about 15 feet away from us were an old French couple, baring it all.  I guess they don't believe in tan lines.  We swam in the ocean for the last time on our trip and packed up for the day.

After spending most of the morning on the beach we headed to the famous Sunset Beach Bar & Grill next to the Princess Juliana Airport.  This is a famous restaurant because it is the closest restaurant in the world to a runway.  We saw airplanes land and take off while we enjoyed jalapeno poppers and island pizza.  They were so close it was unreal!

Later that evening we had some drinks by the pool and then hung out at the bar with some friends we had met during our stay.  The guavaberry rum and frozen margaritas were tasting too good that night and we were a little sad to be saying goodbye to the island.  We were ready to be home and to see our babies, though.  Our bags were packed, alarms were set and it was time to say farewell!

The next morning we were up bright and early.  We checked out of the resort, grabbed some McDonald's and drove to the car rental place to drop off the car.  They shuttled us to the airport and off we went.  I got some great shots of Sunset Beach Bar & Grill from the air and we landed safely back in Miami for our layover. Once we landed back home we were so excited to see the kids!  I got some beautiful sunset pictures as we were crossing back into Virginia and it felt so good to be home.

We had an amazing time together and I hope to do it again one day.  The Island of St. Maarten is truly  beautiful and different than any of the other Caribbean Islands we have visited.  I'm glad that we chose St. Maarten for our vacation. :)  

St. Maarten ~ Day 4 & 5

By Wednesday we had a pretty good feel for the island.  We both got pretty burnt from snorkeling on Pinel Island so we decided to head to Philipsburg for a day of shopping.  We picked up a few souvenirs at Rima's and then headed to the board walk for lunch and more shopping.

We got Danny a new wedding band while we were in Philipsburg.  He opted for Titanium and I think we got a good price on it.  I hate buying jewelry from unknown sources because you never if you are getting a good deal or if it's even real.  I guess if it turns his finger green we'll know it's fake. :)

We had lunch at a really good restaurant on the board walk called Barefoot Terrace.  I had chicken pasta and Danny had chicken with curry and rice.  Both dishes were very good!  And the prices were not bad, either.

We picked a busy day to go to Philipsburg as there were 3 large cruise ships at the port.  The board walk was very busy and tourists were everywhere!

After shopping we headed back to the Resort and got ready for our sunset sailboat cruise.  We were shuttled back to Philipsburg where we met 6 other people from our resort.  We set sail into the sunset where a cruise ship collided with the sunset on the horizon and it stole our sunset.  It was going to be such a beautiful sunset and of course the cruise ship ruined it.  We still had a nice time, though.  A nice couple that we met gave us a ride back to the Resort that evening and we exchanged email addresses to send each other pictures.

Thursday was the big beach bash with the resort.  We took two shuttle buses to Orient Beach.  You know, the famous nude beach.  We started the morning off by opening a bottle of champagne for our 4th anniversary.  By the time we got on the shuttle bus we were both feeling pretty good.  When we arrived at Orient Beach we were greeted with rum punch.  They were so good you couldn't even taste the rum in them (but there definitely was some in there)!  We found an umbrella and chairs on the beach and set up shop where we continued to order all the free drinks we could handle.  Danny thought the rum punches were so smooth that he started ordering double rum punches. Let's just say that his day ended by passing out on the beach!  But not before a hermit crab race, water balloon toss, a catered lunch and dancing.  Okay, maybe he missed the dancing, but I danced while he slept.  All in all, it was a good, fun day at the beach.

Outside of our resort was a 5 star restaurant called Big Fish.  We had our anniversary dinner there and the food was delicious.  I had seafood pasta (I know, I'm a pasta addict) and Danny had "O's Favorite"...as in Oprah's Favorite.  Apparently she likes Big Fish, too.  We had a nice romantic dinner under the stars to celebrate the past 4 years but we were both starting to feel a little home sick...

St. Maarten ~ Day 3 & 4

Since we exchanged our timeshare to go to St. Maarten we opted to sit through a 90 minute sales pitch to get us to buy a timeshare in St. Maarten. We knew we weren't going to buy another time share but it came with free lunch (and drinks) and we got 1/2 off the Beach Party (more on that later).  While it was very enticing to buy, we kindly declined and went about our day.

We hung out at the beach and the pool and had a really nice, relaxing day on Monday.  We had dinner in and hung out at the bar for Happy Hour and watched some football with some new friends we met.

Tuesday we drove out to the French side of the Island and hopped on a Ferry Boat to Pinel Island.  We spent the day sipping on a bucket of Carib and relaxing on the beach.  The island was small with two restaurants and a few small shops.  The island does not have any hotels and everyone must be off the island by dark.  The last ferry ride ends at 5:00 PM.  

We packed a picnic lunch and we snorkeled for about 2 hours!  Within the first 10 minutes in the water Danny lost his wedding band.  Sad. Face.  When he said he lost it I thought he was joking.  Unfortunately he was not.

We hiked to the top of the island and saw some iguanas on our adventure.  The view from the top of the island was beautiful.

Once we got back from Pinel Island we went back to the Resort for karaoke night and ended the evening watching the Presidential race.  As everyone already knows, Obama won his second term as president.

St. Maarten ~ Day 1 & 2

We had a blast on our 4 year wedding anniversary trip to St. Maarten.  There was so much to do, see and drink!

Day 1 ~ Saturday:

We landed in St. Maarten on Saturday around 2:00.  Danny and I were separated on our connecting flight from Miami to St. Maarten which I was a little bummed about.  It turned out to be a blessing as the lady sitting next to me was a St. Maarten veteran, having been there for the last 11 years and just so happened to be an owner at the resort we were staying in.  Renee gave me the low down on the island from where to rent a car, which grocery stores to go to, where to dine and which bartender to be especially nice to.  She made the flight from Miami pass by quickly which was nice.

Per Renee's advice we rented a car right from the airport and navigated our way across the island to Oyster Bay Beach Resort where we would call home for the next week.  The roads were single lane, windy, mountainous, filled with scooters and motorcycles passing between cars and the most stunning views along the way. 

We were greeted with champagne and quickly settled into our room.  Of course the first order of business was to head down to the bar and get some cold drinks.  What can I say, it was a long day of traveling.  We found a grocery store and stocked up on essentials.  You know...ramen, frozen burritos, snacks, breakfast foods, liquor and wine.  We ate hand tossed pizza from Mr. Busby's outside of the resort and ended the night in the bar drinking one too many long island iced teas.  I was known as long island by a few people the rest of the week.

Day 2 ~ Sunday:

After a long day of traveling we decided to relax, lay on the beach and watch football at the bar that afternoon.  They had some entertainment at the court yard that included free frozen Guavaberry drinks, dancing and possibly a few black out moments for Danny.  It was all in good fun, though. 

The pool at our resort

Later that night we headed to Dinghy Dock with our new Chicago friends, Renee and Tom.  Dinghy Dock is on the French side of the island and Tom was nice enough to give us a ride.  We could see our resort from Dinghy Dock but there's no way we would have found it on our own.  We dined on fish and chips, listened to music and met a nice French couple and their two children.  While the French couple was very nice, there was a bit of a language barrier and we mostly spoke in broken Spanish to communicate.  I will say that a free drink is a universal sign language in itself.  We bought each other drinks during dinner and then they invited us for champagne at another bar.  We had what Danny thought was our own private boat.  In reality it was a stationary wooden boat attached to the dock with a table in the middle.  He kept asking where our captain was and when we were setting sail.  Much to his dismay, our boat never left Dinghy Dock. I'd say it was a pretty fun night, at least what we remember of it. ;)

Can you tell he's had too many Carib's and Guavaberry rum?

Dancing in the courtyard

He would probably kill me if he knew I posted these. :)

We definitely started out our vacation with a bang!  Stay tuned for the famous Sunset Bar, Orient Beach and more!