the good and the bad and ugly

still catching up with some of our favorite sunset shots and then some of my not so favorite shots of the ugly part of the caribbean. enjoy the good ones first :)

 

 

 

 

 

this world is such a beautiful place, and we are so blessed to see these beautiful sights as we look out our front door while we're eating dinner every night. i'm so thankful for beautiful sunsets!!!

 

now....things that i don't love so much about this beautiful place. don't get my wrong, i love it here, but i do not love sharing here with these guys! i know that geckos/lizards (still don't really know which are which) are good creatures that eat bugs and are totally harmless, but they're just kinda creepy ya know?!?! there are some pretty looking ones, but i think they're kinda creepy ugly little guys for the most part.

 

this little guy was chillin on our front porch the other night. i think hermit crabs are pretty cool, but i think they're super cool in a tank at the zoo or an aquarium! haha

 

it's rainy season here which isn't so good for my jumpy arachnophobic bug hating self. this ginormous slug on the wall has been the least of my problems, but it's still gross!

 

this, on the other hand, is the death of me! dust got this guy while i stood on the couch doing the typical girlish cover your mouth to hold the screams and profanities in kinda thing - not cool!!!! i personally have now killed 2 guys at least this size since while dust enjoys the air conditioned student life, and it was not an easy feat!

 

i've decided that i have a serious case of arachnophobia, and i'm working on figuring out how to get into predator mode and just kill the ugly sons of guns, but i still find myself perched up on a chair of some sort with bug spray in one hand with goosebumps all over my body with the shakes terrified of these creepy crawly creatures! i can handle the little ones, but i still cannot handle the big ones. it's just part of living here, but it's not my favorite part, that's for sure!

 

i couldn't end a post with that ugly picture! so, here are a few from our latest beach trip on tuesday :) all packed up and ready to go!

 

can't get enough of my boys!!! love these boys more than words can say!

 

hot home life

so.....it's kinda hot here in case i haven't mentioned that yet, and that means lots of beach time but also lots of time hiding from the scorching sun inside every once in a while too. here are some random pics of our statia home life and the things we come up with to keep us busy when it feels like it's 38 degrees outside :)

 

playing on the bed is an every day occurrence. our boys LOVE it, and we don't mind it either cuz the only air conditioners in our place are in the bedrooms! mads got bored of the usual routine the other day and switched it up with some toilet paper action. so fun!

 

 

we started a little boy band the other day - nothing like drummin on a cracker box to pass the time! i also just had to include this smiley one of mads cuz his smiles just keep getting cuter and cuter :) he practices every day!

 

dust has made an art of sleeping our super crazy tiny couches. not sure why he fell asleep with beckam's golf club or how someone could ever fall asleep like that, but it was worth a picture!

 

beckam's rescue mission to save his basketball with his golf club from the kitchen counter where he shot it. success!

 

yay for imovie! beckam LOVES watching "beckam movies" and now they can play over and over again for more side splitting entertainment!

 

you can't live in the caribbean and not have some fun with the fly swatter. there are all sorts of things to swat and kill, and our scared timid little beckam is a bug killing machine over here!

 

coloring........of course!

 

here is becks "driving his car." well, he kinda fell asleep at the wheel, but he pretends our closet is his car and goes in there to go for a drive to the zoo all the time. didn't make it this time though!

 

maddox spends all day collecting a nice little film of dirt and fluff and grossness under his neck and all over really every day. it's just part of being 11 months old and crawling around on tile floors every day. i swear i sweep like 3 times a day, but it's just part of statia home life. we love baths!!!

 

 

we line up apples and oranges at random and then practice our cheesiest smile, and we use the beach mat for some tub time in our yard when we've really exhausted resources inside and when the clouds cover the sun for a minute or two.

 

we fall asleep at 9:30 in the morning cuz we wake up at 5am, and we make sure every last part of our body is under the heavy blanket - cuz that's just what you do in the caribbean!

 

we feed roosters (beckam named this one penny) crackers and love every minute of it! beckam was sooo excited when he took the cracker and ran away, and i wasn't so excited when penny hung around outside our gate all day cock-a-doodle-dooing for more! haha

 

sometimes, we're just too tuckered out for more fun, and we have a nice shiny sweaty nap too. love this one of a little nap with my man, and even though i feel like doing this a lot of the time, i'm learning to be creative little by little and will keep trying to come up with fun things to do inside on a hot day - cuz that's every day!

 

p.s. any creative or not creative but things i wouldn't think of suggestions are welcome!

caribbean crazy ants

these are caribbean crazy ants, and they are another "welcome to statia" thing that we are trying to get used to over here! thankfully, that isn't my hand or anyone's that i know, but i know those ants!


1 tiny crumb on the floor or drip on the counter warrants the entire colony of ants to join the food party, and our little friends are also interestingly enough attracted to electrical equipment. they've been seen coming out of outlets, straightening irons, blow dryers, and computers. we had only heard about it until today. just about the "v" you can meet one of our little friends.....

 

sooooo annoying! nothing you can do to stop them, so we will now get used to little ants going in and coming out of the keys on our keyboard and hope they just go in and check things out and then leave. haha ya right! welcome to the caribbean - you think you've solved the ant problem in the kitchen, and they move to the desk!

 

oh and i love our little red dots at the bottom of our computer and that help us keep it in the hot zone where we pick up the best internet signal! haha welcome to statia - love it!

statia sights

we walk most everywhere when it comes to statia so far, but we were lucky enough to tour around a bit when we 1st got here with the jensens who borrowed someone's car - if you can even call it a car! haha first stop was white rock (??? hope i got that right). it's a cool look out point, and you can see saba, st. kitts, and st. maarten in the distance. the waves were crashing up against the shore below us, and it was just one of the 1st moments that i was like.......we freakin live here!


white rock also marked the beginning of pearl's and beckam's friendship, and it has only bloomed since then! these 2 are soooo cute together :)


next was the botanical gardens, and it was way cool! there were passion fruit trees, mango trees, cashew trees, pineapple bushes, and tons of other beautiful flowers and cool looking plants and fruit.

 

 

the kids had a blast running around too. here's beckam with his passion fruit, doing his scared face by a big cactus, and cleaning off his feet of course. that has become a daily ritual around here. his feet have to stay clean, but they're always dirty!

 

 

 

there was also a little park there, and beckam led the way back and forth from slide to slide. dust and i were shocked at the lack of fear he had as he climbed over rocks and ran down trails and checked out bugs and lizards along the way. statia has really changed our little becks and for the better :)

 

mads is at a rough stage for island life. he's a crawling, eating machine which doesn't jive so well with all of the dirt and ant hills and sand and bugs here. he loved the rocking horse thing though and is ok watching his brother adventure around from our arms for now!

 

another......we live here?!?!? moment. pretty sunset over a tropical paradise that we call home. crazy!!!

 

i'm there sure are many more sights, and we will find them once we get a car. stay tuned :)

dive statia

this is "our" beach. it's called dive statia, and we have spent lots of time here over the past month! there is lots of sand to play with and lots of waves to play in, and we love our beach days :)


this....is how we get to the beach!


it's a 25-30 minute walk to the beach for us, and it's almost all down hill. it's great going there but not so fun coming back. thankfully, the coopers lent us their chariot stroller, so both boys saddle up for a smooth ride while we (and by we, i mean dust) gear up for a serious work out to get home. the hardest part is the slave path as seen here. it's soooooo steep and such a hard surface to push a stroller on. i had to do it by myself the other day, and i nearly got run over by the stroller rolling back over me! it's brutal but some good exercise and totally worth it of course!


the 1st dip in the ocean felt great! beckam got to try out his new puddle jumper floaty thingy, and he did pretty good considering he's not a huge fan at all of water. he had a pretty tight grip on me, but we floated around and tried to keep the saltwater out of our mouths!


maddox was in HEAVEN! he loves the water loved his little floaty and just took in the whole ocean experience. the lull of the waves actually put our little man right to sleep! haha it was pretty cute!



after cooling off in the water, it was sand time! beckam was initially more scared of the sand than the water, but he's warmed up over time. he loves playing in the soft black stuff now, and mads was so curious about it to begin. like everything else these days, it quickly made its way to his mouth, and he had a little sand snack. mmmm!





just chillin on our beach in the caribbean :) so fun!