Le Galleon, the baby beach

Here is Tyson in the water.
I forgot to post about the beach we went to last week. Le Galleon, called the baby beach, is a lot like Pinel. There aren't any waves and the water is clear and blue. Tyson also likes this beach because he can walk out a long ways into the water and still only have the water up to his chest. He dove into the ocean as soon as mom got his floaties on. He is such a water baby these days. He ventured out to the water and back again all on his own. What a brave kid.

I have had ENOUGH!

This is Tyson today about 7:00p.m. This week has been a whirlwind of events and he has had enough. He sat down in his car seat and stayed there. He didn't want to move. Poor kid. He is probably so exhausted because mom dragged him out of bed the last two mornings at 7:00a.m. for the Spouses Organization Burrito Sale. This only should last one day, but we had made a ton and didn't sell them all the first day, so......we had to do it again. LUCKY US! Tyson was not please at all to get up and didn't want to be apart of the burrito sale.

I am sure you are wondering why his car see is in the house? I would wonder that myself if I were you. The answer is quite simple, cars are being stolen all around campus and so that we don't loose the car seat, we have to bring it up 3 flights of stairs each night to be housed in our cracker jack box apartment. (Just what I needed, one more thing to pack up the stairs).

Our friends Laura and Jason lost their car Tuesday night, and Laura's stroller was in it. So, I have been trying to keep my stuff. Even though this isn't funny to loose a car, it is quite interesting to get up each morning and race to the window to see if we are next for the car thieves. I wonder where the heck they go with the cars? I mean it isn't like they car drive to another place, we are on an island. Unless they turn them into hovercrafts and go to Saba or Anguilla.

To add to the week, Tyson also had a rough day when we made burritos. We meet over to Laura's house, where the kids have a place to play and we have a place to bake. We weren't there 40 minutes and Tyson tripped over his feet and his mouth came in contact with the edge of her coffee table. There were tears and blood, but he soon cheered up and went on playing. An hour later he and a little girl were in Laura's long hallway playing when all of the sudden we heard a THUD and then "WAHHHEEE." The little girl had a 16 oz can of tomatoes in her hands and it came crashing down on Tyson's left big toe. He squirmed and screamed and I felt so bad, but there was nothing I could do. He kept screaming for about 15 minutes, so we cleaned up and got ready to leave. Just as the day was looking up and he was starting to calm down WACK, mom ran his head into a tree stump just outside of Laura's door. I forgot it was there and turned around and his head hit it. He didn't cry, just looked at me with a "are you serious woman, I have had enough," look. Poor picked on kid. Like I said, he just had one rough week.

The Crazy Kid

Tyson has been learning new things at a rapid pace. Each day the kid has a new trick or has figured out something new or says a new word. Now this is really cool to this novice mom, but at the same time it does come with a cautionary tag attached. Like the picture above.....Tyson loves to get into this cubby and sit, and how he contorts his body to do so is beyond me, but he does. The only problem is that once he is through being a circus monkey he can't get out. He got in, but I guess contorting our body out of this predicament is a few more weeks down the road. So I hear this blood curling scream and rush into the room thinking he has fallen and blood will be everywhere, only to see that he is stuck.....AGAIN! Mom to the rescue.

Yesterday was another learning experience for us both. Tyson has been fascinated with his nostrils and loves to stick his fingers up them searching for gold. We try to stop the habit, but it is like trying to talk to the wall. Knowing that, he decided to see what it would be like to stick an olive slice up his nose. I had no idea he had even done this, until he came running towards me saying, "Nose Nose Nose." I thought he needed it wiped and went to do so when out came a black "thing." I thought, "How gross! A black booger." Not so, it was an olive. I asked him where the rest of the olive was and he pointed to his nose. Sure enough......the rest was way up there.

Luckily he had a sneeze and more came out, but it took the better part of the hour to retrieve the last part. Oh MY!!! I didn't come here to be the doctor, but tonight I was. Only instead of using a scalpel and gloves, I had tweezers, q-tips and a flash light. Just call me "MacGyver."

Walking on the French side

Since we have had all the political parties on the island trying to get elected, our little walking group was forced off of the golf course walkways, because we were in the way or something like that. I haven't seen anyone else be forced to change their workout habits and have seen lots of joggers still frequenting the walkways.....OH WELL!

It must be the government's way of showing power. Whatever...anyways, we found a new walking spot over on the French side of the island by Long Bay. It is actually a nicer place to walk with an actual road and get this...people are nice to us. They wave when they pass us, and slow down the cars. WOW! Quite a change from the Dutch side of the island where any minute you might be side swipped by a hugh MACK truck.

This is a picture of one of the extravagent entryways into some of the mega nice houses on the French side. This red one is my favorite. The view is also pretty on the French side. You get to see some of the pretty houses and the ocean from a distance. We do have an occational dog bark at us from time to time, but it is a lot nicer than having the police bark at us.

Laura found my VILLA on the French side. LOOK...it even has my name on it. Wouldn't that be nice if it were mine. Well...I can dream can't I!

Fort Louis Merigot

Today Laura and I took the little boys to hike up Fort Louis on the French side in Merigot. We have been to Fort Amsterdam on the Dutch side, and I must say that I like Fort Louis better. It had levels of cannons and then a hill at the top with a flag. It was really cool and the little boys had a ball walking around and climbing on the rocks.

The post about the fort said that it was unfinished because it was always being raided and burned by pirates. Makes me think about "Pirates of the Caribbean." Some days living on this island you can experience a little taste of what it was like to live back then. This afternoon was one of those times.

Here is Tyson and I by one of the lower level cannons. Look how pretty Merigot is with all the boats. AH!!! Love the scenery.

Here is Tyson and Peyton on another cannon. Cute little boys!

Pinel..The best beach ever!

Every Saturday the Spouses Organization will go to a new beach here on the island. Since there are like 32 different beaches, and since we are on the island, what better way to pass the time than to visit them. We went to Tyson's favorite beach today, Pinel.

This beach is a little island that is off the French side shore. You have to take a ferry out there, and luckily for us the drivers weren't on strike like they have been for the past month. As you can see from the picture the beach is white sand with blue water and the beach chairs are so nice. You can rent a pair of them for $15 which is a good price because usually they are $20. Here is Tyson with his buddies Gavin and Peyton playing on the beach.

Tyson barely let me get his floaters on and he was running toward the water. Now for the last few beach times, he hasn't wanted to get into the water, but that wasn't the case today. He was a FISH. He jumped from the shore into the ocean and laughed and giggled. It was good to see him having fun in the water again.

We were there a better part of the day and so we both came back a little red, but now that it is nighttime the redness is about gone and we are once again tan. I am never tan, but here on St. Maarten, I am.

As you can see from the pictures the little kiddo loves the water again, and is quite the swimmer. Look at that cute grin. AH!

The Little Flirts

I forgot to add this to the last post. While we were at the beach today, Tyson and Peyton were walking around down by where Laura and I were sitting. If you have never been to Mullet Beach, let me entreat you to the scenery. Besides the beautiful beach and ocean there are also lots of "topless" and sometimes "barely bottom" girls walking around. So with that said....

Tyson and Peyton walked over to this topless and almost bottomless French girl. Laura and I about died. She kneeled down to talk to them as I walked over. "Sorry," I said to her and she informed me that she loved them and thought they were cute. How embarrassing it was to walk over to an almost naked person. That is an experience for the books.

Now usually when we go to the beach with the dads, Laura and I end up watching the little boys, but we do that all the time. We decided this would have been the one time that they would have said to us, "Oh, We will go and get the boys." LOL. Once we told them about the little boys' encounter with the half naked chic, they were proud as peaches that their boys could flirt. AH!


I know that this picture doesn't have a naked girl in it, but this was taken seconds before the little boys walked over to her. So you can see that they are cute little flirts....

A Little Time Off

Vaughn took his Neuro test this afternoon and then decided that he was going to take the rest of the day off from studying and be with Tyson and I. YIPPIE! So we headed to Mullet Beach. Here is a candid shot of the little tyke as he came running towards me. Notice the sandy hands....he loves to play in the sand.

Tyson has been sick the past few days with a cold, but he felt better today and was ready to be in the water with his dada. He likes to swim with Vaughn more than me. Probably because Vaughn has bigger arms and hands to hold him. Or maybe he just doesn't like me.....just teasing......he is a moma's boy.

We spend the rest of the evening eating Domino's Pizza and watching the College Basketball games on CBS. I love March Madness. It was an enjoyable evening to spend with Vaughn and I know he needed the break. This 3rd semester is a tough one.

My First Blog

So........everyone else I know has either a myspace or a blog and I figured, "what the heck" I might as well join the trend.

This blog is about my life and that of my family's, as we live our last 10 months on the island of St. Maarten. To start out, I'll try and put a pretty picture of the island on here. Hope everyone enjoys the posts and pictures and if you don't.....tough!!