It has taken over 2 months but here it is finally - our blog from our amazing Bequia / Barbados holiday! This is an extra special blog as it's done by a special guest blogger - Daddy!!! Joel told me I could take bits and pieces from his letter to the kids for my blog but it was just so perfect I couldn't change it at all. I've done the captions on the pictures but the rest is all from Joel - so a bit of perspective from us both:) This is a long one - so you might want to settle in if you're planning on reading the whole thing!
Dear Kailie and Kolton,
It's March 28th, 2012,
and we're flying back from our vacation in Bequia and Barbados. Kolton, you're
almost 9 months old and Kailie you're about 3.5 years old. We just had an
amazing vacation with you guys and the Fultons. We got to spend some amazing
family time together, which is really what's most important, but all too often,
we don't get to spend this time together when we're busy because we get so
focused on work and seem to barely find time to get home from work and get you
guys dinner, read a book, have a bath and into bed. It's a very busy time with
you two little guys, but we couldn't be happier. It's such a joy watching you
two grow up, from milestone to milestone in what seems like a flash.
Our little darling Kailie
has gone from a shy little girl to outgoing, confident, and curious. The first
thing Tyler and Dorelle said to you after we picked them up from the ferry
terminal in Bequia, once you let them get a word in, was "Kailie, it's
sure nice to meet you!". Although you've been speaking to us for a while,
you often spoke very little around others, and your speech has really advanced
in the last few months since you saw them last.
Kolton, you have to be
one of the smiliest, happiest babies ever. You squawk so infrequently that we
get really worried even when you whine just a little bit. I spent lots of time
this trip with you in the baby bjorn (in Bequia, Barbados, Miami) and all the
time people are looking at me with this funny smile on their face. It takes me a
second to realize that you're handing out smiles left and right at everyone I
walk by. It's very funny. Even when you have your soother in your mouth, you
can still tell you're smiling, you're cheeks are about to burst. Unfortunately
your ears seem to be bothering you just a little bit (you woke up last night
screaming, which is very rare), so we're a bit worried you're left ear might be
bothering you a bit, but you're fast asleep right now (after a little tylenol),
so hopefully the landing will be just fine. One downside of this trip was that
there was very little soft carpet in either Bequia or Barbados, so we had to
work hard to find place for you to stretch your limbs. You learned to crawl
when we were in Bequia, and you were motoring around the hotel today in Miami,
it's like you've been crawling for weeks. This morning you were trying to pull
yourself up on the carseat. You'll probably be walking in no time!!!
Here are some highlights
of our trip:
Flying to Bequia from
Barbados in a 15 seater and getting to sit inches from the pilots. We could
read the dials. The landing strip in Bequia seemed only about 400 metres long
and they only used half of it.
Taking our massive
carseat to Bequia only to get loaded up in the back of a pickup truck. Kolton actually
rode in his stroller.
We had to stop for a
turtle to cross on the ride to the house, which Kailie absolutely loved.
The house in Bequia was
amazing. House on the beach, eating all of our meals oceanside. Listening to
the waves crash in for days. Hammocks left and right. The place had a
drawbridge.
The waves were so loud at
night, we found it hard to sleep the first few nights.
A local named Cooly
stopped by most days with freshly picked mangoes. So juicy they were yellow,
none of us had ever seen yellow mangoes. We didn't even know what they were,
and they were amazing. We paid the equivalent of about $2 USD for about 8
mangoes (including tip) and they were gone in about 12 hours.
While the rest of us body
boarded, built sand castles, and played ultimate. Little Mae the warrior
battled the waves with nothing but a life-jacket. We called it body surfing.
Every time she got knocked down by a giant wave, she would just dust herself
off and get right back up. It was amazing.
The locals were extremely
friendly. Despite their poverty, we rarely encountered aggressive salespeople
at the markets. One of our favorites was Melissa who made beautiful wool hats
for Kailie and Mae.
Kolton learned to crawl.
Maybe it would be more accurate to say that he mastered crawling, since he had
shown glimpses before.
The mosquitoes loved
Kailie, much more than anyone else for some reason. We stopped counting at 80
bites after the first few days. Even in the pictures, you can see some of the
whoppers on her face. She never complained once despite the swollen lumps all
over her body.
We ordered a cake from
the Gingerbread Cafe for Mae and Evan's birthday, and we got to celebrate their
birthday a few days late in Bequia. The cake was unbelievable. The four adults
almost polished it off in the first night after the kids went to bed.
We got Mae and Evan
bop-it. We were a bit worried it was too advanced, but they mastered it in just
a few hours.
Singing open and shut, as
well as Bien Sang before every meal. This brought a huge smile to Kolton's
face.
We did an island tour on
one of our last days, and the highlight for the kids was the turtle sanctuary.
Kailie loved them. Evan thought the place was too loud to deserve the title
"sanctuary".
While we were checking in
at the airport, a commotion arose on the tarmac, which we could see down the
hall. We could hear all kinds of shouting and banging. The clerk checking us in
looked very concerned and ran down the hallway without any notification along with
all the other clerks, baggage handlers, and security officers (it's a very
small airport). We were quite worried to say the least, especially with all of
our young children. The clerk returned
a few minutes later more calmly and once the celebration quieted down, she
explained that a whale had been harpooned just off the coast of where the
airport is situated. We had been reading that Bequia has been granted by the
international authorities the ability to capture four whales each year as this
is part of their heritage. When this occurs, the entire island celebrates and
each individual is entitled to a share of the whale. This explained the
excitement. We witnessed villagers running down from their houses, and people
speeding down the roads to share the news and celebrate. This was a truly
unique experience.
We then flew to Barbados
with Fultons and the three kids sat in the front row. They were as good as
gold. Evan had to make discrete use of a coke bottle in flight.
Barbados provided many of
the luxuries we were used to at home, despite being a developing island.
We spent lots of time in
the pool, and Mae learned to tread water and do the doggy paddle. All in about
30 seconds. Evan and Uncle Joel learned to snorkel. Evan spent hours in the
pool honing his skills, with only his air tube and little bum sticking out of the
water. Evan thought Joel's quote "there's a whole other world down
there" was very funny and liked telling everyone one about it.
One of the highlights of
the pool time was us all trying to mount the banana. Tyler did it first, and
Joel last. It provided hours of fun until Joel abused it one to many times.
We played hearts in the
evenings and just enjoyed sitting out on the deck chatting. The temperature in
Barbados was amazing, with very few bugs, and no wind. It was ideal.
One of the best parts of
the trip was that other than a few minutes here and there for the kids for some
quiet time, we didn't watch any TV. We had so much fun and just enjoyed each
other's company.
Kailie absolutely loved
hanging out with her older cousins, and trying to keep up with them, and Mae
and Evan were so good to her. Kailie even stopped napping the last few days of
the trip, and I think it was because she didn't want to miss out on anything
Mae and Evan were doing.
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| Our front yard in Bequia! |
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| More of our front 'yard' - you can see our deck and chairs just a few feet up the beach - our own little paradise right out our front door! |
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| Kailie and Daddy on a morning walk / swim :) |
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| So much fun in the sand - and the best part is that we didn't have to get the car full of sand on the way home :) |
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| Daddy & Kailie having sooooooo much fun! |
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| The men taking on the boogey board! |
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| Evan lovin' the hammock! |
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| A lazy day :) |
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| Cousins + Hammock = FUN |
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| Bequia Transport - imagine how I felt when we walked out of the airport with a carseat??!!! |
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| Lunch at "Jack's Bar" - which is also owned by the same guy who owns the house we stayed at . By all accounts it was gorgeous - Kolton took Mummy back to the house for a nap on this afternoon ;-) |
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| Beautiful Girls! |
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| Banana's found at Jack's Bar. |
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| Our dining room opened right onto the deck / beach - a pretty excellent way to dine! |
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| Monster Dessert! |
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| A beach in our front yard and the little monkeys are watching Dora!! I guess everyone needs a break:) |
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| Evan showing the boys how it's done! |
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| A handy outdoor shower for after the beach. |
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| Views of the house - it was so built into the trees / hill / beach it was actually tricky to get a good picture of! |
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| Front entry - the darker part of the sidewalk is a real drawbridge!!! |
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| A lot of steps up to the road - nice for our privacy but sure gave us a workout. |
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| Another view of the upper level of the house. |
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| The yard was SO beautiful - a little peak of the house through the trees. |
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| This is was our front gate - very unassuming - when we first pulled up I wasn't too sure how it was going to unfold! |
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| The whole crew in our taxi - we went for a really great island tour! |
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| Bequia harbor. |
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| This lovely lady (Melissa) made some really sweet hats for Mae & Kailie - and in record time. |
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| Celebrating Mae & Evan's 5th Birthday - we managed to find a lady on the island to make the cake and it was AMAZING! |
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| BopIt - a terrible addition!! |
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| A stop on our island tour with Jensen - everything with him was 'no problem'! |
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| Another view of the Bequia Harbour. |
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| Out for lunch with my babes:) |
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| A stop at an old sugar factory. |
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| The Turtle Sanctuary - a highlight for the kids! |
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| A coconut farm where we stopped for a picnic - we had to be careful where we sat so we didn't get hit by any falling coconuts! |
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| Amazing views everywhere you looked. |
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| One of my most favorite pic's - all four cousins! We were one our way for ice cream, hence the big smiles!! |
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| Looking over at the kids balcony from our balcony. |
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| Big kids sitting all on their own on the plane ride from Bequia to Barbados. |
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| Check out how close they were sitting to the pilot - it was a tiny plane but an awesome flight for the kiddos! |
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| The little guy we flew on between Bequia & Barbados |
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In Barbados we traded in the beach for a pool - although there were still many trips made to various beaches!
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| Just hangin' out! |
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| These little cuties had A LOT of fun together - it won't be long and Kolton will be right in there with them. |
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| My handsome boys in Barbados! |
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| This 'kids toy' provided SO much entertainment - the adults had quite a time trying to get on this thing (oh and check out the monkey in the background)!! |
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We had quite a few sightings of these little 'green monkey's' over the week - this was the fence right in our backyard. Most of the time we heard them running over the roof early enough to wake us up!
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