"Our Really Long Date"

Early Sunday morning Ryan and I left for our "really long date" (as named by Lacey). We were off to St. Maarten in the Caribbean for the week. We were celebrating our 8th anniversary on May 4th and my mom came in to watch the kids. We have been looking forward to this for a long time.

St. Martin is an interesting place. It is half Dutch and half French but most speak English and they accept the dollar everywhere. I guess you suppose the island will look wealthy because it is a big tourist attraction but really the local life looks quite poor. I felt like I was in Mexico. Ryan kept comparing it to El Salvador. The roads were real small and driving was an adventure. Food was very expensive. A bag of Doritos was $7.00. Insane. It wasn't as tropical as I expected. There were a few mountains but they weren't green and lush. The beaches were nice and clean though and there were enough palm trees to know you were somewhere tropical.

We had such a great location. We had a studio condo on the ground floor and the front "lawn" was the beach. It was awesome. Anytime we had a few moments we just grabbed a chair and laid on the beach. Or we ate lunch and breakfast watching the waves roll in. It was great! The water was so beautiful, a bright turquoise.

View from our room

Our highlights:
We were able to explore most of the island. We visited 12 different beaches. All had something different to offer. Our favorites were Rouge, Cupecoy, and Little Bay. It was fun to explore each one. Some had softer sand than others, some had prettier views, and some had no people on them at all. Ryan and I loved napping in the sun, talking, watching the waves, floating in the ocean, and reading. One beach had great snorkeling real close. You could see other islands off in the distance at some locations.

Along with discovering all the beaches we played tennis, swam in the pool, ate out, ate in, read on the beach, made pina coladas, and went shopping. It rained some days but never for the whole day.

LOW lights:

I tried to give Ryan the gift of me loving scuba diving, but it just didn't happen. I tried. I took a discovery dive, practiced in shallow water and everything. But when we got out into the real ocean I freaked out a little. Okay a lot. I could see Ryan below me in the water and it just spooked me to go down so far. I felt like I was being buried alive. I felt so bad that I just couldn't overcome the fear. I know Ryan really wanted this to be a hobby we could do together but it is one we can definitely cross off our list. We are NOT going to be that couple that goes on dive trips together. I guess he will have to settle for a wife who relaxes on the beach or shops while he dives. I was pretty bummed that I couldn't give that to him but he said he still loves me. However, Ryan was able to do two dives a different day. They both ended up being wreck dives where they explored two boats that had sunk. He had a great time. He saw some cool fish and went to 110 feet which was a first for him. See I tried!

Right off the runway of the airport is Maho Bay, a beach that you can sit at to watch planes land and take off. About 25 feet separate you from the runway. We saw a couple of planes take off and a few come in to land. It was one of the craziest things I have ever done. When the plane comes into land you are staring it right in the face. It is very loud and you are really hoping they don't land on you. BUT the taking off is what is crazy. We watched two planes take off. One was a 737 and another was and Airbus. The first was pretty cool and you could definitely feel the thrust of the engines but the second one we watched was PAINFUL!!! The first one hadn't come to a complete stop before it took off. It kind of rolled around the corner and continued to take off. So the thrust of the engine wasn't as intense. The second one come to a full stop and then took off. The thrust of the engines kicked up so much sand and threw it right in our faces. It was seriously so painful. Ryan and I ran down the beach toward the water to get away from it but it just got worse. My shoe flew off, Ryan's sunglasses came off and we had sand permanently embedded into our skin. I took a video of it but once I realized what was happening I hid the camera in my towel so it wouldn't be ruined. The camera continued to record so you can hear me screaming and screaming. It was hilarious. So no kidding, one of the craziest things I have done. Probably up there on my stupidest too.

The trip was so fun for us. It was great to just be us again. We were often mistaken as honeymooners which made me feel young. I loved having Ryan all to myself and having no commitments to anything. We could do whatever we wanted when we wanted. We did miss the kids a lot and received plenty of voicemails from sad children. They were happy for us to come home. Aidan was up at 5:30 a.m. the day we came home anxiously waiting for our arrival. Lacey kept asking why we needed to go on a long date. And when Cassidy saw me for the first time she looked at me in wonderment. She couldn't believe it when she saw me. Her mouth went open wide and her nose crinkled up. It was so funny. I think she was permanently attached to me for the next 24 hours. They were great for my mom though and had a great time playing with her.